Author: Bill Dodd
Bill is Senior Music Reviewer at NativeDSD. He lives in the Portland, Oregon area. He is an avid photographer too! Along with his early interest in broadcasting and high fidelity audio, he was exposed to classical music in small doses from age 5, was given piano lessons from age 9— Starting with Bach and including Gershwin. Successful morning personality in San Francisco at age 22. (true). Sang in choirs in high school and college. Although the broadcasting experience was all in popular music, his personal listening has been mostly classical his whole life—along with others including Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Joni Mitchell, The Who, and Led Zeppelin.
Pentatone Has a Rising Star!
Pentatone has a rising star! Venezuelan Rafael Payare has been making a name for himself for the past few years, and these two newer releases from Pentatone are lighting up my listening room. I have so many great Mahler 5’s, and I’ve praised many of them right here. But this new one from Payare with […]
New Discoveries – Autumn 2023
Lately I’ve been spending more time listening, and It really paid off! I found these albums I want to showcase. Each has some unexpected rewards. Take some time yourself and listen! Remember, many of the samples are full length, and have quite good sound quality. So let’s dive in! Stravinsky/Poulenc/Debussy: Works for Cello and PianoAmalie Stalheim & Christian Ihle Hadlan […]
An Embarrassment of Riches – Pt. 2
It’s been wonderful to see so many excellent new releases on Native DSD– “An Embarrassment of Riches!” Well, here I am with even more! The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos Garrick Ohlsson, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Sir Donald Runnicles Last year I was totally entranced by Peter Takacs’ complete Beethoven Sonatas (here), and the […]
An Embarrassment of Riches – Pt. 1
We’ve had a wonderful increase in the number of available albums. More varieties, more depth, Simply more! I’m just getting started, but here are a few I’ve been enjoying very much. Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare is becoming increasingly well known for both his musical skill and his charismatic energy, and this release shows it! It’s […]
Even More Variations
*All albums featured in this article are now available at 20% discount. Offer ends March 31, 2023 end of day CET. Discounts are applied automatically at checkout. It’s true! As more and more time goes by I find that it’s quite difficult to have a single “favorite” performance of a given piece of classical music. […]
Relax | The Best DSD Albums to Evoke Peace and Calm
It seems that these days many of us are feeling the need to relax, to wind down, and to take a step back – myself included. So I thought I might list a few NativeDSD sets that I personally find interesting and involving, but ultimately relaxing. I’m just scratching the surface with these, and […]
Some Surprises
While looking (and listening) for prospective nominations for the Album of the Year Nominations of 2021 list, I was pleased to rediscover some wonderful releases. These are not “also-rans”! They are top quality recordings of superb musicianship– easily recommendable on their own. So… Schumann is not a name one associates with Organ music, but these […]
Albums of the Year 2021 – Nominations (Part 1 of 3)
It is once again time for NativeDSD to celebrate the year in Direct Stream Digital (DSD) music. With almost 80 music labels contributing to our listeners music enjoyment there is much to celebrate and enjoy. During 2021, the NativeDSD family of music labels released hundreds of DSD albums in a wide variety of musical […]
The Best DSD. Does Bill Dodd Agree with Gramophone Magazine?
Gramophone says they’re among the very best! Founded almost 100 years ago (1923), Gramophone is one of the world’s most important music publications. Over the past few weeks Gramophone has posted on social media lists of the top recordings of works by various composers. It should come as no surprise that we can find many […]
Growing Into Gershwin
Use coupon: GERSHWIN for 20% OFF the DSD Albums below!Ends: September 30, 2021 Once upon a time, about 27 years after Gershwin first introduced his Three Preludes for Solo Piano, my piano teacher gave me Prelude No. 2 to learn. My hands were a bit small for one of the chords, so I had to cheat […]
The Unexpected
I admit it –just like most people I tend to stay in my comfort zone. But one of the joys of wandering through the Native DSD library is that I can find unexpected pleasure in a new viewpoint in performance, or a new arrangement for a different instrument, or even new and unfamiliar works. In […]
40 Classical DSD Recommendations (Dodd’s DSD Discoveries)
Ah, the opportunities! With so many albums to choose from! Here I share a few ideas, these are some of the classical works, interpretations and recordings that I admire most. How about a complete Beethoven Symphony cycle from Jan Willem de Vriend on Challenge Classics? Everybody has some favorite Beethoven conductors, but I can’t imagine […]