Disc Index Archive
Editorial for June 2015
Navona Records is donating two of their new CD releases to six Audiophile Audition readers this month. They are Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 and Voyage by Pierre Schroeder. The first is from a German-Japanese pianist known for her Bach performances, and the second is a captivating sonic journey using a variety of musical styles in a classical form. Schroeder is a French native who as a child came to music by transcribing movie themes by Nino Rota, Morricone, and others on the family piano. Navona is known for presenting winning artists and undiscovered voices in the classical tradition. To be eligible for the two new CDs, you must register this month using our simple form. (We do not share your information.) The six winners will be listed below in early July. The three lucky winners of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas (8 CD set) performed by Maurizio Pollini (our May drawing) are: Stanley Schwab, Northfield IL, Kelly Beck, Riverside NJ, and Richard Rodrick, Hillsboro OR. EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a local program in San Francisco and then in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, and aired for 13½ years on up to 200 public […]
Editorial for May 2015
Deutsche Grammophon is donating three copies of their new release of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas played by Maurizio Pollini as our May drawing. The 8-CD boxed set was recorded between 1975 and 2014 and most are studio recordings, except for Sonatas Nos. 12 & 21. Here is our review of the set. The complete set will go to three of our readers who register this month using our simple form. The winners will be listed below in early June. The lucky winner of the Brilliant Classics 50-CD set – our April drawing – of the compositions of George Philip Telemann is Neal Arluck, Astoria NY. [audaud-hr] GUEST EDITORIAL by Dr. Mark Waldrep of AIX Multichannel Music and High-End DACs Multichannel music is an avenue that audiophiles should explore and embrace. AIX and our partners demonstrated a real high-resolution audio system in the Lakeshore B Ballroom at Axpona and I know that Emotiva also featured surround sound sourced from an OPPO BDP-105. It’s coming…no, it’s already here! There are millions of home theater systems in homes around the country with surround sound. There are at least 16 different automobiles that can deliver surround sound and I count at least a dozen systems for delivering surround sound through a […]
Editorial for April 2015
This April we are awarding a single boxed 50-CD set which is the most comprehensive selection of the compositions of George Philip Telemann ever offered. A flurry of interest has grown around this composer over the past 30 years, even though his popularity fell away in the 19th century. He was active in both Hamburg and Paris and sensitive to all the styles of the time. Many brilliant Baroque performers are heard on the recordings. The complete set will go to one of our readers who registers this month using our simple form. The winner will be listed below in early May. [More details on the 50 discs here.] The lucky winner of the $699 Oppo MP-2 headphones, our March free drawing, is Len Laviolette, Beaverton OR. EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a local program in San Francisco and then in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, and aired for 13½ years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations. In September 1998 its web site for program listings was expanded to this free Internet publication.April 2015 is our 193rd issue. All disc reviews are added thru the month as they are written and received, usually daily. […]
Editorial for November 2014
This month our drawing/giveaway is for two 45-CD boxed sets of The Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon by famed conductor Ferenc Fricsay. It includes his probing recordings of such works at the Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 & 9 plus the Piano Concerto No. 3; Bartok’s three Piano Concertos, Concerto for Orchestra, Dance Suite and Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta; Brahms’ Symphony No 2 & Haydn Variations; Dvorak & Bruch’s Violin Concertos; two versions of Dvorak’s New World Symphony; six Haydn symphonies; seven Mozart symphonies; Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring & Petrouchka; ballet music from Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky; opera instrumentals by Verdi, Ponchielli, & Tchaikovsky; plus the works of many others. The two winners will be chosen from those AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who register this month using our simple form. (When you register we don’t share any information except your address of mailing of the discs.) The winners’ names will be listed here next month. Here are the six lucky winners of the Complete Beethoven String Quartets by the Tokyo Quartet on eight Harmonia mundi hybrid SACDs, our October drawing.: David Sims, Simsbury CT; James Kreh, Hoschton GA; Hudson Fair, Chicago IL; […]
Home Page for September 2014
Our drawing/giveaway for September will be for a pair of special Erato CD collections by two great operatic voices for five AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers. In the first, Stella di Napoli, Joyce DiDonato explores the birth of bel canto in Naples with a selection of rarities and world premiere recordings. The beloved American singer brings her flair, power, intelligence and taste to little-known arias of Mercadante, Carafa, Valentini and Pacini. Three bel canto greats—Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti—are included. The second CD is a special 18-track sampler for the complete 69-CD Maria Callas Remastered Collection, for which all the original studio recordings have been reprocessed at Abbey Road Studio at 96K/24-bit. Here is the TrackList. All you need do to be considered as one of the five winners to be selected is to register using our simple form this month. (Those who don’t completely fill out the form will not be considered for the drawing, including those who have registered previous months.) The five lucky winners will be listed on our Editorial Page next month, where this month you’ll find more details on the drawing.
Editorial for August 2014
For August Universal and DGG will donate two of their new Karajan/Richard Strauss analog recordings sets consisting of 11 CDs and a Pure Audio Blu-ray. Details Here. The remastered set is released to mark the 25th Anniversary of the conductor’s death and the 150th Anniversary of Richard Strauss (June 2014). All of Karajan’s R. Strauss analog recordings are included, plus his first Strauss digital recording (Alpine Symphony) and the complete Der Rosenkavilier. The two winners of this set will be chosen from among those AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who register this month using our simple form. When you register we don’t share any of your information except your address (used only for mailing the discs), and you won’t be receiving emails from anyone else. The two winners’ names will be listed here next month. Here are the three winners of our July drawing—the 14-hrs.-plus Blu-ray set, the EuroArts Classical Archive Collectors’ Edition of video performances by ensembles featuring leading classical artists: Ted Kastelic, San Jose CA; Peter Gayde, Naperville IL; Gabor Legradi, Hattiesburg MS. Congrats to all! ———————————————————————————————————– EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a local program in San Francisco and then in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by […]
Editorial for May 2013
Beethoven couldn’t totally escape Mozart’s influence on especially his earlier works. All of his Symphonies (including the Ode to Joy of the Ninth—which has become the anthem for Europe), plus the inventive Piano Concertos and his Overtures are found in the 12-CD box set from Naxos which we are awarding to five lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who register this month on our simple form and fill out all fields. The total time for the set is nearly 14 hours! The five winners will be announced here in early June. Here are the three winners of the 14-CD Opera d’Oro set of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, our April drawing. Congratulations!: Sara Alvaro, NYC; William Fialko, Horn Lake MS & Lucy Petitto, Mechanicville NY. [audaud-hr] EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast. In September 1998 its web site for programming information was expanded to the present Internet publication. May 2013 is our 170th issue. All disc reviews (well over 100) are added thru the month as they are written and received, usually daily. The most recent reviews appear at the top of each Section Index. The Home Page […]
Editorial for April 2013
Wagner aficionados will want to have this month’s drawing/giveaway. It is for all four Wagner music dramas making up The Ring, on 14 CDs from Opera d’Oro. Clemens Krauss conducts the leading soloists and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus in 1953, and the set features four newly-translated complete librettos in English, plus a fifth book of essays. The set will go to three AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who register this month on our simple form and fill out all the fields. The winners will be announced here in May. The two winners of the 50-CD Brilliant set of all 200 Bach Sacred Cantatas—our March drawing—are: Karl Stefan Grenz, Niedersachsen Germany & Marshall Taylor, Radnor PA. Congratulations to both! GUEST EDITORIAL by Mark Waldrip, Ph.D., AIX Records [Reprinted with permission from the AIX newsletter] Just What Is The Sound Of Analog or Digital? Compliment or Criticism? I’m a digital guy when it comes to producing, engineering and releasing recordings these days but I’ve spent most of my career working with analog recording equipment. So it continues to confuse me when a reviewer or other commentator refers to a piece of music as “analog” or “digital”. I’ve heard this pronouncement many times. […]
Editorial for February 2013
A special collection of Great Piano Concertos will be part of the library of five AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers early next month who register using our simple form this month. Honoring the 25th anniversary of Naxos Records, the ten-CD box set draws on their huge catalog of piano concerto recordings and provides a fine introduction to the main body of concertos by such composers as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Prokofiev. The five winners will be announced in this space early next month. Here are the five lucky winners of the complete remastered Beethoven Symphonies set conducted by Otto Klemperer (in whatever format they choose at the Pristine Audio site). Congrats to all!: Jim McDermott, Woodford Halse, UK; Dr. Richard Goldwater, Newton Center MA; Charles Betts, Asheboro NC; Piet Brummer, Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands; Michael Simon, Hod Hasharon Israel. EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast. In September 1998 its web site for programming information was expanded to the present Internet publication. February 2013 is our 167th issue, and features improved […]
Editorial for September 2012
Register Here to be considered as one of the seven AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers who will be receiving one of the eight-CD box sets of the Complete Glazunov Symphonies and Concertos from Warner Classical, conducted by José Serebrier and featuring soloists such as Rachel Barton Pine. Marc Chisson and Alexander Romanovsky. Our review of this set without equal is here. Please register on our simple form page to be eligible. The seven lucky winners will be listed here in early October. The winners of the 8-CD set of the Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas performed by H.J. Lim on EMI Classics—our drawing last month—are: Scott Colebank, Prairie Village KS & Leonard Ray, Southgate MI. Congratulations to both! [audaud-hr] EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast. In September 1998 its web site for programming information was expanded to the present Internet publication. September 2012 is our 162nd issue, and features improved navigation and enhanced appearance using Word Press. All disc reviews (151 for August!) are added thru the month as they are written and received, usually […]
Editorial for June 2012
You have a good chance of being one of the lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers this month to win the complete 51-CD Mercury Living Presence boxed set. We will be awarding two of them, but you will need to Register Here using our non-intrusive email-protected form. Mercury’s vinyls are regarded as part of the Golden Age of Classical Recording, and these superb CD remasterings from the three-channel tapes and 35mm mag films bring all 50 complete albums to new life, as described in our Feature article on the set. The two winners will be announced right here in July. Here are the two lucky winners selected for last month’s drawing: The Claude Debussy 150th Anniversary set of 18-CDs from Decca Classics and DGG. Their Debussy collection will suddenly be much richer!: Robert Bashaw, Milton VT; James Verdini, Browns Summit NC. [audaud-hr] EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast. In September 1998 its web site for programming information was expanded to the present Internet publication. June 2012 is our 159th issue, and features improved navigation […]
Editorial for May 2012
If you would like to be one of the two lucky AUDIOPHILE AUDITION readers to receive the 18-CD Claude Debussy 150th Anniversary set from Deutsche Grammophon & Decca Classics you need to register Here using our simple non-intrusive email-protected form. The rich history of Debussy recordings is explored in the set by leading artists: including Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra, Mitsuko Uchida, Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, The Melos Quartet, Ernest Ansermet and many others. The winners will be announced here in June. Here are the six winners of the two audiophile vinyl albums from Lancia Media Factory (of the Ravel String Quartet and Gerry Mulligan’s Little Big Horn) – our April Drawing: David Fayman, Richmond VA; Don Kaplan, San Francisco CA; Mary Lee Walker, Sanford NC; Bill Conde, Richardson TX; Eric Shapiro, Santa Monica CA; Rob Butterworth, Kansas City MO. Congrats to all! [audaud-hr] EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, which aired for 13 1/2 years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations coast to coast. In September 1998 its web site for programming information was expanded to the present Internet publication. May 2012 is our 158th issue, […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
