Monthly Archive: September 2012
Salzburg Festival Opening Concert 2012, Blu-ray
We’ve come a long way to get an opening Festival concert like this.
Bucky Pizzarelli, guitar – Challis in Wonderland – with John Pizzarelli & The Dick Lieb Strings – Arbors Records
86-year-old Bucky doing his thing with Beiderbecke tunes.
Stephen Hough’s French Album = Works of BACH, FAURE, RAVEL, MASSENET, POULENC, ALKAN, DEBUSSY, DELIBES Etc. – Hyperion
Wit, style, and Gallic elegance combine for Stephen Hough’s eclectic approach to the French taste as conceived in a variety of bravura musical fashions.
Pan Am Headphone Amplifier and USB DAC
A compact and effective little DAC & headphone amp with tubes for your computer desk.
The Jazz Passengers – Reunited – Justin Time Records
Eclectic New York jazz band push the jazz boundaries.
Audio News for September 7, 2012
Sony Builds Home Automation Into AVRs; Global Consumer Electronics Market to Grow by $1100 Billion in 2012; IFA Targeted Grey Consumers; Protecting Your Electronics
Quadro Nuevo – Grand Voyage – Justin Time
This is what a world music sampler should be. Quadro Nuevo – Grand Voyage [TrackList follows] – Justin Time
Neil Young With Crazy Horse – Americana – Warner Bros./Reprise Records (double vinyl)
Neil Young takes an inspired, dark journey inside the soul of America.
ERNEST BLOCH: Schelomo; From Jewish Life; Voice in the Wilderness; MAX BRUCH: Kol Nidrei – Natalie Clein, cello/ BBC Scottish Sym. Orch./Ilan Volkov – Hyperion
Bracing performances of cello masterworks from Jewish traditions.
Best of British – Richard Rodney Bennett, piano/ Pro Arte Orch./ Studio Two Concert Orch./ Light Music Society Orch./ English Sinfonia/ Northern Sinfonia/ Choir of King's College Cambridge/ City of London Sinfonia/ George Weldon, Reginald Kilbey, Vivian Dunn, Eric Coates, Richard Hickox, Stephen Cleobury – conductors – EMI (5 CDs)
A really attractive EMI budget box perfect for those starving Anglophiles.
JOSQUIN: De beate virgine; Ave maris stella – Tallis Scholars/ Peter Phillips – Gimell
Do the Tallis Scholars ever make a bad recording?
SCHUBERT: Schwanegesang, D. 957; Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960 – Matthias Goerne, bar./ Christoph Eschenbach, p. – Harmonia mundi (2 CDs)
The sixth volume of Harmonia mundi’s Goerne Schubert series finds him once again engaging in intelligence and high musicality.
The Skinny – Dig On It – Tippin’ Records
An auspicious debut recording.
Neil Cowley Trio – The Face of Mount Molehill – Naim
Neil Cowley adds new variations and directions without losing his trademark style.
Audio News for September 4, 2012
Music Downloads for Those Without Computers; CSR Advances Smart Home Audio and Control; Stereo Hospital for Old Analog Gear
ROB MOSHER: 31 Chorales – Rob Mosher, composer & sop. sax/ Micah Killion, trumpet/ Peter Hess, bass clarinet/ Nathan Turner, tuba – Rob Mosher
Done with just enough instrumental class and compositional innocence that it sounds like a German town brought ahead in time.
Louis Cahuzac (clarinet): The Complete Danish Studio Recordings = Danacord (2 CDs)
The Danish inscriptions by French clarinet virtuoso include ravishing performances of the concertos by Mozart and Nielsen, as well as rare chamber music pieces.
Pianomania (2010/2012)
The NY Times called this film “The art of the Steinway whisperer.”
"Piffaro the Renaissance Band": Los Ministriles in the New World – Piffaro the Renaissance Band, artistic dir.: Joan Kimball and Robert Wiemken – Navona
A brilliant piece of Renaissance in the New World sort of music.
Tango Perpetuel – Take Four Guitar Quartet – Ars Musici/Membran QuarTango – El Fuego – Justin Time
A pair of tango CDs closer to the chamber music genre.
Drew Paralic – Wintertime Tunes of Drew Paralic
Turning back the clock via wintery melodies.
The Maiden’s Prayer and Other Gems from an Old Piano Stool = Philip Martin, p. – Helios
Pianist Martin exhibits a slick, fluent virtuosity in these selected salon pieces that hearken to another age, that of the 19th Century salon.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
