Monthly Archive: May 2007
J. S. BACH: The Complete Organ Music – Hans Fagius, organist – BIS
Playing time on the 5 discs is greatly extended by the program being only PCM stereo converted to SACD
LISZT: Hungaria–Symphonic Poem No. 9; Heroide funebre–Symphonic Poem No. 8; Le Triomphe funebre du Tasse–Symphonic Poem No. 2 – New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/ Michael Halasz – Naxos
Competitive with other symphonic-poem cycles by Masur and Haitink
Trygve Seim Group – Different Rivers – ECM Trygve Seim Group – Sangam – ECM
A pair of noteworthy earlier releases by the recently-reviewed young Norwegian saxist
Audio News for May 30, 2007
CD Sales Down Sharply; Asia Pacific Music Forum Meets
Sara Gazarek – Return To You – Native Language Music
Sara has a fine voice, vulnerable, fresh-sounding, somewhat sexy but not trying to be, and thank God she sings on pitch unlike some vocalists I could name.
Spyro Gyra – Good to Go-Go – Heads Up
One reason for the rhythmic excitement, as well as the islands-oriented slant of this album might be the band’s new drummer – Trinidad native Bonny B.
ARNOLD: Piano Sonata in B Minor; Two Piano Pieces; Variations on a Ukrainian Folk-Song, Op. 9; LAMBERT: Piano Sonata; Elegy; Suite in 3 Movements; Elegiac Blues – Mark Bebbington, piano – SOMM
A genuinely challenging keyboard work that makes us note Arnold’s mastery of an acerbic, colorful keyboard idiom.
R STRAUSS: Don Juan, Op. 20; BARTOK: Concerto for Orchestra; STRAVINSKY: Ode – Elegiac Chant; WEBER: Overture to Oberon – Boston Symphony Orchestra/ Serge Koussevitzky – Guild
It was Koussevitzky who commissioned Bartok to create his epic Concerto for Orchestra, and we are privy to the second performance ever.
Curse of the Golden Flower, Blu-ray (2006)
Viewing the Blu-ray version, I saw for the first time that the columns aligning the long corridors of the palace gleamed so brightly because they had lights inside them.
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major
The authenticity of the performance derives from the long, narrow, high-arched splendor of the cathedral where Bruckner received much of his own musical training (and where he is buried).
SMETANA: Ma Vlast: Vysehrad; Vltava -The Moldau; Sarka; From Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests; Tabor; Blanik – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/ Vaclav Talich – Naxos Historical
Tallich’s epic 1954 reading of the Smetana’s symphonic cycle My Country remains splendid on every level.
CHRISTOS HATZIS : String Quartet No. 1 (“The Awakening”), String Quartet No. 2 (“The Gathering”) – St. Lawrence String Quartet – EMI Classics
The sounds of the stringed instruments are pitted against the taped sounds of Inuit throat singing and railway locomotives in the First Quartet.
Trio Nuevo – Jazz Meets Tango – Soundroots Records
The accordion replaces the tango-centric bandoneon in the trio, and there’s no string bass or piano.
Michael Brecker and sextet – Pilgrimage – Heads Up
The final recording by the preeminent jazz saxophonist and composer Michael Brecker, who died on January 13 after a long battle with MDS and leukemia.
BACH: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 903; MENDELSSOHN: Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14; LISZT: Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude; On Wings of Song; GINASTERA: Danzas Argenitinas; GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue – Alpin Hong, piano – MSR Classics
Mr. Hong takes the opening of the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue as slowly and deliberately as ever I have heard anyone play it
Gregory Harrington, violin = Reflections – Estile Records
A violin/piano salon concert of intimate beauty.
Basic Instinct, Blu-ray (1992) – Unrated Director’s Cut
Some might say this disc is blu in more ways than format…
MAX BRUCH: Violin Concertos No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26; No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 58 – Torsten Janicke, violin/ Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne/ Markus Stenz – EBS Records
Bruch’s model in his violin concertos was the playing and the sound of Joseph Joachim, the great violin virtuoso
Audio News for May 26, 2007
Possible International Solution to Webcasters’ Licensing Fees Dilemma; Perfected 5.1 Headphone System Introduced by Beyer; SRS Virtual Surround and Ambient Sound Technologies in Flat Panel TVs
French Trumpet Concertos = HENRI TOMASI: Concerto; ROBERT PLANEL: Concerto for Trumpet and String Orchestra; ANDRE JOLIVET: Second Concerto; ALFRED DESENCLOS: Incantation, Threne et Danse – John Holt, trumpet/ Slovak Radio Orch./Kirk Trevor – Crystal
My favorite being the most-recently composed concerto of Robert Planel
DEBUSSY Orchestrations = Children’s Corner (Caplet); Six Epigraphes antiques (Ansermet); Clair de lune (Stokowski); Sarabande; Danse (Ravel); La Soirée dans Grenade (Busser); Petite Suite (Busser) – Orchestre symphonique de Quebec/ Yoav Talmi – Atma
His piano music so clearly suggests larger instrumental forces that much of it cries out for orchestral transcription.
Andy Milne, solo piano – Dreams and False Alarms – Songlines
The piano sound is very strong on the center channel, which helps avoid the Steinway sounding like it is 40 feet wide
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
