Oberlin, OH (January 12, 2022)—Robert Friedrich, president and co-founder of Five/Four Productions, recently captured performances at Oberlin College by pianist Teddy Abrams and horn player Robert Rearden with Sanken‘s CO-100K microphones.
“We made these recordings in Oberlin’s recording studio, which is beautiful and sounds great,” says Friedrich, who founded Five/Four Productions with Michael Bishop and Thomas Moore in 2009. Oberlin College, a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, OH, is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of higher learning in the world.
“The Sanken CO-100K’s were super-accurate in translating what was actually happening in the studio — really fantastic,” Friedrich says. “These extraordinary mics really captured all the overtones and complex harmonics from their renowned Hamburg Steinway.”
The Period Sound of ‘Passing’
Rearden plays with the National Symphony Orchestra. Abrams is also a clarinetist, composer and the music director of the Louisville Orchestra. The pieces they performed were by Brahms, Mahler, Strauss, Kreisler, and one new work, “Out of the Woods,” which was specially composed by Abrams for this production.
“We also employed the Sanken mics to record the horn which was right near the piano,” Friedrich adds. “The omni’s worked extremely well for both instruments. Picking up the floor reflections from the horn is extremely important to capture the warmth and tonal character we expect to hear. The CO-100Ks did that in addition to bringing in enough of the room sound to give an expansive life to the entire recording.”
