Ole Bull Violin Concertos Push Blu-ray’s Boundaries

From Norway's 2L comes an excellent audio Blu-ray that's a good example of how Blu-ray discs can be used for more than just movies and other video titles.

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That's because Blu-ray offers not only the finest video you can imagine, but the best sound as well, and that opens up opportunities for audiophile-quality recordings that are delights for the ears. 2L's latest is of Ole Bull Violin Concertos which, like 2L's excellent Divertimenti before it, is a very high quality recording of classical music the company has released on both audio Blu-ray and SACD in the same package. Divertimenti was the first such title I had heard of, and it was a spectacular sonic experience in the home theater. This time, however, the producers have one upped themselves, going Divertimenti's Blu-ray/SACD combo one further by including a new wrinkle that lets you export the tunes to your digital player. And as if that weren't enough, they've also upped the Blu-ray ante, making the format an even more compelling way to listen to music than before. As for the man behind the "tunes", of whom I'd never heard before the disc showed up, 2L's promotional material says Ole Bull (1810-1880) was "An adventurer, violin virtuoso, composer and international star who brought the name of Norway to worldwide attention. Within music and drama he was a pioneer in the development of a national identity, and on the concert stage his fabulous playing skills and intense charisma early won him the sobriquet "the Scandinavian Paganini"." All of which, unfortunately, means little to me. So there. But you don't have to know all the ins and outs of the composer and his work to enjoy this classical disc, which is exquisite. The tracks are: Sæterjentens Søndag (The Herdgirl's Sunday)
- Concerto in A major 
- Concerto Fantastico 
- I Ensomme Stunde (La Melancolie)
- La Verbena de San Juan
- Et Sæterbesøg (A Mountain Vision) Some of which are world premiere recordings, according to 2L. The music is recorded beautifully, in DXD 24/352.8 kHz surround sound at Jar Church in June of 2009. Both the SACD and the Blu-ray sound excellent, though I'd have to give the nod to the Blu-ray, not only because it offers mixes in dts HD 5.1 24/192 kHz, dts HD 7.1 at 24/96 kHz, and stereo LPCM at 24/192 kHz but because I also think it sounded slightly better. Like most people, I don't have a 7.1 channel system, so was limited to the 5.1 and stereo versions and I preferred the 5.1 tracks for the extra depth they put into the room, surrounding you not with the musicians (though it does that to a certain extent) but with the ambience of the church sanctuary in which the recording was made. The music is very good indeed, as are the performances by Annar Follesø (violin) and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud. These people definitely know what they're doing. The recording also gives your home theater an excellent workout, from the deep bass to the highest registers of the violin strings. Sure, there are no explosions or space ships, but the music is as dynamic as you'll get with many a movie. I can just imagine what 2L could do with the Star Wars soundtrack! One of my quibbles with 2L's Divertimenti release was that, as with DVD-Audio, you still had to fire up your TV to get at the music, thanks to a menu system you had to click through to get at the actual tunes and which also offered you the audio choices and, on some discs, other material such as photos or videos. 2L has figured this out now, however, and while you can still use a menu, you can now change between audio tracks merely by using the Blu-ray remote control's colored buttons – red for 5.1 dts MA, green for 7.1 dts and yellow for LPCM stereo. It's great! And naturally, you can skip forward and backward through tracks with the skip buttons, just like you can with other discs. When you fire up the Blu-ray player it does head directly for the disc's menu, so if you don't turn on your TV monitor you have to remember to press "play" after a moment of apparent inaction, but this isn't a big deal. And while the audio tracks default to dts HD 5.1 (which just happens to suit me fine) you can switch from there via the colored buttons. 2L has also included something called "mShuttle" technology, which lets you use your networked Blu-ray player, connected to your home network, to access portable copies of the files, in "studio quality" FLAC 192kHz CD or MP3 files. And if those aren't enough choices for you, 2L also makes the tracks available for purchase and download as HiRes 24/96kHz FLAC files. While I haven't always loved the music the folk at 2L have sent me to preview, I do like these violin concertos very much (and Divertimenti is an excellent diversion). What I really appreciate, however, is how 2L is leading the way in offering excellent audio-only experiences on Blu-ray (and SACD). I would love it if some of the big labels would follow their lead and go back to their old catalog they way they did (somewhat) with DVD-A and SACD, and offer new, Blu-ray audio versions. I can understand why they may be a little gun-shy, what with the lack of mainstream success of DVD-A and SACD, but Blu-ray is a whole new ballgame. Heck, all they have to do for starters is re-release all their DVD-A/SACD titles, this time on BD, and they'd get immediate access to a growing group of consumers who are learning to love the high resolution sound quality of which the high definition disc is capable. If they can be weaned from the convenience of MP3 files... I'll hold my breath. In the meantime, hat's off to 2L for blazing this trail yet again.