Monthly Archive: October 2009
Jimmy Smith, Live in ’69 (2009) (Jazz Icons IV series)
Jimmy Smith was one of those jazz innovators who took their respective instruments beyond the accepted limits and re-invented them for all those who followed.
Columbia Film Noir Classics I, 5 DVD Set (2009)
This collection of five stylish, exciting, occasionally frustrating but always rewarding movies is well worth getting.
VARIOUS COMPOSERS: a/rhythmia – Alarm Will Sound – Nonesuch
Despite the title, this CD doesn’t really contain arhythmic music, just music with quirky rhythms, and outlandish chords and percussion.
Echo & Risposta = Virtuoso instrumental music from the Abbey Church of Muri, Canzonis and Sonatas by: Becker, Re, Corradini, Rossi, Gussago, Castello, Riccio, Marini, Viadana, Picchi, Stradella, Scheidt, Sommer, Staden – Les Cornets Noir – Audite
The musical dialogues to be heard here are indeed conversations between instruments, echoes and answers coming from deep within the acoustic of the abbey church.
Audio News for October 27, 2009
Reduce Energy Use by Your Home Theater; Loudness and Peak Level Consistency for Telecasts; New Wi-Fi Technology Coming in 2010; Latest B&W & Bose iPod Docks
Miles Davis Quintet – Live in Europe ’67
Special DVD bonus disc included with the upcoming Miles Davis mega box set.
“Bolero” = BIZET: Carmen Suite; SAINT-SAENS: Havanaise; DEBUSSY: Soirée dans Granade; Préllkude No. IX; RAVEL: Piéce en forme de Habanera; Bolero = Spanish Art Guitar Quartet – NCA
The spatial separation of the guitarists across the sound stage in the surround version is a boon to the experience.
DVORAK: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 “From the New World”; NOVAK: Philharmonic Dances [only recording] ; DELIUS: Prelude to Irmelin; La Calinda from Koanga – Brno Philharmonic Orchestra/Jiri Waldhans – Orchestral Concert
This label releases recordings made in the 60s and 70s of German and East European orchestras on tour in the UK.
Art Blakey in Paris, 1965 (Jazz Icons IV series)
Blakey called this group The New Jazzmen, and they were filmed during the fall of 1965 as they were touring Europe.
Dedications: Music for String Orchestra = NORDGREN: Solemnity-Euphony for 19 Strings; VASKS: Musica appassionata per orchestra d’archi; ELIASSON: Sinfonia per archi – Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra /Juha Kangas – Alba
Anyone interested in string music of the twenty-first century will want to listen to this disc.
Gabriela Imreh plays BACH = Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor; Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825; Toccata and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 914; Italian Concerto in F Major; Chaconne in D Minor, BWV 1004 – Gabriela Imreh, piano – Arabesque
Originally issued in 1997 by Connoisseur Society, this remastering captures Ms. Imreh’s reverberant tone in the majestic work of Bach.
Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall – The Private Collection = SCHUMANN: Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17; BALAKIREV: Islamey; CHOPIN: Barcarolle in F-sharp Major; LISZT: St. Francois de Paula merchant sur les flots – RCA Red Seal
These private recordings from Carnegie Hall constitute “a series of stunning recitals, revealing Horowitz at the height of his Middle period.”
Mark Weinstein/Omar Sosa – Tales From The Earth – Ota Records
Both musicians are innovators who have contributed to contemporary Afro-Cuban music and both have cultivated a passion for musical cultures that extend outside of the mainstream.
Tyshawn Sorey – Koan – 482 Music
The trio make use of restrained pacing, open improvisation and relatively structure-less musical forms to explore the way people perceive the movement of time, space and even silence.
WILLEM ANDRIESSEN, piano = Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major; Willem Andriessen: Piano Concerto in D flat major (1908) – Willem Andriessen /Royal Concertgebouw Orch. /Eduard van Beinum / Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orch./Bernard Haitink – EPTA
Willem Andriessen was one of Holland’s illustrious pianists.
Waterworld, Blu-ray (1995/2009)
Waterworld ties in well with the current emphasis on global warming, since its doomsday event was caused by all the ice caps melting and the entire surface of the earth being covered by the seas.
Brian Groder – Groder & Greene – Latham
Pianist Burton Greene and trumpeter/flugelhorn player Brian Groder – along with alto saxophonist Rob Brown, bassist Adam Lane and drummer Ray Sage – are experienced pros of the progressive jazz scene.
Van Cliburn in Moscow, Vol. 5
Taped at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1960 and 1972, Van Cliburn returns to the scene of his greatest international triumph, rapt and long-fingered in the Liszt Sonata.
Leopold Stokowski = BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7 in A Major; BACH: Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor; MENDELSSOHN: Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream; GLUCK: Sicilienne from Armide; BEN HAIM: From Israel – various orchestras/Stokowski – Cala
With the release of Leopold Stokowski’s stereophonic inscriptions on CD, the Leopold Stokowski Society bids us a fond adieu.
Audio News for October 23, 2009
CEA on Current & Future State of Consumer Electronics; Role Audio Goes Green; Naxos to Distribute New C Major Entertainment Label DVDs; “Innovator of the Year” Award for Audio Recognition and Broadcast Monitoring Technology
PROKOFIEV: Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125; TCHEREPNIN: Suite for Solo Cello; CRUMB: Sonata for Solo Cello – Pieter Wispelwey/ Rotterdam Philharmonic/ Vassily Sinaisky, conductor – Channel Classics
Maybe the finest sound ever given to the Prokofiev.
Herbert von Karajan, Maestro for the Screen (2008)
This documentary, recently made for German TV, is the story of how Karajan became his own film director.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
