Yarlung Pure DSD256 Reissues from the Master Tapes Continue with the Ciaramella Early Music Ensemble (with free download)

Read Original (PF) Yarlung Records continues to celebrate its Twentieth Anniversary with another superb release from its analog master tape archives. In April 2025, we received the marvelous recording by David Fung, Evening Conversations, about which I wrote HERE.  Now we have another release from Yarlung’s archives that has only seen light of day as a CD: […]

Film Music For The Piano – Ivar Anton Waagaard

In the first half of my 50 + years as a radio personality, I was exposed to hundreds of ho-hum albums of songs from movies.  The last thing I wanted to hear was another version of the Theme from The Apartment, or the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet.  And that’s why I avoided spending […]

Stavanger Symphony Orchestra Ignites Nielsen’s ‘The 4 Temperaments’ and ‘Inextinguishable’

It’s easy to lump composers together simply because they are contemporaries, or they come from the same place or area.  I’ve written about this before in relation to Sibelius and Nielsen.  The “Nordic” similarities seem stretched– Denmark (Nielsen) is traditionally more aligned in culture with Germany and continental Europe.  Finland (Sibelius) is more aligned with, […]

Recent Finds No. 64 NativeDSD Releases Pure DSD256 Audio Treasures

View Original Over the years I’ve freely admitted to being something of a sound nut. I revel in recordings that feel transparent, timbrally truthful, and utterly convincing in their portrayal of natural acoustic space. For me, the deepest listening pleasure comes from acoustic instruments captured in real environments, without artifice. With that in mind, I’m […]

Dvorak’s Cello Concerto from Pieter Wispelwey, BFO and Fischer

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 my choice for a modern, […]

Godowsky’s ‘Java Suite’ – Two Interpretations

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 into an almost orchestral instrument. […]

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’

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 finally explored Aldo Ciccolini’s recordings […]