Monthly Archive: August 2013
Audio News for August 16, 2013
Bethlehem Records Relaunch; Marantz Launches Two New Hi-Fi Components; 2013 Verbier Festival Nearly Free Thru October; Elvis Presley’s Stax Sessions in Box Set; Rock Icons Rush Raise Over a Half Million for Flood Relief
Jethro Tull – Around the World Live, 4 DVDs & Book (2013)
Jethro Tull fans will go ape over this collection, if they haven’t already accumulated them from fan sites.
42: The Jackie Robinson Story, Blu-ray+DVD+UV Digital Copy (2013)
Both baseball history and its breaking of the color barrier in this Hollywood feature.
BLISS conducts BLISS = The Beatitudes; Introduction and Allegro; Suite from “Things to Come”; Pastoral: “Lie Strewn the White Flocks”; A Colour Symphony, Op. 24; March: The Phoenix – Soloists/ London Sym. Orch./ Philharmonia Orch. – Dutton (2 CDs)
An essential Bliss restoration from Dutton provides us energetic, incisive readings by the composer and his devoted interpreters in several standard and infrequent compositions.
“Stokowski, A Renaissance and Baroque Concert” = Works of BACH, VIVALDI, LULLY, CETI, FRESCOBALDI, PALESTRINA & GABRIELI – Solosts/Leopold Stokowski & His Sym. Orch. – Pristine Audio
A collection of Leopold Stokowski’s transcriptions of ‘older’ music, this Pristine reissue presents works in the glorious Stokowski Sound that purists denigrate but music-lovers applaud.
Ebony Band, “Around Prague, 1922-1937” = Works of PONC, ULLMANN, BURIAN, HABA, SCHIMMERLING – Channel Classics
Special interest to be sure, but a rewarding glimpse into a troubled era.
* SCHUBERT: Winterreise – Christoph Pregardien, tenor/ Michael Gees, p. – Challenge Classics
************* MULTICHANNEL DISC OF THE MONTH ***********
A floodgate of terrific Winterreise—what’s a person to do?
ERNEST CORDERO: Caribbean Concertos for Guitar and for Violin = Concierto Festivo; Ínsula; Concertino Tropical – Pepe Romero, guitar/ Guillermo Figueroa, v. /I Solisti di Zagreb – Naxos
This disc is a treat, with inspired compositions and performances.
John Coltrane: The Complete Sun Ship Session – Mosaic Records (3 vinyl discs)
Coltrane completists, rejoice…..
Audio News for August 13, 2013
Cut the Cord, Cont.; Classical News
“LEOPOLD GODOWSKY, Vol. 8”: Java Suite (Panoramas: Tonal Journeys for the Pianoforte); Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Johann Strauss II No. 3: Wine, Women, and Song – Konstantin Scherbakov, p. – Marco Polo
Volume 8 of the complete piano music, with standards as high as usual. Pianistically that is.
GABRIEL JACKSON: “Beyond the Stars,” Sacred Choral Works Volume II – Choir of St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh/ Duncan Ferguson/ Nicholas Wearne, organ – Delphian
Another essential disc from one of the most popular composers of the day.
RAMEAU: Gavotte with 6 Variations (Orch. by Klemperer); MOZART: Symphony No. 38 in D Major, “Prague”; SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 2 – New Philharmonia Orch./ Otto Klemperer – Testament
A powerful 1968 broadcast from the BBC archives present Otto Klemperer in grand form as he applies his especial, grand line to scores by Rameau, Mozart, and Schumann.
BRAHMS: Violin Sonatas (complete); Scherzo in c, WoO2 (“F-A-E”) – Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, v./ James Winn, p. – MSR Classics
Fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring, and complete understanding.
GABRIEL JACKSON: Requiem; In all his works; I am the voice of the wind; BOB CHILCOTT: Canon (Rosa Mystica); TAVENER: Song for Athene; FRANCIS POTT: When David heard – Carl Herring, guitar/ Vasari Singers/ Jeremy Backhouse – Naxos
A spectacularly rendered disc of some gorgeous and exceptionally moving music reflecting on loss.
BILL RYAN: “Billband” = Simples Lines; Towards Daybreak: Rapid Assembly; A Simple Place; Solitude in Transit; Friction; Sparkle; Blurred – Billband (Ashley Bathgate, cello/Vicky Chow, piano/David Cossin, percussion/Michael Lowerstein, bass clarinet/Pablo Mahave-Veglia, cello/Jonathan Nichol, saxophones/Todd Reynolds, violon)/ Paul de Jong, guest cellist – Innova
Nearly impossible to describe but quite soothing.
BACH: Sonata No. 1 in G minor; Partita No. 1 in B minor; Sonata No. 2 in A minor – Chris Thile, mandolin – Nonesuch
We knew it was coming, so was it worth the wait? You bet it was!
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 5 in D Major; Symphony No. 8 in D Minor – Hallé Orchestra/ Sir Mark Elder – Hallé
Sir Mark Elder realizes the D Major and D Minor Symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams with refined grandeur—played for pomp, breadth, and glory.
The Doobie Brothers, Live at Wolf Trap, Blu-ray (2013)
A fun live concert of The Doobie Brothers performing at Wolf Trap National Park in Virginia.
“A Folk Song Runs Through It” = JANACEK: In the Mist; BARTOK: Improviasations on Hungarian Peasant Songs; Piano Sonata; Romanian Dances; KODALY: Seven Pieces – Amdrew Rangell, p. – Steinway & Sons
Ethnic modernism provides the unity to Andew Rangell’s latest album, an exploration of Slavic folk motifs through three eminently virtuoso composers of the Twentieth Century.
Pierre Boulez and the Piano = Douze Notations; Piano Sonatas (complete); Incises; Une page d’ephemeride – Dimitri Vassilakis (piano) – Cybele
An exciting and nicely recorded version of the complete Boulez piano music.
David Weiss/Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter – Motema
Taking Wayne Shorter’s music in new directions…
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
