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.
Stepping off the Merry-go-round
Last year I praised the album of works by “Herbert Howells” performed by Gloriae Dei Cantores which I find myself returning to quite often. This time I’d like to spotlight another set by this wonderful ensemble: “The Chants of the Holy Spirit”. The set opens and concludes with the sound of the bells at the […]
Discovering Wonderful Performances
It’s always a pleasure to discover wonderful performances. But it’s really wonderful to discover unfamiliar composers. Tabea Zimmermann (violin) and Kirill Gerstein (piano) come together in an exquisitely recorded, beautifully played set of Sonatas by Brahms, Vieuxtemps, and a wonderful surprise: Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). Clarke was born in England, but lived mostly in the US. […]
The Art of the Flute
Bach’s Art of the Fugue! I love this music no matter what instruments are involved. Check out Lynx, a quartet of Japanese flute players, traveling to a church in Germany to record Bach’s The Art Of The Fugue (BWV 1080)! What a delightful discovery this is! The album is called Fuga Lynx. I was totally […]
Living The Music
I love Debussy. I think he was a giant among composers. And I suspect that some or all of the Preludes, Books 1 and 2, are probably part of your own library. Some pianists capture the dreamy, impressionistic qualities. Others play them in a neo-classical manner, letting the notes speak for themselves. I love having […]
Transcriptions, reductions, and orchestrations
Transcriptions, reductions, and orchestrations can be quite enjoyable. Stokowski got a lot of mileage out of orchestrating Bach organ pieces. Ravel orchestrated many of his own works for piano, not to mention his famous orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. This next DSD Discovery is Gustav Mahler’s arrangement for full string orchestra of Franz […]
Cello Discoveries in DSD
To me there is no musical instrument that captures the range of human emotion as well as the cello. Here are three works for the cello featuring the outstanding young Nicolas Altstaedt, backed by Berlin’s other world-class orchestra, the Deutches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by the up and coming Michal Nesterowicz. Included are Cello Concertos by […]
Dangerous DSD Discoveries
Here’s one I’m very excited about: an album featuring music by a composer I’d never heard of, performed by an ensemble I’d never heard of. The Amsterdam Bridge Ensemble absolutely carries me away with the music of Dutch composer Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981). Jacobien Rozemond – Violin, Doris Hochscheid – Cello, and Frans van Ruth – Piano […]
Great Conductors
Jaap van Zweden, the newly named Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in a dynamic and emotional performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. There have been a number of quite fine new recordings of this massive work in the last few years, and some would say that the […]
Contemporary Classical Masterpieces
Some out of the way yet close to us in the classical music composing history discoveries today… Contemporary Classical 20th and 21st Century Masterpieces in DSD. Here’s a really lovely Cello-Piano duo recital! Terry Drinkall and Dian Baker combine to perform two beautiful sonatas and some other wonderful duets. “20th Century Masterpieces for Piano and […]
Peace, Paris and Piano
I talk about discoveries, and this album, “Herbert Howells” with Gloriae Dei Cantores is full of them. Howells is is a 20th century British composer who has composed a huge number of religious choral works– Surprising because he wasn’t all that religious. The Choir, Gloriae Dei Cantores, and its director Elizabeth C. Patterson, is superb. […]