title: Christopher Reeve: "John Williams music let us believe that a man can fly"

text:
This review is for the 40th anniversary 3 CD edition of Superman The Movie available since March 2019.

This score is definately one of those, lets call them, absolut achievements in filmmusic history, at least IMHO. Timeless and truely perfect in every possible aspect.

Even if you heard this masterpiece possibly a thousand times this newly remastered 3CD edition can make you believe that you have heard it 40 years later for the first time again. Soundquality is hugely improved and some tracks are extended. You can see immediately that this ultimative presentation is a labour of true love and great admiration for one of Maestro Williams greatest achivments.

Thanks to all that made this abolut release of "Superman - The Movie" possible.
Lets hope there will be soon a vinyl release as well.


title: Perfect Silvestri Score

text: A great score of a great composer. One of my all time favorite action scores is now as a complete version available. A great buy, you will enjoy it!


title: Outstanding

text: Loved the CD great score for an average movie.


title: A musical return to the city of The Batman

text:
The Bat-music legacy of Shirley Walker and friends is featured in another beautifully packaged CD collection produced by La-La Land Records, "Batman: The Animated Series (Vol. 3) Soundtrack;" a limited edition 4 disc set compiling music from selected episodes of the classic animated cartoon which premiered on American television in 1992. It is a testament to the enduring greatness of this immortal series that even after the release of 6 CDs in previous collections, this third volume still contains memorable musical scores to exciting episodes, some of which are this Bat-fan's favorites!

Like its predecessors, "Batman: TAS (Vol. 3)" is a high quality soundtrack compilation, showcasing the distinctive individual themes and musical motifs of such great stories as: "Robin's Reckoning (Parts 1 & 2)," which tells the tale of Dick Grayson's tragic yet triumphant journey in becoming Robin the Boy Wonder; "Tyger, Tyger," a case involving Batman, Catwoman, and genetic manipulation; the "Night of the Ninja" and "Day of the Samurai" duo-logy, revealing glimpses into Bruce Wayne's past before he became the Dark Knight, and a foe with an old vendetta; "Mudslide," a tale of ill-fated love and tragedy featuring Matt Hagen, the grotesque Clayface; "P.O.V.," in which the mystique of the Masked Manhunter is shown from the perspective of three members of the Gotham City Police Department; "Dreams in Darkness," wherein The Batman finds himself imprisoned in Arkham Asylum as one of its insane inmates; and "I am the Night," detailing the anguish the Gotham Guardian endures when his old friend Commissioner Gordon is shot in the line of duty by a vengeful gangster. All these episodes as well as this set's other Bat-adventures, some of which feature such Bat-villains as the Joker, Poison Ivy, and The Riddler, contain their own unique TV film score which is the hallmark of this series. Over the course of 23 dramatic tales, the listener will experience all the action and emotion that is part of the legend of the Dark Knight.

With a running time of over 5 hours, this limited edition collection of only 3000 copies also features a thick, 36 paged fully illustrated companion booklet that details the making of the soundtrack to the episodes and takes a look at the enduring popularity of the series as a whole.

More than two decades after its premiere, "Batman: The Animated Series" remains an animation and musical milestone. It is a show that continues to provide lovers of the classic comic character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger a wonderful way to enter the "dark deco" world of The Batman. This third soundtrack collection comes with this reviewer's highest recommendation.


title: greatl musicianship

text: innovative


title: Five Stars

text: soul music


title: Healing the body

text: When our body is relaxed, self-healing can occur.  Through these three meditations, Molly Larkin provides soothing guided visualizations which help me relax every time.  I highly recommend this CD!


title: Mirtha y Raul record.

text: Great record by this duo who gave us such beautiful songs back in the early 70s. We were just teenagers and full of dreams. The harmonizing of Mirta and Raul has no comparison. They once were the best. Once they split, they have not been the same. I guess they belonged frozen way back in time when we were starting falling in love with the help of their music.<br />They are part of the wonderful people who kind of made us forget for a bit about the terrible hardships of life in Cuba of that time. And the sufferings we endured under the repressive Communist dictatorship. Their music was a little oasis in the midst of our hunger, thirst for freedom,  and lack of opportunity brought by the merciless tyranny of the Castro brothers.


title: Everyone should read Tim O'Brien

text: As a Vietnam veteran I wish everyone would read The Things They Carried in addition to Going After Cacciato.  It should be required somewhere when that we periodically revisit the lunacy of warfare.  O'Brien blurs the edges between stark reality and a surreal imagery in a way that captures some of the feelings you experience in a combat zone.  Nothing quite happens the way he describes but when you are stuck in that situation you begin to view everything around you as "not quite possible" but real none-the-less.  We used to refer to home in the States as "the world" as if where we were was someplace altogether removed from the real world.  The only way this emotional dichotemy can be captured is through art, a few movies and a few books including this little masterpiece.


title: Fantastic!  A GREAT live album.

text: Total joy.  Ebersole amazes with every song.  Some are funny, some will make you cry.  Her singing chops are breathtaking.  "Do You Miss New York" is astonishing, but so is every cut.  Makes you feel like you're there.  If you love cabaret, she will immediately become on of your all-time favorites, if she isn't already.


title: Good luck getting a copy...

text: Current circumstances resulted in this album being yanked from many places by the label.  It's a really good album, likely PWR BTTM's best yet, IMO.  Nice variety of music, and with fun, witty (at times even biting) lyrics.


title: Five Stars

text: It was great when it was first released and it's still great !!  One of our favorite CD's


title: Five Stars

text: A major treat


title: What's not to like The Rat Pack as its best

text: Clear sound great music if you like the Rat Pack, this ultimate collection is a good buy.


title: Five Stars

text: A + all around excellent in everything


title: Five Stars

text: A+ all around


title: Glad to own this again.

text: Favorite greatest hits album


title: ... admirer as usual I found this to be an excellent album filled with the familiar characteristics that he is ...

text: As a longtime Twilley admirer as usual I found this to be an excellent album filled with the familiar characteristics that he is known for  and which we all love.Present are the melodious up tempo rockers like the opening title track, "Always" followed by "A million Miles Wide" Then for the third song Twilley gives us his trademark soft side with "Lovers" a song that I would put right up there with classics like "Sincerelly" "Out of my Hands" and "You were so Warm" My favorite part of this song comes about in the middle after the guitar solo which if I'm not wrong is provided by the late Great Bill Pitcock iv,little bits of horn and string that run all the way through the end of the song. Then comes "Into the flames" another great catchy ballad that's also bound to become another favorite, I highly recommend this album to anyone who is not familiar with this talented, versatile musician, whose style as a lyricist have described some of my most intimate thoughts like if i had confided them to him!!!  Dwight Twilley,You can't go wrong!<br />" go wrong!!


title: Beatles

text: Thank's for quick and accurate service the album was in perfect condition I haven't played it yet cause I don't intend to doso I wanted the cover to frame it because its one of my all time favorite covers.Thank You!!


title: A fantastic single

text:
"J'en ai marre!" is the first single released from Alizée's second album, [[ASIN:B001NU0KO2 Mes Courants Electriques]]. If you are new to Alizée, she is a French singer with a wonderful voice and great talent. This is a really fantastic song that not only has become a signature song for her, but may be her very best. The song epitomizes fun and playful pop at its best; clever in its rhyming with beautiful vocals by Alizée. The song itself lives up to the title, which translates to "I'm Fed Up" or "I've Had Enough." The song's narrator takes a bubble bath while musing on how fed up she is with complainers and cynics around her.

This album features six different tracks including the radio edit, the English version ("I'm Fed Up!"), and four remixes of "J'en ai marre!" and "I'm Fed Up!" (abv: IFU). The remixes are a lot of fun and range in tone and rhythm such as electronic to dance music. Also, her Corsican accent lends a lot of character and beauty to the "I'm Fed Up" tracks.

The music video and television performances of "J'en ai marre!" became an iconic internet meme worldwide, particularly due to her looking infinitely stunning in a crackerjack girl outfit but do not be fooled; there is more to this song than a pretty callipygian who dances very well. There is a lot to be enjoyed from this song, its remixes and the excellent studio album it spin off'd from, [[ASIN:B001NU0KO2 Mes Courants Electriques]].


title: Great "lost" tunes

text: As a professional DJ I jumped at the chance to get this CD as it listed "Memories" as one of it's tracks.  This song is almost impossible to get as it was only pressed to vinyl (records for you whippersnappers) long ago.  The CD arrived in pristine condition and the songs are well worth the price as many of them were vinyl releases and have never before been available on CD.  "Memories", "Wake Up" and "Capital Tropical" are all stand-out selections and will definitely get the dance floor jumping!  Lastly, if you're looking for an extended version of the "Electric Slide" but cannot get the Project 122 version (Chicago), Marcia Griffiths version will get you by.


The production, musicality, and maturity of composition is amazing. Truly a great writer and producer.


title: Probably the Best Album I Own

text: I have owned this album for over 10 years and today I am still enjoying it. There is no question that Stephen Kovacevich does superlative work here. I especially enjoyed his rendering of the Op. 24 variations. What has not been mentioned but really needs to be is that Dinorah Varsi has recorded here the most magnificent performances of the Rhapsody no. 2 and the Op. 76 set. For some of the pieces I think her tempo is well above average. Normally I prefer a more moderate tempo but she has managed to not only retain all of the details but present them with amazing clarity. What an excellent sound she gets and a truly unique reading of some of these works.


title: Chicago - A tarnished legacy

text:
It may be hard to believe today, but Chicago was once on the cutting edge of rock.  Its first album, CTA, is a classic that was deservedly chosen by critic Tom Moon as one of the 1000 recordings to hear before you die.  Their other albums, up until Chicago 9 (their greatest hits), feature plenty of material to make the case that Chicago should be enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  As for particular albums, Chicago II and III are nearly as good as this debut.

Each of their first three albums demonstrate that Robert Lamm, and especially James Pankow deserve to be considered among the finest songwriters of the late 1960s and early 1970s; Pankow's (I've Been) Searchin' So Long from Chicago VII is an astonishing moody ballad with teeth and is arguably his best song.  And Terry Kath was nearly their equal, although his material tended to be more abstract and at times meandered.

What's interesting about early Chicago, starting with Chicago II, is that Peter Cetera emerged as a strong songwriter (he had already shown his singing chops to good effect).  Unfortunately, Cetera ultimately proved to be Chicago's undoing as his material, which became increasingly syrupy due to the band's unwillingness to check him, was given greater prominence in later albums.  So while the hits piled up, Chicago's reputation as rock's best experimental ensemble plummeted.  When Cetera departed Chicago, the damage had been done, although the remaining band members deserve blame for continuing in this vein.  One can hope there'll someday be a reassessment of their entire output that will lead people to truly appreciate how Chicago expanded the boundaries of rock music in the early part of their career.

In the meantime, their debut is highly recommended as one of the landmark recordings in rock music, while Chicago II and III deserve nearly as much praise (and keep in mind, all three recordings were double-albums in the day, which means they recorded six albums worth of music in about three years.  That in itself is an astonishing feat).


title: Fantastic interpretation but poor sound quality

text: I've had this boxed set for many years. While her performances are excellent (5 stars, for sure) and full of Mozartean vigor, the quality of the recording is poor, so poor that it's fatiguing to listen to the CD. The piano sounds like a cheap little contraption you'd buy for a beginner, and I'm sure that Ms. Uchida would have played on a top-notch piano. In other words, the performance is great, the piano used would have been great, but the recording technique - microphones, placement, signal processing, etc. - is flawed. A shame, because performances this good deserve better sound.


title: An undiscovered gem.

text: A sound unique to this album, unlike most other of Les Brown's better known works.<br />Most bands of the Sixties were under contract to produce a certain number of albums, and most of them were covers of the popular tunes of the day.  This one is a stand-out for its full arrangements and excellent musicianship.


title: CRUSHINGLY HEAVY BLACK ACID DOOM

text:
Was extremely stoked to get ahold of such a limited release (300 made) by such an intense band(s).
The tape looks AWESOME. Lime Green just looks cool on a tape.

Goes great next to my RX-Cough-Syrup-Purple copy of Swamp Witch's "The Slithering Bog" (gifted to me by the vocalist himself).

Anyways this tape is absolutely CRUSHING. I highly recommend you use a vintage tape deck (I use an '87 SANYO) that has a "Tone" knob on it, as you most DEFINITELY want to turn that knob down as LOWWWWW as you possibly can. Light up a fatty, take a dab, and go Bonkers.

Seriously though, if you collect underground tapes of heavy music, SNAG THIS WHILE IT'S STILL AVAILABLE!


title: Much better than I remembered - with a couple of caveats.

text:
I was selling classical music in a brick and mortar store (remember those?) when this was first released way back in the 1980s.  We trashed it.  The covers looked cheap, Otmar Suitner was barely known outside of East Germany and it was played by an opera orchestra!  They didn't even bother to record it with a real symphony orchestra, we thought.

My God, what insufferable, pig-headed snob I could be!  Hearing this years later, interpretively, I now have to rate this near the head of the pack, up with Gunter Wand and just slightly behind my digital favorite, Ricardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

First the good:  The interpretation is magnificent.  Suitner walks a very difficult line between the kind of chiseled, sharply defined blocks of sound that Gunter Wand and Otto Klemperer achieved AND the mysterious, otherworldly atmosphere that, for some, transform this symphony into a religious experience.  Suitner begins with broad, spacious tempos but subtly speeds things up, usually in the repeats - a trick Eugene Jochum often used, but here the effect is invisible.  You are unaware of the accelerations, but somehow, by the end of the movement, there is all of the fist-shaking, strum und drang you could want.  Suitner has honed the balances to perfection and builds magnificent, overwhelming, apocalyptic climaxes.  I've never heard the dynamics handled better.  So, the first movement begins slowly and mysteriously and gains momentum becoming every bit as "heaven storming" as Muti, Karajan, and Wand.  The second movement is taken more swiftly, setting the first movement into relief and giving you a real sense of musical journey.  The third movement, to my ears, is ideal.  Too often it sounds rushed as if the conductor just can't wait to get to the finale.  This seems perfect (no, I don't know what the metronome markings are nor do I care.  I'm pretty sure that, like Debussy and the trumpet additions to "La Mer," Beethoven didn't either.)  Even though the third movement is grander and more relaxed than usual, the movement does not degenerate into sludge.  When the trumpets come in, they really make an impact.  Again, I don't think anyone handles the climaxes better than Suitner.  The final movement, to my ears, is exactly right, beauty and majesty balanced with joy and the pure excitement of a great Beethoven experience.  The recording, made in Karajan's old stomping grounds of the Berlin Christchurch, is magnificent.  Among the best.

Now, the bad news.  I suspect that Suitner was able to choose and train most of his orchestra to his liking.  Overall, they play with discipline and enthusiasm.  The exception, and it is the one thing that disfigures this performance and, indeed, most of his complete Beethoven cycle, are his principal, first-desk players.  Outside of a few ensemble fluffs, the principles hit the notes okay.  Miraculously, that East German horn player has the vibrato under control, but plays as if making music was the most boring, uninteresting thing on the planet.  Mostly, the solos by the principal orchestra players are routine at best, maddeningly un-musical and unidiomatic at worst.  I suspect that they were appointed by the state, their careers and futures guaranteed and just could not be bothered playing expressively.  They showed up, played their notes with their minds on the lunch break, took their checks and went home.  The horn player is the worst offender in this performance although the solo woodwinds don't seem particularly interested in what they are doing either.  (I had only sampled Suitner's Beethoven Fourth before this and was put off by the solo flute player.  I dumped that CD long ago.)  Again, the principal players mostly hit the notes, but he really didn't seem to give a damn.  I hope Barenboim gave 'em the sack.

The choir is first-rate, singing with enthusiasm.  The soloists seem a little weak.  I can hardly tell the tenor from the bass, but they seem like an amiable group.  They hit the notes, seem to know what they are saying and, in the end, are greater than the sum of their parts.  Maybe they were just having a good time.  I didn't miss the "big names" some conductors use for this at all.

In conclusion, I now adore this performance - in spite of the problems.  With hundreds of Beethoven Ninths flooding the market, you can do much much worse than this.  I recommend Ricardo Muti as a first choice but have to warn you about the recorded sound.  The recording is passable, just a little better than Robert Shaw's Atlanta account on Pro-Art.  The performance, though, is magnificent.  I also like Gunter Wand for a performance in the aggressive Szell, Toscanini mold.  Suitner, though, reveals a lot of details I had not heard before.  It really is worth checking out.


title: Fascinating if headstrong.

text: You can't get through life with just one version of a symphonic masterpiece in your collection.  Sometimes you want to approach it from different viewpoints and appreciate different perspectives.  My go-to version of this is Gunter Wand and the NDR orchestra, which is straightforward, exciting and unsentimental in the extreme, which is his style.  Paita is the polar opposite.  He likes to set off the main theme by a slight, emphatic slowdown - nowhere near as extreme as Manfred Hoenick, but more obvious than the subtle, seasoned hand of Eugene Jochum's Concertebough account (superb, by the way.)  Maybe Paita pulls those phrases around a little too much, but it's exciting as Hell.  The orchestra, as always, is with him 100 percent.  The audio, if not competitive with modern recordings, is decent, Kingsway Hall, digital.  Recommended as a second opinion, maybe not a first choice.  I'm keeping it.


title: Gunter Wand thoroughly at home

text: This may not be for everybody as some of the tempo shifts are the reverse of what you are used to.  The introduction, for example, is taken very fast.  Then Wand slows down where almost everybody else speeds up.  Wand, however, is no willful eccentric.  He had arrived at his interpretation after years and years of thinking it through.  When you come at this on its own terms with no preconceptions, the reading makes perfect sense.  The opening is like a storm that has to be endured before whatever protagonist Brahms had in mind begins a determined, gritty march of survival.  (I realize this sort of purple writing went out with Walter Damrosch, but it's the best way I can think of to describe the effect.)  As the symphony progresses, each movement unfolds with natural and unforced passion culminating in a hell for leather - but perfectly articulated finale.  George Szell's name leapt into my mind when I heard it, but Wand was his own man and the recording detail is a lot more transparent than anything we got out of Cleveland in CBS era.  So: this lives up to the hype.  It is a fascinating, unique and thoroughly convincing performance.


title: Among the very best

text: These have long been the standard for Tchaikovsky interpretations.  I didn't like Janson's #4 very much.  To my ears, Solti was much better.  That symphony is, really, just an old-fashioned, empty-headed sound wallow, the kind of thing Solti excelled at, but here the conductor and orchestra are superb.  The first rivals my previous favorite, Michael Tilson Thomas and the Boston Symphony in an interpretation that is remarkably similar, all light, fleeting, gossamer textures (to completely mix metaphors.)  The second and third are also beyond praise.  The music just sounds right.  Andrew Litton is also good in these early symphonies, but I prefer the recorded sound of Jansons/Oslo.  It looks like this was a re-issue of the original Chandos recordings for Musical Heritage Society.  I don't have the originals on hand for an a/b comparison, but this sounds great and better value than trying to gather up all of the recordings separately.


title: Boulez conducts Debussy, a legendary recording

text: This is a little slower than I'm used to, but completely beguiling.  The orchestra and the recording are beyond praise.  Among the very best.


title: Ancient, live Arturo Toscanini recordings.

text: These are live recordings of  Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony on the Arkadia label.  I don't know where they were recorded. It doesn't sound like Studio 8 H and so maybe it was Carnegie Hall or some unknown house in an unknown country while on tour.  There are no program notes.  The two orchestral excerpts from Psyche were recorded in 1939, Les Eolides, 1940, The inescapable Franck Symphony in D (actually, I love the work - but I have duplicates on top of my duplicates) was recorded in 1940.  "Redemption" was recorded in 1947.  The tapes have been cleaned up and so the sound isn't nearly as bad as it should be, considering....  There are no bangs, coughs, rustling sounds and weird perspectives; so the recordings probably aren't bootlegs.  Neither is there noticeable tape hiss or the snap, crackle and pop associated with old 78 records - but it's a far cry from the clean mono of the 1950s, and an even further cry from early stereo -- not to mention digital.  On the plus side: it IS Toscanini and even when he's not at his best in repertory we usually don't associate with him, he's worth a listen.  There was no cover art and no product description.  I should have known better.  Maybe they should have put a great big question mark in the product description and labeled it "classical grab bag."  LIve and learn.


title: A phenomenal new Mahler Fourth from Inbal in Japan.

text: A phenomenal new Mahler Fourth from Tokyo, not surprisingly. What a revelatory performance! Eliahu Inbal and his Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony deliver Mahler's most relaxed and supposedly 'happy' symphony like no other team. Inbal is in a swift mood, faster than he was in his earlier outing with FRSO (Denon), but nothing is glossed over. In fact, he uses the fast speeds to reveal many subtle details even more tellingly than before; the strings are constantly encouraged to execute portamento literally without hesitations, with all the big hearts and delicious touches. He also applies flexible tempi throughout letting the instruments find room to be expressive, colorful, and idiomatic. In this regard, I was reminded of Mengelberg, Bernstein, and Tennstedt. In the Finale, the soprano Maki Mori displays a deep understanding and sympathy with her part although her vibrato in the mid range might be distracting to some. The final notes, appropriately slowed down from the main tempo, fade away as touchingly as I can imagine they could. The well disciplined Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra is in its best form radiating its characteristically glowing and galvanized tone. Heard blindly, you would guess it’s Vienna Philharmonic or Bavarian Radio Orchestra that you are listening to. The Exton sonics, as usual, are gorgeously detailed. I rather suspect I will return to Inbal’s recording most often when I feel for dreaming angels and heavens. Without a doubt, this is one of the finest modern recordings of Mahler Fourth.


title: Possibly Lenny's finest Mahler Ninth

text:
For my money, the grand daddy of all Mahler Ninths, this is Lenny at his most spectacularly best, fullest.

Yes, the playing is not note perfect but rarely had Lenny achieved all the elements of a truly great performance as he did in this live concert from Tanglewood, July 29th, 1979.

All the more surprising considering how disastrously his the other Mahler Ninth concert in the same year from Berlin went (I guess I am of a minority opinion on that concert which was posthumously released by DG).

No such worry here, for Lenny miraculously kept intact the structural integrity, balance, cogency as well as his trademark deliverance of urgency, white-hot intensity, poignancy, all in equal measure.

Oh, maybe it was BSO's refusal to follow the conductor's overly emotive gestures? They are the Aristocrat of American orchestras!

Whichever, the live concert tapes are splendidly remastered by MEMORIES. We'll probably never get an official release from the Bernstein Society, so grab your copy before they are gone!


title: A version of Bruckner Eighth that lives up to the title, 'Apocalyptic'!

text:
Offering a very unique interpretation of Anton Bruckner's grandest (some might argue, the composer's greatest) opus in the Austrian-German symphonic genre, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski nevertheless finds ways to encompass myriad elements of the score and project them into a cohesive whole.

Make no mistake, for this is one of the finest Bruckner Eighths, played and recorded splendidly. I'd put this version very close to the top alongside Wand, Giulini, Bohm, Karajan, and Haitink.

NOTE: Don't be fooled by the misleading title, "Apocalyptic". Bruckner himself never called it that. And nobody since has for that matter!


title: a distinguished, Brucknerian reading of Mahler's last completed work

text:
Those who favor Brucknerian interpretation of Mahler's last completed work may want to check out the late Japanese conductor Takashi Asahina's live recording with Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra.

Asahina was a well known authority in Bruckner and he left many (albeit too many) recordings of that composer's symphonic works. Perhaps his natural feel for Bruckner may have acted somewhat against performing Mahler, however, for there are only scant archives of him conducting Mahler symphonies in the catalog now.

This early digital recording made in the 80s shows and hints at what his complete Mahler cycle might have been - majestic, monumental, steady and organic.

The playing and sound quality are consistently good too.

Highly recommended.


title: Inbal puts his final stamp on Mahler Seventh

text:
Eliahu Inbal's earlier recording of M7th with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orch. on Denon was of a demonstration quality both musically and technically. His penchant for capturing myriads of details was never in the way of achieving the overall structural integrity of the symphony, and Denon engineers provided the most vivid yet warmly detailed sonics in years.

Pretty much the same can be said of this newest recording, this time featuring the formidable team work between the conductor (who recently took the post of the music director) and one of the great Mahler orchestras in the world, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

As impressive FRSO was, CPO is in an even greater shape here: the ease and effortlessness with which they tackle the most difficult work in Mahler's symphonic canon is beyond any reproach. Just listen how each player performs as a master of his or her own instrument individually but also as an efficient member of the orchestra collectively, which is precisely what makes the CPO sound like no other orchestras but CPO.

Otherwise, Inbal's reading and timings are very similar between the two versions. What tilts my preference towards the Exton recording is then the virtuosic playing by the great Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Even if you are a remote fan of Mahler Seventh Symphony, you owe yourself to try this new recording. The SACD sound is nothing short of astonishing in terms of the dynamic range, depth, clarity, and ambiance.


title: A beautiful and natural Bruckner Seventh with Scherzo/Adagio order

text:
This may be the best sounding Bruckner Seventh ever produced.

Recorded live from the Philharmonie Hall in Muchner Gasteig, May 1987, its has unusual amount of warmth, reverberation, but also clarity that allows many details to come forward naturally without a slightest hint of clinical quality that marred many digital recordings in its early period. It sounds as if the entire orchestra is dipped into plush of the 'acoustic cushion' and filtered through it at every moment!

What about Davis' reading?

His is not far off from the traditional norm in tempo, phrasing or balance: he just lets the music unfold naturally and speak for itself. The Bavarian Radio Symphony, one of the finest orchestras in Europe, responds with all their commitment, poise and panache.

One oddity: For some reason, the Scherzo is placed after the opening Allegro moderato while the Adagio comes in the third movement. Needless to say, it changes the structure and mood of the symphony, redistributing the balance more evenly than Bruckner intended. It's a nice change and moves from one movement to another seamlessly thanks to Davis' careful phrasing and attention to details. Played either way, it still is great music  - some might say the best and most accessible - by the composer.


title: Love this type of music!

text: I enjoy putting this CD on and reading or doing other things.  Its great background music as well as traveling tunes.


title: A nice little snapshot glimpse of the band as they were ...

text: A nice little snapshot glimpse of the band as they were developing with some members leaving, and new members joining. Very compelling and thought out music here folks. My only gripe is that I wish it were longer, but it is an EP, after all, so I can't deduct stars for that fact. :)


title: Superb

text: Great!!


title: This is BLT and Truce minus a few songs.

text: Nothing special. The 2 albums of BLT and Truce. That is, minus a few songs. Outdated release. Not worth a premium price.<br /> Get the BGO 2 for 1 CD, for the complete combination. The BGO it is a better deal.


title: Drive calm. Perfect gift.

text: I play it while I drive. The SOUND of these monks always comes in JUST as I need to stay calm.


title: Five Stars

text: Im so glad to bought these Cds they are excelent !!!!!!!!!!!!


title: Five Stars

text: Excelent and helpful to me and my family


title: I’m pleased with this product.

text: I bought this as a present for my uncle, the songs of his early teens. The box set brings some of the older songs. It’s 10 discs in cardboard sleeves. Excellent sound quality. I’m Pleased with my purchase.

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title: Five Stars

text: Booyaa !!


title: moy ray

text: Love the music on this one. Maksim is great, not disappointed with this one at all. Great buy for the price.


title: Excellent

text: Very relaxing music.


title: Worked good

text: Worked good


title: Excelent !!! Rare demo !!!!

text:
Mr. Navarro is one of the best guitarrist around !!!

This CD Demo is a rare one i belive and comes with two
rare songs not included on his Solo album !!!


title: Great value

text: CD was packaged properly and no damage during transit.  CD was still wrapped in what appeared to be factory shrinkwrap.  No problems with playing or quality of sound


title: Awesome!

text: This record is awesome! It plays clean, sounds clean. You hear the sweet crackles which I love. It takes you back to when country was country. This vinyl has many hits from hank sr and its just a great vinyl to own. Very awesome. Save country music!


title: Often overlooked

text: This was a band meant to play live. I'm glad some quality live shows are seeing the light of day. Just wish I could find a live version of "saddle up", without a doubt the best Satellite song few have heard


title: THE BEST DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE-BASED MEDITATION AND RELAXATION EXERCISES

text:
Mindfulness is the act of observing, without judgment, your thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the present moment.  As Newberg and Waldman's brain-scan research at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Spirituality and the Mind has documented, if you take a few minutes during the day to practice the simple exercises on this CD, you'll rapidly improve the functioning of your brain, adding years of happiness to your life. Stress diminishes, and your physical and psychological health improves.  This CD (also available as mp3 if you go to Mark Robert Waldman's website - google it!) includes traditional, contemporary, and unique exercises designed for both beginning and advanced meditation students. These simple exercises can improve your memory, cognition, motivation, and social empathy while simultaneously suppressing the neural circuits that generate anxiety, depression,  anger, and stress.
Here are the tracks:

1. Disclaimer
2. Introduction  [3:25]
3. Conscious Yawning  [5:05]
4. Breathing Awareness  [8:30]
5. Progressive Muscle Relaxation [12:20]
6. Mindful Stretching  [10:05]
7. Leaves on a Stream  [7:05]
8: The Silence Behind the Bell  [3:30]
9: Speaking Slowly  [2:45]
10: Walking Awareness  [9:55]
11: Lovingkindness  [9:45]
12: The Two Wolves  [3:00]


title: THE FIRST UNIVERSITY-BASED PROGRAM TO TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO SPEAK AND LISTEN WELL

text: This CD represents 20 years of research on the psychology and neuroscience of communication. It included a self-guided "training" module that is now used by therapists and couples to resolve relationship problems, by attorneys and their clients to resolve conflicts, and is taught to business leaders enrolled in Loyola Marymount University's prestigious MBA program. The perfect complement to this CD is the book [[ASIN:1594630909 Words Can Change Your Brain: 12 Conversation Strategies to Build Trust, Resolve Conflict, and Increase Intimacy]] which documents each component of the Compassionate Communication strategy. The exercise was also featured in the book, [[ASIN:0345503422 How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist]] which Oprah picked as one of the nine "Must Read" books for 2012.  This CD includes an "Inner Values" exercise, a mindful stretching meditation, a lovingkindness meditation, a slow speaking exercise, and the 20 minute training module that you play while sitting next to another person.  It is also very effective to play for large groups of adults, employees, and even children.


title: MEDITATE ON EVERY BITE YOU TAKE

text:
This CD was developed to help individuals deepen their practice of mindful eating, and is part of a science-and-research based weight-reduction course created by Mark Waldman. Nine members from the Center for Spiritual Living created original affirmations, and guided imagery that you can play throughout the day to retrain your brain to eat mindfully.  By bringing meditation into the physical act of eating meals and snacks, you can undermine the brain's propensity to overeat. Eating disorders are lessened as you learn to savor and appreciate every morsel of food, and this increases satisfaction and pleasure as we become more conscious of the way we feel about our bodies and the foods we choose to eat. Proceeds are used to support our new brainscan research (with Jean Kristeller, Ph.D, and Andrew Newberg, MD) on the neuroscience of hunger and the effects of mindful eating on the brain. Here are the tracks:

Introduction and Two Meditations,  by Mark Waldman  [9:47]
"I breathe in love..."  by Dorianne Cotter-Lockard  [3:35]
"I am the light..."  by Marc Bachrach  [1:43]
"I begin my day..."  by Lisa Chadwich-Peterson  [2:42]
"My loving consciousness feeds me..."  by Audrey Larson  [2:12]
"This moment is the holiest moment..."  by Marc Bachrach  [2:16]
"Energized knower...."  by Barbara DiFebo  [1:05]
"In this spirit..." by Michael DiFebo  [1:29]
"Every cell of my body..."  by Jeanie Kingsford  [2:12]
"Today is a new day..." by Linda Fisher  [4:32]
"I release..."  by Marc Bachrach  [2:57]
Creating a Personal Affirmation,  by Mark Waldman  [3:47]


title: A marvelous sound....

text: ... and his Italian is wonderful. I'm not going to say that he's today's greatest baritone, but he's sure up there. His sound is simply delicious, fat and round, not an unpleasant tone in the bunch. Moreover, he is so personable even unseen. I like him a LOT.


I AM MARRIED TO A JAZZ MUSICIAN AND WE ARE BOTH BIG FANS OF BEEGIE ADAIR.  HER RENDITIONS OF THE STANDARDS  ARE  THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS.


title: Scores of Scores, but Star Trek is Still a Class Act.

text: I love Jerry Goldsmith's work. Like every Artist if you listen to each Composer/Conductor you can hear their unique "Signature" within their musical works. This is my 658th score I have acquired and it does not disappoint. Perhaps one might think that all scores are just background noise or a "filler", but honestly, the better the score, even if the movie is not Great, (and this one had great and poor at times written throughout), the music adds life and character to a movie. That is why the them from the Spaghetti Westerns are so memorable even if the movies were, well, Cheesy, (Clint was a class act).<br />In closing, this score is a great one and I recommend if you can get a copy do so. After all, we get to relive Tom Hardy being the Clone of Picard before he donned the Mask of Bane... Enjoy.


title: Star Trek at it's absolute best ever!

text: I received this Deluxe Edition as a Christmas present just this week and I have to say-DAMN! This complete score gives the movie experience and to me, a score and soundtrack collector the ultimate fix in terms of my music tastes. It is the culmination of a great composition by Mr. Giacchino.  I had already bought the first release of this score and was happy with it, but this edition truly takes you right into the newest movie with every crescendo and blasting instrument actually giving new meaning to the words, Kick **s when it comes to movie scores.<br />In conclusion, if all composers would listen to their fans and release full scores in complete chronological sequence you would find that more fans would buy them up as fast as they were released. So, to all the other owners of this numbered 5000 only score, congrats, you too have now listened to a great musical journey into the Star Trek world.  I am very satisfied to say the least.


title: Lyrics to Any Wednesday?

text: Like Steve Denton, I, too, loved both of them ... especially Any Wednesday.  I bought it hoping to get the lyrics to the main title song.  Alas, no luck.  Marilyn and Alan Bergman seem to have left no clue.  One more letter makes "what" better?  And what's the letter?  This has driven me crazy off and on for fifty years.  Please, does someone out know the answer to this?


title: Five Stars

text: Another excellent mystic CD by Smithson!!You won't find a bad track on this CD.


title: Best cd I own. Hands down..  still 100% the way it is now

text: Smile and laugh. 100%


title: very good

text: Very good recording, big fan of the band.  But don't pay $65 used - get a new copy at thehoneycutters.com for $16.


title: Wonderful recordings of an unjustly neglected composer

text:
Eduardo Sainz de la Maza (1903-82), brother of the more famous Regino, is possibly the most unjustly neglected guitar composer of the 20th century — owing in large part to his retiring disposition.  He made little attempt at a concert career or other forms of self-promotion, devoting his life instead to composing and teaching.  (Another factor may have been Segovia's well known reluctance to play music by any other living guitarist.)

Eduardo's musical vocabulary is comparable with that of his contemporaries Rodrigo and Moreno Torroba: harmonically interesting, but no more than mildly dissonant at most.  He especially, by his own admission, admired (French) impressionism and jazz, and the influence of Debussy certainly shows in his works.  However, these are not mere pastiches or regurgations, but the products of an original and thoroughly musical mind, one furthermore completely at home with the guitar.

A recording such as this then, completely devoted to Eduardo, has long been overdue.  In particular, this CD contains his greatest work, the lyrical eight-movement "Platero y yo", inspired by the prize-winning Juan Ramón Jiménez [[ASIN:8424113020 book of the same name]].  Among many other excellent pieces, "Campanas del alba" ("Bells of the Morning") is surely the finest alternative (among tremolo studies) to Tárrega's beautiful but over-played "Recuerdos de la Alhambra".

Àlex Garrobé was previously unknown to me.  On the evidence of this album, I am happy to report that he seems a quite magnificent guitarist, thoroughly in command of this (by no means easy) music, with exactly the right feel for it, and with beautiful tone.

At well over an hour, this is certainly one of the best classical guitar albums in my collection; and I have several hundred.  It was well worth the wait it took to get it.


title: Absolutely breath-taking

text:
I bought a copy of this in the early 70s on the Erato label; it was rare even then, and I had to special-order it from HMV London.

I find this recording absolutely stunning. The trumpet-players are all pupils of Maurice André, and it shows. The stereo image is perfect, and the music is just wonderful.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no chance of a CD reissue (I badgered Erato about it, and I even contacted the performers. No soap). I transferred my (unfortunately somewhat worn) LP to CD.

So if any copies are available, snap one up while you still can.


title: Dowland as it was meant to be

text:
Where do I start?  In all my life I can't recall hearing a recording more magnificent than this.

Jakob Lindberg, who succeeded Diana Poulton as Professor of Lute at the Royal College of Music in 1979, formed the Dowland Consort from England's foremost Early Music specialists, specifically to play this kind of music.  My first thought on hearing this album was that everyone else might as well give up; but let us not be immoderate.

The recording (completely digital) is crystal clear, perfectly balanced and focussed, with a perfect stereo image, so that every nuance of the counterpoint is captured.  All the players are spot on pitch to the nearest cycle, displaying an interpretive eloquence and togetherness that must be heard to be believed.  Despite the title, there are many moods here, from gentle melancholy to the joyous bounce of the Galliards.

Although the opening Lachrimæ pavans have, properly, been left as a group, the remaining compositions have been intelligently reordered, so that those of the same type do not all occur together.

If you have the smallest affection for Dowland, do not fail to buy this recording (well over an hour long)!  And if you don't have a CD player, go and get one of those, too.

But this album is is the same as [[ASIN:B0000016CC this one]], so check which is cheapest before you buy.


title: Here we go yet again!

text:
Interestingly for an album entitled [[ASIN:B003UYWJ6Q The Best of the Kingston Trio]] (of which the number of versions runs into double figures), the songs here all seem to be drawn from the Dave Guard years; in fact, not only that, all drawn from the first four albums:

3 from [[ASIN:B004A9T5NA The Kingston Trio]] (1958)
4 from [[ASIN:B004A9UVY2 The "Hungry i"]] (1958)
9 from [[ASIN:B004A9YAAS At Large]] (1959)
8 from [[ASIN:B004A9T51C Here We Go Again!]] (1959)

This would seem to presage the appearance of further volumes.

In direct contravention of record-company standards for "Best of"s, this is a fairly intelligent selection, aided by the fact the very little in the Trio's early repertoire was actively bad, and some of it was outstanding: although very rarely "authentic" in the folk purist sense, their arrangements were always extremely musical, and the way their voices blended was stunning.

Incidentally, I've always considered Dave Guard extremely underrated as a banjo-player.  He wasn't a virtuoso, of course, but he was the most versatile I can think of (with the possible exception of Pete Seeger, his clear inspiration).

The first two albums were only recorded in mono.

The cover picture, by the way, is taken from [[ASIN:B004A9YAAS At Large]].


title: French masters

text:
Presti/Lagoya were, until Ida's untimely death in 1967, the greatest classical guitar duo in history.

This is an English-language edition of [[ASIN:B00GTRO4N2 Musique espagnole pour deux guitares]], from 1963.  The contents are:

a1) Soler: Sonata in D Major, R. 84
a2) Gallés: Sonata in B Minor
a3) Soler: Sonata in D Minor
a4) Sor: Premier Divertissement

b1) Falla: La vida breve — Spanish Dance Nº 1
b2) Granados: Goyescas — Intermezzo
b3) Albéniz: España, Op. 165 — Tango
b4-6) Rodrigo: Tonadilla

I make the total time 44'59".

This album is completely subsumed by the [[ASIN:B000009LJ7 3-CD set]] of the duo's Philips recordings, and also by the 6-CD tribute [[ASIN:B0002IRXZ0 L'Art de Alexandre Lagoya]].


title: "Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, save perhaps two"*

text:
If you're not familiar with the (husband-and-wife) team of Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya, they were the greatest classical guitar duo of the 20th century.

This double LP presents a selection of their recordings for Philips (once issued as a [[ASIN:B000009LJ7 boxed CD set]], now deleted, although  completely subsumed in the 6-CD set [[ASIN:B0002IRXZ0 L'Art de Alexandre Lagoya]]).

CONTENTS

Disc 1

a1) Scarlatti: Sonata, K. 380, L. 23
a2–4) Bach: English Suite Nº 3, BWV 808
a5–8) Marella: Suite Nº 1 in A Major

b1) Soler: Sonata in D Major, R 84
b2) Gallés: Sonata in B Minor
b3) Soler: Sonata in D Minor
b4) Sor: L’encouragement, Op. 34

Disc 2

a1) Debussy: Suite Bergamesque, L. 75: Clair de lune
a2) Granados: Goyescas, Op. 11: Intermezzo
a3) Albéniz: España, Op. 165: Tango
a4) Granados: Spanish Dance Nº  2, Orientale, Op. 37
a5) Poulenc: Improvisation in E Flat Minor, Nº 12

b1) Falla: Ritual Fire Dance
b2) Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Prelude & Fugue Nº 4 in E Major
b3) Presti: Etude Fantasque
b4) Petit: Tarantelle

I make the total time 86'16".

*The quotation in the headline comes from Frédéric Chopin.


title: Decca miscellany

text:
19 pulsating tracks of Gypsy fire, eh?  But Paco isn't a Gypsy.  Oh well, such is marketing.

I don't possess this particular anthology; but since (as I write) there are no other reviews, and as I have all his main albums, I venture to add some information.

A search elsewhere on the 'Net reveals this to be a compilation from Paco's recordings for Decca, both as a soloist and with his Group.  I give the track listing, with the flamenco styles and the original sources, below.  Interestingly, I can find in Paco's own discography neither an untitled Rumba (track 7) nor a Tango/Rumba medley (track 17).  It therefore appears possible that these two tracks are taken from Paco's 1966 recording as guitarist with [[ASIN:B0063K4340 El Sali & his Ballet Espagnol]] (before his solo career), which was also on Decca, and on which these do appear.

01) Sevillanas from [[ASIN:B0002F0MCY Fabulous Flamenco!]] (1975)
02) Verdiales «La alcazaba» from [[ASIN:B0002F0MCY La Gitarra Flamenca]] (1977)
03) Bulerías «Palmas y guitarra» from "Fabulous Flamenco!"
04) Sevillanas «Feria de Sevilla» from [[ASIN:B000004268 Flamenco Puro Live]] (1972)
05) Zorongo from "Fabulous Flamenco!"
06) Bulerías «Giralda de Sevilla» from "Flamenco Puro Live"
07) Rumba
08) Rumba «Rumbeando la milonga» from "Fabulous Flamenco!"
09) Alegrías «Las morerías» from "Live at Sadler's Wells" (1980)
10) Tangos «Puerta tierra» from "La Gitarra Flamenca"
11) Alegrías de Córdoba from [[ASIN:B0042PGU6M The Art of the Flamenco Guitar]] (1973)
12) Guajiras «Ayer y hoy» from "La Gitarra Flamenca"
13) Bulerias cortas from "The Art of the Flamenco Guitar"
14) Rumba «Lai-Lo-Lai» from "Live at Sadler's Wells"
15) Bulerías «Cantes por bulerías» from "The Art of the Flamenco Guitar"
16) Bulerías «Fiesta de Triana y Jerez» from "Flamenco Puro Live"
17) Tangos - Rumba
18) Alegrías «Campiña andaluza» from "The Art of the Flamenco Guitar"
19) Bulerías «Ritmo y fiesta» from "Live at Sadler's Wells"

"Fabulous Flamenco!" and "La Gitarra Flamenca" [sic] were reissued on CD as a twofer, so the links point to the same album.


title: Forgotten genius of the flamenco guitar

text:
A curious footnote to the modern flamenco guitar is provided by Niño Miguel: in his teens a prodigy who looked like rivalling Paco de Lucía, he subsequently went steeply downhill, reportedly because of psychological problems.  This compilation (in the excellent "Grandes Guitarras del Flamenco" series) reveals — a few commercial tracks notwithstanding — a soloist of astonishing invention, drive and vitality, who makes Lucía's mere imitators seem laughable by comparison.

Comprising 17 tracks with well over an hour of music (including several duets, and a brilliant Bulería played in Rondeña tuning), this album will be a revelation to anyone who loves flamenco guitar.

"Today Niño Miguel is forgotten, although in his own neighbourhood he still plays whatever good things occur to him".  What a pity.

The CD [[ASIN:B001M1268K Diferente]] contains all of this and two (2) more tracks.

P.S. Niño Miguel died on 23rd May 2013.  RIP.


title: Part of a panorama of the Renaissance Lute

text:
Konrad Ragossnig is perhaps best known outside his native Austria by his fine [[ASIN:B0000044LW album of Latin American guitar duets]] with Walter Feybli, which has been reissued multiple times on various budget labels.

Between 1973 and 1975 he recorded [[ASIN:B006SW0BG2 six LPs]], each devoted to the lute music of one or two major European countries:

1. [[ASIN:B01BUG06GA England]]
2. [[ASIN:B01B7QGT3M Italy]]
3. [[ASIN:B0040P9P3E Spain]]
4. [[ASIN:B004QSLL5U Poland & Hungary]]
5. [[ASIN:B008CH8PE6 Germany & the Netherlands]]
6. [[ASIN:B006X7F360 France]]

The boxed set thus probably covers a wider spectrum of Renaissance lute music than any other single album.  In 2004 it was re-released on a boxed set of [[ASIN:B00020QWFK 4 CDs]].

Like his contemporary Julian Bream, Herr Ragossnig was an early convert to the lute, and in fact his playing is so much like Bream's as to be indistinguishable to the casual listener; in particular, I find Herr Ragossnig's firm sense of rhythm  a refreshing change from the meanderings of some I could name.  The recordings are likewise excellent and comparable to Bream's of the same period.

It must be said that playing the lute this way — that is, like a classical guitar, with fingernails, and use of tonal variation — is (we are told) inauthentic, and thus out of fashion these days.  Those who feel this way may be better served by more HIP recordings from first-rate modern lutenists such as Jakob Lindberg, Christopher Wilson and Paul O'Dette.

To those who neither know nor care about such considerations, however  — or to those who (like myself) know but do not care, and feel that Bream's lute recordings have been too few  — these recordings can be recommended without reservation.

CONTENTS

a01) Dowland: The King of Denmark's Galliard, P. 40
a02) Dowland: Lachrimæ Antiquæ
a03) Dowland: Fantasie, P. 1
a04) Dowland: My Lady Hunsdon's Puffe, P. 54
a05) Dowland: Melancholie Galliard, P. 25
a06) Dowland: Mrs. Winter's Jump, P. 55
a07) Dowland: Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens, P. 9
a08) Dowland: The Earl of Essex's Galliard, P. 42
a09) Dowland: Forlone Hope Fancy, P. 2

b01) Batchelar: Mounsiers Almaine
b02) Bulman: Pavane
b03) Cutting: Almaine
b04) Cutting: Greensleeves
b05) Cutting: Walsingham
b06) Cutting: The Squirrel's Toy
b07) Anon: Sir John Smith's Almaine
b08) Morley: Pavane
b09) R. Johnson: Almaine
b10) Holborne: Galliard

The total time is 55'07".


title: Panorama of the Renaissance Lute

text:
This four-CD set is a reissue of [[ASIN:B006SW0BG2 six LPs]], recorded between 1973 and 1975, each devoted to the lute music of one or two major European countries: England, Italy, Spain, Poland & Hungary, Germany & the Netherlands, and France.  It thus probably covers a wider spectrum of Renaissance lute music than any other single album.

The notes offer extensive information about the music, the instrument used and the recording dates; but, strangely, none about the artist  — although there is a photograph.

Konrad Ragossnig is perhaps best known outside his native Austria by his fine [[ASIN:B0000044LW album of Latin American guitar duets]] with Walter Feybli, which has been reissued multiple times on various budget labels.

Like his contemporary Julian Bream, Herr Ragossnig was an early convert to the lute, and in fact his playing is so much like Bream's as to be indistinguishable to the casual listener; in particular, I find Herr Ragossnig's firm sense of rhythm  a refreshing change from the meanderings of some I could name.  The recordings are likewise excellent and comparable to Bream's of the same period.

It must be said that playing the lute this way  — that is, like a classical guitar, with fingernails, and use of tonal variation  — is (we are told) inauthentic, and thus out of fashion these days.  Those who feel this way may be better served by more HIP recordings from first-rate modern lutenists such as Jakob Lindberg, Christopher Wilson and Paul O'Dette.

To those who neither know nor care about such considerations, however  — or to those who (like myself) know but do not care, and feel that Bream's lute recordings have been too few  — this album can be recommended without reservation.

P.S. for those who already have all Bream's lute albums: of the 129 pieces on this set, by my computation Bream has only recorded 42.

P.P.S. There is, unfortunately, one track that is a total disaster: "Der Judentanz".  This requires a scordatura tuning; but Neusidler's printer misread it, with the result that the piece played as written — and as played by Herr Ragossnig — sounds like a bizarre example of early bitonality.

For the correct version, listen to [[ASIN:B000025HGQ Julian Bream]].

P.P.P.S. I see that Amazon doesn't give composers, which makes track identification a bit dubious.  So here's a complete listing.

VOLUME 1

01) Dowland: The King of Denmark's Galliard, P. 40
02) Dowland: Lachrimæ Antiquæ
03) Dowland: Fantasie, P. 1
04) Dowland: My Lady Hunsdon's Puffe, P. 54
05) Dowland: Melancholie Galliard, P. 25
06) Dowland: Mrs. Winter's Jump, P. 55
07) Dowland: Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens, P. 9
08) Dowland: The Earl of Essex's Galliard, P. 42
09) Dowland: Forlone Hope Fancy, P. 2
10) Batchelar: Mounsiers Almaine
11) Bulman: Pavane
12) Cutting: Almaine
13) Cutting: Greensleeves
14) Cutting: Walsingham
15) Cutting: The Squirrel's Toy
16) Anon: Sir John Smith's Almaine*
17) Morley: Pavane
18) R. Johnson: Almaine
19) Holborne: Galliard
20) Capirola: Ricecar I
21) Capirola: Ricecar XIII
22) Spinacino: Ricercare
23) Capirola: Ricercar II
24) Capirola: Ricercar X
25) Francesco da Milano: Fantasia, N. 64

VOLUME 2

01) Molinaro: Fantasia X
02) Molinaro: Fantasia IX
03) Molinaro: Fantasia I
04) Molinaro: Saltarello/Ballo detto "Il Conte Orlando"/Saltarello
05) Barbetta: Moresca detta le Canarie
06) Terzi: Ballo tedesco e francese/Tre parti di gagliarde
07) Negri: Lo spagnoletto/Il bianco fiore
08) Garsi: Aria del Gran Duca/La Cesarina/La Mutia/La ne mente per la gola/Gagliarda Manfredina/Ballo del Serenissimo Duca di Parma/Correnta
09) Milán: Pavana I del primero y segundo tono
10) Milán: Pavana II del tercero y quarto tono
11) Milán: Pavana III del quinto y sexto tono
12) Milán: Pavana IV del septimo y octavo tono
13) Milán: Pavana V del octavo tono
14) Milán: Pavana VI del octavo tono
15) Milán: Fantasía X del primero y segundo tono
16) Milán: Fantasía XVI del quinto y sexto tono
17) Milán: Fantasía XII del tercero y quarto tono
18) Milán: Fantasía XI del primero y segundo tono
19) Mudarra: Pavana de Alexandre
20) Mudarra: Gallarda
21) Mudarra: Romanesca/Guárdame las vacas
22) Mudarra: Conde claros
23) Mudarra: Fantasía
24) Narváez: Guárdame las vacas
25) Narváez: Mille regres
26) Narváez: Fantasía
27) Narváez: Baxa de contrapunto

VOLUME 3

01) Cato: Praeludium
02) Cato: Galliarda I
03) Cato: Galliarda II
04) Cato: Favorito
05) Anon: Balleto Polacho
06) Polak: Praeludium
07) Długoraj: Chorea Polonica
08) Długoraj: Fantasia
09) Długoraj: Finale
10) Długoraj: Villanela
11) Długoraj: Carola Polonesa
12) Długoraj: Vilanella
13) Długoraj: Finale
14) Długoraj: Kowaly
15) Długoraj: Finale
16) Bakfark: Fantasie
17) Bakfark: Fantasie
18) Bakfark: Fantasie
19) Bakfark: Fantasie
20) Judenkünig: Hoff dantz
21) Judenkünig: Ellend bringt peyn
22) Neusidler: Der Judentanz
23) Neusidler: Preambel
24) Neusidler: Welscher tantz Wascha mesa
25) Landgrave of Hesse: Pavane
26) Anon: Der gestraifft Danntz/Der Gassenhauer darauff
27) Waissel: Fantasia
28) Waissel: Deudtscher Tantz
29) Ochsenkhun: Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen

VOLUME 4

01) Adrienssen: Fantasia
02) Adrienssen: Courante
03) Adrienssen: Branle simple de Poictou
04) Adrienssen: Branle Englese
05) Huwett: Fantasia
06) Sweelinck: Psalm 5
07) Sweelinck: Psalm 23
08) Joachim van den Hove: Galliarde
09) Vallet: Prelude
10) Vallet: Galliarde
11) Vallet: Slaep, soete, slaep
12) Attaignant: Tant que vivray
13) Attaignant: Basse dance Sansserre
14) Attaignant: Bransle "C'est Mon Amy"
15) Attaignant: Basse dance La Magdalena
16) Attaignant: Destre amoureux
17) Attaignant: Haulberroys
18) Le Roy: Passemeze
19) Ballard: Entrée de Luth I/Entrée de Luth II/Entrée de Luth III
20) Ballard: Courante
21) Ballard: Branles de village
22) Besard: Branle
23) Besard: Gagliarda
24) Besard: Branle gay
25) Besard: Gagliarda vulgo dolorata
26) Besard: Allemande
27) Besard: Air de cour
28) Besard: Volte
29) Besard: Branle/Branle gay
30) Besard: Guillemette
31) Besard: Ballet
32) Besard: Pass' e mezo
33) Besard: Chorea rustica

*Although Sir John Smith's Almaine may well be anonymous in the source used by Herr Ragossnig, this is in fact the piece by John Dowland (P. 47).

The total time is 275'42".


text:
Konrad Ragossnig is perhaps best known outside his native Austria by his fine [[ASIN:B0000044LW album of Latin American guitar duets]] with Walter Feybli, which has been reissued multiple times on various budget labels.

Between 1973 and 1975 he recorded [[ASIN:B006SW0BG2 six LPs]], each devoted to the lute music of one or two major European countries:

1. [[ASIN:B01BUG06GA England]]
2. [[ASIN:B01B7QGT3M Italy]]
3. [[ASIN:B0040P9P3E Spain]]
4. [[ASIN:B004QSLL5U Poland & Hungary]]
5. [[ASIN:B008CH8PE6 Germany & the Netherlands]]
6. [[ASIN:B006X7F360 France]]

The boxed set thus probably covers a wider spectrum of Renaissance lute music than any other single album.  In 2004 it was re-released on a boxed set of [[ASIN:B00020QWFK 4 CDs]].

Like his contemporary Julian Bream, Herr Ragossnig was an early convert to the lute, and in fact his playing is so much like Bream's as to be indistinguishable to the casual listener; in particular, I find Herr Ragossnig's firm sense of rhythm  a refreshing change from the meanderings of some I could name.  The recordings are likewise excellent and comparable to Bream's of the same period.

It must be said that playing the lute this way  — that is, like a classical guitar, with fingernails, and use of tonal variation  — is (we are told) inauthentic, and thus out of fashion these days.  Those who feel this way may be better served by more HIP recordings from first-rate modern lutenists such as Jakob Lindberg, Christopher Wilson and Paul O'Dette.

To those who neither know nor care about such considerations, however  — or to those who (like myself) know but do not care, and feel that Bream's lute recordings have been too few  — these recordings can be recommended without reservation.

CONTENTS

a01) Attaignant: Tant que vivray
a02) Attaignant: Basse dance Sansserre
a03) Attaignant: Bransle "C'est Mon Amy"
a04) Attaignant: Basse dance La Magdalena
a05) Attaignant: Destre amoureux
a06) Attaignant: Haulberroys
a07) Le Roy: Passemeze
a08) Ballard: Entrée de Luth I/Entrée de Luth II/Entrée de Luth III
a09) Ballard: Courante
a10) Ballard: Branles de village

b01) Besard: Branle
b02) Besard: Gagliarda
b03) Besard: Branle gay
b04) Besard: Gagliarda vulgo dolorata
b05) Besard: Allemande
b06) Besard: Air de cour
b07) Besard: Volte
b08) Besard: Branle/Branle gay
b09) Besard: Guillemette
b10) Besard: Ballet
b11) Besard: Pass' e mezo
b12) Besard: Chorea rustica

The total time is 39'46".


title: The man who revived the lute

text:
This 1960 album was Julian Bream's first lute recording for RCA, and a stunning one it was too.  For the first time the wonderful compositions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean times, long forgotten, were revived in performances brimming with vitality, musicality and élan, reducing to triviality the belly-achings of purists whimpering about inauthentic technique.

And it's clear from their own comments that many of the best modern lutenists (such as Nigel North and Paul O'Dette) might not even have been playing, were it not for the massive inspiration of Bream.

The contents of the [[ASIN:B000FP823M LP]] are:

01) Robert Johnson: Almaines (2)
02) John Johnson: Fantasia
03) Cutting: Walsingham
04) Dowland: Mignarda, P. 34
05) Cutting: Almaine
06) Rosseter: Galliard
07) Cutting: Greensleeves
08) Dowland: Galliard Upon A Galliard of Daniel Batchelar
09) Morley: Pavane
10) Robert Johnson: The Carman's Whistle
11) Bulman: Pavane
12) Batchelar: Monsieur's Almaine
13) Holborne: Pavan
14) Dowland: Batell Galliard, P. 40
15) Holborne: Galliard

for a total time of 45'31".  To this the [[ASIN:B000003FFW CD]] adds 9 extra tracks recorded live in 1963 in Massachusetts, as follows:

16) Byrd: Pavana Bray
17) Byrd: Galliard
18) Byrd: Pavan
19) Byrd: My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home
20) Dowland: Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard, P. 19
21) Dowland: Queen Elizabeth's Galliard, P. 41
22) Dowland: Sir John Langton's Pavan, P. 14
23) Dowland: Tarleton's Resurrection, P. 59
24) Dowland: Lady Clifton's Spirit, P. 45

bringing the total time to 66'55".


title: A classic reissued

text:
In case you're not familiar with Sabicas (1912-90), he was one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of the 20th century and a major influence on all his successors, most notably Paco de Lucía.

This album is a reissue of the brilliant [[ASIN:B006VRU0VU Flaming Flamenco Guitar]] (1963).  It's one of Sabas's best.  Several items (including the famous Malagueña by Lecuona) are double-tracked, with one guitar coming out of each speaker — the best separation I've heard.

CONTENTS:

01) La Malagueña [Lecuona]
02) Alegrías «Rosas y claveles»
03) Siguiriyas «De la sierra»
04) Sevillanas «En la reja»
05) Soleares «Pasión»
06) Gran jota de concierto [Tárrega]
07) Garrotín «Mi Garrotín»
08) Guajiras «Recuerdo tropical»
09) Malagueña «Noches de Málaga»
10) Bulerías «Fragua gitana»

The total time is 35'44".


title: Dance, then, wherever you may be

text:
As Segovia's recordings inspired the classical guitarists of the future, so the seminal recordings that Julian Bream made for RCA between 1960 and 1980 produced a whole new generation of lutenists.

In my view, although lute performance has moved on in terms of historical accuracy, these albums have never been surpassed for musicality — and, particularly relevant to the present context, rhythm.

The "Dances of Dowland" LP was recorded in 1968, with the following contents:

01) Earl of Essex Galliard,  42
02) Lachrimæ Antiquæ
03) My Lady Hunsdon's Puffe, P. 54
04) Lord d'Lisle's Galliard, P. 38
05) The Frog Galliard, P. 23
06) Lachrimæ Veræ
07) The Shoemaker's Wife, P. 58
08) Lady Rich's Galliard, P. 43
09) A piece without title, P. 51
10) Sir John Smith's Almaine, P. 47
11) Melancholie Galliard, P. 25
12) Sir Henry Gifford's Almaine
13) Dowland's First Galliard, P. 22
14) Mrs. Vaux's Gigge, P. 57
15) The Earl of Derby's Galliard, P. 44
16) Semper Dowland, Semper Dolens, P. 9

and a total time of 42'14".

Its CD history is rather strange, since it was re-released twice, with different bonus tracks, all taken from the now-defunct [[ASIN:B003YWAQSM Lute Music of Dowland LP]]:

- Under the [[ASIN:B000025HGR original title]], plus

• Galliard To Lachrimæ , P. 46 (after Lachrimæ Antiquæ, as appropriate)
• Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard, P. 19
• My Lord Chamberlain, His Galliard, P. 37
• Resolution, P. 13
• Mr. Langton's Galliard, P. 33
• Sir John Souche's Galliard, P. 26
• Piper's Pavan, P. 8

- And (in the UK) under the title of [[ASIN:B00004SNK9 Julian Bream Plays Dowland: Lute Music and Dances]], plus

• Piper's Pavan, P. 8
• My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home, P. 66
• Forlorn Hope Fancy, P. 6
• A Fancy, P. 5
• Farewell, P. 3

You pays your money and takes your choice — or took it, since all of these are now apparently deleted.


title: A gem

text:
Although Carmen (1913-1963) was of course primarily a dancer — THE female flamenco dancer of the century  — she was also an excellent singer with a marvellous Gypsy voice.

The guitarist Sabicas, for long her musical (and, some say, romantic) partner, was one of the greatest guitarists.  Together they made an electric combination.

This 1959 album is one of the two they made together; the other was [[ASIN:B00RYFV4YA Flamenco!]].

This one is available in Europe in MP3 form (bizarrely retitled [[ASIN:B00JK4U2FK Les rythmes de Carmen Amaya]]), and bits of it have appeared in various anthologies; but as far as I'm aware, it's never been released in its entirety on CD.

Some of the tracks feature the singer Domingo Alvarado, and four are guitar solos by Sabicas.  The album, which remains a classic, was made for a total of $1,200*.

CONTENTS

01) Bulería «Ritmos de Carmen Amaya»
02) Taranta
03) Seguiriya
04) Soleá
05) Tiento Canastero
06) Soleá
07) Seguiriya
08) Rondeña
09) Soleá por Bulería
10) Alegrías

The total time is 43'26".

*According to Paco Sevilla's excellent [[ASIN:0964637413 biography of Carmen]], p 338.


title: Elizabethan serenade

text:
James Tyler's credentials as an Early Music dude stretch back to David Munrow, and include a superb [[ASIN:B001L8JDMG lute duo]] with Anthony Rooley that played to packed concert-halls in London in the '70s; a stint in the [[ASIN:B001L8JDMG Julian Bream Consort]]; and a position on the faculty of the Southern California School of Music.

This album with Musica Viva does indeed remind me of the said Consort; which, since that group only ever made two albums (decades apart), is very welcome.

The contributors to each piece are shown on a spreadsheet in the booklet, which also contains extensive notes on the music.

They are :

a) James Tyler (6- & 7-course lute, cittern)
b) Nancy Roth (treble viol)
c) Niki Carras (renaissance flute)
d) Joëlle Fancher Morton (bass viol)
e) James Lidget (bandora)
f) Keller Coker (cittern)
g) Dirk Freymouth (lute)
h) Nina Treadwell (lute)
i) Inga La Rose (recorder)

Several of the instrumental parts are missing in the original sources, and have been ably reconstructed for this recording.

Since Amazon, as usual, doesn't specify the composers, I list the contents below:

01) Richard Reade: Pavan 9 (abdefi)
02) Robert Parsons: Replete for 3 Lutes (agh)
03) Anthony Holborne: Holbornes's Farewell (aef)
04) John Johnson (attributed): A Dump (ag)
05) Daniel Bacheler: Daniel's Almaine (abcdef)
06) John Johnson: Chi passa (ag)
07) William Byrd: Where Fancy Fond (abdefi)
08) John Johnson: La Vecchia Pavan & Galliard (ag)
09) John Dowland: Captain Digorie Piper's Pavan (abcdef)
10) Thomas Robinson: A Plaine Song (ah)
11) Daniel Bacheler: Lady Walsingham's Conceits (abcdef)
12) Anon: Pagingtoune's Galliard (ag)
13) William Byrd: A Pavan of Master Byrd (abcdef)
14) Anon: Galliard for 2 lutes after Laveche (ag)
15) Daniel Bacheler: The Widow's Mite (abcdef)
16) Anon: Squire's Galliard (ag)
17) John Johnson (attributed): The Leaves be Green (ah)
18) James Harding: James's Galliard (abdei)

The total time is 54'18".


title: Miscellany

text:
CONTENTS

a1) Sagreras: El Colibri
a2) E. Sainz de la Maza: Campanas Del Alba
a3) Albéniz: Rumores de la Caleta
a4) Albéniz: Zambra Granadina
a5) Guimaraes: Sound of Bells
a6) Calleja: Canción Triste

b1) Bach: Lute Suite Nº 3, BWV 995: Prelude & Presto
b2) Bach: Lute Suite Nº 3, BWV 995: Gavottes
b3) Scarlatti: Sonata, K. 208, L. 238
b4) Scarlatti: Sonata, K. 431, L. 83
b5) Debussy: La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin
b6) Tomasi: Le Muletier des Andes

4½ stars.  I hope to add some comments later.


title: There were too many notes

text:
WARNING 2017

In  typical slapdash fashion, Amazon has munged together the reviews from two entirely different albums.

This is my review for the solo album by Paco de Lucía.

REVIEW

This is the English edition of [[ASIN:B00007M03E Fuente y Caudal]], to which  it is identical (apart from the sleeve), except that the first track, "Entre dos Aguas", has been re-recorded.

This was, of course, Paco's breakthrough hit.  In my opinion the English remake sucks: it adds no more than bunch of fast scales thrown together to amaze the natives.

So my advice, unless you're a collector, is to get the original album, now available [[ASIN:B00007M03E on CD]].

If you ARE collector (or a completist), however, this monstrosity may well have rarity value.

4½ stars for the other tracks, I suppose.


title: Masters of the Guitar

text:
This is the 1995 2-CD set of the duo's complete RCA recordings.

CONTENTS

Volume 1

01) Pujol: Evocación Cubana
02) Sor: Andante Largo, Op. 5
03) Bach: Sonata Nº 3 — Andante
04) Lagoya: Rêverie
05) Lagoya: Caprice

06) Falla: La vida breve: Spanish Dance Nº 1*
07) Falla: Fisherman's Tale
08) Granados: Goyescas, Op. 11 — Intermezzo*
09) Granados: Spanish Dance Nº  4, Villanesca, Op. 37
10) Albéniz: España, Op. 165 — Tango*
11) Carulli: Largo & Rondo, Op. 34
12) Carulli: Serenade in C, Nº 3
13) Presti: La Hongroise
14) Diabelli: Serenade in D, Op. 83 — Romance & March
15) Dowland: The King of Denmark's Galliard/Mrs Nichols Almaine/The Frog Galliard

Volume 2

01) Handel: Sarabande in D, HWV 437
02) Calleja: Preludes (3)
03) Moreno Torroba: Nocturno
04) Lauro: Venezuelan Waltz Nº 3
05) Presti: Danse rythmique

06) Bach: English Suite Nº 3, BWV 808 — Gavotte & Musette
07) Bach: Prelude & Fugue Nº 17, BWV 862
08) Sor: L'encouragement, Op. 34*
09) Jolivet: Serenade
10) Daniel-Lesur: Elegy
11) Simonot: Suite of Royal Dances

Vol. 1, tracks 1-5 are solos by Presti, and vol. 2, tracks 1-5 are solos by Lagoya.  The remainder are by the duo.

The pieces asterisked were re-recorded when they moved to Philips, and thus appear also on their [[ASIN:B000009LJ7 Complete Philips Recordings]], later subsumed into the 6-CD [[ASIN:B0002IRXZ0 tribute to Lagoya]], which also contains the Handel Sarabande.

The total time is 138'05".

THE MUSIC

Many of the pieces are (now!) standards of the guitar duo repertory, and really require no comment from me.  In each case, Presti/Lagoya's version seems to me the best, with one exception: Falla's Spanish Dance, in which [[ASIN:B000003FDM Bream & Williams]] outdo even the superb performance here.

• Pujol's piece is, unsurprisingly, a Guajira, in that style's characteristic hemiola (alternating bars of 3/4 & 6/8) rhythm.  Ida gives it an electrifying performance, demonstrating what a magnificent soloist she was before she subordinated that career to the duo's.

• The two pieces by Lagoya consist of a beautiful romantic prelude, followed by a sort of scherzo.  "Rêverie", in particular, is one of my favourite guitar miniatures.

• Falla's "Fisherman's Tale" is a lovely quiet, meditative piece; and I'm unaware of any other guitar duo recording (although I have an ancient [[ASIN:B00B7QTY94 solo recording]] by Laurindo Almeida).

• I love all of Granados's Spanish Dances, and again I'm unaware of any other duo version of this one (although Manuel Barrueco does an excellent solo job; in fact he plays [[ASIN:B001O10XNS the lot]], a magnificent recording).

• Presti's's "Hongroise" is a tribute to Béla Bartók.

• The Dowland pieces are uninformatively labelled "Trois danses" on the track listing.  The duo's versions don't sound much like lute music, but they're good fun.

• "Danse rythmique" is a cheerful, lively piece that makes extensive use of étoufée.

• Francisco Calleja was a Spanish composer from the start of the 20th century, best known for his lovely [[ASIN:B073ZJQYDD Canción triste]], recorded by Vicente Gómez and others.  The three preludes are pleasant and tuneful, although of no great depth.

• Jolivet's Serenade is more modern in vocabulary, although it doesn't indulge in the pings, bonks and graunches that were later to grace some of the repertory.  Dedicated to the duo, it "evokes, in his personal language, facets of countries in which the guitar is popular: Italy, Spain, France and the United States, home of Jazz".  It's the longest piece here, at over 12 minutes.

• Yves Daniel-Lesur was (it says here) a member of Les Six, although you could certainly have fooled me.  His elegy (which he himself transcribed for the duo from the harp original) takes the form of a melody over an arpeggiated accompaniment, somewhat after the manner of "Clair de Lune", although again with a somewhat more modern vocabulary.  I find it very attractive.

• And finally, the Suite of Royal Dances was adapted by the composer from his music for the film [[ASIN:B004CJ8K52 Marie Antoinette]].  There is no information on the individual movements.

BOOKLET NOTES

are in French alone.  They're fairly intelligent, but, somewhat disconcertingly, comment on the tracks in a different order from that in which these appear on the album.

SHEET MUSIC

The music of "[[ASIN:0231201575 Rêverie]]", "Caprice", "Danse rythmique" (and, presumably, "La Hongroise") was published several decades ago by Ricordi; but I don't know if they're still available.


title: Best Dowland on the guitar

text:
The works on this now-deleted album are compiled from LPs recorded in 1979 and 1980.  They fall into three broad categories: lute pieces by John Dowland; works by the 19th-century composer Fernando Sor; and 20th-century works by Barrios and Ponce.

Not only is Amazon's listing vague about the precise identities of the Dowland pieces, so is the CD itself.  They are in fact:

Preludium, P. 98
A Fancy, P. 73
Sir John Langton's Pavan, P. 14
The King of Denmark's Galliard, P. 40
A Fancy, P. 6
Lady Clifton's Spirit, P. 45
Can She Excuse, P. 42

There is only one Waltz by Barrios, Nº 3.

There are of course many other versions of the modern works here, some arguably as good or better.  But what makes the album worth seeking out is the Dowland, which (since some of the pieces use more than six strings) I believe to be played on the performer's superb 11-string Bolin, though the booklet notes don't say so.  When it comes to lute music on the guitar, Mr Söllscher simply leaves the competition in the dust.

As to lute versions, few can equal Julian Bream's; but Bream lute albums, unfortunately, are now also an endangered species.

The total time is 62'53".


title: Latin Easy Listening

text:
Vicente Gómez (1911-2001) was born in Madrid, and started learning the guitar at six years old.  He had a substantial concert career in Europe, also touring Morocco.

But in 1936 he played in Cuba, and from there toured Mexico.  In 1938 he played at New York Town Hall, and from there Hollywood beckoned.  He moved to the US, and became the film industry's Spanish guitarist of choice, equally at home in both the classical and flamenco styles.  Being of pleasant and genial appearance, he not only played for many movies, but appeared in several as well.  He also made many recordings, few of which (unfortunately) have made it to CD.

The present album falls firmly into the Easy Listening category, and consists of Vicente playing Latin standards, accompanied by an orchestra (conducted by Charles Bud Dant).

The contents are as follows:

01) La Macarena
02) Habanera
03) La Cumparsita
04) Estrellita
05) Marieta [Tárrega]
06) Andalucía [Lecuona]
07) La Malagueña [Lecuona]
08) Frenesi
09) Verde Luna
10) La Golondrina
11) Baía
12) Por Que?

The rating is a problem, since Easy Listening is not really my thing, and I prefer Vicente's other recordings.  But on the basis that it does very well what it sets out to do, I give it 5 stars.  A rating in terms of my own preferences would be about 3.

The total time is 37'56".


title: Between two streams

text:
WARNING

This review is for the album Sabicas recorded in Spain in 1968 with singers, on CD entitled simply "Sabicas".  However, in typical slapdash fashion, Amazon has now also linked it to "4 Original 45 EPs", which I had already reviewed separately.

REVIEW

This album (originally entitled "La Historia del Flamenco" on LP) consists of recordings, mostly with singers, that Sabicas made when he returned to Spain in 1968, for the first time in over 30 years.  It is thus unique, in that it's the sole example of Sabas's recordings with that generation of singers.

And the opportunity would seldom come again, even though Sabas lived over 20 more years, because the seed had already been sown that would change Flamenco irrevocably forever.

Thus, on this album alone, we have the sole confluence of the two geniuses who had already defined or soon would define their own eras: Sabas playing for Camarón.

So here indeed is a recording "entre dos aguas".

4½ stars.

CONTENTS

01) Guajira «El bohío» (guitar solo)
02) Caña «Homenaje a Jerez» (with Rafael Romero)
03) Siguiriyas «La cava» (with Pepe El Culata)
04) Tangos «De Extramadura» (with Juan Cantero)
05) Rondeña «Nostalgia gitana» (guitar solo)
06) Bulerías «Estilos variados de Manuel Soto» (with Manuel Soto)
07) Fandango «Recuerdo Sevillano» (with Pedro Montolla)
08) Soleá por bulería «La Isla» (with Pepe El Culata)
09) Malagueña «De Ronda a Málaga» (with Pepe El Culata)
10) Garrotín «Homenaje a Carmen Amaya» (guitar solo)
11) Soleá por bulería «De Sanlúcar a Cádiz» (with Manuel Soto)
12) Siguiriyas «Aires primitivos» (with Rafael Romero)
13) Tarantas «Levantinas» (with Pepe El Culata)
14) Siguiriyas «Los puertos» (guitar solo)
15) Fandango «Entre Valverde y Huelva» (with Camarón de la Isla)
16) Jaleos «Jaleos gitanos» (with Juan Cantero)
17) Alegrías «Las cantiñas» (with Manuel Soto)

The total time is 68'21".


title: Forgotten genius of the flamenco guitar

text:
A curious footnote to the modern flamenco guitar is provided by Niño Miguel: in his teens a prodigy who looked like rivalling Paco de Lucía, he subsequently went steeply downhill, reportedly because of psychological problems.  This compilation reveals — a few commercial tracks notwithstanding — a soloist of astonishing invention, drive and vitality, who makes Lucía's mere imitators seem laughable by comparison.

In content this album is the same as the artist's [[ASIN:B00007M03Y entry]] in the Grandes Guitarras del Flamenco series, with the addition of two more pieces: "A Mi Padre" & "Diferente".  Comprising 19 tracks with well over an hour of music (including several duets, and a brilliant Bulería played in Rondeña tuning), it will be a revelation to anyone who loves flamenco guitar.

"Today Niño Miguel is forgotten, although in his own neighbourhood he still plays whatever good things occur to him".  What a pity.

UPDATE

Niño Miguel died on 23rd May 2013.  RIP.


title: Chalk & cheese

text:
Well now.  Sabicas and Carlos Montoya were certainly both giants in terms of success at their chosen career; artistically, opinions differ, to say the least.

Both recorded for many different labels.  The present album is a selection of tracks from ABC-Paramount, as follows:

1) Sabicas: Farruca del camino (from [[ASIN:B004MIRI5G Soul of Flamenco]], mislabelled as the soleá «Por los rincones»)
2) Montoya: Temas en farruca (from [[ASIN:B00BZBVWNM Flamenco Fire]])
3) Montoya: Granadina «Ecos de Sierra Nevada» (from Flamenco Fire)
4) Sabicas: Soleares «Pasión flamenco» (from [[ASIN:B0018DR4T8 Solo Flamenco]])
5) Montoya: Rumba «Compás flamenco» (from Flamenco Fire)
6) Sabicas: Fandango «Huelva» (from [[ASIN:B000KX2QCW Gypsy Flamenco]])
7) Montoya: Zambra (from [[ASIN:B004E5B6AK Flamenco Guitar]])
8) Sabicas: Rondeña «Dawn» (from [[ASIN:B004ASCXDK Day of the Bullfight]])
9) Montoya: Alegrías «Variaciones de Cádiz» (from Flamenco Guitar)

If you like both these artists, then this is a representative sample of their playing.

I make the total time 36'06".


title: Also available on CD

text:
WARNING 2017

In  typical slapdash fashion, Amazon has munged together the reviews from the 3 distinct volumes of the Elektra set.

This is my review for Volume I.

REVIEW

In case you're not familiar with Sabicas (1912-90), he was one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of the 20th century and a major influence on all his successors, most notably Paco de Lucía.

Around the end of the '50s, he recorded three albums for the Elektra label, known to aficionados simply as Sabicas Volumes 1, 2 & 3.  The first and third consisted of pure Flamenco, but in the second (possibly just for a bit of variety) he played several stunning arrangements of pieces from other genres that had caught his fancy — this despite his total inability to read printed music.

The contents of Vol. 1 are:

01) Bulerías
02) Farruca
03) Fandango
04) Soleá por Bulería
05) Granadina
06) Soleares
07) Siguiriya
08) Malagueña
09) Alegrías
10) Tarantas

The material overlaps considerably with that of the seminal [[ASIN:B00004S6G0 Flamenco Puro]] album (apparently now [[ASIN:B000LZ5JVE re-released]]) that made such an impact in Spain.  It covers the gamut from 'light' to 'deep' Flamenco styles (including the deepest of all, the siguiriya, of which Sabicas recorded comparatively few examples).

Volumes 1 & 2 have now appeared on CD together as [[ASIN:B000ESM2JA La Guitarra Flamenca]], and Volume 1 is also on [[ASIN:B0001XAME0 The Greatest Flamenco Guitarist]].

UPDATE

The Elektra discography says:

"According to Jac Holzman in FTM [[[ASIN:B00HSSA6ZG Follow the Music]]] there were three sessions for this LP before Sabicas and Elektra were satisfied with the results. The stereo LP is probably from a different session to the mono […].

There are two versions of the cover: one featuring a multi-exposure shot of Sabicas playing the guitar, making his hands seem a blur. Later copies use a generic Sabicas cover with a guitar on a chair and some of these add a 'Volume 1' subtitle."

The most noticeable difference between the stereo and mono versions is on the bulería (track 1), which in mono  (ELK 117) is, approximately, in C (A Phrygian capo'd at 3); and in stereo (EKS 7117) is in D (capo'd at 5), rather faster, and accompanied by palmas.

The mono version also contains an introduction (starting from soleares compás) that isn't on the stereo one; and, interestingly, the former is the version on [[ASIN:B000ESM2JA La Guitarra Flamenca]].


title: Cordobés maestro

text:
Paco Serrano is a flamenco guitarist from Córdoba who is primarily an accompanist, and, perhaps consequently, has not come into the public eye as much as his contemporary Vicente Amigo — even though he's won both the Ramón Montoya and La Unión competitions.  He never the less is, and has been for a long time, one of my favourite players, with a a wonderful sense of rhythm (developed by years accompanying his dancer sister Luisa) , and inventiveness deeply rooted in the tradition.

This is his first solo outing, and it's a very pleasurable one.  There are no flutes, violins or other extraneous clutter: only Paco's guitar (sometimes double-tracked), and Ricardo Espinosa (when required) on cajón.

There are extensive booklet notes by Paco Peña (in whose Company Paco Serrano played for a while), in Spanish, English, French and German.

Two extremely accurate books of transcriptions of these pieces are also published by Encuentro, and are available at select guitar shops.

Contents:

01) Tangos «El portillo»
02) Soleares «Mi camino»
03) Alegrías «Lagunas de sal»
04) Granadinas «Amenecer en la vega»
05) Bulerías «Taracea»
06) Farruca «Viento del norte»
07) Zapateado «Lluvia en el patio»
08) Rondeña «Las campanas del cerro»
09) Guajiras «Buen son, buen corazón»
10) Tarantas «A mi hermana Luisa»
11) Bulerías «Chiringo»

The total time is 59'11".


title: Good, but short

text:
This is all pure Flamenco, since it was recorded before the Manolo started doing all the bizarre things he later became famous for; and it's good creative stuff, although the technique is rather scuffly in places, and the sound occasionally a bit weedy.

Contents:

1) Taranta del pozo viejo
2) Bulerías «Viva Jerez»
3) Mi farruca
4) Guajira merchelera
5) Seguiriya «Elegía al Niño Ricardo»
6) Soleá «Pasito a paso»
7) Caracoles «Farolillos caracoles»
8) Granadina «Brindis para Alberto Vélez»

But the total time is only 39'58": volumes 1 & 2 would both fit on one CD.

The sheet music of Mundo y Formas has now been published with accompanying CDs:

[[ASIN:8493472956 Volume 1]]
[[ASIN:8493472948 Volume 2]]
[[ASIN:8493472972 Volume 3]]

As I write, the price of the book with the CD is less than the price of the Vol. 2 CD alone

Several of the pieces were also published in the Gendai Guitar Flamenco books, now out of print but occasionally available second-hand.


title: Mislabelled tracks

text:
Sabicas (1912-90) was one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of the 20th century and a major influence on all his successors, most notably Paco de Lucía.

This compilation contains:

• 8 tracks from the seminal [[ASIN:B00004S6G0 Flamenco Puro]] album (apparently now [[ASIN:B000LZ5JVE re-released]]) that made such an impact in Spain
• 4 tracks from [[ASIN:B00282GKL6 Flamenco Virtuoso]]
• 2 tracks from [[ASIN:B005F0CTO0 3 Guitarras Tiene Sabicas]]
• 2 tracks from [[ASIN:B006VRU0VU Flaming Flamenco Guitar]] (aka "Adios a la guitarra")
• 1 track from [[ASIN:B007IKV5MM Flamenco!]] (with Carmen Amaya)

However, several of the tracks from "Flamenco Puro" are mislabelled:

02) labelled "Ecos de la Mina" (Tarantas), is actually "Punta y Tacón " (Farruca).  There is no Tarantas on the album.

07) labelled "Ecos jerezanos" (Soleá por Bulería), is actually "Aires de Triana" (Bulerías).

13) labelled "Punta y Tacón" (Farruca), is actually "Brisas de La Caleta" (Malagueñas).

15) labelled "Brisas de La Caleta" (Malagueñas), is actually "Ecos jerezanos" (Soleá por Bulería).

Apart from this, it's a good representative selection of Sabicas's playing.  The total time is 64'47".


title: Not enough tracks

text:
In case you're not familiar with Sabicas (1912-90), he was one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of the 20th century and a major influence on all his successors, most notably Paco de Lucía.

I don't possess this album, but the track listing reveals it to be a compilation drawn from two LPs which I do possess, released as CDs (as far as I'm aware) only in Japan: they are [[ASIN:B00005FHVM ¡¡Olé!!]] and [[ASIN:B00005FHVN Flamenco]].

The styles here are as follows:

01) Guadalquivir
02) Soleares «Alma Gaditana»
03) Alegrias «Compases flamencos»
04) Zapateado
05) Granaínas «Peña La Platería»
06) Danza Mora «Ensueno arabe»
07) Siguiriyas «Taconeo gitano»
08) Malagueña «Torremolinos»
09) Fandangos de Huelva «El conguero»

10) Alegrías «Variaciones de Alegrías»
11) Bulerías «Embrujo Sevillano»
12) Soleares «Mi Soleá»
13) Farruca «Campanitas»
14) Tarantas «Ecos de Linares»
15) Siguiriyas «Duquelas de Triana»

"Guadalquivir" is a medley of two Andalusian folk songs collected by García Lorca, "Zorongo" and "Los cuatro muleros".

So the present selection comprises some of the tracks from the two albums mentioned, but five tracks are missing: incomprehensibly, for the total time for both complete albums is only 74'10"; hence three stars only.

But if you don't want to splurge on both Japanese albums, this appears to be a reasonable substitute.

An alternative is [[ASIN:B0019PPWGW la Guitarra de Sabicas]], which contains 18 tracks from the Japanese albums.

Which are explicitly labelled mono, but in fact both albums are stereo, with many numbers immaculately double-tracked in Sabicas's usual fashion.

The total time of the present album is 55'02".


title: Flamenco at its best

text:
If you don't know who Camarón and Paco are, it will have to suffice to say that they are (or were, in Camarón's case), by universal consensus the greatest flamenco singer and guitarist of the last fifty years.

However, their recording history, confusing enough even at the beginning, is now so complex that I think it worthwhile to include a short guide as to where the present album fits in.

They started recording together in 1969, when Paco was barely into his twenties and Camarón even younger; the collaboration revolutionised both their chosen fields, and changed the course of Flamenco forever.

Unbelievably, their first five records together were ALL excitingly entitled "El Camarón de la Isla con la colaboración especial de Paco de Lucía".  For this reason, they are known to aficonados by the titles of their opening tracks, as follows:

1969 [[ASIN:B000BRP7DC Al verte las flores lloran]]
1970 [[ASIN:B00000DXYD Cada vez que nos miramos]]
1971 [[ASIN:B00000DXYE Son tus ojos dos estrellas]]
1972 [[ASIN:B000FQIRN6 Canastera]]*
1973 [[ASIN:B00000DXY7 Caminito de Totana]]

They also recorded four further albums within the traditional framework, before abandoning it for the experiments with rock, bossa nova, orchestras etc. that resulted in the Flamenco Fusion we know today.  These albums are:

1974 [[ASIN:B00000DXLD Soy Caminante]]
1975 [[ASIN:B000A39FCQ Arte y Majestad]]
1976 [[ASIN:B000AL51N0 Rosa María]]
1977 [[ASIN:B000FZEQ4G Castillo de Arena]]

All of the above adhere strictly to the traditional format, which is to say just voice and guitar, plus the usual rhythmic and other support known as jaleo.  Frequently Paco's brother Ramón (a fine player in his own right) is heard on second guitar.

I am not alone in thinking that these albums are some of the finest Flamenco ever recorded; musically, you can't go wrong with any of them.

They are, however short by CD standards.  Only "Al verte" is over 40 minutes, and Castillo de Arena is just over 31.  But if you're serious about Flamenco, it's still worth getting all of them instead of the various anthologies.

As you can see, this is the third outing, and covers the entire the emotional gamut of Flamenco from the joyous "Son tus ojos dos estrellas" to exercises in misery like "Se murió mi madre".  The  contents are as follows:

01) Bulerías «Son tus ojos dos estrellas»
02) Malagueñas «La mujer con ser mujer»
03) Soleá de Alcalá «Por mala lengua que tienes»
04) Fandangos «Sin motivos ni razón»
05) Petenera «En la provincia de Cádiz»
06) Minera «De una mina de La Unión»
07) Soleá «El espejo que te miras»
08) Fandangos «Me la tienes controla»
09) Tangos «Al Padre Santo de Roma»
10) Polo «Estoy cumpliendo condena»
11) Seguiriyas «Se murió mi madre»
12) Bulerías «Me voy por la calle abajo»

A classic.

I also should say that I have an older copy of this album, which does not contain the complete lyrics advertised for this edition, but only the usual information provided on Spanish Philips CDs — i.e. nothing.  Therefore, I can't comment on their completeness or accuracy.

*Canastera is in fact so labelled on some copies.


title: The man who revived the lute

text:
This 1960 album was Julian Bream's first lute recording for RCA, and a stunning one it was too.  For the first time the wonderful compositions of the Elizabethan and Jacobean times, long forgotten, were revived in performances brimming with vitality, musicality and élan, reducing to triviality the belly-achings of purists whimpering about inauthentic technique.

And it's clear from their own comments that many of the best modern lutenists (such as Nigel North and Paul O'Dette) might not even have been playing, were it not for the massive inspiration of Bream.
The contents of the [[ASIN:B000FP823M LP]] are:

01) Robert Johnson: Almaines (2)
02) John Johnson: Fantasia
03) Cutting: Walsingham
04) Dowland: Mignarda, P. 34
05) Cutting: Almaine
06) Rosseter: Galliard
07) Cutting: Greensleeves
08) Dowland: Galliard Upon A Galliard of Daniel Batchelar
09) Morley: Pavane
10) Robert Johnson: The Carman's Whistle
11) Bulman: Pavane
12) Batchelar: Monsieur's Almaine
13) Holborne: Pavan
14) Dowland: Batell Galliard, P. 40
15) Holborne: Galliard

for a total time of 45'31".  To this the [[ASIN:B000003FFW CD]] adds 9 extra tracks recorded live in 1963 in Massachusetts, as follows:

16) Byrd: Pavana Bray
17) Byrd: Galliard
18) Byrd: Pavan
19) Byrd: My Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home
20) Dowland: Captain Digorie Piper's Galliard, P. 19
21) Dowland: Queen Elizabeth's Galliard, P. 41
22) Dowland: Sir John Langton's Pavan, P. 14
23) Dowland: Tarleton's Resurrection, P. 59
24) Dowland: Lady Clifton's Spirit, P. 45

bringing the total time to 66'55".

P.S. For a list of all Bream's lute recordings, see my So You'd Like To... Guide.


title: The master at his finest

text:
This is one of the most wonderful lute albums ever recorded, and its deletion, in both LP and [[ASIN:B00000HZS6 CD]] form, is a crime against music: there should be some hideous penalty.

Julian Bream was the greatest pioneer of the revival of the lute, and with this recording he was also instrumental in reviving interest in Francesco da Milano and his [[ASIN:0674539559 miniature masterpieces]] of counterpoint.

Contents:

a1) Byrd/Cutting: Woods So Wild
a2) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 30
a3) Cutting: Packington's Pounde
a4) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 38
a5) Dowland: Walsingham, P. 67
a6) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 27
a7) Holborne: The Fairy Round
a8) Holborne: Heigh Ho Holiday
a9) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 34

b1) Dowland: Goe From My Window, P. 64
b2) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 40
b3) Anon/Cutting: Greensleeves
b4) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 28
b5) Dowland: Bonny Sweet Robin, P. 70
b6) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 39
b7) Holborne: Heart's Ease
b8) Milano, Francesco da: Fantasia, N. 3
b9) Dowland: Loth To Depart, P. 69

The total time is 47'01".

P.S. For a list of all Bream's lute recordings, see my So You'd Like To... Guide.


title: Hmm...

text:
A motley collection of Sabicas recordings indeed.  Many (asterisked) seem to be drawn from [[ASIN:B0013KSL3E Sabicas in Concert]] (reissued on [[ASIN:B0025VLJBQ Concierto]]), but others are unfamiliar to me, even though I've been listening to Sabas for 50 years: in particular, I was unaware that he had recorded Mario Escudero's "Para Amina".

The engineering seems pretty erratic; some of the tracks (e.g. the first Soleares, Los piconeros, Zapateado en Re and Capricho Andaluz) seem to be missing the first few notes.  This appears to be confirmed by the fact that (for example) the Zapateado en Re is listed as 3'50" here, whereas it's 4'11" on El Rey del Flamenco.

So the long and the short of it is I dunno.  It's nice to have the rare tracks, but I can't really say that it seems like a good buy.

CONTENTS

Volume 1

01 Granadina «Joyas de la Alhambra» (from [[ASIN:B000LZ5JVE Flamenco Puro]])
02 Farruca «Rapsodia flamenca»*
03 Seguiriyas con Saeta «Tambores del silencio»*
04 Bulerías
05 Malagueñas del Siglo XIX
06 Fandangos de Huelva
07 Garrotín «Recuerdo a Carmen Amaya»*
08 Rondeña
09 Bulería «Los piconeros»
10 Soleares
11 Zapateado en Re (from [[ASIN:B004TZDQ0I El Rey del Flamenco]])
12 Danza Mora «Noches de Arabia»*
13 Fandangos
14 Capricho Español [Rimsky-Korsakov] (from [[ASIN:B005Q134FQ Sabicas Vol. 2]], reissued on [[ASIN:B000ESM2JA La Guitarra Flamenca]])
15 Farruca

Volume 2

01 Capricho Andaluz*
02 Verdiales «La Caleta y El Limonar»*
03 Guajiras «Mosaico tropical»*
04 Bulerías
05 Marcha «El Sitio de Zaragoza»*
06 Malagueña
07 Bulerías «Andrés Heredia»
08 Soleares
09 Tarantas
10 Alegrías
11 Farruca
12 Saetas «Ecos de Semana Santa» (from [[ASIN:B000VI4KJS Serenata Andaluza]])
13 Bulerías
14 Para Amina [Mario Escudero]
15 Milonga «La castanuela»

The total time is 106'19".


title: A nonmeeting of great guitarists

text:
WARNING 2017

In  typical slapdash fashion, Amazon has munged together the reviews from two entirely different albums.

This is my review for the album shared between Paco de Lucía & Paco Peña.

REVIEW

No, they're not playing duets.  This is one of those albums thrown together by record companies.  They get one side each.

Both, although famous for Flamenco, are here playing Latin American music.  Peña's pieces come from his second album "Carnival" with Los Maracuchos, long deleted; and Lucía's from [[ASIN:B00000BLI4 Hispanoamérica]] with his brother Ramón.  Both albums are from 1969.

And both sides are pleasant, but the Peña arrangements are rather more imaginative.

The total time is 38'12".

CONTENTS

Paco & Ramón:

Amapola
Pájaro chogüi
Yo vendo unos ojos negros
Guadalajara
(Y todo) A media luz
Tico-tico
Quizás, quizás, quizás.

Paco Peña:

La bamba
Caminando
Choros Nº 2 [Villa-Lobos]
Ritmo orquidea
Carnival (from "Black Orpheus")
Valse criollo [Lauro]
Danza venezolana [Barrios]