Jason Victor Serinus

"Focus on the unusual, the exotic," editor Jim Austin counseled by email. I didn't have to look very far. If Day One of the Audio Video Show 2022 in the huge Stadium was dominated by major brands, Day Two in the Radisson Sobieski Blu Hotel was filled with unusual speakers and electronics from small companies based in Poland and other European companies. Hardly any have a US presence, and many are searching for the right distributor to get them beyond the Polish border.

My trip to the Audio Video Show 2022 in Warsaw, Poland seems to have devolved into an unanticipated journey of protests. First, we almost delayed our pre-show mini-vacation in Paris—bless you, frequent flyer miles and friends—when, in the middle of a Workers' Strike, protestors were tear-gassed one block from the apartment of our hosts in the Montparnasse District. Then, on Day One of the show, I spent 45 minutes in the cold courting pneumonia as the shuttle bus between the Stadium and the Radisson Blu Sobieski Hotel was delayed due to a non-violent protest in the street near the start of the bus route.

We've all been in similar situations. We approach an undertaking with the highest of expectations. Then reality intervenes, expectations change radically, and we have another story to tell, post on social media, or use to begin a review.

This tale of altered expectations began a few years after my birth, at AXPONA 2022, where I covered several stellar-sounding rooms that included Simaudio Moon electronics. By the third such room, I'd resolved to contact Simaudio, check in with Jim Austin, and see if there was a product that made sense to review in my system.

Víkingur Ólafsson: From Afar
Víkingur Ólafsson, grand and upright pianos
DG 4861681 (24/192 WAV, available on 2 CD, 2 LP). 2022. Christopher Tarnow, prod. & eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****

From Afar seems on its face like a dream recording for audiophiles and music lovers. The 2-CD, 44-track project spotlights Víkingur Ólafsson, the sensitive, 38-year-old Icelandic pianist, performing a captivating program of short pieces twice on dissimilar pianos with very different sound: a concert grand and an upright. The very different performances are dictated by Ólafsson's response to these very different instruments. The contrasts are wondrous.

Aloys Schmitt: Piano Concertos 1–2; Rondeau brillant, India Gailey: to you through, Brahms: Symphonies 3, 4 and György Kurtág: Kafka-Fragmente.

The text, from Gary Bruestle, a speaker-positioning wizard at Definitive Audio in Seattle, left my mouth watering: "Have you heard the Apex version of a Rossini or Vivaldi yet? It's stunningly good. Addictive, even. ... I usually have a hard time relaxing and listening to music in the showroom, but the Rossini Apex DAC had me in its thrall for a few hours yesterday."

Prism IV: Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Mahler: Symphony No.4, Žibuoklė Martinaitytė Ex Tenebris Lux and Consolations: Music by Bach, Chopin, Dushkin, Handel, Kreisler, Liszt, Massenet, and others.