From the Isles to the Courts.

Ensemble Galilei. Telarc SACD-60536.

Telarc released the regular two-channel stereo version of this album in 2000, and I'm assuming because of the excellent quality of its sonics they are releasing it again in this discrete, DSD five-channel SACD edition. According to their disc booklet, the Ensemble Galilei was originally recorded in surround sound using the Sony Direct Stream Digital process. If you have a Super Audio CD player and appropriate accompanying hardware, you'll hear the music as it was intended to be heard. If, like me, you have a regular CD player, do not despair. A Second layer on the hybrid disc contains the straight stereo format just as issued in 2000. In either case, I suspect, the sound is outstanding.

Lovers of things Celtic will enjoy this collection of mostly Celtic-inspired as well as European music played on traditional Celtic instruments and featuring the usual slow laments, pastoral ballads, and fast-stepping reels. If there appears to be a certain inevitable sameness about the program, it's probably because you're not a student of this particular genre or you've been listening to too much "Riverdance."

The five ladies who make up the Ensemble Galilei play fiddle, pipes, oboe, recorders, pennywhistle, Celtic harp, viola da gamba, percussion, and bowed psaltery. They sprinkle a little Marais and Corelli into the otherwise conventional Irish and Scottish collection, as well as a number of their own modern compositions, ...