Monthly Archive: May 2014
Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Boy Named Charlie Brown – Fantasy Records/ Concord Music
A terrific bit of jazzy music for animation which stands well on its own.
PIERNE: Piano Quintet in E Minor; VIERNE: String Quartet in D Minor – Piers Lane, piano/ Goldner String Q. – Hyperion
Late French Romantics Pierne and Vierne in their chamber music idiom; only the Pierne compels our sustained interest despite exemplary performances.
Vijay Iyer – Mutations [TrackList follows] – ECM
Pianist Vijay Iyer implements an ambient, explorative concentration on his latest work.
Sonny Rollins – Road Shows, Vol. 3 – Doxy/OKeh
Traveling with Sonny…
Phoebe Snow – S/T – Capitol Records/Analogue Productions
Phoebe Snow’s first album in pristine SACD stereo acoustics…
PJ Rasmussen – Another Adventure [TrackList follows] – Third Freedom Music
A jazz journey which jumps or glides but never jostles or jolts.
A Tribute to Erling Bloendal Bengtsson, Vol. 3 = KABALEVSKY: Cello Concerto No. 1; MENDELSSOHN: Cello Sonata No. 2; JOLIVET: Suite en concert pour violoncello – Erling Bloendal Bengtsson, cello/ Anker Blyme, piano/ Iceland Sym. Orch. / Jean-Pierre Jacquillat – Danacord
From Icelandic Radio tapes issued for the first time, we have more evidence of the broad range and sterling musicianship of cello wizard Erling Bloendal Bengtsson.
Eric Alexander – Chicago Fire – High Note
Keeping the flame lit…
Some great jazz from a B-3 quartet.
Mike LeDonne – I Love Music – Savant Recordings SCD 2135, 53:38 [5/11/14] ****1/2: (Mike Ledonne – B-3 organ; Eric Alexander – tenor saxophone; Peter Bernstein – guitar; Joe Farnsworth – drums) Like many jazz organists, Mike Ledonne started out on piano. Growing up around the family music store where his father Micki played jazz […]
Audio News for May 13, 2014
Daniel Barenboim Launches New Download-Only Label; CEA Study reveals Smartphone Ownership Surpasses Basic Cell Phones; New Mark Levinson Integrated Amp at Munich High End Show; Sony Formally Releases UHD TV Pricing
Howard McGhee – West Coast 1945-1947 [TrackList follows] – Uptown Records
Howard McGhee was an appealing, fervent, and bracing trumpeter all of which is shown on these sessions.
J.S. BACH: Brandenburg Concertos (6) [TrackList follows] – Freiburger Barockorchester – Harmonia mundi (2 CDs)
The musicianship on this recording is of the very highest order, and every second was an absolute delight to experience.
BARTOK: Ferenc Fricsay Conducts the Masterpieces of Bartok – Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, 25 May, 1952 – Reconstitution of the Concerto – Praga Digitals
This new release from Praga Digitals is another in the Reminiscences series of archival recordings re-mastered with the latest technology.
Dave Stryker – Eight Track – Strikezone
Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday all rolled into one soulful salute to the seventies.
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 1 in C Major; Symphony No. 3, (Eroica) – Philharmonic-Sym. of New York/ Willem Mengelberg – Pristine Audio
Historic 1930 readings of Beethoven from New York grant an epic breadth to scores Mengelberg leads in the grand Romantic tradition.
LARCHER: Smart Dust; Poems; What Becomes; A Padmore Cycle – Tamara Stefanovich, piano/ Mark Padmore, tenor/ Thomas Larcher, p, – Harmonia mundi
Interesting stuff for the curious and adventurous, well-crafted for the most part and done with panache.
BRAHMS: Viola Sonatas, in f; in E-flat; Trio in a – Geraldine Walther, viola/ David Korevaar, p./ Andras Fejer, cello – MSR Classics
These are great recordings, and if you don’t own them in this form, you are now required to acquire them!
The Art of Melancholy – Songs by JOHN DOWLAND – Iestyn Davies, countertenor/ Thomas Dunford, lute – Hyperion
A marvelous collection that works well thematically, but you really have to like the countertenor voice to be fully immersed.
MARIE NELSON BENNETT: Orpheus Lex (complete opera) – David Arnold (Orpheus), bar./ Wendy Baker (Eurydice) / Nathan Bahny, narrator/ New Your Virtuoso Singers/ The Artemis Ch. Ens./ Harold Rosenbaum – Ravello
Orpheus in Idaho? The universality remains.
RACHMANINOV: Songs – Evelina Dobraceva & Ekaterina Siurina, sop./ Justina Gringyte, mezzo-sop./ Daniil Shtoda, tenor/ Andrei Bondarenko, bar./ Rodion Pogossov, bar./ Alexander Vinogradov, bass/ Iain Burnside, p. 8 – Delphian (3 CDs)
A gorgeous collection of nearly all of the composer’s songs rendered with clarity and fervent beauty.
Fantasies = SCHUMANN: Fantasie in C Major; BRUCKNER: Fantasie in G Major; ZEMLINSKY: Fantasien ueber Gedichte von Richard Dehmel; BRAHMS: Fantasien – Stanislav Khristenko, p. – Steinway & Sons
This “Fantasies” collection confirms Khristenko’s status as a firebrand Romantic pianist of the first order.
COPLAND: Short Portrait – Orchestral and solo bar. works including Piano Concerto; El Salon Mexico; Appalachian Spring; Old American Songs – Stereo-only SACD Praga Digitals
Well-recorded and performed gems from the archive from Praga Digitals.