Monthly Archive: June 2007
Jimmy Heath – Really Big! (Keepnews Collection) Riverside/Concord
A really big occasion for a mini-big band
Bill Evans – Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Keepnews Collection) Riverside/Concord
Keepnews vs. K2 – Round Two: Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers – Caravan (Keepnews Collection) Riverside/Concord
One more version of Blakey’s “Caravan”
Points North = Piano Duets by WALTON, RAWSTHORNE & Others – Swallow/Wilson piano duo – Campion
This disc offers us some fascinating arrangements and commissions from notables of 20th Century composition.
Audio News for June 23, 2007
Major Media Conglomerates’ Effort to Ban All DVD Copying;
Founder of Delos Records Dies; Upcoming AES Conference and Convention Themes
Pablo Ziegler Quartet with Stefon Harris – Tango & All That Jazz – Kind of Blue The Oregon String Quartet – And All That Jazz – Koch Classics
Two crossoverish releases sharing similar titles seem to go together…
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh (1961)
One of the charming aspects of the skilled Disney animation is the way the original book is tied in and the characters step into it and out of it.
Chet – The Keepnews Collection, Riverside/Concord Music
He doesn’t do a single vocal on any of the ten great tracks!
Stokowski Conducts MUSSORGSKY, BORODIN, RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, GLIERE & TCHAIKOVSKY – Leopold Stokowski and his Sym. Orch. & Women’s Chorus – Cala
The natural affinity between Leopold Stokowski and Russian music is perhaps no better documented than in his RCA LP on LM 1816, with its scene from Disney’s Fantasia.
RAVEL: The Complete Piano Works, Volume I = Jeux d’eau; Gaspard de la Nuit; Serenade Grotesque; Miroirs; La Valse – Artur Pizarro, piano – Linn
A vivid recording of vibrant music, this disc.
Fred Katz Orchestras – Folk Songs for Far Out Folk – Reboot
Nine folk songs adapted instrumentally by Katz for three different ensembles.
Ron Carter, doublebass – Dear Miles, – Blue Note/EMI
The ten tracks encompass tunes from the 50s and 60s Davis repertory, some loosely-related tunes, and two originals by Carter.
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67; Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 – Philharmomia Orchestra/ Otto Klemperer – Naxos Historical
Not unbuttoned but hardly staid, the Klemperer Seventh shudders in its own inevitability, a document of Beethoven’s inner volition
Beecham = The British National Anthem; BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, “Choral” – Sylvia Fisher, soprano/ Nan Merriman, mezzo-soprano/ Richard Lewis, tenor/ Kim Borg, bass/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/ Sir Thomas Beecham – BBC Legends
A rare glimpse into one of the major gaps of Beecham’s recorded Beethoven repertory
Martha Argerich and Friends – Live from Lugano Festival 2006 = SCHUMANN: Piano Quartet in E flat, Fantasiestücke, Piano Trio No. 1; MENDELSSOHN: Cello Sonata No. 2; TANEYEV: Piano Quintet; DEBUSSY: Nocturnes; SCHNITTKE: V. Sonata; GULDA: Cello Con. – EMI
3-CD set with superb performances of adventurous music
Audio News for June 20, 2007
Blockbuster Favors Blu-ray Discs; Tweeter Employees Say Company Misled Them; 7 Out of 10 Either Own or Want Flat Screen; Lightning and Your Home Electronics
Sony PS3 PlayStation 3 Advanced Gaming Console, 60GB
Even though games are secondary to our attraction to the PS3, it will remain an important part of our home entertainment system with its Blu-ray performance
RICHARD STRAUSS: Josephs Legende, Op. 63 ballet – Budapest Festival Orchestra/ Ivan Fischer – Channel Classics
The scenario concerns the apocryphal biblical story of the attempted seduction of the young Joseph by Potiphar’s wife
HAYDN: Sinfonia Concertante in B flat; Symphony No. 100 in G, “Military;” L’Isola diabitata Overture – Netherlands Chamber Orchestra/ Gordan Mikolic – PentaTone
The Sinfonia Concertante is one of Haydn’s loveliest works, with a concertino of players on violin, cello, oboe and bassoon in front of the chamber orchestra’s ripieno.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 13, “Babi Yar” – Serge Aleksashkin, baritone/ St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra/ Yuri Temirkanov, conductor – RCA
A completely different take on a modern orchestral masterpiece
MAHLER: Symphony No. 6 in A Minor, “Tragic” – Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Saarbruecken/ Gunter Herbig – Berlin Classics
Each of Herbig’s Mahler symphonies has proved idiomatic, direct, and exquisitely balanced.
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 4 in E-flat – Berlin Philharmonic/ Simon Rattle, conductor – EMI
A worthy effort from a novice Brucknerian with spectacular playing
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
