Monthly Archive: July 2018
Gary Burton/Chick Corea – Crystal Silence – ECM Records
Gary Burton/Chick Corea – Crystal Silence ECM Records 1024 ST (1972/2018) (distr. by Universal Music Group) 180-gram stereo vinyl, 44:23 *****: This vinyl reissue of a Gary Burton/Chick Corea duo recording is stunning! (Gary Burton – vibes; Chick Corea – piano) ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) Records was founded by Manfred Eicher in 1969. At the core of the label is the array of jazz artists including Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Chick Corea,, Charlie Haden, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Keith Jarrett, Dave Liebman, Ralph Towner, Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, Egberto Gismonti and Terje Rypdal, Although, these are renowned jazz artists, the label provided a creative environment for musical genre-expansion. In addition, ECM is celebrated for groundbreaking releases in Western Classical, Global Music and a variety of film-related projects. The ECM reputation for pristine recording is represented by their motto, “The Most Beautiful Sound Next to Silence”. They have earned Downbeat’s Label Of The Year 10 times. The superior recording technology is evident in both analog and digital formats. Now, ECM is continuing the tradition of prestigious analog recording with 180-gram releases. That includes several re-issues of notable albums. One of these is the unforgettable Gary Burton/Chick Corea collaboration, Crystal Silence. […]
Angela Hewitt—The Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol. 7
Angela Hewitt extends her Beethoven cycle with four works of disparate emotional content. BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2 “Tempest”; Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1; Piano Sonata No. 25 in G Major, Op. 79; Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109 – Angela Hewitt, piano – Hyperion CDA68199, 70:22 (6/1/18) [Distr. by Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: Recorded 28 November – 1 December 2016, this set of Beethoven sonatas constitutes the seventh volume in Angela Hewitt’s ongoing recorded cycle. Insofar as Beethoven’s piano sonata provide him a kind of experimental laboratory in which to manipulate forms and structures, the 1801 Sonata quasi fantasia in E-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 1, offers some fascinating procedures. The music opens, Andante, with a narrow harmonic range, returning to the tonic E-flat every fourth measure. The first thirty-six bars, in fact, might experiment with a seeming stasis of parallel scales whose third repetition enjoys a songlike character in C Major. Ensuing upon some variants, Beethoven does in fact ground his Allegro in C Major. Jabbing accents and a galloping tempo define this episode, but the gentle, rocking opening returns in the left […]
Editorial for July, 2018
Gregorian Chant from St Peter’s Abbey The Abbey of St Peter in Solesmes, France contributed significantly to the resurgence of Gregorian Chant. This collection provides different views of this music, including an overview sampler of Gregorian Chant and its various musical forms, its history, as well as a re-issue of some of the earliest recordings of Gregorian Chant from the abbey, dating back to the 1930s. The following CDs are included: Vespers and Compline Gregorian Chant Rediscovered Gregorian Chant Sampler Learning About Gregorian Chant Gregorian Chant Anthology This month’s special is brought to you courtesy of Naxos, Audiophile Audition, and Paraclete Recordings. Paraclete Recordings is a classical and sacred music label committed to uncompromising quality and faithful interpretation in recorded sound. A conduit for artists passionate about pursuing beauty and truth through performance authenticity and compelling spirituality in the musical arts, Paraclete Recordings promotes and preserves the best of inspired works from Gregorian Chant into the 21st century. [metaslider id=65448] To enter in the drawing for this collection of Gregorian Chant by the Monastic Choir of St. Peter’s Abbey, Solemes, France—merely fill out the form here: Register to win. AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a local program in San […]
The Music Treasury for 8 July 2018 — Pianist Dimitri Bashkirov
Dimitri Bashkirov will be featured in this week presentation of The Music Treasury. Bashkirov received distinguished awards while a student at the Moscow Conservatory, to be followed honors received in his career which includes concerti with internationally renown orchestras, chamber music, and solo recitals. This week show airs between 19:00 and 21:00 PDT on its host station KZSU in the Bay Area, and can be heard concurrently streamed through the ‘Net: kzsu.stanford.edu. Host Gary Lemco met and interviewed Mr. Bashkirov at the 1993 Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, MI and will recall a few of their remarks in the evening show. Pianist Dimitri Bashkirov A pianist and piano teacher, Mr. Bashkirov, studied in Tiblisi, Georgia with Anastasia Wirsaladze, and then at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with distinguished Russian pedagogue, Professor A. Alexander Goldenweiser. Bashkirov’s name has been known to the public since 1955, when he received the Grand Prix at the Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. Following his Paris success, Mr. Bashkirov has played with numerous distinguished international orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, l’Orchestre de Paris and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under conductors such […]
Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Tokyo Concerts
Newly discovered live concert material from two Jazz masters… Dexter Gordon Quartet – Tokyo 1975 – Elemental Music 5990428 – 63:42 ****: Woody Shaw – Tokyo ’81 – Elemental Music 5990429 – 73:28 ****1/2: Continuing the exciting trend over the last decade of releasing previously unknown live recordings from Europe and the Far East, both Elemental Music and Resonance Records have filled a historical need by honoring jazz masters with presenting their music to an eager audience, who thought with good reason, that the well had gone dry on new material. In the late 1960s through the 1980s, well known American jazz musicians were received with open arms in Europe, while their counterparts in the States had to struggle to earn a decent living. The trend has continued today for musicians outside of New York City’s clubs and recording studios. For a jazz musician with a family there are few benefits for health insurance and retirement savings unless a teaching position at a well funded university can be found. Both Woody Shaw and Dexter Gordon found eager audiences in Europe and Japan. Woody’s tenure in Europe was relatively brief, while Dexter lived in Copenhagen from 1962 to 1976. Gordon played […]
Ray Charles – The Genius After Hours – Atlantic/Speakers Corner
Audiophile re-mastered vinyl showcases instrumental prowess of America’s greatest singer! Ray Charles – The Genius After Hours – Atlantic 1369 (1961)/Speakers Corner (2016) 180-gram mono vinyl, 38:30 ****1/2: (Ray Charles – piano; David “Fathead” Newman – alto saxophone, tenor saxophone; Emmott Bennios – baritone saxophone; Joseph Bridgewater – trumpet; John Hunt – trumpet; Roosevelt Sheffield – double bass; Oscar Pettiford – double bass; Joe Harris – drums; William Peebles – drums) Ray Charles is such an iconic artist that he is simply known as Ray. He was hugely responsible for bringing R & B into the mainstream culture. More importantly, he crossed over to jazz, rock and country and western with spectacular results. Though he downplayed the “genius” moniker, none other than Frank Sinatra referred to him as the only living musical genius. Billy Joel intoned that he was more influential than Elvis Presley (in contrast to most of the rock and roll establishment). He was the anchor at Atlantic Records in the 50’s and early 60’s with hits like “I Got A Woman”. Ray not only headlined shows at African-American theaters like the Apollo, but was able to play at prestigious mainstream nightclubs and concert halls. Charles left […]
R. STRAUSS: Burleske, Oboe Concerto, Duet Concertino & Till Eulenspiegel – RIAS-Symphony Orchestra/ Ferenc Fricsay – Audite
The brunt of the Fricsay legacy in Richard Strauss here makes its debut, 1949-1954.
Bobby Previte – Rhapsody – RareNoise
The journey is as important as the leaving or the arrival. Bobby Previte – Rhapsody [TrackList follows] – RareNoise RNR090, 64:01 [2/23/18] ****: (Nels Cline – acoustic guitar, slide guitar, 12-string guitar; John Medeski – piano; Zeena Parkins – harp; Jen Shyu – voice, erhu, piano; Fabian Rucker – alto saxophone, mixer; Bobby Previte – trap drums, percussion, autoharp, guitar, harmonica, arranger, conductor, producer) There are three components to each journey. There’s getting ready for the journey—finding the desired destination, packing, and then booking transportation; there’s the journey itself—the transit; and finally, there is the arrival. Percussionist/composer Bobby Previte is familiar with all aspects of a journey and has turned his ideas into a musical trilogy. The first constituent of his tri-part series is Terminals Part I: Departures, which premiered as a live 2011 performance with the SO Percussion group plus five soloists. A subsequent recording was issued via Cantaloupe Music in 2014. Previte’s second installment is Rhapsody—subtitled Terminals Part II: In Transit—which debuted April 2017 at New College in Sarasota, Florida. Rhapsody is out now on the RareNoise imprint. Previte is already mapping out Terminals Part III: Arrivals, a work in progress. Rhapsody was released as CD, double LP […]
Gregory Lewis – Organ Monk Blue
More Monk via the Organ Monk. Gregory Lewis – Organ Monk Blue [TrackList follows] – Self-released, 50:13 [1/5/18] ****: (Gregory Lewis – Hammond B-3 organ, producer; Marc Ribot – guitar; Jeremy ‘Bean’ Clemons – drums) Organist Gregory Lewis—AKA “Organ Monk”—continues his Thelonious Monk appreciation on Organ Monk Blue. This album is Lewis’ fifth as a leader and third to concentrate on Monk. Previous projects comprise 2017’s The Breathe Suite (which focused largely on African-American victims of violence); 2013’s American Standard (a collection of Great American Songbook tunes that were performed by Monk); 2012’s Uwo in the Black (which coalesced Monk compositions with Lewis originals); and 2010’s Organ Monk (which had 15 Monk adaptations). Lewis has come full circle with Organ Monk Blue: it has eight well-known and obscure Monk compositions. For this new effort Lewis pared down to a core trio with guitarist Marc Ribot—who participated in The Breathe Suite sessions—and drummer Jeremy ‘Bean’ Clemons. This is the third time Clemons has joined Lewis in the studio. Ribot is a versatile guitarist who has collaborated with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and John Zorn; and was a member of John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards from 1984 to 1989. Ribot is no stranger […]
DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II; Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; L’Isle joyeuse – Seong-Jin Cho, piano – DGG
Seong-Jin Cho’s Debussy recital for DGG confirms his place in the Debussy tradition set by Gieseking and Michelangeli. DEBUSSY: Images, Books I-II; Children’s Corner; Suite bergamasque; L’Isle joyeuse – Seong-Jin Cho, piano – DGG 479 8308, 72:47 (11/17/17) [Distr. by Universal] *****: South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho (b. 1994) recently appeared for the Steinway Society in the Bay Area, a concert which I attended, so I can well attest to his predilection for the music of Claude Debussy, a product of Cho’s studies at the Paris Conservatory with Michel Beroff. Debussy’s fascination with light has often borne comparison with the paintings of his admired J.M.W. Turner, the master of gradations of visual hues. So, too, the first set of Images (1905) declares its independence from traditional diatonic harmony and embraces modal and whole-tone scales and sonorities of the East, particularly of the gamelan orchestra of Bali and Indonesia. Debussy relishes the blurring of phrase lengths, and he often eschews resolved chords based on tonal harmony. Cho emphasizes the perfect fifth in the bass chords of Reflets dans l’eau, set in D-flat Major, the opening of which suggests a disturbance in standing water whose ripple effects we follow as they undulate […]
BRUCH: Scottish Fantasy; Violin Concerto – Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ Joshua Bell, violin and conductor – Sony
Joshua Bell’s new traversal of Max Bruch two mighty violin scores has sinew and tenderness, as required. BRUCH: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46; Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 – Academy of St Martin in the Fields/ Joshua Bell, violin and conductor – Sony 19075 84200 2, 55:40 (6/22/18) ****: Max Bruch (1838-1920) follows both Haydn and Beethoven in his appreciation of Scottish folk song, and his 1880 Fantasy for Violin and Harp on Scottish Folk Tunes features the harp as a means of invoking the bardic element into his setting of several tunes of romantic and martial character. Bruch had been working on a dramatic cantata, Das Feuerkreuz (The Cross of Fire) based on Walter Scott’s The Lady of the Lake. Joshua Bell and his ensemble (rec. 8-9 September 2017) open the highland proceedings in E-flat minor, intoning the warm sentiments of “Thro’ the Wood, Laddie.” The harp solo (Bryn Lewis) brings the “glorious times of old” motif, presented in the context—similar to what Smetana does in “The High Castle”—of contemplating an old ruin of a castle that has known glory and renown. Bell invokes a haunted atmosphere of olden times in a leisurely unfolding of his […]
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 6; Romeo and Juliet Fantasy – NBC Symphony Orchestra/ Leopold Stokowski – Pristine Audio
Leopold Stokowski leads two 1944 NBC Symphony concerts in music of Tchaikovsky, brilliantly and passionately executed.
Bob Mintzer Big Band, New York Voices – Meeting Of Minds – MCG JAZZ
A session that is continuously changing through richness and structure Bob Mintzer Big Band, New York Voices – Meeting Of Minds – MCG JAZZ MCGJ1045 61:03****: (Bob Mintzer Big Band – Bob Mintzer – leader, tenor saxophone, flute; New York Voices – Kim Nazarian; Lauren Kinhan; Darmon Meader; Peter Eldridge) Meeting Of Minds is a re-imagining of some of the more notable compositions of the Great American Songbook of the 1930s and 1940s through the lens of the cracking big band of Bob Mintzer combined with the slick harmonization of the New York Voices. The result is an album filled with memorable and stylishly shaped music. It is no small feat combining the intricate four-part harmony of the NYV as envisioned by Damon Meader, with the multi-layered charts of the big band mostly created by Bob Mintzer. But as the opening instrumental bars of “Autumn Leaves” gradually gives way to the integration of the NYV, it is clear that something special was underway. Cole Porter wrote many compositions associated with this era such as “I Concentrate On You” which he penned for the film Broadway Melody Of 1940. With a slight Latin lilt, the number begins with lead vocalist Peter […]
The Romantic Piano Concerto 76 = Concertos of RHEINBERGER; SCHOLZ – Simon Callaghan – Hyperion
The combination of Rheinberger and Scholz offers some rare but effective keyboard repertory from an era rife with talent. The Romantic Piano Concerto 76 = RHEINBERGER: Piano Concerto in A-flat Major, Op. 94; SCHOLZ: Piano Concerto in B Major, Op. 57; Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 35 – Simon Callaghan/ BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/ Ben Gernon – Hyperion CDA68225, 71:16 (6/29/18) [Distr. Harmonia mundi/PIAS] ****: The continuing series devoted to rare, Romantic piano concertos finds strange bedfellows: Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) and Bernhard Scholz (1835-1916). Rheinberger enjoyed a distinguished career as both composer and pedagogue. Besides having written many organ compositions—in fact, a significant body of work that continues Mendelssohn’s legacy to the instrument—Rheinberger taught musical composition to a distinguished list of American and European students, among whom Horatio Parker, George Whitefield Chadwick, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Wilhelm Furtwaengler count but a few. In terms of musical influences, Rheinberger’s style combines strong contrapuntal procedures derived from his intense study of Bach, with a lyrical effusiveness we find in his contemporaries Schumann and Brahms. In the manner of the Beethoven “Emperor” Concerto, an abrupt call to attention ushers in the piano solo, Moderato, whose double notes and parallel octaves leave no […]
The Music Treasury for 1 July 2018 — Violinist Michael Rabin, Part 2
The Music Treasury for 1 July 2018 — Violinist Michael Rabin, Part 2 This week’s show can be heard between 19:00 and 21:00 PDT from its host station KZSU at Stanford University in the Bay Area on 1 July 2018, concurrently streamed at kzsu.stanford.edu. As always, Dr Gary Lemco host the show. Michael Rabin, American Violinist We continue our tribute to Michael Rabin (1935-1972), whose stellar career became marred by bouts of mental illness (anxiety disorder) and possible drug abuse. His return to the active stage and concert work lasted only seven years, 1965-1972. From public broadcasts and various tour appearances, we present some of the rare moments in his performance history not exemplified by his commercial recordings. Program: Paganini: Caprice No. 17 in E-flat (NBC, Voohees, 1950) Paganini: Caprice No. 9 (NYC 1970, WQXR) Wieniawski: Polonaise Brillante in D Major, Op. 4 (Sydney, 1952) Ravel: Tzigane (Sydney, 1952) Faure: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Op. 13 (Berlin, 1961) Falla (arr. Kreisler): Danse espagnole from La vida breve (BTH, Voorhees) Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20, No. 1 (1952, BTH, Voorhees) Massenet: Elegie (w/B. Sullivan, 1955) Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, K. 218 (w/S. Caston, Denver Sarasate: […]
Hendrik Meurkens/Bill Cunliffe – Cabin In The Sky – Height Advantage
A harmonica/piano performance that reflects the participants virtuosity Hendrik Meurkens/Bill Cunliffe – Cabin In The Sky – Height Advantage 002 56:35***: ( Hendrick Meurkens – harmonica; Bill Cunliffe – piano) Hendrik Meurkens and Bill Cunliffe are two widely respected musicians on their instruments. They have come together for the first time to display their creativity on a wide-ranging selection of material from both jazz and popular culture on their new album Cabin In The Sky. The well-spring of this collaboration might have been the 1979 pairing of Bill Evans and Toots Thielemans for their release Affinity. Regardless of the provenance, this effort stands entirely on its own merits and no comparison is required. The title track “Cabin In The Sky” was written by Vernon Duke and John Latouche in 1940 for the Broadway musical by the same name. With a jaunty tempo, the duo explore the easily accessible number in a decisive fashion. In 1967 Wayne Shorter recorded the album Schizophrenia containing the number “Miyako” which he wrote for his daughter. A lovely ballad it is filled with shifting textures that allow both players to flex their musical muscles. That old standby “Invitation” is given new life with staccato phrasing […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
