This disc reissues two separate 1970s performances that originally appeared on releases by the Canadian Orion Master Recordings label. Orion, it says here, "was one of North America's pioneering independent record labels, renowned for the audiophile quality of its recordings." Maybe so, but something must have gone wrong in the transfer to CDs -- in the three
Beethoven duos for violin and cello that open the disc, there is a weird imbalance between the violin and cello, with the cello sounding as though it's waiting in the wings. The performance itself offers a decent specimen of the instantly identifiable vibrato-heavy style of
Ruggiero Ricci, but there are numerous other problems here -- there's no way to tell from the booklet which of the two cellists listed (Mihaly Virizly and Bonnie Hampton) is accompanying
Ricci, and which is playing on the remainder of the disc. There's also no acknowledgment that the three duos, transcriptions of an earlier set of duos for clarinet and bassoon, are most likely spurious works. The performance of the Cello Sonata in F major, Op. 17, whoever is playing, is recorded up close and played well, but there are other choices available for that well-known piece.