Monthly Archive: August 2008
Audio News for August 8, 2008
CD Baby Has New Father; Jazz Guitarist Launches Internet Guitar Conservatory; Japanese Theaters Fight Back to Gain Audiences; Home Theater Away From Home
COPLAND Conducts COPLAND: Billy the Kid ballet suite; Third Symphony – LSO/Copland VILLA-LOBOS: 3 Works; GINASTERA: Estania & Panambi – LSO/Sir Eugene Goossens – Both Everest CDs
Two more of the first 15 Everest CD reissues from HarkIt Records
TCHAIKOVSKY: Francesca da Rimini – Fantasia for Orchestra after Dante; Hamlet – Overture & Fantasy – Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York/Leopold Stokowski – Everest
TCHAIKOVSKY: Francesca da Rimini – Fantasia for Orchestra after Dante; Hamlet – Overture & Fantasy – Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York/Leopold Stokowski – Everest EVERCD 003, 42:57 **** [Not Distr. in U.S.]: This one of the new Everest CD reissues allowed comparisons not only with the 1996 Vanguard/Omega CD reissue and the DCC vinyl remastering of 1994, but also the recent 96K DVD-R reissue from HDTT – which we reviewed here. As that review makes clear, the 96K version surpasses all the rest, including this new standard CD reissue. In addition, it also includes the Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings. And the previous (now out-of-print) Omega reissue including Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy; neither work is on the new Everest reissue. Sonics were very similar between the DCC vinyl repressing, the older Omega CD reissues and this new Everest CD reissue. The only path I would see to improve sonics even further would be if the original three-channel master tape has not deteriorated, and a three-channel SACD could be released from it – as Vanguard did some time ago with a few of the Everests! – John Sunier
“Romantic Music for Two Pianos” – RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances; BRITTEN: Mazurka Elegaica, Intro and Rondo alla Burlesca; BAX: Poisoned Fountain; DEBUSSY: Fetes; BENJAMIN: Jamaican Rhumba: LUTOSLAWSKI: Variations – Pierce & Jonas, pianists – MSR
These recordings constitute a wonderful two-piano concert without a dud in the group.
Renaud Garcia-Fons Trio – Arcoluz – DVD + CD Live Recording – Enja/Justin Time
An extraordinary bassist who plays more often with his bow than plucking his instrument.
James Carter – Presenttense – Emarcy/Universal
A nice change for reedman James Carter
HAYDN: String Quartet in D, op. 50 “The Frog”; MARTINU: String Quartet No. 3; FELD: Saxophone Quintet; BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No. 16 in F, Op. 135 – Prazak Quartet – Praga Digitals
A great quartet deserves a better tribute that this
SmartPeople, Blu-ray (2008)
One of the attractions of the film is that all the characters seem to be real people – not Hollywood actors.
Olivia Newton-John and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (2006/2008)
What matters in any concert is can she still sing? Resoundingly, yes.
Bennett Paster & Gregory Ryan – Grupo Yanqui Rides Again – Miles High Records
Not your traditional Latin jazz ensemble
Shine a Light, Blu-ray (2008)
You begin to feel you are onstage with the Stones, with the performers’ comments between tunes and seeing exactly who is playing what.
BORIS GOLTZ: Scherzo in E Minor; 24 Preludes, Op. 2; CHOPIN: Nocturne in F Major, Op. 15, No. 1; Waltz in B Minor, Op. 69, No. 2; Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2; Polnaise in A-flat, O. 53 “Heroic” – Sergei Podobedov, piano – Music&Arts
Typical of the neo-Romantic school of Russian virtuosity, the piano works of Boris Goltz display a marked obligation to Chopin and Liszt.
Greg Howe – Sound Proof – Tone Center
Is it possible to let virtuosity trump substance?
Tim Armacost – Rhythm & Transformation – ArtistShare
Don’t you love these indie jazz projects when they’re properly pulled off?
Garaj Mahal – Woot – Owl Studios
One of the more interesting entrees into the small but growing field of World Fusion
SCHUBERT: Marches militaries, D. 733; Variations on an Original Theme in A-flat Major, D. 813; Grand Duo in C Major, D. 812 – Daniel Barenboim and Radu Lupu, piano – Warner Classics
Thoughts of the Biedermeier Period of drawing-room music and domestic keyboard repertory.
Audio News for August 5, 2008
Satellite Radio Merger Approved; Hazards in Disposing Your Old TV; Pandora Free Streaming Music Service
Enrico Pieranunzi Quintet – FelliniJazz – CamJazz
My favorites were the ensemble’s treatments of the familiar themes from La Dolce Vita and La Strada.
MENDELSSOHN:Six Organ Sonatas Op. 65; BRAHMS: Fugue in A flat minor; 11 Choralvorspiele Op. 122 – Gerd Zacher, Walcker organ of the Evangelical Church, Essen-Werden – Cybele (2 SACDs)
He saw the entire cycle as one cohesive work, with the individual sonatas representing the different movements of one massive sonata.
Paul Bley, solo piano – About Time – Justin Time
Bley feels that a performer’s particular personality should always be readily apparent to the listener, and his certainly is.
Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Ravi Coltrane – Saxophone Summit – “Seraphic Light” – Telarc Jazz
Sax Summit has been reconvened with John Coltrane’s son Ravi replacing Brecker’s position.
Simone Dinnerstein, piano: The Berlin Concert = BACH: French Suite No. 5 in G Major; LASSER: Twelve Variations on Bach’s “Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott”; BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor; BACH: Goldberg Variation No. 13 – Telarc
Dinnerstein assumes the mantle of Bachauer and Tureck, the new high priestess of musical art.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
