Monthly Archive: December 2013
Audio News for December 31, 2013
LG Improves Audio Experience in New SmartTVs; New Denon Sound Bar Speaker System; Survey Shows Increasing Consumer Demand for Smart Home Technology
DEBUSSY: Pelléas et Mélisande = Suzanne Danco/ Oda Slobodskaya/Henri-Bertrand Etcheverry/ Camille Maurane/ André Vessières/ BBC Chorus/ Philharmonia Orch./ Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht – Testament (3 CDs)
A touchstone for mid-century Pelleas performance practice, recorded in 1951.
DOUG WIESELMAN: From Water – Doug Wieselman, clarinets – 88 Records (vinyl)
Fascinating, especially for clarinetists.
TELEMANN: Double Concerti for Winds and Strings = Rebel/ Joerg Michael Schwarz – Bridge
Electric, galvanized performances of Telemann double concertos by Rebel, an ensemble that pounces on the notes, the accents, and the beat.
WAGNER: Fantasies for 8 Horns = 8 Bayreuther Festspiel-Hornisten (Gerd Seifert/ Klaus Markowski/ Jan Schroeder/ Manfred Klier/ Siegfried Machata/ Barry Garbage/ Klaus Schneider/Günter Fritzsche) – Acanta
A reissue from 1983; unusual sound of eight French horns!
DEBUSSY: 12 Etudes; Estampes; Images I & II; Hommage a Haydn – Craig Sheppard, piano – Romeo Records (2 CDs)
Craig Sheppard continues his Seattle recitals of Debussy with the colorful suites from 1903-1907, and the imposing Etudes of 1913, among the keyboard’s most demanding music.
Gozaran – Time Passing, Blu-ray (2013)
A beautiful but sad documentary on a conductor’s unsuccessful return to Iran to lead the Tehran Symphony.
MUSTO: Piano Concerto No. 1; Two Concert Rags; Piano Concerto No. 2 – John Musto, p./ Odense Sym. Orch./ Scott Yoo (Con. No. 1)/ Greeley Philharmonic Orch./ Glen Cortese – Bridge
The music of John Musto fuses an experimental, virtuoso technique with jazz elements whose “groovy fluff” may attract a coterie of devoted listeners.
’83 U.S. Festival Days 1-3 (2013)
This New Age Woodstock is an interesting, but uninspired look at the eighties.
MOZART: Complete Operas = Le nozze di Figaro; Don Giovanni; Cosí fan tutte; Die Zauberflöte – Var. soloists & orch./Otto Klemperer – Warner Classics (11 CDs)
MOZART: Complete Operas = Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492; Don Giovanni, K. 527; Cosí fan tutte, K. 588; Die Zauberflöte K. 620 – Luigi Alva/ Gabriel Bacquier/ Teresa Berganza/ Walter Berry/ Geraint Evans/ Mirella Freni/ Nicolai Ghiaurov/ Gundula Janowitz/ Christa Ludwig/ Yvonne Minton/ Lucia Popp/ Margaret Price/ Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/ Kiri Te Kanawa/ Gerhard Unger/ Claire Watson & others/ John Alldis Choir/ New Philharmonia Chorus/ New Philharmonia Orch./ Philharmonia Chorus/ Philharmonia Orch./ Otto Klemperer – Warner Classics 5099940437859 (11 CDs box), TT: 3:08:36 [3/26/13] (Distr. by Naxos] ***(**): When these four major Mozart opera recordings from Otto Klemperer and EMI trod across the classical music industry landscape 50 years ago, they cemented the period as an over the top, latter day Golden Age of artists and research and rocked the audiophile world. Musically, the four recordings were strangely cast and the conducting became slower and slower. In terms of recording quality, the sound traced EMI’s increasingly heading for a problematic sojourn in the company’s desert of Quadraphonic Sound. The first, The Magic Flute in 1964, featured an impossible cast including the great diva Elizabeth Schwarzkopf as merely one of the Three Ladies of the Night. The Philharmonia Orchestra was in […]
BRAHMS: Schicksalslied; Alto Rhapsodie; Warum ist das Licht gegeben; Begrabnisgesang; Gesang der Parzen – Ann Hallenberg, alto/ Collegium Vocale Gent/ Orch. des Champs-Elysees/ Philippe Herreweghe – PHI Records
Great choral singing and conducting, but too much period baggage in music simply not designed for it.
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong – “Ella and Louis;” “Ella and Louis Again” – Verve/ Universal Pure Audio Blu-ray
Well over an hour with two of the greatest voices ever in jazz, in the ultimate fidelity.
“Where Here Meets There” – Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica Quartet – TIKI
The third off-beat collection of “lounge music” from this genre-breaking group.
James Levine: The MET Orchestra Live at Carnegie Hall (1991) = Works of WAGNER, BEETHOVEN & SCHUBERT – The MET Orch. – DGG (2 CDs)
James Levine makes “a triumphant return” to the MET after a two-year hiatus, a concert marked by poise and musical security in all principals.
“Sergey Malov: 13 Strings, Vol. One” = BACH: 2 Suites for Solo Cello; BARTOK: Sonata for Solo Viola – Christian Euler, viola/ Paul Rivinus, p. – EaSonus USA
Two of the Bach Cello Suites transcribed for the viola.
“Music from the Court of Burgundy” = Ciaramella – Yarlung
Music of the Royal courts in Burgundy France.
Keith Jarrett, organ – Hymns; Spheres – ECM (2 CDs)
A testament to the amazing musical creativity of Keith Jarrett, no matter the keyboard instrument.
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 11 in B-flat Major; Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major; Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major – Angela Hewitt, p. – Hyperion
Angela Hewitt inscribes Volume 4 of her Beethoven cycle with the same intelligent passion and decisive clarity as mark her previous efforts.
Audio News for December 27, 2013
Too Many Pixels?; DaySequerra Re-entering High-End Audio; Classe’s First Class D Amp; AP Video Hub Bets on Raw Footage; GraceNote Added for Simple.TV Subscribers
“The Victoria Collection” = The Call of the Beloved; Devotion to Our Lady; Requiem 1605; The Mystery of the Cross – The Sixteen/ Harry Christophers – Coro (1 SACD+3 CDs)
Once again Coro has grouped some outstanding discs together and reduced the price—and a nice price at that.
The Lone Ranger, Blu-ray (2013)
An epic-looking film with a weak script but reference sound and video.
BEETHOVEN: “Beethoven/Liszt” = Symphonies Nos. 7 & 1 (arr. for piano by Liszt) – Yury Martynov, Érard piano 1837 – Zig-Zag Records
An excellent piano version of two Beethoven symphonies, with an appropriate piano from Liszt’s time.
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
