New Vintage Frets and the Wisconsin/Vega Project

[Graham McDonald]

There has been a few mentions over recent months of the recording project by folks from Milwaukee to record a number of mandolin orchestra pieces from the 1890s and early 1900s using the original orchestrations. There were thousands of works published for mandolin orchestras in that era and they are little heard these days. The completed CD and/or download is now available and a cracker of a recording it is.

Delightfully recorded with a wonderful growl of the mandocellos (or should that be mandocelli?) anchoring the bottom end over the top of crisp and tight mandolins and mandolas. A mix of styles from the period, a little light classical, some popular dances and a couple of novelty numbers to round it out. Well done all around.

This a genre of mandolin music that has fascinated me since starting to research mandolins and it is great to be able to hear how it would have sounded a century ago.

CDs: https://newvintagefrets.com/
Downloads: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thenewvintagefrets
Longer Samples: https://soundcloud.com/user-708668523/tracks

Cheers