Monthly Archive: June 2010
RAMEAU: Pieces de clavecin en concerts; Orphee; L’impatience – Frank Kelley, tenor/ Boston Museum Trio – Centaur
A much needed addition to wonderful repertory.
Pat Metheny – Orchestrion – Nonesuch
All the sounds – percussion, piano, marimba, vibes, basses, are Metheny. But they are not digital samples – they are all acoustic mechanical instruments.
Music@Menlo Live 2009, Being Mendelssohn: Music by BACH, MOZART, MENDELSSOHN, BEETHOVEN, LIGETI, JALBERT, BRAHMS, SPOHR and SCHUMANN – 6 CD set
The Martha Argerich annual chamber music festival in Lugano has been matched in recent years punch for punch by a West Coast bunch out near Stanford.
Menahem Pressler, Vol. I = MENDELSSOHN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25; Sextet for Piano, Violin, 2 Violas, and Doublebass, Op. 110; Six Children’s Pieces, Op. 72; Variations serieuses in D Minor; Rondo Capriccioso in E Major – Doremi
Although known almost exclusively as a chamber music specialist, Pressler has enjoyed at various stages of his long career renown as a concert soloist and recitalist.
Thelonious Monk Songbook – The Composer Collection Vol. 4: Music of the Sphere – High Note
Cover or compilation albums; probably the best aknowledgement that an artist has procured a tenure or reputation in their business as being the cat’s pajamas in their field.
ERIC WHITACRE: Her Sacred Spirit Soars; A Boy and a Girl; Water Night; This Marriage; Lux aurumque; little tree; When David Heard; Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine; i thank you God for this most amazing day; Sleep; Little Birds – Naxos
An involving and worthwhile collection from a very popular choral composer.
BACH: Brandenburg Concertos (complete) – Le Concert des Nations/ Jordi Savall, conductor – AliaVox
A fine SACD remastering of a nineteen-year-old two-channel recording.
BACH-BUSONI: Ten Chorale-Preludes; Chaconne in D Minor, from BWV 1004; Organ Toccata in C Major, BWV 564 – Mordecai Shehori, piano – Cembal d’amour
Rarely has the Bach kaleidoscope been confined to and liberated by the keyboard at once.
NAJI HAKIM: Paskeblomst for Strings; Concerti Nos. 1 & 3 for Organ & Strings; Esquisses Gregoriennes – Jan Lehtola, organ/St. Michel Strings/ Petri Komulainen – Alba
Hakim, a Lebanese brought up in France, was the successor to Messiaen as organist at the Church of the Trinity in Paris.
Audio News for June 15, 2010
Marantz’s Largest Product Launch; 3D Added to Wireless Multiroom Interface; Ultra-HD Coming; 3D Video Games May Push 3D TV; TV Series on Blu-ray Popular
Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes, two pianos – Double Portrait – Blue Note
The couple married in 2007 and this is their first two-piano recording, made at a live concert last year at the 92nd Street Y in NYC.
Contact – Five on One – Pirouet
The quintet Contact unites Dave Liebman, John Abercrombie, Marc Copland, Drew Gress and Billy Hart on an exploration of focused and flowing post-bop.
Mika Marimba Madness (2010)
Haven’t heard great jazz marimba like this since hearing Red Norvo live once.
VIVALDI: Cello Concerti in A minor, RV420; in C Major, RV400; in C minor, RV401; in E Flat Major, RV408; in B minor, RV424; in D Major, RV403; in A minor RV418 – Han-Na Chang, Cello/ London Chamber Orchestra/ Christopher Warren-Green – EMI Classics
Chang displays the creative art of Vivaldi with integrity and a musical sensitivity that is hard to dismiss.
Invictus, Blu-ray (2-Disc Set) (2009)
If for no other reason, Morgan Freeman’s outstanding portrayal of Nelson Mandela is worth checking out this fine Blu-ray release.
The Moody Blues – Threshold of a Dream – Live at the Isle of Wight Festival, Blu-ray (1970/2010)
A precedent-setting concert at one of the precendent-setting rock festivals ever.
Stanley Clarke – The Stanley Clarke Band featuring Hiromi with Ruslan and Ronald Bruner Jr. – Heads Up
The jazz legend takes electric flight on new release.
Alice in Wonderland, Blu-ray 3-Disc Combo Pack (2010)
Great fun; not quite as creepily dark as most Tim Burton films.
MIKLOS ROZSA: Viola Concerto; Hungarian Serenade – Gilad Karni, viola – Budapest Concert Orchestra/ Mariusz Smolij – Naxos
A passionate, final concerto from the film composer Miklos Rozsa, whose art music deserves to be much better known.
ROY HARRIS: Symphonies 5 and 6; Acceleration – Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop – Naxos
Two wartime symphonies from an American composer whose music brilliantly expresses the’ wide open spaces’ of rural America.
Stokowski & NBC Pops = Short works of COOLEY, LAVALLE, HARRIS, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS, ZIMBALIST, GOULD, FERNANDEZ, GUARNIERI, MILHAUD & others – NBC Sym./Leopold Stokowski – Guild
Stokowski in the lighter vein, 1941-1943, the music dancing or celebrating ethnic colors.
Three Mozart concertos rendered by the legendary French virtuoso Jacques Thibaud, in restorations 1927-1947.
Three Mozart concertos rendered by the legendary French virtuoso Jacques Thibaud, in restorations 1927-1947.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
