Monthly Archive: November 2016
Audio News for November 15, 2016
Battle Between Amazon Echo and Google Home Device – The artificial intelligence home platform is the place where the two gadgets are duking it out. The Echo ($179) is larger but the two sound similar, but both are only mono unless you plug them into a stereo system. The Google Home is $129 and looks like a solid deodorizer. Both have female voices to speak to. They can give you news, check your daily schedule, play games, tell corny jokes, play music, answer questions and control certain home devices. The Google device works best with Android smart phones, and you have to have a home Wi-Fi system. The Echo can only play millions of ad-free tunes if you belong to the $99-a-year Amazon Prime. If you have two Google Homes, you can sync the music so it plays thruout your home. HTC Bolt Multimedia Smartphone Introduced – It uses the Sprint LTE network and can reach up to 450 Mbps download speed. It has capabilities for hi-res audio (with a 24-bit DAC) and UHD video, a 5.5-inch Gorilla Glass 5 display and comes with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It is also water resistant and allows for a […]
JENKINS: Cantata Memoria – For the Children – Bryn Terfel, bass-bar./ Elin Manahan Thomas, sop./ Cywair and CF1 Chorus/ Sinfonia Cymru/ Karl Jenkins – DGG
JENKINS: Cantata Memoria – For the Children (In Memory of Aberfan 1966) Bryn Terfel, bass-bar./ Elin Manahan Thomas, sop./ Cywair and CF1 Chorus/ Sinfonia Cymru/ Karl Jenkins – DGG 4796486, 56:00 (10/7/16) ****: A magnificent cantata that will leave the listener moved. This piece was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the disaster on October 21,1966 when a coal spoil tip enveloped a school and houses in the South Wales village of Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults. Cantata Memoria bears the subtitle For the Children and, as well as remembering the tragic Welsh catastrophe and its aftermath, mourns the loss of children in universal terms, as witnessed in the Dunblane shooting (1996), the Beslan school siege (2004), the Korean ferry disaster (2014) and the Peshawar School massacre (2014). Cantata Memoria is scored for chorus – both mixed and young voices, baritone and soprano vocalists, orchestra with prominent solos for violin, euphonium and harp, and sets a libretto by poet Mererid Hopwood. The work is sung in English, Welsh and Latin. This is a magnificent and moving work. Beautiful, yet horrific in its rendering of this tragedy. The soloists, orchestra, and the conducting by Jenkins are all first rate. If you […]
MOZART: Da Ponte Operas, Blu-Ray (2016)
MOZART: Da Ponte Operas, Blu-Ray (2016) The great writer/rogue/adventurer Da Ponte deserves far better than this middling set. (Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cosi fan tutte) Performers: Chorus & Orch. of the Zurich Opera House/ Juergen Flimm (Director), Soloists: Rodney Gilfrey, Cecilia Bartoli, Liliana Nikiteanu, Agnes Balta, et al. – Nikolaus Harnoncourt; Chorus Master: Ernst Raffeksberger/ Studio: Arthaus Musik [7/29/16] [Dist. by Naxos] Length: 598 minutes Video: for 16:9 screens, color Audio: DTS-HD 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles: English, German, French Ratings: Audio: ***¼ Video: *** I had great hopes for this set. Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749–1838) wrote the librettos for three of Mozart’s greatest operas and his lines sparkle, amuse, and sting, unlike any librettist before or since. You can read all about his colorful life in his Memoirs (New York Review of Books, 2000). Oddly, he doesn’t spend much time describing his work with Mozart; he treats their collaboration as if it were just another gig, like the hack work he did for Antonio Salieri. Arthaus Musik has collected the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s versions of these on three Blu-ray discs. The operas, recorded about twenty years ago at the Zurich Opera House – Le Nozze de Figaro […]
R. STRAUSS: Suite from Elektra; Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (arr. Rodzinski) – Pittsburgh SO/ Manfred Honeck – Reference Recordings/ Fresh!
R. STRAUSS: Suite from Elektra (arr. Honeck/ Ille); Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (arr. Rodzinski) – Pittsburgh SO/ Manfred Honeck – Reference Recordings/ Fresh! multichannel SACD FR-722, 58:33 [Distr. by Naxos] *****: A brilliant performance of both works on this SACD. Ex-Vienna Opera violinist turned outstanding conductor Manfred Honeck is taking his Pittsburgh band down a new road with this unbelievably concise and brilliant arrangement of music from the difficult, astringent opera Elektra. The work has been considered a monumentally difficult piece to cast and pull off for many years, and even though its once-formidable harmonies were considered grating to the ear, today they don’t sound too difficult, even if they are a world away from the opera that followed, Der Rosenkavalier. One of Herbert von Karajan’s initial calling cards was the fact that he managed to conduct Elektra several times before WWII, astoundingly from memory, as he did everything. Honeck has given a lot of thought to the opera, not always simply excising passages and stringing them together in a suite, but evaluating the place of the vocal lines in relationship to the orchestra, and making other changes—in most cases, a thinning out, according to the conductor—to ensure more clarity […]
TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker – complete ballet transcribed for piano – Stewart Goodyear – Steinway & Sons
An outstanding transcription for piano of a most beloved ballet score – it’ll have you dancing! PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: The Nutcracker – complete ballet transcribed for piano – performed by Stewart Goodyear – Steinway & Sons multichannel SACD 30040, 82:21 [10/9/15] *****: Few people are neutral on the subject of Christmas: most either love it or hate it. I’m one who loves it, and I find the music of Christmas to be an enormously important part of the tradition. So I was excited when this transcription for solo piano of the full Nutcracker ballet score arrived. I had enjoyed for years the DGG recording by Martha Argerich and Nicolas Economou of the Nutcracker Suite (in Economou’s piano transcription, and paired with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances), but that contained only the highlights of Tchaikovsky’s score. This is the whole thing! . . the whole story! Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893) was a unique composer – and the Nutcracker is unique among his works. His father was a mining engineer and his mother was of French background. The boy was destined to be a civil servant, and indeed completed full training at the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence at age 19. But […]
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concertos 1 & 2 – Alisa Weilerstein, c. – Sym. Orch. of Bavarian Radio/ Pablo Heras-Casado – Decca
Riveting performances of Shostakovich’s two cello concertos. SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concertos 1 & 2 – Alisa Weilerstein, c. – Sym. Orch. of Bavarian Radio/ Pablo Heras-Casado – Decca 483.0835, 60:52 *****: Shostakovich (1906-75) was Russian (with all the emotional connotations that nationality evokes), yet his music is often classical in structure and tonal. Beleaguered by totalitarian political forces during his lifetime, he was forced to write music that fulfilled the Communistic objective of Soviet realism. This meant that he couldn’t write music for public consumption with much of a whiff of modernism. But by 1958 the Centralist Committee of the Communist party had reversed its 1948 condemnation of Shostakovich. Yet, the memory of persecution remained. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein played the Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto (1959) for Mstislav Rostropovich when she was 22 years old. He asked her “to convey intense emotion that somehow has to be concealed at the same time.” In this performance, she comments that “The emotion is never obvious: he’s [Shostakovich] agonizing, tortured inside, but presents a poker face.” But Weilerstein is noted for being a passionate and emotional cellist. Her performance may start out emotionally muted, but as the first movement progresses, the excitement increases. The initial […]
Marcello Pellitteri – Aquarius Woman – Marpel Music
Marcello Pellitteri – Aquarius Woman – Marpel Music 0002, 51:17 [10/1/16] ***: An ambitious and emotionally expressive album. (Marcello Pellitteri – drums; Orazio Maugeri – alto sax; Salvatore Bonafede – acoustic & electric piano – Gabrio Bevilacqua – acoustic bass; special guests: George Garzone – tenor sax (1); Veronica Pellitteri – spoken words (3); Nedelka Prescod – vocals (7); Rino Cirinnà – tenor sax (11); Lauren Kinhan – vocals (12); Yvonnick Prene – harmonica (12); Marcello Todaro – electric guitar & spoken word (13) While Aquarius Woman is not a concept album, but it does have a construct behind it. The music is performed by Marcello Pellitteri and friends, as a tribute to his daughter Veronica Pellitteri, who died at age 23 in 2014. The track list is, with two exceptions, built on compositions from Pellitteri and other members of the band and they cover a catholic taste in a post-modern, contemporary jazz category. Opening with an original by Pellitteri “Chasin’ The Zone”, the band gives full measure with a swinging offering that drummer Pellitteri pushes along in a probing fashion. The title track “Aquarius Woman” is a short musical sonnet that features a reading by Veronica Pellitteri in a “voice from […]
Honey Ear Trio – Swivel – Little (i) Music
A piano-less trio which combines electronics, a post-bop inclination and a modern jazz outlook. Honey Ear Trio – Swivel – Little (i) Music 616892358541, 54:32 [10/21/16] ****: (Jeff Lederer – tenor and soprano saxophone; Rene Hart – acoustic bass, electronics; Allison Miller – drums, percussion; Kirk Knuffke – cornet (tracks 3, 6, 10)) The Honey Ear Trio is an improvisational jazz trio which sporadically and deliberately veers from typical jazz territory. The threesome’s sophomore album, Swivel, is well named. This nearly-hour long, 11-track outing unpredictably goes in directions where jazz typically doesn’t go. Honey Ear Trio consists of saxophonist Jeff Lederer, bassist Rene Hart, drummer Allison Miller plus guest cornetist Kirk Knuffke (who is heard on three pieces). Honey Ear Trio’s 2011 debut, Steampunk Serenade, featured saxophonist Erik Lawrence and the album displayed a modernist outlook. Swivel continues that viewpoint and Lederer (who joined Honey Ear Trio in 2013) fits right in. Each member of the trio has extensive experience in jazz, improv music and other genres. Miller heads a jazz group, Boom Tic Boom, and has backed singer-songwriters Ani DiFranco and Natalie Merchant; Lederer fronts the jazz ensemble Brooklyn Blowhards and is part of the Matt Wilson Quartet; Hart […]
The Wild Life, Blu-ray (2016)
Another great animated family feature, this one from Belgium. The Wild Life, Blu-ray (2016) English Voice-overs: Matthias Schweighöfer, Kaya Yanar, Ilka Bessin, Dieter Hallervorden, Aylin Tezel Director: Vincent Kesteloot Studio: Studiocanal/ Summit/ Lionsgate (11/29/16) [2 discs, Blu-ray & DVD] Video: 2.40:1 HD 1080p color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1 Subtitles: Spanish Extras: A Wild World: Making The Wild Life, Meet the Characters, Tips for Your Trip, The Wild Life Musical Adventure, Previews Length: 91 min. Rating: ****1/2 In spite of the title, this is generally the story of Robinson Crusoe, but from the viewpoint of the animals on the island where he is shipwrecked. The voices are just perfect, especially Matthias Schweighofer as Crusoe and Ilka Bessin as the large (compared to the other animals) female tapir. The guy playing the voice of the near-sighted old goat is pretty good too – he really sounds like a goat might. Everything is larger than life and the animals rule on the little island until a furious storm, and Robinson Crusoe is deposited there as the only survivor (with his dog Aynsley) of the pirate ship on which he was held. At first the animals (except for the macaw) […]
ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV: The Sea Ranch Songs – Kronos Quartet – Cantaloupe CD + DVD
Fitting tribute to this artistically inclined development and to nature itself. ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV: The Sea Ranch Songs – Kronos Quartet – Cantaloupe CD + DVD (16:9 ratio, color, PCM stereo) CA21122, 49:20 [Distr. by Naxos] (9/30/16) ****: Sea Ranch, founded in 1965, is a very ecologically and artistically self-aware community built into the rugged seacoast between San Francisco and Oregon. It is, simultaneously, a very unusual and experimental planned use of natural shoreline with unusual, nearly minimalist architecture as well as terraced layout that necessitates care for the environment and a true sense of community as community. While I have never been there I have learned that the community is comprised of nearly two thousand residents; both year-round as well as seasonal and including a pricey Sea Ranch Lodge with stunning ocean and shoreline views. The property also has paid respect and preservation to a small Kashia-Pomo Indian reservation and Fort Ross state park; originally built by Russians in 1812. Everything about Sea Ranch speaks to the haven for ecology minded artists and lovers of the ‘return to nature’ movement that defined architecture and even education in the early 1960s. (The stunning video by Andrew Lyndon shows us that not […]
The Sugar Hill Trio – Drive – Goschart Music
The Sugar Hill Trio – Drive – Goschart Music 031547 [Distr. by CD Baby], 51:26 (9/12/16) ***1/2: A sax-led trio with an advanced approach. The Sugar Hill Trio describes itself as a “modern-day, innovative/avant-garde jazz combo” which is open enough to cover almost anything approximately jazz-like in sound. In fact, their approach to the tradition involves a quite recognizable formula. Starting from the bottom up, the bass (duties split between Leon Boykins and Dylan Shamat) powers the unit with strong walking lines that measure out the changes, veering little from their rhythmic path except to add some scrambling figures or ostinato. This frees the drums to walk across the stream, stirring up all sorts of swirls and sprays of shimmering rhythmic detail. In this case, the drummer, Austin Walker, has a delightfully hyper-kinetic approach to the kit; he certainly seems to be following Sam River’s dictum to “leave nothing out.” The saxophone plays the head, then long solos on the changes, and returns to the head to close out. Skilled jazz musicians can run over changes on such a chart with impressive facility, and this player, Christian Torkewitz, is in the super-skilled class. This approach to jazz requires impressive suite […]
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 2; KHACHATURIAN: Piano Concerto – Xiayin Wang, p. – Royal Scottish Nat. Orch./Peter Oundjian – Chandos
Two little known Romantic Russian piano concertos thrill in expansive SACD sound. TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Concerto No. 2; KHACHATURIAN: Piano Concerto – Xiayin Wang, p. – Royal Scottish Nat. Orch./Peter Oundjian – Chandos multichannel SACD CHSA 5167, 75:54 ****: The pairing of these two Russian Romantic warhorses brings together two works that deserve to be performed more often. Both have explosive melodic invention supported by rich orchestration and virtuosic opportunities for piano and orchestra. Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) was Eastern Armenian by birth, but lived in Russia (Moscow) most of his life. Initially interested in biology, at age 19 entered the Moscow Conservatory as a cellist, studying with Nicolai Miaskovsky. His music was tonal and fell easily on the ears. That helped him elude the Communist conservative forces that nearly destroyed Shostakovich. He grew up surrounded by folk music. “Popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the life of people always accompanied by music,” he once wrote. His music is colorful, ripe with folk melodies and rhythmically dramatic. In the 1951 Record Guide a critic wrote, “A clever musician who knows every trick of the trade…Khachaturian’s talent seems fundamentally commonplace; but the athletic rhythms and luxurious texture of his orchestral […]
2016 Soundtrack CD Reviews – 21 total
HOWARD SHORE: Denial – Howe Records HWR-1022 (9/30/16) This film was based on the book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier. It recounts the legal battle Deborah E. Lipstadt (played by Rachel Weisz) had to fight against David Irving (well-played by Tomothy Spall), who had accused her of libeling him when she said he was a Holocaust denier. Shore not only composed and orchestrated the effective score but he also conducted the Royal Philharmonic and pianist Simon Chamberlain in it. Very moving music for a very moving motion picture. HOWARE SHORE: Spotlight – Howe Records HWR-1021 (11/6/15) “Break the Story, Break the Silence” is the subtitle of this film, which deals with the many offenses of Catholic priests against young people. Not as much time spent in court as in Denial – most of it is researching the evidence. A piano-fronted orchestral sound sets the tone for the picture. The music well conveys the sense of dread waiting that nobody wants to acknowledge until the last moment when they win out. 18 cues from the film are presented, and James Sizemore arranged and co-produced the film score material by Shore. HOWARD SHORE: Seven (Collector’s Edition […]
HAYDN: Piano Sonatas Nos. 31, 33, 47 & 59 – Enrique Bagaria, p. – Eudora
JOSEPH HAYDN: Piano Sonatas Nos. 31, 33, 47 & 59 – Enrique Bagaria, p. – Eudora multichannel SACD-1601 (4/1/16) *****: (Enrique Bagaria – piano) A buoyant Haydn recital acts as a corrective to dampened spirits. As strife and gloom stalk the land, I find myself retreating into an ever-smaller enclosure until I realize that it has become a dark cell. Call it the “miserable self.” The desolation is mirrored in the faces of my artistic friends. One states, “We need our music more than ever.” But another, the skeptic, ripostes. “If philosophy couldn’t show Wittgenstein’s fly the way out of the bottle, we shouldn’t expect music to persuade the forces of darkness.” On the grim edge of history, we need far more than cheering up, but perhaps an immediate affirmation of the permanently beautiful would not be a bad place to start. This affirmation appears in the form of a disc from Spain, Enrique Bagaria Plays Haydn Piano Sonatas. What can this well-chosen music deliver? I have already encountered this Madrid-based label Eudora, and my review of the Bach Cello Suites played by Petrit Ceku can be found on this site. That high-resolution recording was nothing less than astounding in […]
MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major K. 219 “Turkish”; HENZE: Violin Concerto No. 1; MARTIN: Magnificat – Wolfgang Schneiderhan, v./ Irmgaard Seefried, sop./ Swiss Festival Orch./var. conductors – Audite
Austrian virtuoso violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan explores classic and modern scores at the Lucerne Festival. MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major K. 219 “Turkish”; HENZE: Violin Concerto No. 1; MARTIN: Magnificat – Wolfgang Schneiderhan, v./ Irmgaard Seefried, sop./ Swiss Festival Orch./ Paul Hindemth (Mozart)/ Ferdinand Leitner (Henze)/ Bernard Haitink (Martin) – Audite 95.644, 65:07 (10/31/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Austrian violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan (1915-2002) appears thrice at the Lucerne Festival, an organization with whom he made music from 1949 until 1986. The performance of the Mozart Turkish Concerto (13 August 1952) represents the earliest documentation of Schneiderhan’s participation at the Festival, ably assisted by conductor Paul Hindemith, who had replaced Wilhelm Furtwaengler on short notice. With conductor Ferdinand Leitner (1912-1996) – General Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera and the Zurich Opera House – Schneiderhan performs the 1947 Violin Concerto No. 1 by Hans Werner Henze (26 August 1964), a work that combines some of Hindemith’s academicism with elements of Alban Berg and Bela Bartok. Bernard Haitink appears (14 August 1968) in the Frank Martin Magnificat, a piece the composer dedicated to the principals, Irmgaard Seefried and Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and in 1969 incorporated into his Maria-Triptychon as its second […]
Alyssa Allgood, vocals – Out Of The Blue – Jerujazz
Alyssa Allgood, vocals – Out Of The Blue – Jerujazz JJR-5, 49:41 ***: A credible first outing. (Alyssa Allgood – voice; Dan Chase – organ; Tim Fitzgerald – guitar; Chris Madsen – saxophone; Matt Plaskota – drums) Alyssa Allgood is part of that cohort of up and coming young singers who are looking to make an impact in the jazz world. Not an easy thing to do given the nature of the business, and the changing pattern of the distribution channels for the end product. Out Of The Blue is Allgood’s attempt to capture lightning in a bottle, by earmarking her session to the hard-bop repertoire as defined by Blue Note Records. Backed by a jim-dandy quartet, anchored by B-3 organist Dan Chase, the set list covers some of bops’ signature compositions. Allgood has added lyrics to several of these numbers, starting with Hank Mobley’s Dig Dis which he released on Soul Station and which she calls “Watch Me Walk Away”. From Chase’s opening organ rif, Allgood finds a way to convey the number’s essence, with lyrics that are tricky to align to the bop frame. The other compositions that now have Allgood’s lyrics are Wayne Shorter’s “Speak No Evil”, […]
“Collage” – The Last Work of JAMES HORNER – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/ David Arnold & Royal Philharmonic/James Martin – Mercury Classics
“Collage” – The Last Work of JAMES HORNER [TrackList Follows] – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/ David Arnold & Royal Philharmonic/James Martin – Mercury Classics 481, 64:00 (9/23/16), 64:00 ****: A lovely tribute to the music of the late film composer James Horner. If you see any films you’ve doubtless heard the music of James Horner. He wrote the music for Titanic and Avatar, two of the top- grossing films in history. He had written for another 130 or so films, before he tragically died in a small plane accident last year. Some of his other notable works include Star Trek II, 48 Hours, Cocoon, Glory, Field of Dreams, Braveheart and Apollo 13. He had an academic life before entering the world of film scoring, teaching at UCLA. I didn’t consider him a first-tier composer, the equal of say Miklos Rozsa or Alex North, but he had an excellent sense of matching the music to picture, and the films he scored were helped immensely by his good musical taste. This disc contains some symphonic arrangements from some of his films, including First in Flight and Aliens. It concludes with Horner’s last work, a concert piece called Collage, written in 6 movements. It’s […]
HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO
HAYDN: Piano Sonatas and Variations = Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI:29; Andante and Variations in F Minor, Hob. XVII:6; Sonata in C Minor, Hob. XVI:20; Sonata in C Major, Hob. XVI:50 ‒ Lars Haugbro, fortepiano ‒ LAWO LWC1094; 67:46 (5/6/16) *****: A nicely-varied recital from a Scandinavian Haydn specialist. B01AB6UNWM Despite the highly evocative cover photo, this album is not all storms-a-brewing. However, two of the works on this varied program tap into the darker side of Haydn, one not often encountered since his latest, greatest works are usually in a sunny major mode. Of Haydn’s late large-scale compositions, consider that his greatest symphonic creations, the twelve London Symphonies, include only one work in a minor key, Symphony No. 95 in c. It is perhaps the least admired of the twelve, and as to its key signature, critics generally conclude that here Haydn is more interested in the minor key as a matter of sonority than as a matter of spiritual-emotional context, as it was in the great c minor works of Mozart and Beethoven. Then again, in that same decade we have the marvelous Lord Nelson Mass, or Missa in Angustiis, written during the frightening early years of […]
“Dance Macabre” = Works of ST.-SEANS, DUKAS, DVORAK, MUSSORSKY, BALAKIREV & IVES – Montreal Sym./Kent Nagano – Decca
A bit late for the holiday, this cross-section of Halloween symphonic poems features an excellent ensemble from Montreal. SAINT-SAENS: Danse Macabre, Op. 40; DUKAS: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; DVORAK: The Noonday Witch, Op. 108; MUSSORGSKY: A Night on the Bare Mountain; BALAKIREV: Tamara; IVES: Hallowe’en – Montreal Symphony Orchestra/ Kent Nagano – Decca 483 0396, 69:26 910/16/16 [Distr. by Universal] ***: Ordinarily, I would ascribe a popular, “Halloween” program (rec. 29-30 October 2015) like the one here on Decca to Charles Dutoit, given the usually excellent standard of musical execution. And while the performances of the natural spectaculars – the Dukas and the Saint-Saens – do exhibit the Montreal Symphony’s capacity for grand color, the Kent Nagano (b. 1951) renditions remain relatively prosaic and undistinguished. I still revel in the Mitropoulos version of Danse Macabre and the Stokowski reading of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Besides the Dvorak opus – first made visceral to me by Vaclav Talich – the work that beckons us, Balakirev’s 1882 Tamara, does achieve some of the dramatic compulsion we recall from Sir Thomas Beecham’s riveting account. Based on a ballad by Lermontov, the symphonic poem bears much in common with Liszt’s formula for musical progression, with rippling-water […]
“Trumpet Combinations” = Works of GARDNER, JELICH, FRANCESCINI, PINO, HANDLE, BLACHER, BUSSER & TOTH – baritone/brass trio/ pipe organ – MD&G
“Trumpet Combinations” = JOHN GARDNER: Sonata da Chiesa sopra un tema di Claudio Monteverdi, Op. 136; VINCENT JELICH: Ricercare; PETRONIO FRANCESCINI: Sonata in D; J.S. BACH: Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren; ANTONIO PINO: Laudate pueri Dominum; HANDEL: The Entrance of the Queen of Sheba from “Solomon”; HANDEL: Revenge, Timotheus Cries from “Alexander’s Feast”; BORIS BLACHER: Divertimento 1946; HENRI BUSSER: Andante et Scherzo; PÉTER TÓTH: Sonata da Chiesa ‒ Joachim Pliquett & Matthias Kühnle, trumpet / Klaus Mertens, baritone / András Fejér, trombone / Arvid Gast, organ ‒ MD&G multichannel SACD Audiomax 906 1930-6 (also 2+2+2); 71:18 ****: Trumpets and friends in appealing surround sound. A bland title, perhaps, but a forthright one. Here we have the trumpet in combination with several old friends, namely trombone, baritone voice, and organ. In fact, this recording showcases the organs of St. Jakobi Church in Lübeck. Note that I say organs, because for the older works on the program, Arvid Gast plays the Renaissance Stellwagen organ, while in the modern pieces he holds forth on the church’s impressive great organ. One musical breadcrumb trail that the performers pursue is the sonata da chiesa, or church sonata, a genre that flourished throughout the Baroque […]
Audio News for November 11, 2016
Hedy Lamarr Awards in Entertainment Technology – The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) has inaugurated two annual awards: the “Hedy Lamarr Award for Innovation in Entertainment Technology,” and the “Hedy Lamarr Achievement Award for Emerging Leaders in Entertainment Technology.” The latter recognizes female college students in their junior year who show exceptional promise in the field. Austrian-American Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr was a legend best known for a number of film classics, and she was also a lifelong inventor whose innovative work included pioneering “frequency hopping” which became the foundation for spread spectrum technology. Working with composer George Antheil, their radio guidance system for torpedos was patented in 1942 and this technology is utilized today for a variety of cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth applications. “Subway Therapy” for Those Dismayed at Election Results – A NYC artist whose goal is to make people smile, laugh and feel less stressed, started years ago inviting commuters to write a question or share a sentiment on pastel-colored Post-it notes on the walls of a subway stop. He also provides the pens. Since the election the process has become so intense that 1500 notes were left at one place. The messages ranged from providing comforting thoughts […]
European Tour – Nordic Brass Ensemble – Music of DOWLAND, PRAETORIUS, HOLBORNE et al – 2L (Blu-ray & SACD)
European Tour – Nordic Brass Ensemble – Music of DOWLAND, PRAETORIUS, HOLBORNE et al – 2L-128-SABD – Pure Audio Blu-ray + multichannel SACD, DTS-HD MA 192kHz/24 bit 5.1, PCM 192kHz/24 bit stereo, mShuttle: MQA 96kHz + MP3 (11/18/16) [Dist. by Naxos] ****: Beautifully rendered recording of Brass Ensemble music. This is a most agreeable disc with a collection of brass performances by the Nordic Brass Ensemble. The group was founded in 1993 by a group of brass musicians who shared a strong desire to make chamber music together. From the start, the ensemble has focused on developing its own musical ideas and concepts of sound. By exploiting the different instruments’ special qualities and combining them in new and unusual ways, and by extensively using mutes, percussion, some non-standard instruments, the NBE is making a name for itself with a very unique approach to brass music. The music performed is traditional, with composers like Holborne, Dowland and Gesualdo. The arrangements were written for the group, and the addition of percussion, while unexpected, is quite persuasive to this listener. Since this is a 2L recording, I expected it to be good sonically, and I was not disappointed. The microphones are well back […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
