You've given evidence for something that I really wish more people
would realize: if you can put a good enough pair of microphones in a
good place in front of a good performance, you'll very likely get a
good recording. All that the recorder has to do is not ruin it.

I'm not saying that it makes _no_ difference what medium or recorder
you use--but just as you've found, a less-than-ideal choice can
sometimes be a very good choice for a given situation.

So thanks for posting your story. It also shows that an invisible
component (the engineer's good sense) is the most important item of
equipment for any recording.

--best regards