Music Reviews
A grand collection of reviews. If you are a professional music reviewer and would like to contribute a review to this blog, please contact us.
Dejan Lazic plays Rachmaninoff
Available now for 40% OFF! Here is an album that’s been out for a while, and I think it’s been overlooked. Rachmaninoff was the last major Romantic composer according to folks who decide these things. I’m not sure. Comparing Rachmaninoff with even Stravinsky has convinced me that Rachmaninoff was more than capable with some surprising sounds, […]
Platero y Yo – An Andalusian Elegy
As well as being a performer and critic, the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) wrote a considerable body of conventional diatonic music in a wide variety of idioms. In Platero y Yo, which dates from 1960, he set twenty-eight poems for narrator and guitar by the Spanish poet Juan Ramon Jimenez, which document what can […]
Dvořák – Slavonic Dances
Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances have fared well on disc with classic performances from, amongst others, Kubelik, Sejna and Talich. Unsurprisingly the Czech Philharmonic has recorded them on numerous occasions, on this, their third album with Simon Rattle their playing is marvellous and they still actually sound like an Eastern European orchestra. Much of this is down […]
Yarlung Pure DSD256 Reissues from the Master Tapes Continues with Orion Weiss
View Original As Yarlung Records celebrates its 20th Anniversary, founder Bob Attiyeh is reissuing in Pure DSD256 some of the 15ips 2-track tape recordings made in earlier years. We’ve previously seen released David Fung’s Evening Conversations (HERE) and coming before long will be Ciaramella’s Music in the Court of Burgundy. But now we have this very excellent recording with pianist […]
Bodacious! A Great New Release From Sound Liaison in Pure DSD256
View Original Oh yes! I am excited about this. I am in love with this. Why? Because this is what audio should be. Frans de Rond, founder and recording engineer for Sound Liaison has released a stunning new album in Pure DSD256 with Carmen Gomes Inc. It is phenomenal. It is clarity, purity and utter […]
Superlative Brahms and Goldmark From Ning Feng and Channel Classics
View Original Every now and again a recording comes along that is of such supreme quality, that I simply must stop and tell you about it. It deserves a special stand alone article. And this performance by Ning Feng, recorded by Jared Sacks, is such a release. Read on… Brahms & Goldmark Violin Concertos, Ning […]
Recent Finds No. 54 – A Treasure Chest of New Releases at NativeDSD
View Original I can’t tell you about all the new releases from this past week now available at NativeDSD. I haven’t had time to listen to them all, and certainly not yet time to write about them all. But I have selected six that truly piqued my interest, and they turned out to be just […]
‘Grieg & Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos’ by Suzana Bartal
The Musical Engine of Europe? An intriguing release. Two well-known core compositions performed by lesser-known artists. It requires some explanation. Many of us will be familiar with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken (now the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern), mainly for guest Director Stanisław Skrowaczewski’s Bruckner Symphonies. But I can’t recall hearing anything from the Saarländisches Staatsorchester […]
Bartók in DSD: Aimard, Salonen & the San Francisco Symphony (Pentatone)
Currently Available for 40% OFF Bartok’s story is a fascinating one. His music was modern, but also very much influenced by Hungarian folk music. He and his wife came to the US in 1940 to escape the war. He became a US Citizen in 1945, shortly before his death, but never felt all that comfortable […]
APSoon Recordings at the Organ, Phenomenal Music and Sonics in Pure DSD256
View Original This new release in the ongoing series of outstanding organ recordings from APSoon Recordings is their best yet. If you love great organ recordings, just get this now! It will blow you away. Aare-Paul Lattik, Live at Riga Cathedral. APSoon Records 2025 (Pure DSD256) Edit Master Sourced HERE This is the most recent release of […]
Noseda and LSO’s Prokofiev 6 is a Knockout
I’ve been a fan of James Gaffigan’s cycle of Prokofiev Symphonies, and so is my colleague, Rushton Paul. Here’s a link to his very fine discussion of Prokofiev’s symphonies and Gaffigan’s recordings. These are all available from NativeDSD. But there’s a new contender for my favorites — Gianandrea Noseda’s recordings with the LSO! No, he hasn’t finished […]
Cobra Records 25th Anniversary Producer’s Choice Album, an Audio Education
View Original Here is an audiophile’s dream—an exploration of superb performances remastered in Pure DSD from the original DSD tracking channels. Tom Peeters, founder and recording engineer of Cobra Records has gone into his archives to find his original DSD64 tracking channels from albums released between 2007-2014 and remastered selected tracks in Pure DSD256 for […]