Monthly Archive: August 2007
Tug at China’s Heartstrings – Chinese music for plucked instruments – Central Music Academy Orchestra of Plucked Instruments/ Chen Bing – Channel Classics
There are 18 players in all and they are spread around the hall to give an enveloping acoustic for surround sound
Ellen Honert, vocals – Breath of the Soul – Mill Station Records
Features a raft of guest performers from the general San Francisco Bay Area as well as Brazil.
STRAVINSKY / DEBUSSY – Katia et Marielle Labeque, pianos + videos by Tal Rosner – STRAVINSKY: Concerto for Two Pianos; Five Easy Pieces; Three Easy Pieces; Ragtime; 3 from “The Five Fingers;” Valse, Tango; DEBUSSY: En blanc et noir – KML Recordings
The Labeques engaged young videographer Rosner to provide images for most of the selections they perform on one and two pianos on the music CD
Vladimir Ashkenazy Recital = CHOPIN: Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54; Nocturne in B Major, Op. 62, No. 1; DEBUSSY: L’Isle joyeuse; RAVEL: Gaspard de la Nuit – Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano – Decca “The Originals”
CD reissue of a 1965 recital released on LP
Monterey Jazz Festival 1975 (2007)
Mostly single tune samples from the top performers, including some unique combos of artists
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Blu-ray (2001)
Breakthru in CGI animation; failure in script and voice acting
MILES DAVIS – The Complete On The Corner Sessions, 6-CD box set – Columbia/Legacy
On The Corner of Way Out and Loose
Audio News for August 29, 2007
Hi-Def Format War Not Over Yet; What Really Soaks Up Those Watts; Burmester Goes Multichannel; Monster HDMI Cables Go Series
Complete Organ Works of BRUHNS & LEYDING – Friedhelm Flamm, organ – CPO
Two important but less familiar composers to discover and savor. Recommended.
MAHLER: Symphony No. 3 – Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Bernard Haitink/ Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano / Women of The Chicago Symphony Chorus / Chicago Children’s Choir – CSO Resound
This may be the long sought performance of the great nature opus.
MOZART: Complete Sonatas for Keyboard and Violin, Volume 4 – Gary Cooper, fortepiano/Rachel Podger, violin – Channel Classics
While the players are relatively close-up in the recording, they nonetheless occupy a very real space in the recorded acoustic, and the sound of the instruments is startlingly realistic.
Jacky Terrasson, solo piano – Mirror – Blue Note/EMI
Terrasson uses the very low noise level of the studio to craft subtle pianissimo passages in some of his improvisations.
Astor Piazzolla – The Next Tango (1986)
Piazzolla relates his life and work on the New Tango and performs in two of his concertos with orchestra
Diego Amador – Piano Jondo – World Village
Self-taught, he has found a way to communicate the age-old flamenco musical culture via the grand piano
Victor Merzhanov, piano = Works of BEETHOVEN, CHOPIN, SCRIABIN, SCHUBERT – Vista Vera
This guy Merzhanov can play the piano!
MAHLER: Das Lied von der Erde – Richard Lewis, tenor/Maureen Forrester, contralto/Chicago Symphony Orchestra/ Fritz Reiner – RCA Living Stereo
The horns are ablaze, the flute flutter-tonguing an electric current of revulsion and weeping nostalgia for life.
SCHUMANN – 3 Fantasys, Fantasy in C, Forest Scenes – Nicolas Bringuier, piano – Audite
Robert Schumann’s brilliant compositions for the piano bridge the period between Beethoven and the Romantics much more successfully than any of his contemporaries.
SCHOENBERG: String Quartet no. 4, Op. 37; Transfigured Night (original version, 1899) – Prazak Quartet/ Vladimir Bukac, viola/ Petr Prause, cello – Praga Digitals
SCHOENBERG: String Quartet no. 4, Op. 37; Transfigured Night (original version, 1899) – Prazak Quartet/ Vladimir Bukac, viola/ Petr Prause, cello – Praga multichannel SACD PRD/DSD 250 234, 58:41 ****(*): Schoenberg was enthralled with the younger sister (Mathilde) of his mentor, Alexander von Zemlinsky all during the summer of 1899. Inspiration hit like a brick, and in only three weeks the superb score of Transfigured Night was complete. The sultry, hothouse poetry of Richard Dehmel coupled with the composer’s own lovesick inclinations aided the quick composition of this most descriptive of Schoenberg’s works. The words, from a collection called Women and World are evocative in extremis, containing such passages addressed to the woman’s lover as “I am carrying a child, and not by you. I am walking here with you in a state of sin. I have offended grievously against myself. I despaired of happiness, and yet I still felt a grievous longing for life’s fullness, for a mother’s joys and duties; and so I sinned, and so I yielded, shuddering, my sex to the embrace of a stranger, and even thought myself blessed. Now life has taken its revenge, and I have met you, met you.” Pretty potent stuff […]
JUSTIN DELLO JOIO: Two Concert Etudes; Music for Piano Trio; Sonata for Piano – Garrick Ohlsson, Jeremy Denk, piano/ Ani Kavafian, violin/ Carter Brey, cello – Bridge
Works that show this composer a force to be reckoned with
Jaco Pastorius: The Essential Jaco Pastorius – Jaco Pastorius, bass – Sony Legacy
The package includes a well-crafted and thoughtful essay by Pastorius’ biographer. Very highly recommended.
Alfred Cortot Encores = Works of SCHUBERT, BRAHMS, HANDEL, LISZT, CHOPIN, WEBER, ALBENIZ – Naxos Historical
Cortot was the first RCA Victor artist to have electrical recordings issued in his name.
J.S. BACH: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 – Simone Dinnerstein, piano – Telarc
Within a very leisurely aesthetic, Dinnerstein projects a lovely tone and a gracious sensibility
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
