Monthly Archive: April 2007
Heavenly Love, Earthly Joy: Elizabethan Lute Songs by Dowland, Morley, Rosseter, Ford – Julian Bream, lute/ Peter Pears/ tenor – RCA Red Seal
Superlative Elizabethan songs managed by two masters, still relevant today
Audio News for April 25, 2007
HD Radio is Finally Happening; Monterey Jazz Festival Launches CD Label; Pianist Andrew Hill Dies
MOZART: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478; Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493; Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581 – Benny Goodman, clarinet/ George Szell, piano/ Budapest String Quartet – Naxos Historical
Collectors will want Goodman’s performance, superior to his prior ensemble work with the Pro Arte Quartet.
The Double Bass = Works of ROSSINI, DEBUSSY, OPPELT, DRAGONETTI, SCHULLER & BARNETT – Robert Oppelt, doublebass – MSR Classics
A feast for double bass aficionados
SCHUBERT: Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat, Op. 99; Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat, Op. 100 – Storioni Trio, Amsterdam – PentaTone
The grand gesture is maintained successfully over the full length of these works, which run close to 40 minutes each.
Myra Hess = BACH: Prelude in G Major, BWV 902; English Suite No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 807; HAYDN: Piano Sonata No. 62 in E-flat Major; SCHUMANN: Carnaval, Op. 9 – Myra Hess, piano – BBC Legends
Hess achieved a natural beauty of tone and idiomatic persuasiveness in everything she touched.
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 17 “Little Russian”; Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 – USSR State Symphony Orchestra/ Evgeni Svetlanov – Regis
Evgeni Svetlanov (1928-2002) pulls out the stops, as is his wont, for this 1967 performance
SCHUMANN: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105; Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 121; Violin Sonata No. 3 in A Minor, WoO 27 – Jennifer Koh, violin/ Reiko Uchida, piano – Cedille
“viscerally haunting, obsessive, tender, and vulnerable,” according to violinist Koh
BEETHOVEN: Diabelli Variations, Op. 120; Sketches for the Diabelli Variations Marco Alcantara, piano – Sui Generis
The first classical SACD to come from Brazil
BACH: Keyboard music (Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, Aria Variata BWV 989, Fantasy and Fugue in A minor, Prelude and Fugue in A minor, Overture in the French Style BWV 831) – Jenö Jandó, piano – Naxos
One of Naxos’s greatest performers, the Hungarian pianist has given as much of his considerable heart and soul to the label.
Stranger Than Fiction. Blu-ray (2007)
This excellent Will Ferrell feature reminded of the completely different type of role Jim Carrey had in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
FRANCK: String Quartet in D major; Sonata for Piano and Violin in A major; Quintet for piano and strings in F minor – Quatuor Ysaÿe/ Pascal Rogé, piano – Ysaÿe Records
Quality-wise all Ysaÿe releases stand out with a bound book design and superb engineering on the recordings.
BERLIOZ: Requiem, Op.5; Symphonie funebre et triomphale, Op. 15 – Ronald Dowd, tenor/Wandsworth School Boys’ Choir/ London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus/Sir Colin Davis; (also in Symphonie: Dennis Wicks, trombone/John Aldis Choir – Philips (2 CDs)
I found ProLogic II brought out some of the spatiality of the four brass choirs in the thrilling Last Judgment sections
Goodfellas, Blu-ray (1990)
No wonder this opus was named best picture of 1990 by the National Society of Film Critics and is on the AFI’s Top-100 American Films List.
The Best of Jazz on TDK 07
A sampler to aid the viewer in selecting which of the many TDK jazz videos would be of interest to order in their complete versions.
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1 in D Major “The Titan,” with “Blumine” movement – Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich/ David Zinman – RCA Red Seal
The Tonhalle Orchestra is a major player in the orchestral sweepstakes and this is a highly successful beginning of what appears to be a very promising SACD series.
Michel Camilo, piano – Spirit of the Moment – Telarc
Camilo wrote the eight original tracks in eight days, and most of the album consists of first takes.
Rozhdestvensky = TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker, Act II; SHOSTAKOVICH: The Bolt–Suite, Op. 27a; STRAVINSKY: Scenes de Ballet – BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Gennady Rozhdestvensky/ BBC Legends – BBC
More absolutely idiomatic readings of Russian fare from Bolshoi Ballet veteran Gennady Rozhdestvensky, here sounding as brilliantly Russian as can be.
Audio News for April 21, 2007
DRM-free Apple-EMI Downloads Not CD Quality; Blu-ray Production to Expand; HD DVD Sells the Most Hi-Def Players;
DTV for Mobile Users
Darrell Grant, piano – Truth and Reconciliation – Origin Records
His jazz statements clearly include elements of classical, soul and folk.
Trygve Seim – The Source – ECM
I find the front line of sax and trombone in The Source are voiced like the Don Cherry & Ornette Coleman duos of the 60s
HEINRICH VON HERZOGENBERG: Symphony No. 1 in C minor; Symphony No. 2 in B flat major – NDR Radiophilharmonie/ Frank Beermann – CPO
Both of these symphonies sound to me like they could pass for Brahms’ Fifth and Sixth symphonies.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
