Monthly Archive: December 2016
Three Three Muskateers (Silent) (1921/2016)
The first Three Muskateers film, starring Doug Fairbanks in 1921! Three Three Muskateers (1921/2016) Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Adolphe Menjou, Mary MacLarn, Nigel De Brulier Director: Fred Niblo Writer: Alexandre Dumas Studio: Verdoux-vision/ Synergy Ent./ Undercrank Productions/ Silent Cinema Presentations Inc. 2016 Restoration: Karl Malkames New theater organ score: Ben Model Video: 4:3 B&W, tinted Audio: stereo PCM Length: 119 min. Rating: **** This is the 95th anniversary remastering of the original Douglas Fairbanks film, and a very good job they have done. The success of The Mark of Zorro in 1920 gave Fairbanks the impetus to create his own production, set in France hundreds of years ago, with lavish sets, a large cast and magnificent costumes. The swashbuckling Fairbanks found his place as a celebrity and creator of fine films with this one. D’Artagnan turned out to be a role Fairbanks was born to play. He looked to the exuberant Gascon young man as his ideal screen self, and this was a sort of a career leap to the sort of action film which is popular today. Fairbanks showed bravery, arrogance and a fine touch of humor thruout the film. He was also a fine athlete who did his own […]
Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series 40 – Sonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet, Zurich 1959 – TCB
Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series 40 – Sonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet, Zurich 1959 – The Montreux Jazz Label TCB 02402, 58:51 ****: The quintessence of small group modern jazz. (Sonny Rollins Trio : Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone; Henry Grimes – bass; Pete La Roca – drums – Horace Sliver Quintet: Horace Silver – piano; Blue Mitchell – trumpet; Junior Cook – tenor saxophone; Gene Taylor – bass; Louis Hayes – drums) A small “contretemps” has erupted relating to the issue of Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series 40 – Sonny Rollins Trio & Horace Silver Quintet, Zurich 1959. In a posting on the blog Jazz Wax on December 10, 2016 Sonny Rollins, through his publicist Terri Hinte, claims this album is a “bootleg”. Rollins states that no agreement was made for release of the record and that he has not been remunerated. While not doubting Rollins’ claim, it would seem to run counter to what Yvan Ischer, Producer of the JazzZ-RTS Series, states in the liner notes of this release. He writes that “at a time when many people publish images and sounds without worrying about artist rights, we wished to establish an indisputable standard with our […]
BYRD, BULL & GIBBONS: Parthenia – Alina Rotaru, harpsichord – Sono Luminus
BYRD, BULL & GIBBONS: Parthenia – Alina Rotaru, harpsichord – Sono Luminus DSL-92208, 52:52 (10/28/16) ****: Three Tudor masters assembled in first printed keyboard collection to honor a royal wedding. We first met Alina Rotaru on her debut recording dedicated to Johann Froberger back in 2012. That recording was a skillful investigation of the French Baroque aesthetic at its high-water mark. There followed a much-praised recital of Sweelinck. On the present recording, she turns back towards the early 17th century and the famous troika of Tudor virginalists, Byrd, Bull, and Gibbons. In 1613, works of these three English masters were gathered into a collection for a special occasion, the wedding between Elizabeth Stuart and Frederick V of the German Palatinate. The publication was loftily titled Parthenia, or the Maydenhead of the first musicke that was ever printed for the Virginalis. In fact, it was the first keyboard collection ever published anywhere and among the earliest examples of copperplate publishing. Thus, there is great political and cultural significance to the Parthenia. The music is very fine, although for the uninitiated, taking in 21 straight pieces in the austere idiom of the Tudor virginalists may evoke time diliation. Oddly, the latest born […]
Wu Han Live II: Music@Menlo – Works of DOHNANYI & TANEYEV – Artist Led
Two massive piano quintets come to us by way of Music@Menlo and its founder, Wu Han. Wu Han Live II: Music@Menlo – DOHNANYI: Piano Quintet No. 1 in c minor, Op. 1; TANEYEV: Piano Quintet in g minor, Op. 30 – Wu Han, piano/ Alexander Sitkovetsky & Nicolas Dautricourt, violins/ Paul Neubauer, viola/ David Finckel, cello (Dohnanyi)/ Arnaud Sussmann & Sean Lee, violins (Taneyev) – Artist Led, 70:43 (11/28/14) ****: I happened to have had the good fortune to be in attendance at these August 2014 performances, so somewhere in the (lost) applause were my own hands. For a number of summers, I have attended (and reviewed) the Music@Menlo series in Atherton, CA, established by Taiwanese-American pianist Wu Han (b. 1959) and her husband, cellist David Finckel. Wu Han also become deeply involved with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; so the record label ArtistLed (est. 1997) became a direct corollary to her concert work with an extraordinary ensemble of gifted musicians. With the audio engineering of Da-Hong Seetoo, the quality of the recorded performances remains at a distinctively clear and resonant pitch. The 1895 Piano Quintet No. 1 by Erno Dohnanyi announces his loyalty to and extension […]
Audio News for December 23, 2016
Suggested VR Social Platform – MyVR users can discover, save, stream or share online content including news articles, music and videos. MyVR, available free, enables owners to visit others’ virtual rooms, and hold group voice chats while browsing the web, watching videos, reading articles or listening to music. It is available for iOS devices at: itunes.apple.com/us/app/myvr-virtually-everything/id1171449912?mt=8 and Android users at: itunes.apple.com/us/app/myvr-virtually-everything/id1171449912?mt=8 New users can choose from five pre-set rooms for their profile. After the coming update, users will be able to use real-life items to design their room. When complete, users select different items in the room to access different feeds of content – such as selecting the TV to watch viral videos or the music player to listen to their favorite songs. Hundreds of trending articles, recipes, videos, photos, music and more will be available the moment they are published. MyVR will bring everything people love to do online into a run and social virtual reality world, taking advantage of the platform’s voice and motion recognition technology to make finding and sharing interesting content easier and more intuitive. Pono Will Re-Invent Itself as a Streaming Service – Neil Young will change his his Pono hi-fi service to a hi-res […]
ROY HARRIS & JOHN ADAMS: Violin Concertos with Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin) / BBC Sym. Orch./Andrew Litton – Signum Classics
ROY HARRIS & JOHN ADAMS: Violin Concertos with Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin) / BBC Sym. Orch./Andrew Litton – Signum Classics SIGCD468, 62:22 (10/1/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Two lovely contemporary violin concertos. This is a highly desirable recording from Signum Classics. It offers two violin concertos by American composers Roy Harris and John Adams. The Adams is fairly well known but the Harris concerto is a real find. Both men grew up in rural circumstances, Harris being born in a log cabin in Oklahoma. His music always has an ‘American’ feel to it, sometimes sounding a bit ‘Copland-esque’, but Harris has a unique voice with rural roots, and splendid orchestration. The Harris Violin Concerto was written in 1949, but did not get a first performance until 1984. The BBC Symphony gives the piece an exuberant and dynamic reading. Ms. Cohen is a rising star among violinists, and one can find ample evidence of that in her performance here. ‘ The John Adams Violin Concerto was composed in 1993, and Adams described the work as having a ‘hypermelody’, in which the soloist plays longs phrases without stop for the duration of the 35 minute piece. It’s a taxing piece for both the […]
PLATTI: Six Trio Sonatas for Violin, Violoncello and Continuo – Armonioso – MD&G
PLATTI: Six Trio Sonatas for Violin, Violoncello and Continuo – Armonioso – multichannel SACD (and 2+2+2) MD&G 903 1978-6, 64:40 (12/2/16) ****: (Francesco Cerrato; violin/ Stefano Cerrato; violoncello/ Marco Demaria; cello/ Michele Barchi; harpsichord/ Daniele Ferretti; organ) Late Baroque trio sonatas from the music library of the Counts of Schonbrun-Wiesenheit. By the 1730s, the language of the Italian Baroque was spoken throughout Europe. The superabundance of learned Italian-trained musicians and composers had spread out in search of patronage in courts of German-speaking lands. The most enterprising, such as Handel and Geminiani, set up shop in London, where the prosperous middle-class was learning to sit quietly through concerts. Scarlatti was on his way to Spain with the Infanta and soon to publish his hybrid Hispano-Italian masterpieces known as the essercizi. Increasingly, Power sought to dress itself in refinement, elegance, and lavish adornments. Even a relatively small court such as that in Wurzburg, owned by the family of Schonborn counts, required a resident composer/musician to certify its cultural status. The one who created the works under review here, Giovanni Benedetto Platti, turned up to occupy this position in 1722 and spent the rest of his life as a successful and well-paid employee […]
Jane Ira Bloom – Early Americans – Outline/Sono Luminus SL Ed. – audio-only Blu-ray
A gorgeous Blu-ray audio from American’s soloist on soprano sax, with her trio. Jane Ira Bloom – Early Americans [TrackList follows] – Outline/Sono Luminus SL Editions – multichannel audio-only Blu-ray SLE-70005. 52:54 (Distr. by Naxos) [11/18/16] *****: (Jane Ira Bloom, soprano sax/ Mark Helias, bass/ Bobby Previte, drums) With renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson, this 13-track session consists of a dozen of her originals, the drive of Song Patrol to the spare melancholy of Mind Gray River, plus a closing solo version of the classic Bernstein West Side Story number, Somewhere. The album has a stunning photo of Bloom on the front. This is Bloom’s first trio album, and she seems to like the slightly off-balance feel of the trio, whose members she has long worked with before. It is also her 16th album as a group’s leader. One of the tracks is under two minutes (Nearly – for Kenny Wheeler) while others are over five, including the penultimate very moving one, Big Bill. The whole session is full of plenty of variety as well as exploration. It would be a real treat of all jazz albums were as good sonics and performance is this one. TrackList: Song Patrol; Dangerous […]
Snowden (Oliver Stone), Blu-ray (2016)
A gripping political thriller as Oliver Stone can make. Snowden (Oliver Stone), Blu-ray (2016) Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Zachary Quinto Director: Oliver Stone Studio: Open Road/ Universal Studios Home Ent. 55176941 (12/27/16) 2 discs Video: 2.40:1 for 16:9 screens, HD color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, DD 5.1 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish No region encoding Extras: Digital copy incl. UltraViolet, Deleted scenes, “Find the Truth,” Q & A with Snowden, Previews Length: 270 min. Rating: ****1/2 Probably the most important true story of the 21st century so far, this Oliver Stone film doesn’t present anything new but is certainly more exciting than any of the various Snowden films before. The whole detailed background of the controversial figure is given in the film. And quite a bit of his relationship with his girlfriend, who now resides with him in Moscow. He exposed the shocking illegal surveillance actives of the NSA and became one of the most wanted men in the world. His relationships with several of the top people in the CIA are revealed. Stone keeps this a politically-charged thriller from beginning to end but there is no denying that he thinks Snowden is a […]
“UR” – Music by EVA HOLM FOOSNÆS, ODD JOHAN OVEROYE, ØYVIND JOHAN EIKSUND, MARTIN EIKESET KOREN – Eva Holm Foosnæs (cond.)/ Orchestra/Ensemble Kammerkoret Aurum – 2L
UR – Music by EVA HOLM FOOSNÆS, ODD JOHAN OVEROYE, ØYVIND JOHAN EIKSUND, MARTIN EIKESET KOREN – Eva Holm Foosnæs (cond.)/ Orchestra/Ensemble Kammerkoret Aurum – 2L -129 multichannel 5.1 SACD, 44:46 (01/06/17) ****: Another interesting release from 2L in Norway. The recordings consist exclusively of commissioned works, written by composers in affiliation with the musical community in Trondheim. The composers have different backgrounds and tonal language, providing this disc with a complex and complementary repertoire. Composers featured include Odd Johan Overoye, Oyvind Johan Eiksund, Martin Eikeset Koren, Geir Dohlie Gjerdsjo, and Eva Holm. While the styles have tonal variations, the individual pieces all work very well together, and from piece to piece there is nothing jarring. These are all vocal works, with the last work Brieflabben, adding some percussion. The recording, as is always the case with 2L, is spectacular and demo worthy. The voices are well-placed in space, and the entire 5.1 sound field offers voices, not just ambiance from the rear. The location of singers is well established in the recording, even though the recording was in a large church space in Norway. When I listened to the stereo version the ‘live’ sound of the recording was bled away, […]
American First Sonatas – Sonatas by REINAGLE, MACDOWELL, GRIFFES & SIEGMEISTER – Cecile Licad, p. – Danacord
Cecile Licad embarks on a fine tour of first American piano sonatas, our home-spun answer to European models. American First Sonatas – REINAGLE: Philadelphia Sonata No. 1 in D Major; MACDOWELL: Piano Sonata No. 1 in g, Op. 45 “Tragica”; GRIFFES: Sonata for Piano; SIEGMEISTER: American Sonata (No. 1) – Cecile Licad, p. – Danacord DACOCD 774, 71:04 (6/6/16) [Distr. by Albany] *****: Danacord has initiated “The Anthology of American Piano Music,” a series designed “to show the stylistic breadth, high musical quality and great originality of the best American piano works. The series contains underrated, neglected or forgotten masterworks of the American literature for solo piano…selected primarily for their musical worth.” Philippines-born Cecile Licad (b. 1961), a pupil at the Curtis Institute of such luminaries as Rudolf Serkin, Seymour Lipkin, and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, employs her prodigious gifts (rec. 1-3 July 2015) in the service of four such neglected works, of which the Sonata in D by Alexander Reinagle constitutes the first piano sonata to be composed in North America (1786). Reinagle (1856-1809) shares a birth year with Mozart and the year of his death coincides with that of Haydn. Educated in music at Edinburgh, Scotland, he became a member […]
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 1 in g minor, “Winter Daydreams”; The Tempest – Orch. of St. Luke’s/ Pablo Heras-Cadado – Harmonia mundi
Conductor Heras-Casado and St. Luke’s capture two programmatic symphonic works by Tchaikovsky. TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 1 in g minor, Op. 13 “Winter Daydreams”; The Tempest, Op. 18 – Orch. of St. Luke’s/ Pablo Heras-Cadado – Harmonia mundi HMC 902220, 68:18 (11/4/16) [Distr. By PIAS] ****: Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony (1868) combines his strong desire to compete in “German” forms – under the strict guidance of Anton Rubinstein – with his innate commitment to Russian folklore and landscapes. The urge to sonata-form that dominates the first movement must also accommodate its program, “Dreams of a winter’s journey.” Conductor Heras-Casado (rec. 7 November 2014 and 3031 October 2015) follows the likes of Igor Markevitch, Leonard Bernstein, and Lorin Maazel who find an intensely lyrical impulse’s permeating the score, from the opening, fluttering flute and the brass fanfares that ensue, fortissimo. The declamatory material will provide material for Tchaikovsky’s last movement finale as well. The clarinet ushers in the serene secondary theme, which soon moves through variants and paraphrases. The extensive coda pulsates with the original theme, now accompanied by virile riffs in the basses. The second movement, like the first, bears a program of sorts: “Land of desolation, land of mists.” Muted strings […]
HAYDN: Cello Concertos – Pavel Gozmiakov, cello/Orch. Gulbenkian – Onyx
HAYDN: Cello Concertos – Pavel Gozmiakov, cello/Orch. Gulbenkian – Onyx 4151, 59:55 (6/17/16) *****: The legendary King of Portugal 1725 Stradivarius makes police-escorted journey from museum to concert hall where it dazzles in two Haydn concertos. In some endeavors, say bird-watching, novelty is the desideratum. Last year a Siberian Bunting (sp. vlasowae) with a faulty compass created quite a stir as a rare guest from another continent. In other experiences, say having some dental work done, surprises and experimentation are not what we are looking for. Listening to two cello concertos by Joseph Haydn falls somewhere in the middle. These works top the list for both the genre and the composer’s oeuvre and are thus exceedingly familiar. A new wrinkle would not come amiss. On the other hand, we don’t wish for major tinkering or indulgent extravagances that would mar the perfect design of these works. The Haydn recital begins with a cello adaptation of the adagio from the violin Concerto in C. The sound of Pavel Gomziakov’s cello is astonishingly beautiful on the simple melodies of what is rare in Haydn, a true adagio. Behind the cellist and quite recessed at that, the Gulbenkian orchestra mostly stands quietly in […]
Pop – Post Pop Depression – Live at Royal Albert Hall – Blu-ray + 2 CDs (2016)
Pop – Post Pop Depression – Live at Royal Albert Hall, Blu-ray + 2 CDs (2016) Legendary proto-punk artist proves his relevance once again. Performers: Iggy Pop; Joshua Homme; Dean Fertita; Matt Helders, Troy Van Leeuwen; Matt Sweeney Studio: Eagle Vision EVB335569 Director: Nick Wickham Video: 16×9 for 1080i HD, color Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, PCM Stereo 2.0 TrackList (Blu-ray + CD) : Lust For Life; Sister Midnight; American Valhalla; Sixteen; In The Lobby; Some Weird Sin; Funtime; Tonight; Sunday; German Days; Mass Production; Nightclubbing; Gardenia; The Passenger; China Girl; Break Into Your Heart; Fall In Love With Me; Repo Man; Baby; Chocolate Drops; Paraguay; Success Length: 118 minutes Rating: Audio: **** Video: **** Overall: **** James Newel Osterber Jr. began his musical career as a high school musician in Ann Arbor Michigan during the late sixties His first association with a band was the Iguanas. After that group the now re-named Iggy traveled to Chicago to absorb big-city blues culture. There Iggy Pop (full new moniker) began observing performance styles of The Doors, James Brown and the MC5. Iggy Pop and The Stooges worked small clubs and caught the attention of John Cale who […]
Audio News for December 20, 2016
Audio Issue with Google Pixel Smartphones – All Google Pixel XL smartphones, when you crank up the volume to one of the last three volume settings, produce a static distortion. Not heard on other smartphones. Google doesn’t seem to know about the problem. DEG Hi-Res Audio Pavillion at CES – The Digital Entertainment Group will have a coalition of Hollywood studios, CE retailers, manufacturers, technology providers, and the Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing at the Pavillion, in the Central Hall of the LVCC. People from the RIAA, Japan Audio Society, MQA Ltd, and the major music labels (there are only Warners and Universal now) will also be there. Their goal is “to bring a studio-quality experience to a new generation of fans.” A series of live sessions with award-winning music producers and engineers will take place. Attendees will get insight into the process of creating hi-res studio-quality recordings and a perspective on how to better appreciate these recordings as a listener. Classical Music Helps Men at Work (But Not Women) – New research at the Imperial College London and the Royal College of Music was part of the Centre for Performance Science, and was part of their wider research […]
Russian Violin Concertos – Music of PROKOFIEV, GLAZUNOV AND KHACHATURIAN – Julia Fischer, v./ Russian National Orch./Yakov Kreizberg – Pentatone
Russian Violin Concertos – Music of PROKOFIEV, GLAZUNOV AND KHACHATURIAN – Julia Fischer, violin/ Russian National Orch./Yakov Kreizberg – Pentatone multichannel SACD (5.0) PTC 5186 591, 79:00 [Distr. by Naxos] (10/14/16) ****: Three powerful violin concertos in this Pentatone reissue. This lovely disc from Pentatone is a reissue of a 2004 recording with the same content. At the time it was a debut performance by Ms. Fischer, beginning a long partnership with with conductor Yakov Kreizberg. The result was an extraordinary collection of releases by the duo, cut short in 2011 when Kreizberg passed away. This new re-release was recorded in Moscow with the Russian National Orchestra. The disc includes Glazunov’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Op.82; The Khachaturian Violin Concerto in D minor and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No.1 in D, Op.19. None of these pieces are obscure by any means, but it’s fair to say that Ms. Fischer puts new life into them. Her interpretation is both dramatic, but not distracting or idiosyncratic. The Russian National Orchestra is clearly up to the task, with a vibrant and precise performance, Audiowise, this multichannel SACD sounds just fine, with wide dynamic range, rock steady location of the instruments in the front […]
BALAKIREV: Piano Sonata in b-flat minor; Reverie; Mazurka No. 6 in A-flat Major; Islamey; LISZT: Sonata in b; LYAPUNOV: Etude 1 “Berceuse” 12 Etudes d’execution transcendente – Louis Kentner, p. – Appian Recordings
APR resissues the Columbia shellacs of Louis Kentner, 1944-45, in Liszt, Balakirev, and Lyapunov. BALAKIREV: Piano Sonata in b-flat minor, Op. 5; Reverie; Mazurka No. 6 in A-flat Major; Islamey; LISZT: Sonata in b; LYAPUNOV: Etude 1 “Berceuse;” 12 Etudes d’execution transcendente, Op. 11 – Louis Kentner, p. – Appian Recordings APR 6020 (2 CDs) 70:41, 72:19 (9/2/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Executive producer Michael Spring, along with audio engineer Andrew Hallifax, deserves credit for this APR reissue of rare performances. Hungarian piano virtuoso Louis (Lajos) Kentner (1905-1987), whose records of Balakirev, Liszt, and Lyapunov from 1939-1949 come back to us in sterling remasterings. The Balakirev Piano Sonata (1900-1905), here in its first recording (2 June 1949), proffers a hybrid work of unorthodox construction, rife with exotic colors and folk motifs, a novel fusion of Chopin and Eastern doxology. Despite the often improvisatory gestures and sudden shifts of tempo and mood, Balakirev injects strong periods of strict counterpoint, as well as knotty figurations more than reminiscent of his most popular piece, Islamey. The music contains a plethora of warm, tender gestures, many of which lie high in the piano keyboard and remind us of Chopin’s Berceuse. The more explosive passages, […]
Cyprien Katsaris – Die Wahlverwandtschten = Works of BEETHOVEN, MENDELSSOHN, LOEILLET, RAVEL, WANG, Etc. – Piano 21
Cyprien Katsaris shows off his new Bechstein in a series of works that gravitate to each other. Cyprien Katsaris – Die Wahlverwandtschten = BEETHOVEN: Egmont Overture, Op. 84; MENDELSSOHN: Suleika, Op. 34, No. 4; SCHUMANN: Novellette No. 1 in F Major, Op. 21, No. 1; POULENC: Noveltte, No. 3; LOEILLET: Courante; GODOWSKY: Renaissance: No. 10: Courante; RAVEL: Laideronnette from Ma Mere L’Oye; WANG: Liuyang River; J. STRAUSS II: Wiener Blut, Op. 354; LISZT: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in a minor; FONTANA: Mazurka, OP. 21, No. 2; CHOPIN: Mazurka, Op. 63, No. 3; SCHUMANN: Carnaval, Op. 9: Chopin; VLADIGEROV: Passion from Impressions, Op. 9; GERSHWIN: The Man I Love; CHASINS: Prelude, Op. 12, No. 3; RACHMANINOV: Prelude Op. 23, No. 2; KATSARIS: Goodbyr, Mr. Rachmaninov – Cyprien Katsaris, piano – Piano 21 P21 055-N, 78:37 (10/7/16)[www.cyprienkatsaris.net] ****: Drawing his inspiration from the 1809 novel by Wolfgang von Goethe, Die Wahlverwandtschten (“The Elective Affinities”), piano virtuoso Cyprien Katsaris (b. 1951) brings together those compositions – all of which have been arranged for piano, two hands – which resonate with kindred spirits, despite their variegated eras and cultural backgrounds. An admitted purpose of having selected “paired” or multifarious constellations of musically related pieces […]
Dizzy Gillespie & Friends – Concert Of The Century – Justin Time
Dizzy Gillespie & Friends – Concert Of The Century – Justin Time Just 259-2, 60:12 ****: A singular aggregation in top-flight form. (Dizzy Gillespie – trumpet/ Ray Brown – bass/ Milt Jackson – vibes/ Hank Jones – piano/ James Moody – tenor sax & flute/ Philly Joe Jones – drums) For a time after World War II until the mid ‘50s, there was a vibrant jazz scene in Montreal Canada. Clubs like the Alberta Lounge, Café St Michel, Chez Parée, Rockheads Paradise, and the Latin Quarter flourished, thus attracting major international jazz players. Additionally Montreal’s fame grew when artists like Oscar Peterson, Paul Bley, Maynard Ferguson and Oliver Jones, each of whom had been born there, gained recognition in the jazz world. After this terrific period, jazz seemed to lose its way, and Montreal its lustre, due in no small measure to the anti-corruption crackdown that took place in the city which closed the clubs and most other night-life. This phase lasted until Expo 67 launched in the city. But it was not until the mid ‘70s however, when an immigrant from French Guiana named Rouè-Doudou Boicel, opened a jazz club called The Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club, that the […]
The Three Sounds – Groovin’ Hard – Live at the Penthouse, 1964-1968 – Resonance
It’s all good… The Three Sounds – Groovin’ Hard – Live at the Penthouse, 1964-1968 – Resonance, 51:30 (1/13/17) ****: (Gene Harris – piano/ Andy Simpkins – bass/ Bill Dowdy, Kalil Madi, or Carl Burnett – drums) It may come as a surprise to hardcore Blue Note Records fans that the Three Sounds were the best selling artists from the venerable label during the 1958-1962 period that they recorded for Blue Note. Their bluesy soul jazz piano trio recordings were addictive to the public. They recorded seventeen sessions for Blue Note at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, and backed both Stanley Turrentine and Lou Donaldson, two soul jazz legends. Their music was mainstream jazz with strong blues and gospel influences. It was the blues piano voicings of leader Gene Harris that made the Three Sounds special. Resonance Records has again stepped up in their efforts of issuing significant previously unknown live jazz from well recorded sources. The Penthouse club in Seattle opened in 1962 and was active for seven years. Jim Wilke, a local jazz expert from KING-FM recorded many live Penthouse shows and has assisted Resonance Records honchos, George Klabin and Zev Feldman by providing the tapes from the Three […]
Bruno Walter – The Complete Columbia Acoustic Recordings – Works of MENDELSSOHN, BERLIOZ, WEBER, WAGNER, & R. STRAUSS – Pristine Audio
The earliest Bruno Walter records reveal a committed Romantic conductor in music in the German tradition. Bruno Walter – The Complete Columbia Acoustic Recordings – WEBER: Overture to Der Freischuetz; MENDELSSOHN: Nocturne from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61; BERLIOZ: Menuet of the Will-o’-the-Wisps from La Damnation de Faust, Op. 24; WAGNER: Tristan und Isolde: Liebestod; Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg: Prelude, Act III; Goetterdaemmerung: Siegfried’s Rhine Journey; A Siegfried Idyll; R. STRAUSS: Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24 – Royal Philharmonic Orch./ Bruno Walter – Pristine Audio PASC 482, 76:50 [avail. in various formats from www.pristineclassical.com] ****: Producer and Recording Engineer Mark Obert-Thorn provides the following remarks concerning Bruno Walter’s first efforts for gramophone recordings: “Although Bruno Walter (1876-1962) claimed late in life that he had made his first recordings around 1900, his earliest documented discs date from 1923 when he began a series for Grammophon/Polydor in Berlin, most of which have been reissued on Pristine PASC 142 and PASC 322. In May 1924, Walter was in London for the first presentation of a German opera season at Covent Garden since the end of the Great War. That month, he conducted Wagner’s Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, and Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier […]
MONDONVILLE: Trio Sonatas – Johannes Pramsohler/ Ens. Diderot – Audax
MONDONVILLE: Trio Sonatas Op. 2 – Johannes Pramsohler/ Ensemble Diderot – Audax 13707, 67:22 (11/8/16) ****: World premier chamber music from the twilight era of the French Baroque led by researcher/performer Johannes Pramsohler. (Johannes Pramsohler- violin/ Roldan Bernabe – violin/ Kristen Huebner – transverse flute/ Gulrim Choi – baroque cello/ Philippe Grisvard – harpsichord) Johannes Pramsohler, the leader of Ensemble Diderot, has dedicated a couple of recent recordings to unknown or neglected works from the Baroque period. Early Music fans will certainly welcome the findings, especially as in this case, they consist of the most central chamber music of the time–the trio sonata–and are by a composer who is not at all a minor figure, Jean-Joseph Mondonville. How these pieces have lain about unnoticed is beyond me, for they are quite good. Mondonville was the director of the Concert Spirituel around the middle of the century and is known primarily as a composer of grand motets. His instrument, however, was the violin, which is the dominant voice the works under review here. Mr. Pramsohler plays a Rogeri 1713 baroque violin, which blends nicely with Roldan Bernabe’s 1992 instrument modelled on a period violin. In fact, it is occasionally hard to […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
