Monthly Archive: October 2009
PIAZZOLLA: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires; Fugata; TROILO: Contrabajeando; ITURRALDE: Suite Hellenique; GERSHWIN: Rhapsody in Blue; Rialto Ripples Rag – Italian Saxophone Quartet – Delos
Piazzolla’s Four Seasons suite is one of the most successful of the composer’s efforts to bridge classical and tango music traditions.
Rez Abbasi – Things to Come – Sunnyside
Pakistani-American guitarist Rez Abbasi coalesces his rock, jazz and South Asian influences into a melodically and rhythmically complex suite of tracks.
Leon Fleisher, piano = BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major; Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major; GLUCK: Iphigenie in Aulis Overture – Cologne Radio Symphony Orch./Hans Rosbaud/Otto Klemperer (Op. 58; Gluck) – Medici Masters
Leon Fleisher (b. 1928) currently enjoys a resurgence of interest, given his legendary cult status among living performers.
Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Show – The Classic Performances (1956/2009)
Those of you born since 1956 should see this.
Audio News for October 6, 2009
Sony Media-slinging Blu-ray Player; Klipsch and Polk Do Most Print Advertising; Krell Slim-line Series Amps; New HD Display Technology from Sharp; Denon 9.3-channel AVR with Integrated Universal Player
HANDEL: Organ Concertos Op. 7; Chaconne in F Major; Fugue in G minor; Chaconne in G Major; Concerto in F Major “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale” – Richard Egarr, organ, harpsichord and direction/Academy of Ancient Music – Harmonia mundi
n addition to the six organ concertos of Opus 7 Richard Egarr has included as an encore the Concerto in F Major HWV 295, known as “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale,” plus 3 solo harpsichord pieces.
Ben Webster – My Romance (Audiophile version) Top Music/Ultra Disc
Nobody else achieved quite the rich, warm, soulful and caressing tenor sax sound so distinctively laid down by Ben Webster.
Adam Resurrected, Blu-ray (2009)
A brave, innovative and very moving film which is quite far from the typical Holocaust film.
BALAKIREV: Complete Romances for Soprano, Mezzo-soprano, Baritone, and Bass – Margarita Alaverian, soprano/Alexander Gergalov, baritone/Lyubov Sokolova, mezzo-soprano/Georgy Seleznev, bass/Yuri Serov, piano – Delos
Balakirev and Dargomyzhsky were the first Russians to refine the classical “romance,” the lyric that depicts a character, a fiery emotion, or a dramatic situation.
HANDEL: Giulio Cesare – complete opera (Copenhagen, 2007 & (Glyndebourne, 2006)
Two terrific productions of an opera that deserves hundreds.
Fugue: Bach and His Forerunners – Colin Tilney, harpsichord – Music & Arts
An invitation to the Art of Fugue.
SCHNITTKE: Symphony No. 9; ALEXANDER RASKATOV: Nunc dimittis – Elena Vassilieva, soprano/ The Hilliard Ensemble/ Dresden Philharmonic/ Dennis Russell Davies, conductor – ECM
An important release of the last symphonic thoughts of this vital composer.
Vaclav Talich & Czech PO = DVORAK: Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70; 8 Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Vaclav Talich – Opus Kura
Conscientious Opus Kura incarnations, Dvorak by his supreme acolyte.
La Fête a Stradivarius! Vol. I = Works of MOZART BRAHMS, MENDELSSOHN – Christian Ferras/Ida Haendel, Zino Francescatti, Gioconda de Vito – Tahra (2)
The four violinists here each ply his or her especial violin in collaborations devoted to four of the great staples of the repertory.
Gordon Grdina – “The Breathing of Statues” – Songlines
I find this SACD to be an intriguing if uneven work that I would recommend only to those listeners with a penchant for adventurous listening.
SCHUBERT: Winterreise – Mark Padmore, tenor/ Paul Lewis, piano – Harmonia mundi
A superb account from two highly-acclaimed musicians.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trios Nos. 1 in c, Op.8; 2 in e, Op. 67; MICHAEL OBST: Piano Trio No. 2 – Abegg Trio – Tacet
A very fine reading of the trios and an interesting new work as well.
Audio News for October 2, 2009
OnLine Videos Celebrate Vinyl; New Sennheiser Wireless Headphones; 3D Monitor Launch in Australia; Tsunami Spawns New Web Attacks; Pioneer Has First THX-Certified Blu-ray Player; New Sharp Laser Could Enable 100GB Blu-ray Disks
Away We Go, Blu-ray (2009)
The whole thing has a very natural flow and development – a welcome relief from the forced type of story line and dialog in so many similar films.
Editorial for October 2009
Welcome to Adobe GoLive 6 Our October drawing/giveaway – for a lucky three of our readers – is for the four-Blu-ray set from Naxos, The Virtual Haydn. This trail-blazing project is a fully interactive experience encompassing three audio-only Blu-ray discs and a fourth Blu-ray video on the making of the recordings – 18 hours worth with the documentary! The audio thruout is a choice of lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio or stereo PCM. (You must have a Blu-ray deck in order to play these.) The music of Haydn has been a lifelong passion for keyboardist/musicologist Tom Beghin of McGill University, and with The Virtual Haydn he has challenged all conventions of performing, recording and listening. To be eligible all you need to do is register here on the site this month and at the end of the month your name could be one of the three selected! Go Here to Register. The three lucky winners of the 13-CD Furtwangler Audite boxed set – our September drawing/giveaway – are: Gilbert Gaynor, Santa Barbara, CA; John Martin, Plymouth, MI; Howard Selekman, Pittsburgh, PA. Congrats to all three! EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
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