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.
Godowsky’s ‘Java Suite’ – Two Interpretations
Now Available at 40% OFF! I didn’t know much about Polish-American pianist and composer, Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938). I saw his name occasionally, but it wasn’t until I spent some time with his Java Suite that I wanted to know more. Godowsky is celebrated for his extraordinary technical imagination and his ability to transform the piano […]
Recent Finds No. 62 – Exquisite Releases at NativeDSD
View Original Article In this issue, we have some exquisite new albums at NativeDSD, led by a new Pure DSD256 release from Cobra Records with a fascinating program for solo piano. And two new releases from the creative artists partnering with Brendon Heinst at TRPTK, and more. I hope you will find something to further […]
Guillaume Coppola’s ‘Satie: Amoureux’
Now Available for 40% Off I have loved the music of Erik Satie since… Well, I admit it, since I was first exposed to his Gymnopedies, no 2 as interpreted by Blood Sweat and Tears in their landmark 1968 album. I wasn’t alone in this. I’d been enjoying Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc for years, and when I […]
Dvorak’s Cello Concerto from Pieter Wispelwey, BFO and Fischer
Available now at 40% OFF! I love Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and I have since I first heard it in the 1962 recording with Janos Starker, backed by Dorati and the LSO. I would never want to be without it, but this one with Pieter Wispelwey, backed by Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra is […]
Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique from Rafael Payare
In 1830 Hector Berlioz created a groundbreaking, programmatic work about an artist who falls in love with a woman, becomes obsessed with her but is rejected, and eventually kills her. The Symphonie Fantastique was the first major symphony to follow a written narrative – a radical departure from the “absolute music” of earlier composers. Innovative orchestration […]
One of the best Discoveries so far
This is one of the best “Discoveries” I’ve made so far! 840, with guitarist Enno Voorhorst, is a wonderful album! The artistry is superb, the music program couldn’t be better, and the recording quality is the best I’ve heard for a solo guitar. I’m not alone in saying it will seem like Voorhorst is in the room […]
December 2025 Classical Record Reviews [Excerpt from Stereophile review by Jason Victor Serinus]
These reviews are re-posted from Stereophile.com, written by Jason Victor Serinus / Stephen Francis Vasta. Dvořák: Slavonic DancesCzech Philharmonic/Sir Simon RattlePentatone Music PTC5817414 (CD). 2025. Holger Urbach, prod.; Stephan Reh, eng.Performance ***Sonics ***½ I shouldn’t have praised Tomá Netopil for recording the Slavonic Rhapsodies instead of the seemingly inevitable Slavonic Dances: Apparently he was leaving […]
When Good Enough is Not Enough: Cobra Records Producer’s Choice Vol. 2 in Pure DSD256, with Free Sample Download
View Original Producer’s Choice, Vol. 2. Cobra Records 2025 (Pure DSD256-Direct Mixed, Stereo) Edit Master Sourced (To be released December 12 at NativeDSD) Cobra Records’ 25th Anniversary celebration continues with the release of Producer’s Choice, Volume 2. And it is phenomenal. Earlier this year, I wrote with enthusiasm about the release of Volume 1 which included selected tracks recorded […]
Review: Haydn 2032 Series from Giovanni Antonini
Back in 2013 Giovanni Antonini embarked on Haydn 2032, where, in time for the 300th anniversary of his birth, he would record with the two orchestras he is most associated with all of Haydn’s Symphonies and major choral works interspersed with pieces mainly by the composer’s contemporaries. As of June 2025, they had reached volume 17, […]
‘Gratia’ Is Unexpected and Amazing
I’ll admit, it took me a while to really dive into this classical-jazz crossover album. Is it fusion, or confusion…? Italian Double bassist and composer Enzo Pietropaoli features arrangements of traditional sacred Marian antiphons, as well as some compositions of his own. Pietropaoli is on bass, Gabriele Mirabassi on clarinet, and Michele Rabbia on percussion and […]
An Exciting New Release from Yarlung Records in Pure DSD 256 with Quartet Integra Performing Beethoven, Ligeti, and Lefkowitz
View Original Whenever I get to hear something that is so supremely good, and so delightfully performed, with such insight and richness, I feel it warrants a immediate sharing with you. This new Yarlung Records Pure DSD 256 album, released today, is such a recording. Can you tell I’m excited about it? Yes, indeed! You […]
Symphonies For The Whole World
Sir Antony Pampano’s recent recording of Vaughan Williams’ Symphonies 5 and 9 will no doubt be one of my nominations for an album of the year nomination, so I thought it would be an excellent time to remind you of this superb release from 2021. VW’s 4 and 6 are remarkable. Instead of folk melodies […]