Monthly Archive: April 2014
Ella Fitzgerald – Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) – Analogue Productions/Verve/ Universal Music
Analogue Productions has done a masterful job in re-mastering Let No Man Write My Epitaph to SACD format.
“Decca Sound – The Analogue Years (Limited Edition)” – Various artists – 54 CDs & booklet – Decca Universal Music
A superb collection that documents Decca’s mastery of the recording art.
James Brandon Lewis – Divine Travels [TrackList follows] – OKeh
Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis divines the ghost of Coltrane.
TALLIS: Puer natus est nobis; Missa Puer natus est nobis; Salvator mundi, Domine; Quod chorus vatum; Benedictus; Magnificat a 4; Audivi vocem de caelo; Videte miraculum – The Cardinall’s Musick/ Andrew Carwood – Hyperion
Carwood’s third volume in this Tallis series retains the quality of the previous two.
MOZART: Adagios & Fugues After J.S. Bach = Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin – Harmonia mundi
Mozart’s contrapuntal studies of J.S. Bach receive intensely rigorous, austere, and stylized treatment from Akademie fuer Alte Musik Berlin.
Thumbscrew: Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek and Tomas Fujiwara – Thumbscrew [TrackList follows] – Cuneiform
Music for open-minded ears.
Carl Cleves & Parissa Bouas – Halos ‘Round The Moon – Stockfisch
Prevalent folk roots thru out this stereo SACD album.
MASON BATES: “Stereo is King” = Stereo is King; Observer in the Magellanic Cloud; Difficult Bamboo; Terrycloth Troposphere; String Band; White Lies for Lomax – Mason Bates, electronica/Chanticleer/Musicians from the Chicago Sym. Orch./The Claremont Trio/Tania Stavreva, p. – Innova
Very interesting and diverse work kind of hooks you to this name you should know.
“Mordecai Shehori plays Dances and Visions” = Works of LULLY, DEBUSSY, RACHMANINOV, CHOPIN, SAINT-SAENS – Cembal d’amour
Mordecai Shehori explores music that extends over several centuries with a Romantic’s passion for color, taste, and naturally poetic bravura.
Voice of Memory: Bal & Kan (Honey and Blood) – Hesperion XXI/ Jordi Savall – Alia Vox (3 SACDs)
Haunting music from a haunted part of the world, but a rich and profound source of very human music.
Pnina Salzman plays Mediterranean Piano Music = STUTSCHEWSKY: 3 Movements from Landscapes of Israel; AVIDOM: Four Impressions; BEN-HAIM: Five Pieces; SETER: Chaconne and Scherzo; BRAUN: Sonata; AVNI: Sonata No. 1 – Pnina Salzman, p. – Music in Israel
Israeli keyboard legend Pnina Salzman celebrates her native land in contemporary music fashioned specifically from Middle-Eastern sources.
David Fathead Newman & The Tilden Webb Trio – Cellar Groove – Cellar Live
An album filled with curiosity and fluid expertise.
Audio News for April 11, 2014
CEA Survey Sees Wireless Audio Growth; Samsung Offers Connected-Home Platform; Samsung Offers Connected-Home Platform; TechHive Pans Hi-Res Audio
SCHUBERT: Der Wanderer – Florian Boesch, bar./ Roger Vignoles, piano – Hyperion
Boesch scores a real winner here, perhaps his finest solo outing to date.
KHACHATURIAN: Violin Concerto in D Minor; SHOSTAKOVICH: String Quartet No. 7; String Quartet No. 8 – James Ehnes, v./ Melbourne Sym. Orch./ Mark Wigglesworth/ Ehnes Quartet – Onyx
James Ehnes indulges both his virtuosic temperament and his passion for soulful chamber music in this rare fusion of Khachaturian and Shostakovich.
GLASS: Galileo Galilei (complete opera) – Richard Troxell & other soloists/ Portland Opera Orch./ Anne Manson – Orange Mountain Music (2 CDs)
Glass’s 2002 opera is given the royal treatment in Oregon.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Blu-ray 3D+2D+DVD+UV Digital HD (2013)
More action and 3D effects in this second Hobbitt movie than there were in the first.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Blu-ray (1923/2014)
A definitive restoration of the classic 1923 Lon Chaney silent.
PHILIP GLASS: How Now; Strung Out – Philip Glass, organ/Dorothy Pixley-Rothschild, violin – Orange Mountain PHILIP GLASS: Voices for Didgeridoo and Organ; Organ Suite: Four Movements arr. for Organ – Michael Riesman, organ/Mark Atkins, didgeridoo – Orange Mountain
Two more additions for the hardcore PG collector.
PHILIP GLASS: How Now; Strung Out – Philip Glass, organ/Dorothy Pixley-Rothschild, violin – Orange Mountain PHILIP GLASS: Voices for Didgeridoo and Organ; Organ Suite: Four Movements arr. for Organ – Michael Riesman, organ/Mark Atkins, didgeridoo – Orange Mountain
Two more additions for the hardcore PG collector.
Play it Again – The Classic Sound of Hollywood – Charles Gerhardt /The National Philharmonic and other orch. and conductors – TCM Masterworks (2 CDs)
A two-CD set of some of the great Charles Gerhardt movie scores and a disc of many others from various sources.
SCHUBERT: Winterreise – Gerald Finley, bar./ Julius Drake, p. – Hyperion
What? Again? Yet another amazing Schubert Winterreise.