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.
More About Mark Nodwell’s ‘Nemesis’
Historically, American jazz scenes coalesced within tightly-bounded geographical settings. Think of the clubs on 52nd Street in NYC in the 1940s, where bebop was incubated. In Los Angeles, the Central Avenue clubs, and a handful of venues in Hollywood and the beach cities played a similar part in nurturing West Coast cool and bop. New Orleans, […]
Notes on Recent Finds, No. 9 – Endless Bounty from NativeDSD
This is a reposted article originally written for Positive Feedback by our friend Rush Paul. The great team at Positive Feedback, as well as Rush himself, have kindly given us permission to repost this and you can find the original article at this link. Thanks to Rush the PF team! Continuing the conversation about what […]
Recordings from Frans de Rond and Sound Liaison
This is a reposted article originally written for Positive Feedback by our friend Rush Paul. The great team at Positive Feedback, as well as Rush himself, have kindly given us permission to repost this and you can find the original article at this link. Thanks to Rush the PF team! I’ve mentioned recording engineer Frans […]
‘Solitude’ from Niek Baar and Ben Kim
A definite proof of his exceptional musicianship. In an earlier blog devoted to Niek Baar, I said: “It may still be early days, but it would seem to me that there is a new star in the Dutch musical firmament”. These ‘early days’ are now over. Further proof of his exceptional musicianship is here and […]
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces
The 45+ Minutes of Honeck and the Pittsburghers is All You Need If we were to play all the existing recordings of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, including re- and re-re-mastered versions, we would have to devote (by my rough estimate) 9180 minutes or 19 eight-hour working days of our precious time to complete the effort. Don’t waste […]
‘The Trondheim Concertos’ from 2L
Balm for the soul in testing times. It would seem to me that in the good-(very)-old-days, many if not all composers did not compose to innovate at all costs, but to please. That was at least my conclusion listening to this latest 2L release. And all you need to pass it on to the listener […]
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 […]
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
A Work that Holds a Special Place Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra” has long been one of my favorite symphonic compositions. I like the music, the story behind the commission, and the many extraordinary recordings available of this remarkable work. Live performances that stick happily in my memory include several with Esa-Pekka Salonen and one conducted […]
‘Beethoven: Symphonies Nos 4 & 5’ by National Symphony Orchestra
It’s simple: If you go for it, do it well Some time ago the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC, following the example of other top orchestras, decided to launch their own label. NSO Executive Director Gary Ginstling: “We believe the orchestra is at the top of its form and comparable to any great orchestra in […]
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 […]
‘Lebensmuth (Courage)’ by Signum Quartett
The many faces of Schubert Do we know exactly what kind of person Schubert was and why some of his compositional output is of varying consistency? I have several books in which writers and scholars do their best to shed light on him as a human being, with an at times difficult-to-understand character, and an […]
Yarlung Records ‘Creation’ by Pekka Kuusisto and Joonas Ahonen
This is a reposted article originally written for Positive Feedback by our friend Rush Paul. The great team at Positive Feedback, as well as Rush himself, have kindly given us permission to repost this and you can find the original article at this link. Thanks to Rush the PF team! Creation (Pure DSD) – Pekka […]