Monthly Archive: November 2009
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Sonata in D Minor, Op. 40; BRAHMS: Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87 – Daniel Shafran, cello/Lydia Pecherskaya, piano (Shostakovich)/ Gary Graffman, piano/ Berl Senofsky, violin/Shirley Trepel, cello - HDTT
Russian cellist Daniel Shafran represents a stellar personality in music entirely his own.
HANDEL: Samson (complete oratorio) – Soloists/ NDR Choir/ Gottingen Festspiel Orchestra/ Nicholas McGegan, conductor – Carus (3 SACDs)
An exemplary performance of Handel’s sublime oratorio that is recorded in excellent high resolution multichannel sound.
Audio News for November 17, 2009
YouTube Starts Supporting 1080p HD Videos; Livio Radio Also Offers Pandora Service; Pioneer and Sony AV Receivers Selected; Panasonic to Acquire Sanyo; LED Display Panel Prices to Fall
The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out – ABKCO
The Stones at their live best.
Jon Irabagon – The Observer – Concord Jazz
A straightforward outing that demonstrates Irabagon’s flair for composing receptive jazz tunes and his expressional style that evokes sax influences such as Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley or Wayne Shorter.
Casals in Paris = FAURE: Elegie for Cello and Orchestra; CASALS: Les Rois Mages; Sardana; BACH: Sarabande from Suite No. 5 in C Minor; SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in A Minor – Lamoureux Orchestra/Pablo Casals/Prades Fest. Orch./Eugene Ormandy – Archipel
A glimpse into the working methods of the great Catalan cellist, conductor and composer Pablo Casals, rehearsing and performing the Faure Elegie as a vast concerted string ensemble from Paris, at the Grand Amphitheatre de la Sorbonne, October 1956.
Monsters, Inc., Blu-ray 4-disc Combo Pack (2001/2009)
Another Pixar winner animated feature for the whole family!
CHOPIN Pleyel = Five Preludes, Op. 28; Prelude, Op. 45; Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47; 3 Etudes from Op. 25; Nocturne in E-flat; Nocturne in D-flat; Nocturne in C Minor; Nocturne in F-sharp Minor; others – Alain Planes, p. – Harmonia mundi
Alain Planes duplicates an actual recital Chopin gave 21 February 1842. . .indispensable to the Chopin connoisseur.
Grigory Sokolov, piano = Live in Paris (2002/2009)
Grigory Sokolov must be considered as the greatest living artist of his instrument, a superb musician whose programmes inspire and reward his audiences like few others.
Migration – Produced, composed, arranged, performed and programmed by Hamilton Sterling and Jimmy Haslip – Helikon Sound
An unusual extremely surround-sound-oriented DualDisc
The Story of Roxy Music: More Than This (2009)
Debunking the Myth About Roxy Music.
John Mayall – Tough – Eagle
Mayall’s 50+ year career has resulted in nearly 60 albums and a constantly rotating group that has been a who’s who of blues and rock practitioners.
Audio News for Noember 13, 2009
Growing Momentum for At-Home 3D; Naxos Has iPhone & iPod Touch Music App; Sharp Electronics in Red as LCD Prices Fall; First Hitchcock Film on Blu-ray; Sony PlayTV Accessory for PS3 Playstation
Paolo Conte – Psiche – Platinum/Decca
The thoroughly gravelly voice of Italian singer-songwriter Paolo Conte has been compared to Tom Waits.
ALAN HOVHANESS: Janabar “Journey” Op. 81, Sinfonia Concertante for piano, trumpet, violin and strings; Talin Op. 93 Viola Concerto; Shambala – Concerto for violin, sitar and orchestra; Hovhaness interviewed – Soloists/Slovak Phil./Stur – OgreOgress
You require a DVD-Audio deck or at least a DVD player and a bit of sleuthing to gain the full value of this DualDisc.
Coming Together – Chris Potter, Soprano/Tenor Saxophone/ Steve Wilson, Soprano/Alto Saxophone/ Terell Stafford, Trumpet/Flugelhorn/ Keith Javors, Piano/ Delbert Felix, Bass/ John Davis, Drums – Inarhyme Records
Eight superb compositions and very nice arrangements on three standards by a 24-year-old saxist/composer who demonstrated that he had a potentially magnificent future ahead.
SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54; DEBUSSY: Four Images – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, piano/ Orchestre de Paris/Daniel Barenboim – DGG
This disc brings forth a previously unissued October 1984 rendition of the Schumann Piano Concerto by the great Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
BACH: Partita No. 1 in B-flat Major, BWV 825; Partita No. 5 in G Major, BWV 829; Partita No. 6 in E Minor, BWV 830 – Murray Perahia, piano – Sony
Murray Perahia, makes exquisite sense of three partitas from Bach’s Op. 1.
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 4 “Tragic” D. 417 (1816); Symphony No. 5 in B flat, D. 485 (1816) – Netherlands Chamber Orchestra / Gordan Nikolic, leader – PentaTone
Gordan Nikolic and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra play with both intensity and charm; there is the sense of live music making in the results.
JOHN IRELAND: 70th Birthday Concert 1949 – London Overture; Piano Concerto; The Forgotten Rite – Prelude; These things shall be – London Philharmonic Orchestra /Sir Adrian Boult – LPO SIR THOMAS BEECHAM = Pioneering Sound Recordings from the 1930s – LP
JOHN IRELAND: 70th Birthday Concert 1949 – A London Overture; Piano Concerto in E flat major; The Forgotten Rite – Prelude; These things shall be – Eileen Joyce, p. / London Philharmonic Orchestra /Sir Adrian Boult LPO 0041, 68:53 **** [Distr. by Harmonia mundi]: Recorded by the BBC live at the Royal Albert Hall, London on 10 September 1949 at a concert given to celebrate John Ireland’s 70th birthday, this CD is one of several released over the last few years by the LPO celebrating the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s history. Although these works are available in modern, stereo versions on Lyrita SRCD240-241 with Sir Adrian again conducting the LPO, there’s something of value here in these 70-year-old recordings. At this stage, the Royal Albert Hall had not yet had its “mushrooms” installed to diminish the very long reverberation time, but the BBC engineers did produce a quite detailed sound. “A London Overture”, the orchestral of an earlier “Comedy Overture” for brass opens proceedings with a deeply felt performance, the opening mysterious passages coming over with all the foggy excitement of a London long gone now. The “Dilly….. Piccadilly” call of the tram or trolleybus conductor interrupts with suitable perkiness. The […]
Furtwaengler en Tournee = MOZART: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550; BRAHMS: Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98 – Berlin Philharmonic/Wilhelm Furtwaengler – Tahra
Those who speculate that Brahms composed the E Minor Symphony as a response to Greek tragedies may find their advocate in this visionary reading.
Houston Person – Mellow – High Note
Mellow…but in a good way.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
