Monthly Archive: July 2016
TAVERNER: Dum transisset; Dum transisset Sabbatum II; Missa Corona Spinea – The Tallis Scholars/ Peter Phillips – Gimell
An astoundingly innovative and virtuoso setting of the mass. TAVERNER: Dum transisset Sabbatum I; Dum transisset Sabbatum II; Missa Corona Spinea – The Tallis Scholars/ Peter Phillips – Gimell CDGIM 046, 62:07 [Distr. by Harmonia mundi] ****: Written for the new Cardinal College at Oxford, and probably premiered before Henry VIII himself, Taverner’s Missa Corona spinea is one of the greatest of all Renaissance choral pieces, often sounding like a concerto for treble voices. Taverner extended the range to amazingly high voices, and the two sopranos that tackle the piece for Peter Phillips are sumptuous and marvelously adept at their art. The sonorities that Taverner achieves are nothing less than thrilling, and the high wire act that stretches to B-flats for a long period of time are unlike anything you will ever hear in this most prodigious and creative of periods. The accompanying Dum transisset Sabbatum I & II, while worthy in and of themselves and make for decent filler, in no way compare to the mass setting. No matter, as these performances have to be ranked among the best in the catalog, another star in the Tallis firmament. —Steven Ritter
Audio News for July 12, 2016
Home Theater Turned Into Star Trek: The Next Generation – Over $1.5 million later, financier Marc Bell has turned sci-fi into reality in his home in Boca Raton FL. The home theater is patterned after the bridge on the USS Enterprise, the spaceship featured on the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series that ran from 1987 to 1994. Everything in the room is custom, down to the little architectural details. A wraparound control center (often manned by Worf on the series) has a touch-screen control panel that manages everything from the theater lighting to what’s shown on the hi-def projector. The ceiling is lit by a “starfield” – hundreds of fiber-optic lights that twinkle at different frequencies depending on how far away they are. Bell’s collection of Star Trek memorabilia includes the ears worn by the Spock character, and there is a reference to Captain Picard’s office in the series – the “ready room.” Panasonic Australia Integrates Hardware Optimisation and Cost Efficiency in One System – The new Video Insight Management Software (VMS) is a video management security solution which can integrate multiple devices across a network. It supports more than 3000 camera models from 100 manufacturers and integrates […]
Adam Meckler Quintet – Wander – Shifting Paradigm
Trumpeter Adam Meckler is on the move. Adam Meckler Quintet – Wander [TrackList follows] – Shifting Paradigm 78:54 [4/23/16] ****: (Adam Meckler – trumpet, Flugelhorn, producer; Nelson Devereaux – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone (tracks 2-9); Joe Mayo – tenor saxophone (track 1); Zacc Harris – guitar; Graydon Peterson – bass; Greg Schutte – drums) Adam Meckler is among a handful of jazz artists who are helping put Minneapolis on the map as a jazz/improv scene worth a road trip. Meckler’s nine originals on his sophomore album, Wander, follow a progressive, explorative route and are peppered by elements from RnB, pop, indie rock and more. Groove is paramount on many cuts, as is impeccable melodicism, underlying lyricism, and rhythms which seem straightforward but often are not. Meckler (who also uses flugelhorn on some tracks) is joined by other Twin City jazz players. Nelson Devereaux is on tenor sax and soprano sax; the rhythm section comprises drummer Greg Schutte and bassist Graydon Peterson; Zacc Harris is on guitar; and tenor saxophonist Joe Mayo guests on the opening number. Movement—going from destination to destination—is the CD’s clearest aesthetic connection. Meckler states, “I’ve spent a lot of time on the road over the last […]
Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant – Reprise (1967)/ Pure Pleasure vinyl
Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant – Reprise (1967)/ Pure Pleasure PPAN RS-6267 (2016) stereo vinyl, 34:36 ****1/2: This is a great re-mastering of an iconic sixties folk album. (Arlo Guthrie – guitar, organ, piano, percussion, harmonica, vocals) Arlo Guthrie is an icon of modern protest folk music. The son of Woody Guthrie, he personally knew a variety of blues and folk artists including Leadbelly and Pete Seeger. He was able to carve out a successful career as a folk artist and performer. His breakthrough came in 1967 with the release of Alice’s Restaurant in 1967. Guthrie became a star at Woodstock (“…hey man, the New York Thruway is closed…”) and later had a hit with Steve Goodman’s “City Of New Orleans”. He was a versatile musician and played over twenty instruments. His erstwhile tenor voice and amiable persona resulted in a long recording timeline, albeit with limited commercial success. Pure Pleasure Records has re-mastered Alice’s Restaurant to 180-gram vinyl. Of course the signature track is “Alice’s Restaurant Massacre (pronounced “mass-ah-cree”). Clocking it at 18:34 it represents the entire Side A. Told in the first person, the jaunty talking blues/folk number is accompanied by Piedmont or ragtime-style guitar. Guthrie relates the […]
Rocco John Quartet – Embrace the Change – Unseen Rain
New York City quartet which promotes changes, all sorts of changes. Rocco John Quartet – Embrace the Change [TrackList follows] – Unseen Rain UR-9947, 67:49 [5/6/16] ****: (Rocco John Iacovone – alto and soprano saxophone; Rich Rosenthal – guitar; François Grillot – double bass; Tom Cabrera – drums) Alto and soprano saxophonist Rocco John Iacovone and his quartet make accessible avant-garde and free jazz; or rather the musicians produce free-ranging material that is challenging but which is not too demanding to enjoy. There is an engaging openness to the eight lengthy tracks on this 68-minute release, Embrace the Change. There’s a continual development throughout Iacovone’s originals, a sense that listeners might not know where they’re going to next, but will appreciate the shifts and curves along the way. Rocco John (he shortens his name for his album projects) explains the underlying concept for his latest recording, “Embrace the change is a thought, an idea, and a philosophy. It’s a comment on our evolution as human beings. It seems the only constant we experience is change and we constantly need to learn how to deal with it. To do this, we have to dig deep. These were the thoughts behind the […]
Dementia 13, Blu-ray (1963/2016)
Restoration of the first film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Dementia 13, Blu-ray (1963/2016) Director & Writer: Francis Ford Coppola Cast: William Campbell, Luana Anders, Bart Patton Studio: Roger Corman/ The Film Detective FD0 561 [7/26/16] Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 screens, B&W Audio: English mono PCM Subtitles: None Length: 75 min. Ratings: Audio *** Video ***** Was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppolla and produced by Roger Corman. A scheming wife covers up her husband’s death (from a heart attack) and tries to get herself written into her mother-in-law’s will. Her main concern is that she only inherents part of the family fortune if her husband is still alive. The entire family lives in an old Irish castle, where there seems to be a resident ghost, not to mention a crazed axe-murderer. It was originally shot in 3D but probably not distributed that way. The strange Halorans family still holds an annual ritualistic ceremony observing the freak drowning accident of her young daughter Kathleen. Louise devises a plan to convince the mother that her daughter is trying to communicate from beyond the grave. She begins to place the child’s toys under the water but is then axed […]
HANDEL: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Blu-ray (2016) – Decca
This fascinating long opera is worth seeing at least twice. HANDEL: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Blu-ray (2016) Cast: Andreas Scholl, Cecilia Bartoli, Anne Sofie von Otter, Philippe Jaroussky Director: Olivier Simonnet Studio: Decca [5/20/16] Video: 1.77:1 Color, for 16:9 screens Audio: DTS-HD 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles: English, German, French Length: 242 minutes Ratings: Audio: ***** Video: **** ½ If you want to pick a baroque opera with which to spend four hours, you probably couldn’t do much better than Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto. It’s got recognizable historical characters, stirring arias, lots of blood & thunder & sex, and at least twenty awful predicaments. The ingredients are here for a diverting evening’s entertainment. It wasn’t always that way. In the bel-canto-obsessed sixties it was consigned to “concert opera” status. (“Just stand and sing, don’t bother acting.”) The masters of culture could not divine its dramatic potential. But then, they also foisted Fabian and Connie Francis on us and we didn’t notice. Happily, productions like 2012’s Salzburg Whitsun Festival took it on and did a decent job with it. For the most part. Of course, the big plus here is Cecilia Bartoli as Cleopatra. She’s already been a queen for over […]
American Friends (1993)
American Friends (1993) Cast: Michael Palin, Alfred Molina Director: Tristram Powell Producers: Patrick Cassavetti and Steve Abbott Screenplay: Michael Palin Studio: MGM (2/16/16) Video: for 16:9 screens Audio: PCM Stereo Language: English, no subtitles All regions Length: 96:00 Rating: ***1/2 “And now, for something completely different.” I couldn’t resist the analogy. It is doubtful that Michael Palin (and John Cleese, et al) will ever shake off their renown from the iconic British comedy from the 1970s, Monty Python’s Flying Circus; and nor should they, brilliant as it was. This very soft, quiet and lightly amusing story, written by and starring Michael Palin, is one of the few times he has gone out and tried to do some largely ‘serious’ acting. For the most part, it succeeds, on the strength of Palin’s measured but quirky performance as a buttoned up college professor. Palin is the Reverend Francis Ashby, a fairly stodgy professor at St. John’s College Oxford, who goes off on a walking holiday in Switzerland. While high up in the Swiss Alps, Ashby comes across two American women: Caroline Hartley and her beautiful eighteen-year-old ward, Elinor. He begins to find the company of the women a welcome change from […]
MENDELSSOHN: Elijah – Soloists/ RIAS Kammerchor / Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin/ Hans‐Christoph Rademann – Accentus
MENDELSSOHN: Elijah, Op. 70 – Marlis Petersen (sop.) / Lioba Braun (mezzo) / Maximilian Schmitt (tenor) / Thomas Oliemans (bari.)/RIAS Kammerchor / Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/ Hans‐Christoph Rademann – Accentus ACC30356 (2 CDs); TT 1h, 25m (3/25/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****1/2: Recorded live, Rademann’s Elijah is long on drama, managing to downplay the sentimental elements of this flawed masterpiece. It’s easy to forget that Felix Mendelssohn wrote operas. Two of them, Der Oncle von Boston and Die Heimkehr aus die Fremde, were written for private performance only and the one opera which Mendelssohn wrote for public performance, Die Hochzeit des Comacho, was treated so dismissively by the critics that he decided to foreswear opera composition altogether. This, at the ripe old age of eighteen. Well, he didn’t turn his back entirely on opera, considering German mythology and even Shakespeare’s The Tempest as possible subjects, but he never committed to any project leaving only sketches. However, following the model of one of his musical heroes, Handel, Mendelssohn created in Elijah an oratorio that is fully operatic in its more dramatic passages. Like Handel’s Saul and Belshazzar, Elijah contains a series of dramatic scena that have managed to win it a […]
SHOSTAKOVICH: The Two Violin Sonatas & Rare Chamber Works – Sasha Rozhdestvensky, v., /Jeremy Menuhin & Mookie Lee-Menuhin p./ Ilona Domnich, sop./ Alexandra Sherman, mezzo – First Hand
Outlasting the unfinished: Shostakovich’s First Sonata for Violin and Piano (1945) with rarely heard chamber arrangements. SHOSTAKOVICH: The Two Violin Sonatas & Rare Chamber Works – Sasha Rozhdestvensky, v., /Jeremy Menuhin & Mookie Lee-Menuhin p./ Ilona Domnich, sop./ Alexandra Sherman, mezzo – First Hand CD 37, K&A Productions, 69:46 (1/1/16) ****: Newly-discovered works from beloved composers are rare. Artists have the opportunity to approach them with unique lucidity, unhindered by recordings and editions. Convincing listeners that the works are of lasting value, however, can be challenging. The FHR release featuring Shostakovich’s Unfinished Violin Sonata is up to the task. All works on the album are performed exquisitely. The unfinished sonata reveals Shostakovich at his most expressive: searching melody juxtaposed with driving rhythm. To accept it as cohesive, the work must be programmed in a way that helps suspend belief in the need for expected structure and length (think Ives’ art songs). Instead of the unfinished following the complete sonata, as heard on the recording, a better choice would be to open with the unfinished and end with the complete. The unfinished deserves an attempt at unaffected listening. Surprisingly, in a situation of parallel universe recording releases, the FHR was not […]
DVORAK: Sym. No. 9; MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition – Bavarian Radio Sym. /Mariss Jansons, Blu-ray (2016)
DVORAK: Symphony No. 9; MUSSORGSKY: Pictures at an Exhibition – Bavarian Radio Sym. Orch. /Mariss Jansons Studio: Belvedere [4/1/16] (Distr. by Naxos) Video: HD 1.77:1 for 16:9 screens, color Audio: DTS-HD 5.0, PCM Stereo Region Region free. (note: Amazon lists this as Region B, but the disc is region free) Length: 83 minutes Audio: **** Video **** A fine performance and first class recording of two popular works. B01BMPJ4DA This nicely-produced Blu-ray disc features two popular classical warhorses played enthusiastically by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons. On offer are the Symphony No. 9 by Dvorak, his ‘New World’ symphony, and the always popular Pictures at an Exhibition, which started life as a piano piece by Mussorgsky but found its greatest fame with Ravel’s brilliant transcription for orchestra. Jansons has always been popular popular on the international music scene, but after a heart attack on stage in 1996, he cut back his performances, and then resumed them again. This concert is from 2014. Jansons was one of the finest conductors to emerge from the former Soviet Union in the last quarter of the 20th century. Jansons was born while Riga was under military occupation by the Germans, who seized […]
“New World Serenade” – BYRON ADAMS: Serenade; OLIVER CAPLAN: Lunastella Fuga; JOHN CORIGLIANO: Snapshot: Circa 1909; PISTON: Divertimento; ZWILICH: Prologue and Variations – Sinfonietta of Riverdale/ Mark Mandarano – Albany
“New World Serenade” – BYRON ADAMS: Serenade for Nine Instruments; OLIVER CAPLAN: Lunastella Fuga; JOHN CORIGLIANO: Snapshot: Circa 1909; WALTER PISTON: Divertimento for Nine Instruments; ELLEN TAAFFE ZWILICH: Prologue and Variations – Sinfonietta of Riverdale/ Mark Mandarano – Albany RR7904, 62:52 (4/01/16) ****: Very diverse and rewarding collection of works for chamber orchestra. The Sinfonietta of Riverdale is a very fine chamber orchestra under the direction of the young talented Mark Mandarano. They are based in New York and perform at the Riverdale Temple. This is apparently their first recording and CD release and is quite rewarding! The director, Mark Mandarano seems like a very interesting and well-prepared conductor, having held positions with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Westchester Philharmonic and the Bard Festival. Mark has trained with several of the most important people out there including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Roger Norrington, Valery Gergiev, Paul Dunkel, Leon Botstein, Carl St. Clair, Osmo Vänskä and Leonard Slatkin. Mandarano is also the Director of Instrumental Music at Macalaster College. I think, in many ways, this CD is about Riverdale and Mandarano. The music, itself, is quite rewarding and fairly […]
“Whispers Of Titans” – GORECKI: Genesis I: Elementi, Op. 19 KORNDORF: In Honour of Alfred Schnittke; String trio (1986) – Goeyvaerts String Trio – Challenge Classics
“Whispers Of Titans” – GORECKI: Genesis I: Elementi, Op. 19 KORNDORF: In Honour of Alfred Schnittke (AGSCH); String trio for violin, viola and violoncello (1986) – Goeyvaerts String Trio – Challenge Classics SACD multichannel CC72713 (5/6/16) [Distr. by Allegro] ****: Contemporary string music which will thrill adventurous listeners. The Challenge Classics label is well named, because both these works are challenging contemporary music. Henryk Gorecki was a renowned composer, dying in 2010. His most famous work is his Symphony No. 3, which sold a million copies on CD. On this disc, we get his string trio Genesis I: Elementi. It’s a dynamic work, and very difficult to play, although the performance here by the Goeyyaerts String Trio is flawless – impressive given the complexity of the music. The disc also features Korndork’s String Trio for Violin, viola and violoncello, written in 1986. Korndorf’s compositions are divided into two distinct styles. An early modernest approach, and later music which features explorations of tonality. This work falls into the latter period. It seems a more introverted work, and it’s highly emotional and expressive. The disc is surely benefitted by the SACD format. Especially during the Gorecki, the strings surround the listener and […]
Audio News for July 8, 2016
Six of the Most Inspired Single Notes in Classical Music Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Notebook to Have Iris Scanner – Samsung’s new Note 7 (due for release August 2) will have both a fingerprint reader and an amazing new security feature – an iris scanner. All you have to do is look at the smartphone, no button-punching is required to lock or unlock your phone. It will have 64GB of internal storage and should deliver over 20 hours of video on one battery charge. Amazon Beats Wal-Mart in Consumer Electronics – Best Buy May Be Next – Despite its already gargantuan size and the market share it has gained over the past few years last year it was able to accelerate that growth to the point where it now commands a 17% share. It’s clear that Amazon will become No. 1 sooner instead of later. Only a bit more than a third of the top 25 CE retailers saw higher sales last year. Everyone else suffered falling sales. It is hoped that use of Best Buy’s Geek Squad service and repair division might somehow offset Amazon’s low pricing, but services only represent 4% of the total revenue of Best Buy. […]
HÄNDEL: “Concerti” (mostly organ concerti) – Holger Gehring, cond. & organist – querstand
“GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL: Concerti” = Overture to the Oratorio “Deborah” HWV 51; Organ Concerto Op. 4, No. 5, in F Major HWV 293; Organ Concerto Op. 4, No. 2, in B Major HWV 290; Organ Concerto Op. 7, No. 5, in G Minor HWV 310; Organ Concerto Op. 7, No. 3, in B Major HWV 308, “Hallelujah Concerto” – Barockorchester der Kreuzkirche, Dresden / Holger Gehring, cond. and organ – querstand VKJK 1522, 64:26 (3/4/16) (Dist. by Naxos) ****: What do you know? Dogged scholarship in the service of musical truth offers a breath of fresh air in these oft-recorded works. This recording is a labor of scholarly love that pays dividends in the finished product, mostly because it doesn’t betray the scholarship behind the music-making. Clearly, Kreuzorganist Holger Gehring has lived with and studied Handel’s music for quite some time, and his studies have led him to base tempi and other interpretive matters on rather surprising sources. But more about that later. First, a bit of historical background, some of which is provided by Gehring himself in his intriguing notes to this recording. If you’re a Handel maven as I am, you’re perhaps familiar with at least parts of […]
“Apasionado” – Works of SARASOTA, BIZET, RAVEL, WAXMAN = Ning Feng, violin/ Orq. Sinfonia – Channel Classics
“Apasionado” – SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20; LALO: Symphonie Espagnole in D Major, Op. 21; SARASATE: Romanza Andaluza, Op. 22; RAVEL: Tzigane; BIZET/WAXMAN: Carmen Fantasy – Ning Feng, violin / Orquestra Sinfónica del Principado del Asturias / Rossen Milanov – Channel Classics CCS 37916, 72:07 (4/1/16) ****: Apasionado or purely virtuoso, these works deliver violinistic fireworks by the carload. So far in his recording career, Chinese violinist Ning Feng has tackled only a couple of the warhorses of the violin repertoire, namely the Bruch and Tchaikovsky concertos. With the current recording, he adds a once-popular concerto to his catalog. As the name of Édouard Lalo’s work implies, it combines elements of concerto, symphony, and symphonic suite in a unique manner. With its Spanish flavor, colorful orchestration, and varied emotional palette, it should still be a crowd pleaser but is heard rarely in the concert hall these days—and rarely recorded. In fact, except for remastered recordings by violinists past such as Isaac Stern, this seems to be the only SACD version currently available. It’s a very recommendable version, too, one that captures the wide-ranging landscape of the piece, from the fiery opening through the operatic drama of the Andante to the ebullience […]
Maya Beiser, cello – “Transclassical” = Works of BACH, REED, WOLFE, HILDEGARD VON BINGEN & Others – Innova
Maya Beiser, “Transclassical” = J.S. BACH: Air; MICHAEL GORDON: All Vows; IMOGEN HEAP: Hide and Seek; GLENN KOTCHE: Three Parts Wisdom; LOU REED: Heroin; JULIA WOLFE: Emunah; MOHAMMED FAIROUZ: Kol Nidrei; DAVID T. LITTLE: Hellhound; HILDEGARD von BINGEN: O Virtus Sapientae – Maya Beiser, cello, vocal, electronics – Innova 952 [Distr. by Naxos], 65:41, (6/29/16) ****: Marvelous cello playing in some amazing new solo rep. Press releases have referred to Maya Beiser as the “reigning queen of avant-garde cello.” That is probably so but this album proves definitively that not everything she plays is what most people would consider “avant-garde” and that she is, more properly, one of the world’s great young cellists in any genre right now. All the music here is for solo cello, sometimes with vocalizations and electronics added; all done by Maya Beiser herself. The two ‘bookend’ works in this collection; the Bach and the Hildegard von Bingen, are familiar melodies played beautifully and feel fresh in this solo cello format. The real star here are the new works for solo cello written for Beiser or arranged by her. However, the clever catch to the Bach is that Beiser plays this iconic work through some electronics […]
Mike Murley Trio – Ship Without A Sail – Cornerstone
Mike Murley Trio – Ship Without A Sail – Cornerstone CRST CD 145, 52:15 ****: A sprightly and imaginative trio session. (Mike Murley – tenor saxophone; Reg Schwager – guitar; Steve Wallace – bass) The Mike Murley Trio is the complete opposite to the title of their most recent release Ship Without A Sail. They are a musical vessel sailing to a destination with which they are very familiar, thus avoiding the shoals and rocks of uncharted waters. The result is a voyage worth the journey. The musical interdependence that this group has created in their approach to the material, has resulted in an instrumental harmony that’s evident from the first bars of “In Love In Vain”. Murley’s tenor sax takes command as he runs through the melody in full-throated form. The comping by guitarist Schwager and bassist Wallace push him along in lightly swinging mode. In 1929 Rodgers and Hart wrote “A Ship Without A Sail” for the musical Heads Up. The number was not considered one of this duo’s most popular tunes and is an interesting choice of the band for the title track, which for some unexplained reason they decided to forgo the letter A in the […]
The Rolling Stones – Totally Stripped, Blu-ray + CD (2016)
The Stones are still at it and as good as ever. The Rolling Stones – Totally Stripped, Blu-ray + CD (2016) Cast: Mick Jagger – vocals, guitar; Keith Richards – guitar, vocals; Charlie Watts – drums; Ronnie Wood – guitar, vocals; Darryl Jones – bass; Lisa Fischer – backing vocals; Bernard Fowler – backing vocals; Chuck Leavell – keyboards; Bobby Keys – saxophone; Andy Snitzer – saxophone; Kent Smith – trumpet; Michael Davis – trombone Studio: Eagle Rock Ent./Universal Musical Group EVSBD30976 Video: 16:9 for 1080i HD, Color, Black & White Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio, PCM 2.0 Length: 91 minutes Ratings: Audio: **** Video: ***1/2 Overall: **** TrackList: CD: Not Fade Away (Amsterdam);Honky Tonk Women (Paris); Faraway Eyes (London); Shine A Light (Amsterdam);I Go Wild (Paris); Miss You London;’ Like A Rolling Stone’ ; Brown Sugar (Paris); Midnight Rambler (London); Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Paris); Gimme Shelter (Amsterdam); Rip This Joint (Amsterdam); Street Fighting Man; Rip This Joint (Amsterdam) Blu-ray: Love In Vain; Spider To The Fly; Wild Horses; Let It Bleed; Tumbling Dice; Not Fade Away; Dead Flowers; Gimme Shelter; You Got Me Rocking; Jumpin’ Jack Flash; Shine A Light; I Can’t Get Next To You; Honky […]
MOZART: Serenade in B flat major, “Gran Partita”; HAYDN: Notturno No. 8 – Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ens./ Trevor Pinnock – Linn
MOZART: Serenade in B flat major, K. 361, “Gran Partita”; HAYDN Notturno No. 8 in G major – Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble/ Trevor Pinnock – Linn multichannel SACD CKD516, 60 mins. (4/8/16) (Distr. by Naxos) *****: A fine hi-res surround recording of the Mozart Gran Partita, on modern instruments. The collaboration between Trevor Pinnock and the modern-instrument Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble proves to be mutually beneficial. He inspires 20 professionals of tomorrow – and many already of today – to explore and flesh out their historically-informed stylistic instincts under the guidance of an iconic expert in the music he loves best. In return for his authority and experience, they give him a warmth in their virtuosity that amounts in Mozart’s very seductive Serenade, to sex appeal. That this is also the first time Pinnock, who has recorded a lot of Mozart, has recorded the big Serenade, makes it feel like the recording was close to his heart; it must have been particularly gratifying to have the opportunity to record with students whose own artistic profiles he had helped develop in the context of their historical research. Whether they played original instruments or not. The fact they they […]
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in A minor – Amit Peled, cello/ Washington Ch. Orch./ Jun Kim – Centaur
SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 – Amit Peled, cello Washington Ch. Orch./ Jun Kim – Centaur CRC 3476, 25:35 (Distr. by Naxos) (11/13/15) ****: The soloist plays here the same cello previously owned by Pablo Casals, and heard here in its first recording. One of the highlights of this year’s Montréal’s Chamber Music Festival took place on June 16 when the the six foot, five inch cellist Amit Peled, playing for the first time in Canada on Pablo Casals’ legendary, drop-dead gorgeous Matteo Goffriller from 1733, performed a short set of cello pieces with pianist Alon Goldstein, mesmerizing the large Pollack Hall audience with his generous presence, effortless virtuosity, consummate poetry and the trademark eloquent, plaintive and deeply communicative sound of his famous instrument. A lot of the communication was coming from Peled himself. The Goffriller cello looked in Peled’s hands as if it were a violin with a ten-foot endpin; in reality, of course, both the cello and the fully-extended endpin were of conventional size (Casals’ own endpin, still on when Peled took custodianship in 2012, was a stubby wooden affair). Peled will release his first solo recital CD on the Casals cello in the fall, repeating […]
CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 3; Mazurka Nos. 36, 37 & 38; Nocturne No. 4; Scherzo No. 3; Polonaise No. 6 “Heroic” – Martha Argerich, p. – Parlophone/ Warner Classics
A magnificent format for an amazing piano performer. CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 3; Mazurka Nos. 36, 37 & 38; Nocturne No. 4; Scherzo No. 3; Polonaise No. 6 “Heroic” – Martha Argerich, piano – Parlophone/ Warner Classics 0825646372867 stereo vinyl (6/3/16) *****: This is the first release on LP, the format for which the recording session was originally aimed. It became available on CD in 1999, but this legendary 1965 recording for first time makes it possible to enjoy a more natural piano sound, and none of the usual technical difficulties of pressing vinyl albums seem to affect this one. There is not a single instance of pops or ticks (and I was listening on Grado headphones), not is there any noticeable diminution of the high end as the grooves approach the center label on each side. And no rumble whatsoever. The liner notes concerning how taken aback producer Suvi Raj Grubb was the first time he heard Argerich are fascinating. He felt she “was quite the most formidable player we had ever come across.” This is a performance of the Chopin Piano Sonata that leaves even Horowitz in the lurch. The technical level of the whole thing, and especially […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
