Monthly Archive: April 2009
Audio News for April 24, 2009
iTunes Drops Digital Rights Management; Warner Cable Drops Plan to Restrict Bandwidth; New Lossless Codec for HD Audio
RAVEL conducts his Bolero and other French Composers Conduct = RAVEL: Bolero; TOMASI: Tam-Tam; La Chanson des sables; SCHMITT: La Tragedie de Salome, Op. 50; GAUBERT: Les Chants de la Mer – Var. orch. cond. by Ravel, Tomasi, Schmitt & Gaubert – Dutton
Colorful French works conducted by their composers.
Marc Copland – New York Trio Recordings Vol. 3 – Night Whispers – Pirouet
Ravishingly beautiful, but with enough rigor and improvisation to place it clearly within the jazz spectrum.
Ray Levier – Ray’s Way – Origin Records
Smart modern jazz with nice blues and funk overtones.
Maya: Portrait of Maya Plisetskaya (1999)
A brilliant artist of “vitality, sensuality, and modernity”
Richard Galliano – Love Day (Los Angeles Sessions) – Milan
To realize his Love Day album he choose the historic LA recording studio of Capitol Records in Hollywood, and two of the finest jazz performers today on piano and bass.
Joe McQueen, sax, and friends – Ten at 86 – Kimber IsoMike
McQueen has a honking big tenor sax sound with a lot of soul in it.
Eddie Daniels and Roger Kellaway Live at The Bakery – A Duet of One – IPO Recordings
When you take two virtuoso performers like clarinetist Eddie Daniels and pianist Roger Kellaway you have a duo combination that can’t lose.
HONEGGER: Works for Piano – Jean-Francois Antonioli, piano/ Ju-Ying Song, piano – Timpani
And you thought you knew Honegger—think again!
BACH: Cantatas Vol. 42: Nos. 13, 16, 32, 72 – Rachel Nicholls, soprano/ Robin Blaze, counter-tenor/ Gerd turk, tenor/ Peter Kooij, bass/ Bach Collegium Japan/ Masaaki Suzuki, conductor – BIS
The excellence of this series continues…
Chris Botti In Boston, Blu-ray (2009)
A spectacularly well done concert with demonstration-quality image and surround sonics.
A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts – 2 DVD set (2007/2009)
A compelling portrait of the composer which probably would appeal as much to those uninterested in new music or those who can’t stand his music (there are many!) as to his fans.
Klemperer Conducts = BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, “Choral” – Maria Stader, soprano/Waldemar Kmentt, tenor/Grace Hoffman, mezzo/Hans Hotter, bass/Chorus of North German Radio/Cologne Radio and Cologne Radio-Symphony Orch. – Medici Arts
The sinew and knotty convulsions of the first movement convey a powerful impression of a birth-process, a Promethean urge to creation out of an unformed firmament.
Audio News for April 21, 2009
New Speaker Designed for Height Channels Use; First Podcast in 5.1 Surround; Onkyo Uses Analog Devices Blackfin in Receiver; Japanese Electronics Companies Slated to See Improvement
Joel Fan, piano – West of the Sun, Music of the Americas – Reference Recordings
Fan has created an album with more programming innovation than most such piano recitals.
Blue Rags – Ian Munro, piano – Tall Poppies
Many composers today are busy creating brand new rags in the style of the late 19th century tunes.
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491; Piano Concerto No. 25 in c Major, K. 503; Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397 – Imogen Cooper, piano and conductor/Northern Sinfonia – Avie
Cooper has achieved a marvelous sense of balance, the aggressive, tragic tumult measured against the solace that Mozart’s melodic currency affords.
Allen Toussaint – The Bright Mississippi – Nonesuch
Allen Toussaint is a national treasure and a New Orleans legend.
Frank Wess Nonet – Once is Not Enough – Labeth Music
A national treasure in a first time octet setting.
Jacques Loussier Plays Bach – The 50th Anniversary Recording – Telarc
They now take the Bach originals farther than the original trio had done.
SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Op. 97, “Rhenish Symphony”; Symphony No. 4 in D minor Op. 120 – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra /Lawrence Foster – Pentatone
Recorded live during April 2008, the sound captures the very full acoustic of the Rudolfinum and its long reverberation time; it is to the engineers’ credit that little detail is lost.
SIR ARTHUR BLISS: Piano Concerto; Noel Mewton-Wood, piano/Utrecht Symphony Orchestra /Walter Goehr – Pristine Classical
Bliss wrote with a distinctive accent and his works include many masterpieces of the 20th century, from the early “Colour Symphony” to the “Metamorphic Variations.”
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
