title: Computer music, short timing: a quick ride into the beyond

text:
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab was an interesting audiophile label from the late days of the LP and early days of the CD. Based in California, they started out in the late LP days, in 1977, specializing mainly in quality reissues of key, often highly successful, popular album, with transfers from original master-tapes and high-quality vinyl pressings. When came the CD era and the questions of pressings and surface noise mattered less, they still lavished great care on their transfers. They went bankrupt in 1999, due to the demise of one of their distributors.

The main bulk of their catalog was in rock, pop and jazz, but they had an interesting selection of classical reissues, a few originated from Vox but rapidly specializing in material licensed from the Soviet Melodiya which, besides the stalwarts Svetlanov or Fedosseyev, afforded a glimpse into then rarely heard Soviet interpreters (Lazarev, Khakhidze) or composers (Denisov, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Artiomov, Smirnov, Bibliev, Firsova, Pavlenko, Mansurian). Apparently they dropped Classical music after 1990, but many if not all of their CDs were reissued by Vox in the mid 1990, including the ones from Melodiya.

The only exception seems to be this recital of computer music by Michael McNabb - originally released on LP by the Arch 1750 label (famous for its 4-LP recording of Conlon Nancarrow's then extant Studies for Player Piano) as S-1800, although the liner notes tell us that "the master tape for this record was made by direct digital transfer from the computer that generated the signal to a Sony PCM 1610 digital tape recorder. (...) The only analog step is the digital to analog conversion process in your compact disk player. The result is a clean recording, without the accumulated background noise and tape hiss that result from analog mixing and copying". I confirm.

McNabb was born in California in 1952. According to his website, he is "a composer, performer, installation artist and computer music veteran". He "holds a doctorate in Music Composition from Stanford University, where he studied at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics with John Chowning and Leland Smith. He is also senior Silicon Valley leading-edge technology consultant, V.P. of Technology at AquaMinds Software, the former manager of Sound and Music Software at NeXT Computer, and author of the real-time audio/MIDI performance application Fantasia. Articles and essays by McNabb appear in the books "The Language of Electroacoustic Music" (Macmillan Press) and "The Music Machine" (MIT Press), and in the Computer Music Journal and Leonardo Journal. His current work focuses on media-enhanced electroacoustic musical performance and interactive installation art".

The music? Often fascinating, atmospheric, eerie, mysterious. The three pieces featured here were composed between 1978 (Dreamsong, track 1) and 1981 (Love in the Asylum, track 2). "Mars Suite" (track 3) was composed in 1979 and revised in 1984; it derives from the soundtrack music composed for a NASA-sponsored film of images from Mars taken by the Viking lander and orbiter spacecraft. Ghostly female choruses, crystalline percussion,  vaguely nightmarish voices, distorted almost beyond recognition, pronouncing the names of some of the planet's sites. McNabb also displays a fine sense of humor, especially in "Love in the Asylum", with its ghostly whiffs of Amusement Park music or Schumann's Prophet Bird played by synthesizer. McNabb shows a fine sonic invention and his music constantly engages the listener's ear and attention. The music is melodically and harmonically often close to 1970s progressive rock (if my memory serves).

So, all this is fine and should appeal to amateurs of computer music, BUT : TT 33:15. That's a very short ride into the beyond.


title: A good recital of some of Stravinsky's less popular pieces - including some small gems

text:
This fine Stravinsky recital by the Endymion Ensemble under John Whitfield was recorded in January 1987 and published by EMI in 1988. The liner notes are silent about the interpreters. Whitfield, born in 1957 in England, was one of the founding members in 1979 of the Endymion Ensemble, from a group of students from the National Youth Orchestra, and specialized in 20th Century music theatre and small-scale opera. The ensemble is still in operation.

The compositions they've selected span a quarter-century in Stravinsky's compositional career. They do not belong to his most popular works, but they are genuine Stravinsky nonetheless and some of them (Symphonies for Wind Instruments, Ebony Concerto) genuine masterpieces even, in miniature form.

Dumbarton Oaks Concerto (1938) is a kind of Concerto Grosso, Stravinsky's homage to Bach's Brandenburgs. It is lightweight and boisterous in mood, dynamic and syncopated in rhythmic allure, and witty. Much of the mood and style of The Rake's Progress is announced. Endymion isn't as dynamic as Stravinsky in his own recording from 1964 (now on volume VI of Sony's 22-CD complete edition, [[ASIN:B000002767 Igor Stravinsky: The Recorded Legacy]]), they are even downright pedestrian in the middle Allegretto, and their sonics don't afford the same kind of instrumental presence, vividness and character, but their rhythmic squareness and robustness, their crisp articulation are well suited to the piece, imparting it a fine bonhomie and offering a possible alternative to Stravinsky's view.

For a minute and forty-one seconds, I thought this was going to be an "Urtext" version of the Octet - I mean, one that followed precisely Stravinsky's metronome marks, which is something that the composer himself, in each of his three recordings does NOT do (he usually plays significantly faster; the 1933 recording I have on a 5-CD set published by the French Vogue that I find listed nowhere, but it is also on [[ASIN:B000092OLZ Stravinsky: Composer & Conductor, Vol. I]]; 1954 is on [[ASIN:B00000C3SN Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky: The Mono Years 1952-1955]]; and 1961, on volume 7 of Sony's Stravinsky edition). 1:41 is indeed the time it takes Endymion to get through the Lento introduction, at a tempo of circa 76-80 eighth-notes per minute, close enough to the score's 76, and significantly slower than Stravinsky in both his American recordings (circa 88 to 92).

But no, deceptive lead. When comes the Allegro moderato, they play at quarter-note 120, following exactly here the Stravinsky performing model rather than the score's deliberate 108. Too bad: I'd love to hear it exactly as written some day; the impression will no doubt be jolting. Subsequently, Endymion are in fact very free in their tempos, sometimes slower, sometimes faster than both the metronome marks and Stravinsky the performer. Still, their playing is crisp, clear and spotless, each instrument can be heard vividly, so this version is interesting especially for its variances from the various Stravinsky versions - although I am not convinced that the ultimate variation (at 5:27 in the second movement) can really sustain such a slow tempo (eighth-note cira 69 to the score's 84 and Stavinsky-as-performer's xx).

The Ebony Concerto (1945) is a little gem, Stravinsky's take on Jazz written for Woody Herman and his Herd, and one of the best Jazz-inspired compositions among so many, because, unlike so many, the Jazz is entirely metabolized into Stravinsky's language. Here, it benefits from fine sonics, affording great instrumental clarity and tonal character. Endymion is more laid back, less urgent and biting than Stravinsky (also on Vol. VII of the Stravinsky edition) in the first movement; paradoxically, with Stravinsky it sounds like Jazz (and what a great sense of swing!), with Endymion... like Stravinsky! I've never been so aware of the echoes of Petrushka, especially in the clarinet-trombone duet at 1:00. The two other movements are very similar to Stravinsky's recording, very marginally less urgent in the finale, and offer fine instrumental pungency.

Endymion plays two versions of the Symphony for Wind Instruments - the original, 1920 orchestration and the revision from 1947, which substitutes "normal" instruments to the more unusual alto flute, alto clarinet and trumpet in A, and adds a few transitional beats and bars. The differences are marginal and are likely to be heard only with score in hand - and even then. For the others the impression will be of having the same piece repeated. Again the reading by Endymion is remarkably crisp and clear, slightly more stately in its initial tempo than the composer's metronome mark, appropriately highlighting the piece's ritualistic aspect.

With a TT of 61 minutes the disc is generous enough, but I'd rather have had the instrumental suite from The Soldier's Tale than one of the two recordings of the Symphony for Winds. Given the ensemble's characteristics, I can surmise that it would have been an excellent reading.


title: not "in spite of", but FOR Schnittke's cadenzas

text:
So, Beethoven didn't write any cadenzas for his Violin Concerto. Probably didn't have time (the concerto was written in haste, for a benefit concert given on December 23, 1806 for fiddler, conductor and composer Franz Clément) or simply entrusted them to his soloist's improvisatory capabilities (Clément seems to have been a great improviser).

So each violinist is left to play his own (rarely done) or those of the great past masters - Kreisler's being the most popular. Ruggiero Ricci has even made a CD of all these cadenzas ([[ASIN:B000001ZEB Violin Concerto]]).

I was sent back to Kremer's two last recordings (there was an earlier one from Kremer's Soviet years, made with Woldemar Nelson for Melodiya in 1974) by the recent version of Patricia Kopatchinskaja (with Herreweghe, [[ASIN:B0029XIWC4 Beethoven: Complete Works for Violin & Orchestra]]). She plays her own reworking of the cadenzas (with some cuts) written by Beethoven for his adaptation of the Violin Concerto as a Piano Concerto, opus 61a (integral with timpani in the first movement cadenza). In order to emulate the polyphony of the piano part, she resorts to some voice-over recording, making the music sound very jarring, contemporary music almost; I doubt that Beethoven would have written that music if he had written it for solo violin(s). Anyway, while not entirely convincing, it is interesting.

She wasn't the first to go back to Beethoven's cadenzas, though. Wolfgang Schneiderhan did that in the early 1960s, and Kremer did it too, in his third recording of the Concerto, with Harnoncourt, in 1992 ([[ASIN:B000000SG9 Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 / Romance in G major, Op. 40 / Romance in F major, Op. 50 - Gidon Kremer / Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Nikolaus Harnoncourt]]); but there Kremer used a pianoforte (played from the wings and transmitted through loudspeakers - not "historically-informed" playing, that!), picking up Beethoven's melodic line and dialoguing with the pianoforte. Again: interesting rather than convincing, and almost more jolting than Kopatchinskaja's option.

But Kremer had been even more (apparently) radical in his previous recording, made in 1980 with Neville Marriner and the ASMF (original CD release [[ASIN:B00000E2NO Beethoven: Violinkonzert (Violin Concerto in D)]]), by using not cadenzas from past masters but one written especially for him by contemporary composer Alfred Schnittke - a fitting choice, considering that Schnittke, starting with his first Concerto Grosso, was possibly the main champion of that "post-modern" collage technique which consists of writing baroque-like music only to skid out of it into something entirely contemporary. The rationale (according to Kremer in an interview in the Gramophone) was to bring back the notion of the cadenza not as something in the style of the composer but as "an expression of the time and the performer." So Schnittke's cadenza was "not so much a cadenza as a composition".

And boy were the critics scathing back then! While all praised the interpretation, I can't remember one that didn't bitterly chastise the cadenzas, dismissing the recording as a whole because of them. Let me quote the Gramophone here (easily accessible online thanks to their wonderful Archive): "The version is not recommendable as a whole because of the cadenzas. Again, not just that there are arguably too many of them, Kremer inserting five worthwhile ones where Beethoven probably expected two-and-a half; this might or might not strike a listener as desirable, but hardly amounts to a major crime against the composer. This particular crime is, however, the speciality of the two main cadenzas (in the expected places). These two have been composed by Alfred Schnittke, an avant-garde composer whose occupation I can easily believe suits him well. I wish he would return to that occupation if it means he will keep his hands off Beethoven." Not bad, huh?

Well, I guess that tells how much our ears have grown in the ensuing 30 years (can it be that long?!!!) Since then, the famous architect Ioh Ming Pei built his transparent high-tech pyramid in the middle of the Louvre museum, so I guess we've gotten used to those clashes of styles. Actually I find Schnittke's cadenza to the first movement much less stylistically at odds than the ones Szigeti plays on his 1947 recording with Walter (I don't know whose it is, maybe Busoni's, [[ASIN:B00000DSHD Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring"]]), very clever even in its use of ostinatos recalling the first movement's timpani beats; Schnittke also quotes themes from other famous violin concertos (I've recognized Brahms, Bartok and Berg); his use of timpani, which was so reprimanded back then, is quite discreet - much more than Beethoven's own - and dramatically effective. The two "small" cadenzas (end of second movement and beginning of finale) or in fact largely inspired by Beethoven's own. At the end of the finale's big cadenza Schnittke adds his typical "skidding off" into Penderecki-reminiscent string tremolos - 2001 Space Odyssey! I find it fun.

Other than that - I mean: including that - this is an excellent interpretation, not very different from Kremer's newer one with Harnoncourt. The tempos are very similar (e.g more dynamic than in the "traditional" versions, but never rushed), just a touch more expansive in the first two movements, the Academy is suitably transparent and muscular (but the strings aren't as crisply articulated as Harnoncourt's and the brass are more discreet), Kremer plays with the same juicy tone and fine attention to Beethoven's dynamics and articulation marks (but slightly less than in 1992) and the sound remains very good (on headphones in the 1s-movement cadenza I hear a slight buzz in one of the channels). That would make Harnoncourt's a slightly preferable one - but actually I think this one is indispensable in any serious Beethoven Violin Concerto collection, precisely for the Schnittke cadenzas. So I'll keep two Kremer recordings in my collection, as long as the mortgage companies do not close-in on my shelf-space.

This budget reissue comes with no liner notes. The complements are NOT the two Romances that came on the original 1981 disc, but half of an LP recorded in 1979 by Kremer with the LSO under Emil Tchakarov (CD reissue [[ASIN:B00000E4PL Music for Violin & Orchestra]], the other half being Schubert trifles), with the first Romance op. 40 and the Concerto fragment WoO 5, also recorded by Kopatchinskaja (but she finds space for both Romances).

TT 67-mn.


title: The more advanced in its musical language, the better

text:
Rodion Shchedrin's First Symphony from 1958 is not avant-garde - but who was, in post-Stalin Soviet Union? It is written in a highly-charged, Shostakovich-like language. At its most dramatic it is not far from post-1980 Penderecki (but it is post-1980 Penderecki who is conservative in his musical language, not Shchedrin 1958 that is forward-looking), it has moments of brilliant orchestration (in the middle Toccata), passages of passionate despair so typical of Shostakovich, some overly heart-on-sleeve and sentimental moments too (especially in the final movement, a theme and variations) that smack a little too much of film music (that's how Shchedrin made a living back then), and passages of great bombast that I find insufferably corny (they usually come as the climaxes of the previous ones). One of the Symphony's nice touches is that it ends in a very gloomy atmosphere, something of a funeral march, with bassoon and timpanis, for which it was condemned by the music apparatchiks at the time. Still, I'm not convinced this adds much that Shostakovich hadn't said already, and what it adds is too unsubtle and going for facile effect to really convince, I find.

Two pieces made Shchedrin famous in the West (and probably the East too): his Carmen-ballet, written for his wife, the famous Russian prima ballerina assoluta Maya Plisetskaya, and his short first Concerto for orchestra, better known as the Mischievous Ditties or Naughty Limericks (1963). I was never so impressed by the Carmen-ballet: Bizet should get most of the credit, after all, and I don't find that Shchedrin's orchestration adds much to it. The Naughty Limericks are fun, although their musical language isn't very advanced. They were picked up in the West by Bernstein, who performed them several times (there is a live performance collected on the stupendous "Bernstein live" New York Philharmonic set, [[ASIN:B000055XDG Bernstein Live at the New York Philharmonic [Box Set]]])

That led the New York Phil to commission another Concerto for orchestra from Shchedrin, "The Chimes", written in 1967 and premiered by Bernstein on January 11, 1968. As the previous one it is short (9:43 here), and I find it much more engaging than the First Symphony, violent and despaired in its language, imaginative and atmospheric in its sonic invention, very much like the Penderecki of The Devils of Loudun. A very impressive composition. Both the Symphony and The Chimes were recorded live in 1975. Excellent sound, some coughs in the distance, nothing obtrusive.

I'll pass on the sentimental Maiden's Round Dance from the ballet "The Humpbacked Horse" (1956) which could have been written by Borodin and the Solemn Overture (1982) which could have been written by Tchaikovsky or Rimsky and deserves to by called the "Impossibly Grandiloquent Overture". The notes, written by Shchedrin himself, remain entirely silent on this piece, on what occasion it was written and why he wrote in such a passé language at such an advanced date. Well, a check on Shchedrin's official website provides the answer: this was a "Symphonic Salute on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the USSR". Recordings made in 1987.

On the other hand the two choral works that round off the disc, written the same year as the Solemn Overture, are fab, worthy of anything written by the radical Penderecki of the 1960s and 70s or Ligeti; "The Execution of Pugachov", on a text by Pushkin, uses choral "sound-painting" and shouts and roars from the crowd - of course, Penderecki's Saint Luke's Passion immediately comes to mind -, and the Concertino is a wordless virtuoso concerto for chorus. Recordings from 1983.

For these two pieces and The Chimes, this disc will stay in my collection.

The orchestral pieces with Svetlanov had been released earlier on CD by Melodiya, with the complement of the the Naughty Limericks and the Suite from Shchedrin's early opera "Not Love alone" ([[ASIN:B0009AFCXQ Rodion Shchedrin: Symphonic Works]] or [[ASIN:B000003JI3 Shchedrin: Symphonic Works]]): a more conherent program but entailing the loss of the two magnificent choral pieces. I was sent back to Rodion Shchedrin's music by chance, seizing the occasion of an auction on the famous web site, where I bought another volume from this series of Shchedrin discs, entitled "Authorized Shchedrin" and obviously masterminded by the composer himself (who wrote the program notes to all), released in the late 1990s during the short-lived collaboration between BMG and Melodiya. Frustratingly, I cannot publish my review of this other disc (which has Kondrashin - not Svetlanov - conducting the Naughty Limericks and the Suite from "Not Love Alone", plus the Frescoes of Dyonisos by Lazarev), as, incomprehensibly, it doesn't seem listed on this website. You will find it on the European sister companies under ASIN B0000268EW. On that occasion, I realized how many of the early Shchedrin CD releases, including this series, were gone. Other instalments in the series included :

- Polyphonic notebook, 24 preludes & fugues piano with the composer at the piano ([[ASIN:B000001HDG Shchedrin: Polyphonic Notebook For Piano/24 Preludes And Fugues For Piano]])
- piano wks vol II (including Piano Sonata)  ([[ASIN:B0000268ES Shchedrin: Piano Works II (Piano Sonata, An Imitation of Albeniz, etc)]])
- Piano Concertos 1-3 by Shchedrin and Svetlanov ([[ASIN:B000001HDH Shchedrin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3]])
- Carmen-Suite by Rozhdestvensky and Anna Karenina-ballet by Svetlanov ([[ASIN:B000001HDI Rodion Shchedrin: Carmen-Suite; Anna Karenina]])
- The Lady With a Lapdog by Lazarev with Self-Portrait by Kakhizde ([[ASIN:B0000268EZ Shchedrin: Lady With the Lapdog, Self Po]])
- The Sealed Angel for mixed chorus ([[ASIN:B000001HDF Shchedrin: The Sealed Angel]])

Some of these or part of the material contained in these had been released previously, either by Melodiya (but I've run out of authorized links. See ASIN B000003JH0 The Sealed Angel, B0009ALSIE Shchedrin - Album for the Youth  / Echo Sonata / Self Portrait) or by Mobile Fidelity (see for instance my review of [[ASIN:B000008KN2 Rodion Shchedrin: The Lady With a Lapdog (Original Master Recording) Mobile Fidelity MFCD 893]]).

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title: Much that is enjoyable for the amateur of Romantic music, but nothing that is essential

text:
The symphonies of Zdenek Fibich don't enjoy much more recorded currency these days then when this CD came out, in 1985, under the joint collaboration of the digital pioneer Denon and the (still Czechoslovakian) national company Supraphon. Fibich was rare stuff back then - and had been even on LP, both sides of the Iron curtain. Now, some twenty years later, other than the reissue of the old Supraphon/Sejna recordings made in the 1950s to the early 1960s ([[ASIN:B000065C40 Fibich: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3]] or [[ASIN:B000068UPZ Symphonies 1 2 & 3]]), only Järvi with Detroit on Chandos has made a modern, digital recording of the complete cycle ([[ASIN:B00000DBQW Fibich: Complete Symphonies]]). Naxos has recently entered the fray with an unknown orchestra and conductor, and the review in Fanfare was not positive ([[ASIN:B00000ICMF FIBICH:  Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 [CD on Demand]]]).

I had bought the companion disc with Symphonies 2 & 3 in 1987 when it first came out on CD ([[ASIN:B00008FTZL Zdenek Fibich: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3]] - the two symphonies had been previously released on two different LPs, in the late 1970s and early 1980s), but had somehow missed this one with the first Symphony and the Symphonic poem "The Tempest", recorded in 1984 and the last instalment in a cycle begun in 1976 (Symphony # 2) and continued in 1981 (# 3) - maybe because the two later symphonies had failed to leave a significant impression. Shopping on the famous auction site gave me the opportunity to complete my set and re-visit Fibich.

This Supraphon cycle wasn't in fact exactly that, or only by dint of sharing the same orchestra (Brno State Philharmonic) and being released as such by Supraphon: but three conductors share the proceedings : the two Jiris, Waldhans and Belohlavek in the companion disc, and Petr Vronsky here.

Fibich's life spans exactly the second half of the 19th Century : 1850 to 1900, and all that is known about the composition date of the first Symphony is that it was written "prior to 1883", which makes it an early work for Fibich but a late one for the Century (1883 is Brahms' third, Dvorak's 6th is from 1880, Smetana's Ma Vlast from 1879 and the first version of Mahler's Klagende Lied from 1878-80, 1877 saw the inception of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony and of his opera Eugène Onéguine). With minor figures such as Fibich it is always tempting to try and recognize influences or similitudes from and with the music of more major figures - and ask oneself: what is it that makes him a "minor" figure ?

The first bar of the Symphony strikingly evokes (to me) the beginning of Mahler's 9th, but it's a false clue (or hope), and the mood immediately settles for a kind of beautiful pastoral and lyrical Brahms or Dvorak, with Danube flowing and birds chirping. The second movement is a boisterous scherzo with more than a few hints to Mendelssohn or, even more appropriately, the same movement in Schubert's 9th, and the same Schubertian echo arises from the plangent oboe (or is it cor anglais?) melody opening the slow movement, which later develops to great lyrical intensity before returning to the pastoral, late-Schubert, flute-led atmosphere. The Finale opens with a descending flurry of strings reminiscent of the opening of Berlioz' Romeo and Juliette, but here it does NOT develop into a fiery fugato; instead, the same kind of Mendelssohn-Schubert style develops, alternately boisterous-merry turning to triumphant-bombastic, and pastoral-lyrical.

The symphonic poem "The Tempest" after Shakespeare is nearly contemporary with the Symphony (1880), and its first few minutes belong to the fine depictions in music of the storm. Wagner's Flying Dutchman looms large (and that, of course, was written almost 40 years earlier). At 1:57 clarinet introduces a lyrical and slightly wailing theme (Miranda I presume). In some passages Mussorgky's Night on the Bare Mountain came to mind, but style and atmosphere are very operatic. Tchaikovsky, Gounod may come to mind, with moments of fine color and atmosphere, Rheingold-Wagnerian almost (like the ominous bass clarinet & bassoon theme over bass tremolos at 6:14 - is that Caliban?).

There is much that is enjoyable here for amateurs of Romantic music. What then makes the music of Fibich (especially compared to Brahms, or even Dvorak) "minor"? First, that none of these musical gestures are "new" for the early 1880s, on the contrary: as mentioned, they often evoke music written thirty or forty years earlier. Second, a certain "superficiality" perhaps, the fact that the music is "only" pleasurable and fresh but lacking the kind of depth imparted by the rich and thick orchestral textures and lyrical intensity so characteristic of Brahms and Dvorak. The music also smacks very much of opera, especially in the Symphony's finale and in the symphonic poem, and one senses that Fibich is more an opera composer (one anticipates the chorus or solo vocalist to enter at every corner) than one of "pure" music.

I can't assess the comparative merits of the performance, since I do not have any of the competing versions (and there are a lot of recordings of Brahms' and Dvorak's Symphonies I'd want to listen to before spending more time of Fibich). In the meantime, this CD can snugly gather dust on my shelves. I may return to it for further reference.

TT is a stingy 44:44, as was the wont in the LP and early CD era. The 1984 sonics are fine. Notes give the essential but are limited to that.


title: A fine surprise and an important version of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto

text:
See my detailed review under the disc's other entry, [[ASIN:B0011FSASM Khachaturian: Piano Concerto ; Borkovec :Piano Concerto No 2]], to know why this 1960 recording by the obscure Czech team of Antonin Jemelik and Alois Klima is an outstanding and important version of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto. In capsule, it is so because they adopt a frienzied, unrelenting approach of the outer movements, turning the usual grandiloquence and bombast into hair-raising drive and energy.

Not that Jemelik and Klima solve ALL the problems that one meets in the "traditional" interpretations of Khachaturian's Concerto, ever since the pionnering versions of William Kapell-Serge Koussevitzky (1946, [[ASIN:B000040JED William Kapell Edition Vol 4: Prokofiev: Piano concerto no. 3 / Khachaturian: Piano concerto / Shostakovich: Preludes for piano]] or [[ASIN:B00005QIRZ Prokofiev/Khachaturian]]) and Moura Lympany-Anatole Fistoulari (1952, [[ASIN:B00067R3CK Moura Lympany plays Rachmaninov & Khachaturian]] - I haven't heard their earlier version from 1945, [[ASIN:B00000C2B8 Moura Lympany plays Khachaturian, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Etc.]]): namely, the adoption of a very slow in the second movement, turning it from an "andante con anima" to a dreamy adagio, and the non-observance of the composer's intended tempo relationships within the first two movements. The composer's own recording with the composition's premiere performer and dedicatee Lev Oborin (sadly not reissued on CD but available on U-tube) shows how effective his true conception was. Nonetheless, these "inobservant" options make sense musically and aren't likely to bother anyone without a score. Still, a modern version that would do entire justice to what Khachaturian really wrote has yet to come my way. Stay tune.


text:
If you were asked to designate the best recordings of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto and failed to mention this one, from 1960, by Antonin Jemelik and the Czech Philharmonic under Alois Klima, you wouldn't be to blame: hardly artists of any big reputation. Yet, this is what we get here, and here is why. Ever since the famous 1946 recording by William Kapell and Serge Koussevitzky ([[ASIN:B000040JED William Kapell Edition Vol 4: Prokofiev: Piano concerto no. 3 / Khachaturian: Piano concerto / Shostakovich: Preludes for piano]] or [[ASIN:B00005QIRZ Prokofiev/Khachaturian]] - I haven't heard the earlier one from 1945 by Moura Lympany, [[ASIN:B00000C2B8 Moura Lympany plays Khachaturian, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Etc.]]), there has been, I feel, some problems with the "traditional" interpretation of Khachaturian's 1936 composition.

One  is the choice of opening tempos in the first movement: "Allegro maestoso" (says my Hawkes pocket score) or "allegro ma non troppo maestoso" (as some CD booklets have it). Following Kapell-Koussevitzky's circa 100-104 quarter-notes per minute (the composer's metronome mark is 108-120), many have obviously given precedence to the "maestoso" over the "allegro", adopting a majestic and powerful approach indeed, but also one that is stately, when not trudging, and ultimately insufferably bombastic.

It isn't just a matter of being slower than the composer's intended tempo, though. Even those who are at the higher end of his metronome instructions (Oscar Levant with Mitropoulos in 1950, available on the European sister companies under ASIN B000F1HRAK, Lympany in her classic LP remake from 1952, [[ASIN:B00067R3CK Moura Lympany plays Rachmaninov & Khachaturian]], Jakov Flier with Kondrachin in 1963, [[ASIN:B000XU6TMK A. Khachaturian Piano Concerto in D Flat Major Symphony No. 3 [CD] [IMPORT]]]) don't entirely dispel the impression. And likewise in the finale - an all-out "allegro brillante" here. Composer's metronome now is quarter-note 120-126, and most versions are precisely there. But Kapell-Koussevitzky's 138 is electrifying. Compared to them, all the others sound somewhat staid.

In the second movement, I don't mind as much the liberties taken by everyone I've heard except the composer-conducting with dedicatee and premiere performer Lev Oborin (sadly not reissued on CD as far as I know, but available on U-tube), changing it from the prescribed "andante con anima" and mm of quarter-note 69-72 to a dreamy adagio taken at anywhere from circa 54-56 (Katz, [[ASIN:B000XVSYB8 Mindru Katz performs Khachaturian Piano Concerto in D flat; Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 1 in D flat op 10]] or [[ASIN:B00004TSF6 Legendary Pianist Mindru Katz]], Kapell) to 60-63 (Orbelian-Järvi, [[ASIN:B000025S1Y Khachaturian: Piano Concerto; Gayaneh Ballet Suite; Masquerade Suite]]). It works well that way. Important is to have the infamous flexatone (Koussevitzky and, astoundingly, the composer omit it), a kind of musical saw whose kitsch is integral to the music's character.

Back to Jemelik-Klima, then. With them, no stately and majestic trudging in the outer movements. They dash into the first movement at a frenzied 138, turning the "maestoso" into a "feroce" - and it's fab'. Suddenly all the bombast is gone, in favor of a hair-raising drive and intensity. Jemelik doesn't sound like a virtuoso of the same order as Kapell, his technique shows traces of strain in the octave runs, and some of the finger-work isn't as crisp and clear as Kapell's but remember that he is playing nearly 40 % faster. His finale is even more hectic - he is the only one I know who take it faster than Kapell. Truth is, now, after re-hearing Jemelik-Klima, I find them maybe too relentlessly fast. Some passages sound like cartoon music, Wile Coyote running over the cliff, and Jemelik's technique (as well as of the orchestral soloists), while impressive, can be dangerously on the edge. But it's hard to resist the excitement, although those raised on Lympany and Kapell will no doubt find them hard-driven and ungiving in these outer movements.

Their slow movement on the other hand is very "traditional" - e.g. slow. As mentioned, I don't mind it that way, although the composer proves that HIS way is at least equally effective. One nice point is their marked acceleration in the middle section at 4:47, factoring in a welcome contrast. In most other versions, the acceleration hardly registers. More detrimental however, the flexatone is barely audible.

But there is another area in which Jemelik-Klima are as "traditional" as everybody else except the composer, and that is in their non-observance of Khachaturian's intended tempo relationships in the first two movements. Basically, K. sets one tempo and sticks to it. There may be accelerations or ritenutos or, in the slow movement, a faster middle section, but then it returns to tempo I.

Nobody except the composer observes that, including Jemelik-Klima. It all starts with the first movement's second, folksy theme, here at 2:03. Like about everybody, they take it markedly slower than their opening tempo, circa 90 (Järvi is one in a kind in taking it faster). I don't mind so much: it conveys a nice, sensuous, "Arabian Nights" character.  The price to pay is that it stems the relentless forward momentum, turning the passage into a strongly contrasted slow section. All considerations of the written score aside (one doesn't need to be a radical in such matters), I find the approach quite effective, and at least Klima maintains THAT tempo relationship when the theme returns at 8:44. Same comments apply in the second movement, at the end of the faster section (5:59), when enters a derivation of that same folksy theme, played significantly faster than the movement's opening tempo - like everybody except, this time, Limpany-Fistoulari, but including, it must be confessed, the composer.

Nobody without a score is likely to be bothered by these interpretive options. They make sense musically. But the composer's version (other than that point in the slow movement) proves that his views work as well, if not better.

Good remastering, good stereo sound, with a better piano definition than on Orbelian and Järvi's 1987 recording, for instance, and moderate tape hiss.

The piano Concerto of Borkovec comes as a substantial bonus, all the more so as it is conducted by Karel Ancerl (it has also been reissued in Supraphon's Ancerl Collection, [[ASIN:B0002ABTDU Ancerl Gold Edition 30: HINDEMITH Violin & Cello Concertos / BORKOVEC Piano Concerto No. 2]]). Apt pairing: it is stylistically very much in the same vein as Khachaturian's, very virtuosic, with big Romantic gestures, but without the Armenian composer's unique folksy twist. It is undistinctive and unmemorable, but makes a welcome filler. TT 54:23.


title: One of the best "traditional" versions of the Piano Concerto - and the Symphony is a mighty composition

text:
Flier and Kondrachine, recorded in 1963, turn out what remains still today one of the best "traditional" accounts of Khachaturian's Piano Concerto.

This tradition, which can be traced back to William Kapell and Serge Koussevitzky's famous recording from 1946 ([[ASIN:B000040JED William Kapell Edition Vol 4: Prokofiev: Piano concerto no. 3 / Khachaturian: Piano concerto / Shostakovich: Preludes for piano]] or [[ASIN:B00005QIRZ Prokofiev/Khachaturian]] - I haven't heard the earlier version by Moura Lympany and Anatole Fistoulari from 1945, [[ASIN:B00000C2B8 Moura Lympany plays Khachaturian, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Etc.]]), can be characterized by a number of traits.

First, by the precedence, in the opening "allegro maestoso", given to the "maestoso" over the "allegro", through the adoption of a tempo markedly slower (Kapell-Koussevitzky, Katz-Boult 1958 [[ASIN:B000XVSYB8 Mindru Katz performs Khachaturian Piano Concerto in D flat; Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 1 in D flat op 10]] or [[ASIN:B00004TSF6 Legendary Pianist Mindru Katz]]) or even equal to the composer's metronome mark of 108-120 quarter-notes per minute (Lympany's classic LP remake from 1952 [[ASIN:B00067R3CK Moura Lympany plays Rachmaninov & Khachaturian]], Fllier here). The approach may be powerful and majestic indeed, but it can also dangerously verge on the trudging and bombastic, especially when taken slower than or even at the lower end of the composer's metronome (like Orbelian-Järvi, [[ASIN:B000025S1Y Khachaturian: Piano Concerto; Gayaneh Ballet Suite; Masquerade Suite]]). I had always been bothered by that beginning, until I heard the live recording made in 1946 in Prague by the composition's dedicatee and premiere performer Lev Oborin with Mravinsky ([[ASIN:B00020HD6W Aram Khachaturian: Concertos for Violin & Piano]], unfortunately ruled out by dismal sound) and the 1960 version by the obscure Czech team of Antonin Jemelik and Alois Klima ([[ASIN:B0011FSASM Khachaturian: Piano Concerto ; Borkovec :Piano Concerto No 2]]). There, I realized the benefits of taking a tempo markedly FASTER than the composer's (circa 138): gone bombast, enters a hair-raising drive and intensity.

The same observation can be extended to the finale. Even when taken at the composer's metronome of quarter-note 120-126 (and Flier-Kondrachin take it at the lower end), it hardly elicits the same kind of excitement as when taken faster, as do Kapell and, again, Jemelik-Klima (circa 138).

Second, by the adoption of a tempo, once again, markedly slower than the composer's quarter note 69-72 in the slow movement, turning it from the intended "andante con anima" into a dreamy adagio. Kondrachin takes it at circa 58. I don't mind as much as with the ponderous gait at the beginning of the first movement: it is quite effective that way also, and Flier-Kondrachin animate the music to great passion; they also factor in a welcome contrast in the middle, faster section beginning at 4:15 (it hardly registers with many others, including Katz and Kapell). Still, the composer-conducted recording with the dedicatee and premiere performer Lev Oborin (sadly not reissued on CD, but available on U-tube) shows how valid his original conception really is.

Three, by a willingness to disregard entirely Khachaturian's tempo relationships within the first two movements. Basically, he sets one opening tempo, and sticks to it. There may be accelerations and ritenutos or, in the slow movement, a faster middle section, but it always returns to tempo I. Nobody except the composer observes that. Liberties usually start with the second, folksy theme in the first movement (here at 2:21), which almost everybody takes much slower than their opening tempo - whatever that was -, Järvi being the odd-conductor out by taking it faster. Truth is, Kondrachin strays from that tradition and is more in-sync with the composer's score and interpretation, by just very slightly relaxing, as befits the music's character. But when the same theme returns later, at 8:56, at tempo I, Flier-Kondrachin now take it at a splashing 138. Likewise, in the second movement, when returns the movement's tempo I after the faster section at 5:42, with a derivation of that same first movement's folksy theme, they play it at circa 80 (compared to their opening 54).

These options (other than point one) are not likely to shock anyone, especially without a score. They make sense musically. But the composer's version shows that his original conception is even more valid and convincing.

Still, within the parameters and limits of that tradition, Flier-Kondrachin provide an excellent version. It offers over Kapell-Koussevitzky, Lympany-Fistoulari and Oborin's two the advantage of excellent sonics, affording a very detailed picture of the orchestra (more than with Järvi's lusher sonics), if a bit shrill and lacking fullness, and with strings that are not particularly silky. Flier's articulation is powerful and crisp, and he is suitably fleeting and energetic (more than Orbelian, for instance - but certainly less than Kapell or Jemelik) in the faster sections of the outer movements. AND there's a flexatone in the second movement (Kapell-Kousvitzky and, astoundingly, the composer omit it. But its kitsch is integral to the piece's character).

It took me some time - and all this comparative listening with the score, really - to warm up to Khachaturian's kitschy concoction of grand romantic gestures and Armenian folksiness. The third Symphony on the other hand is a work of tremendous power, and its fanfares for 15 trumpets and wild organ cadenzas are awesome. Its grandiose power brings Janacek's Glagolitic Mass to mind. The recording is from 1969 and comes again in great surrounding stereo sound, with a touch of saturation in the greatest climaxes, around 16:30. No wonder. Stokowski made a famous recording of it, following the US premiere, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in 1968 (not listed here outside of RCA's 14-CD [[ASIN:B000003G1H Stokowski's Stereo Collection (Remastered)]], but available as ASIN B0000255BS on the UK Sister company); This recording by Kondrachin is better, and the main reason lies in the sonics - it is ironic that Stokowski should be defeated here on his own ground here: his sonics are quite good and vivid on their own terms, but those of Kondrashin are simply stupendous, lending the piece the breath-taking raw power that it needs (to the point even of saturation in the louder climaxes). Stokowski appears almost tame in comparison. Stokowski's organ is also artificially spotlighted, so that you are in the position of the organ player. With Kondrashin it is loud (and it should be) but more realistically positioned.

An indispensable addition to your Khachaturian collection, then.


title: Telluric piece - but there are other versions, in better sonics and at more reasonable prices

text:
It is fascinating to read the liner notes, by Andrew Clements, explaining the compositional processes at play in Birtwistle's Earth Dances. After the success of "The Triumph of Time", premiered in 1972, which first brought him to wider public attention, it took Birtwistle 14 years to come back to writing for large orchestra. In Earth Dances, he develops and brings a few steps further some compositional processes first essayed in his piece for ensemble Secret Theatre from 1984. He divides the orchestra in six different groups, assembled by instrumental register (violins and upper winds, lower strings and brass etc. - although there are shifts of instruments between the different groups), each assigned a different layer or "stratum" of material, some linear and melodic, some vertical (which I assume refers to chordal pounding). Theses six strata aren't present continuously but appear and reappear, come to the fore and fade into the background. Re the notes, "it is the shifting relationships of the strata that generate the work's prodigious and often violent surface energy - making the Earth "dance".

However, it is not what you read that matters, but what you hear. To the eater, no matter how the meal is cooked in the secret of the kitchen, what counts is how it tastes. "Earth Dances" is massive, menacing, forbidding, eliciting a sense of awesome power, at times pent-up, at times unleashed. As with most compositions of Birtwistle I have heard, the music is impressive rather than seductive. Although there are melodic lines (thorny and tormented), the piece is less about melody than about violence, matter, processes - a sonic equivalent to Paul Rebeyrole's paintings, perhaps. Composers like Stravinsky, Dutilleux or Lutoslawski have been loath to admit that music could convey any "meaning" or "images". So what Earth Dances evokes is anybody's imagination, but I can say in confidence that one thing it might evoke are, indeed, as the liner notes contend and title implies, the massive telluric processes that have shaped and reshaped the earth's surface ever since the formation of the planet. This composition bears out my notion that Birtwistle is an heir of Edgar Varese.

In the early 1990s Collins came up with the strange notion of releasing short CDs of contemporary music in their "20th Century plus" collection (they should have called it "20th Century minus", really), and this was one of them: TT is 37:21. The interest for the label was, I suppose, to be able to publish a CD without needing to invest in recording a filler. For the listener, the interest was less obvious (although the CDs were priced accordingly) - and now even less than then: with Collins now defunct and these CDs apparently rare on the secondary market, the prices demanded on the marketplace amount to quite expensive to the minute. Do check the other entries, though, where you might find it cheaper ([[ASIN:B000003W0G Harrison Birtwistle: Earth Dances]] and [[ASIN:B000003W0I Birtwhistle: Earth Dances]]), as well as this website's British sister company where, at the time of writing, it is available at reasonable prices. But furthermore be aware that there have been two further recordings of Earth Dances, more easily available: by Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra ([[ASIN:B00000B2BQ Earth Dances/Panic]]), paired with "Panic" (a saxophone concerto), now reissued on a convenient two-CD set from Decca's British Music Collection ([[ASIN:B00005IA6D The British Music Collection: Harrison Birtwistle]]), and by Boulez and the Ensemble Modern Orchestra, on DG's 20/21 collection, paired with Theseus Game ([[ASIN:B0002ANQWW Birtwistle: Theseus Game, Earth Dances]]). I have the Dohnanyi: its sonics are much more present and consequently the orchestra has an extra bite, which makes it a preferable choice anyway.


title: Off the beaten-label Birtwistle

text:
I don't have this disc, but I was collating a Birtwistle discography and happened upon this entry. The product info in badly wanting: you are only given the disc's title, not told who performs, and the label doesn't even appear on the display page (despite the fact that it is indicated when you go to "update product info"). Well, thanks the Internet, which makes these searches easy. So, for the potential buyer, here what it is :

5 Distances performed by the Gallimaufry Ensemble
The Silk House Tattoo performed by Adam Wright and John Wallace (trumpets) and Sam Walton (percussion)
17 Tate Riffs performed by the Royal Academy of Music Chamber Ensemble.

The disc is published by the Royal Academy of Music and its TT is only 29 minutes. But it is the only recording I am aware of of The Silk House Tattoo and 17 Tate Riffs - 5 Distances has been recorded by Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporain ([[ASIN:B000001GM9 Harrison Birtwistle: Secret Theater / Tragoedia / Five Distances / Three Settings of Celan - Pierre Boulez / Ensemble InterContemporain]] reissued on [[ASIN:B00005IA6D The British Music Collection: Harrison Birtwistle]]) and the Galliard Ensemble under Richard Shaw ([[ASIN:B00005KC9R Harrison Birtwistle: Refrains and Choruses]]).


title: Another entry

text: See my review under the CD's other entry, [[ASIN:B0000000PG Harrison Birtwistle: Music for Wind and Percussion]].


title: you will probably find it cheaper under its other entry

text: Why does the same disc often appear under different entries on this website is not always clear, but in the case of Lyrita it probably has to do with the fact that the label ceased its operations at one point, and has been recently revived. Meaning that you will probably find this Alwyn CD for cheaper under its more recent entry, [[ASIN:B000027QWO Alwyn: Symphonies 2, 3 & 5]], along with my lengthy review. The recordings date from 1972 and 1975 (5th Symphony) and remain state-of-the-art. The conductor-led performances are of course authoritative, and, while I don't hear in these works music as original as, say, Britten, Tippett or even Walton or Vaughan-Williams, the 3rd and especially the compact and taut one-movement 5th are Alwyn's best works in the genre.


title: some fine Thomson, but the antiquated sound limits this CD's interest to the historically-minded collector

text:
This CD reissues historical recordings of music of Virgil Thomson and Ernest Bloch. It is not clear from the liner notes if Thomson's three Pictures for Orchestra constitute a self-contained cycle; they seem rather to be three separate pieces, composed in 1947, 1948 and 1952. They are evocative, even graphic tone poems couched in a language strongly leaning on the typical American Romantic style, from nostalgic to epic , and since I don't usually warm up very much to that kind of style which I often find cliched and formulaic, much to my surprise I find them powerful and effective. The deep, chorale-like chordal progressions of "The Seine at Night" exude a sweeping nostalgia. Though "Wheat Field At Noon" is a series of highly complex canons and variations on a theme containing all twelve tone of the chromatic scale, the music elicits a Satie-like processional grandeur (which to my ears evoke absolutely nothing of wheat fields at noon, but rather more of, say, building dams in the Roosevelt era to tame the Mississipi river, as could have been represented in stark black and white contrasts in a Robert Flaherty documentary - ah, titles...). "Sea Piece with Birds" belongs to the great evocations of the sea in music - and here this sea is forbidding and tempestuous, as, again, it would have been filmed by Flaherty, with the music evocative almost of Berg or Britten's grimmest moments in "Peter Grimes". The three pieces are also filled with ear-catching orchestral touches, as the as the rapid woodwind arpegios reminiscent of similar devices in Bartok's Bluebeard Castle (4:24) or the Britten-like harp tremolos (4:38) in "The Seine At Night", or again the bloodcurdling, piercing trumpet cries which close "Sea Piece", imitating the screaming of gulls - but it could be the shrilling grimace of triumphant Death.

Thomson started making music portraits in 1928, and completed over one hundred of them. He made them as a painter would, composing the music in front of his sitting subject, usually in one sitting, with orchestration completed later. The pieces are scored for varied instruments or combinations. The liner notes mistakenly state that the the Portraits first came out on LP on Columbia ML 2087 - in fact, they were issued in 1945 on 78rmps, as Columbia X-255 in 1945 - but they are laudably forthright about the fact that the original recording had five such portraits and not only the three featured here. Why two ("The Percussion Piece" and "Cantabile forStrings") were left aside is not explained. The three we have were composed in 1940 and orchestrated in 1944. They are short, from 2 to 2:30 minutes, pleasant but unremarkable. The first one, "Bugles and Birds", is puportedly a portrait of Picasso. Its scherzo-like, brassy, boisterous and sardonic mood vaguely brings Bartok to mind (the Hungarian Sketches for instance). The title is unexplained. The title "Tango lullaby" is self-explanatory and the music is evocative of some similar pieces in Honegger's film music. "Fugue" is mostly a merry Fugue.

As the liner notes explain, the Four Blake Songs from 1951 were originally Five when they came out on Columbia ML 4919 (with the Three Pictures). The fifth, "The Little Black Boy", was discarded when the cycle was reissued on CRI in 1979, because of its blatant racism - a deletion endorsed by the composer - and this Bay Cities CD is drawn from that CRI LP. The cycle doesn't start very auspiciously: the first song, "The Divine image", sounds like a trite Church hymn. But then comes "Tiger", an impressively frightening setting which could be a Claggart aria from Britten's Billy Budd or Nick Shadow's from Stravinsky's Rake's Progress. More Britten similitudes can be heard in "The Land of Dreams" and "And Did Those Feet". This is a fine song cycle that would be perfect for Thomas Hampson or Sam Ramey. The songs were written for Mack Harrell who sings them here with an impressive bass preacher's voice, also capable of caressing softness. Texts provided. But the product info is incredibly slapdash in not indicating who, of Ormandy and Thomson, conducts what. Well, it is Ormandy in the Pictures and Songs, Thomson in the Portraits (thanks to Fanfare, "the Magazine for Serious Record Collectors", for this info).

Bloch's Three Jewish Poems (purely orchestral compositions, despite what their title seems to imply) are relatively early works (1913) and quite substantial in length (22+ minutes). They date from his Jewish period, whose most significant product is Schelomo. The Poems are sensuous and can reach genuine epic grandeur but they are not devoid of a sentimentality and bombast smacking of Cecile B. de Mille. This version by Walter Hendl was a recording premiere, made in 1953 and first published on an American Recording Society ARS-24 LP, paired with Victor Herbert's Cello Concerto op. 30/2. It was later reissued on Desto DST 6409 with works of John Powell and Daniel Gregory Mason (I owe this information to the invaluable Bloch website maintained by Claude Torres). Its antiquated sound can't make it a first choice, as there are a number of modern recordings ([[ASIN:B000001SH1 Ernest Bloch: Three Jewish Poems/Two Last Poems/Evocations]], [[ASIN:B0000030XO Ernest Bloch: Macbeth (1919) - Two Interludes / Three Jewish Poems (1913) / In Memoriam (1952) / Symphony In E flat (1954/5) - Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Dalia Atlas Sternberg]], [[ASIN:B00006B1S2 3 Jewish Poems for Large Orchestra]]). Even Fritz Mahler's recording with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra from 1960 on Vanguard comes in spacious stereo, even if it is a bit too languid in the third movement ([[ASIN:B0000023D7 Bloch: Violin Concerto]]). On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge, there are no other recordings of the Thomson pieces (the Blake Songs have been recorded, but with piano accompaniment: [[ASIN:B0000049RO Nothing Divine is Mundane: Songs of Virgil Thomson]]).

The liner notes seem to imply that the recordings were dubbed not any original tapes but directly from the various LP reissues (CRI and Desto). There is significant tape hiss but I hear surface noise only in some occasional spots of soft music (especially in the Portraits), and with headphones. The sound is mono, clearer in Bloch, more congested and distant in some of the Thomsons, but it all sounds like old recordings, though one ajusts. TT is 60:02.


title: Great transfers of these 1954, composer-conducted recordings

text:
The exceptional value of these recordings comes, first, from the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, this is the only composer-conducted recording of Chôros # 6. Between 1954 and 1958 he recorded (or supervised) over seven hours of his own music for the French Pathé with the French National Radio Orchestra, now collated on [[ASIN:B000002SBL Villa-Lobos par lui-même]], which included the complete Bachianas Brasileiras but only the orchestral Chôros n° 10 & 11.

Second, for its vintage, the sound is stupendous. These recordings with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra were made in the studio in January 1954 for the Remington label and were transferred "directly from the 30IPS Master tapes" - whatever that may mean. Anyway, comparing with the French EMI transfers of the Pathé tapes from the same years, there is a world of sonic difference. The sound is bright and clear where the French transfers are distant and muffled. The Bachianas was left unpublished at the time of recording (it came out only in 1974 on a Vox LP), presumably because of the publication of the competing Pathé recording. It is fascinating to compare both recordings, made at four years distance. The earlier one (Remington / Varèse-Sarabande) is taken at slower tempos, giving it (in the opening Preludio) a more brooding and plangent atmosphere.

Anything working against this disc? Well, it remains mono, so those not interested in the unique historical value of these recordings but just looking for modern, full stereo recordings of these two pieces should go elsewhere. The TT is not too generous, either (54:26), but that consideration doesn't weigh much, I find, in view of these recordings' significance. Price and availability are a factor - I would never pay for a CD the kind of price demanded by some internet vultures, but then this is a matter of personal decision, and possibly of one's ranking in the yearly Fortune list.

Finally, the two pieces are not necessarily my favorites among Villa Lobos' orchestral production; to me the set of Bachianas is Bach from the Stokowski era: grand but somewhat stately and sentimental - although the third movement of BB 7 belies the notion that these pieces are uniformly that, featuring as it does passages of the thornier and more rambunctious VL (something you'll hardly hear on the sonically watered-down and pastel EMI set). The the second movement also strikes me as sounding like one of Mahler's merry movements - say, the finale of the 5th symphony - spiced with Brazilian peppers. As for Chôros #6, the fascination it elicits comes from its variety and eclecticism: it has the moments of rambunctions vigor, moments of lush and mysterious tropical sounds, and moments of sentimental ballads and heart-on-sleeve lyricism. But I don't find it as consistently daring and inventive as some other Chôros or Villa-Lobos' "tropical" pieces (as collected on [[ASIN:B0000045WS Villa-Lobos: Genesis / Erosao / Amazonas / Dawn in a Tropical Forest]]).

Still these two compositions are certainly among their composer's most accessible and popular, with a sweeping lyricism at times verging almost on the sentimental intermingled with a merry and boisterous exoticism, and always VL's colorful orchestration and typical freedom of construction, of almost improvisatory nature.

Indispensable then to the serious and historically minded Villa-Lobos collector.


title: The original issue of a disc which put Steve Martland in the limelight - loud, exciting, fun

text:
This is Factory #266, the 1989 original CD release of a disc which put Steve Martland in the limelight as one of the leading and most provocative British composers of his generation. It contains "Babi Yar" for large orchestra performed by the Hague Residentie Orchestra under Elgar Howarth, and Drill for two pianos played by Gerard Bouwhuis and Cess van Zeeland.

The cult and now defunct Manchester-based and mostly Rock-devoted Factory label made a few attempts at crossing over, trying to appeal to a Rock-oriented public with contemporary music (as the trendy cover photo bears witness, displaying a bare-chested, rock-star-looking Martland, which contributed to no small extent to the disc's controversial notoriety). Other than more Martland (see [[ASIN:B000GUFCZ2 Crossing The Border]]), they also released two discs of contemporary piano music by Rolf Hind (including [[ASIN:B000VLV76E Rolf Hind - Ligeti Etudes Livre; Martland Kgakala; Messiaen Le Courlis Cendre; Elliot Carter Piano Sonata (Factory)]], a disc of music of Graham Fitkin and one with string quartets of Tippett and Shostakovich (long-gone, not listed here). The move was brave, but obviously, it didn't pay. The Martland discs were picked up in the early to mid nineties by Catalyst, a subsidiary of Bmg apparently established to surf on the wave of cross-over that was in part initiated by Factory 266. Well, that didn't work too well either, it seems, and I believe Catalyst is now gone as well. Still, this disc can be found on this website for much cheaper under its new guise ([[ASIN:B000003ELU Steve Martland: Babi Yar/Drill]] - and don't trust the cover photo, which is that of Factory 266). So this original factory issue is to be reserved to those with a collector's attitude, and ready to pay a price for it.

For the music, see my comments under the Catalyst reissue. I've been somewhat disappointed with the music that Martland composed subsequently, documented on discs such as [[ASIN:B000003ELH Patrol]] and [[ASIN:B00005NUOE Horses of Instruction]], to my ears sounding very much like sophisticated house music derivative of Reich. But this one remains as loud, exciting and fun as back then, and it is the Martland disc to begin, and possibly end with.


title: you can find it cheaper under its other entry

text: As I write this review (September 2007), this same disc can be found for incredibly cheap under its other entry: [[ASIN:B00000E542 American Virtuoso]]. See my review thereunder.


title: An enjoyable disc, presenting an interesting and valid alternative approach to Enescu's masterpiece

text: Items are sometimes listed strangely on this website, and although you will not find it easily if you search under the "music" category, this valuable disc also appears as [[ASIN:B000KDZ54I Milhaud & Enescu: Concerto for Violin /Sonata for Violin Import]]; I have reviewed it at length under that entry, and I refer you to that review. In capsule, the Sonatas by Milhaud and Enescu were published by Supraphon in 1962, and the Milhaud Concerto came later, in 1971, and was originally coupled with Malipiero's Concerto. The two Milhaud are charming if not very substantial works. Enescu's 3rd Sonata, "In the Rumanian Folk Character", composed in 1926, is one of the towering masterpieces of the genre composed in the first 50 years of the 20th century, on an equal plane with the Sonatas of Bartok, Debussy, Ravel, Bloch, Szymanowski, Janacek - to name a few of my favorites. Gertler and Andersen contribute a reading far removed from the tradition established by the composer himself (in his recording from 1942 with Dinu Lipatti at the piano, available on CD in the early 1990s on a Philips Legendary Classics 2-CD set) and pursued by Enescu's pupil Yehudi Menuhin, in both his recordings from 1936 and 1966 (see my reviews of [[ASIN:B000005GT0 Menuhin Plays Enescu, Szymanowski, Prokofiev, Ravel]] and [[ASIN:B00000JHC9 West Meets East: The Historic Shankar/Menuhin Sessions]]). Gertler is more spacious in his choices of tempo, mellow, nostalgic, less playful and whimsical, lacking a touch of savagery, not always accurate in rhythms (especially at the begining of the second movement), but always fine in tone, while his partner Diane Andersen brings out the myriad details of her piano part with crystal clarity. This is an alternative and entirely valid view, the modern equivalent of which would be the superb recent version by Leonidas Kavakos ([[ASIN:B0000CNVFL Ravel: Sonate posthume; Tzigane; Enescu: Impressions d'enfance; Sonata No. 3]]), which adds the advantage of having Enescu's other masterpiece for Violin and Piano: his "Impressions d'Enfance" (Impressions from Childhood)


text:
André Gertler (1907-1998), now a rather forgotten figure, was an important Hungarian violinist, established in Belgium since 1928 and active mostly from the thirties to the early seventies. He was noted by an LP-nurtured generation of music lovers for his recording of the complete output for violin written by his compatriot and close friend Bartok, published by the Czeck firm Supraphon, including the duets with Josef Suk, the complete violin and piano works with Diane Andersen, the concertos and rhapsodies with Karel Ancerl and Janos Ferencsik. They were elegant readings, sometimes lacking in sheer raw power. Not all of them have been reissued on CD, and some of these reissues (as the duets, published in the early days of the CD by an obscure label called Sound) are now near impossible to find. Gertler's recordings also included rare 20th century repertoire, such as the Violin Concertos of Casella, Malipiero (both reissued as [[ASIN:B000N6UGP0 Malipiero: Violin Concerto; Casella: Violin Concerto]]), Hartmann, Hindemith (both now on [[ASIN:B00000JJ2B Hindemith: Concerto for violin; Cello Concerto]]), Seiber. In 1954 he had also made one of the earliest recordings of Berg's Violin Concerto and of Bartok's Solo Violin Sonata for EMI (reissued on CD by Hungaroton: [[ASIN:B0000030B4 Bach/Bartók/Berg: Concertos & Sonata for Violin]]) - he had given the European Premiere of the latter.

In 1962 Supraphon published an LP pairing Enescu's magnificent 3rd Sonata for Violin and Piano op. 26 and Milhauds 2nd Violin and Piano Sonata op. 40, with Gertler's usual partner, Diane Andersen. Milhaud's 2nd Violin Concerto came later, in 1971, coupled with Malipiero's. The Concerto, composed in 1946, is a surprisingly Romantic work. In the second movement the lyricism of Barber comes to mind. Only the last movement harks back to some of the rhythms of "Boeuf sur le Toit" or Stravinsky (his Rake's Progress period and style comes to mind). It is not an imperishable composition, but it makes for an agreeable listening.

Enescu's 3rd Violin and Piano Sonata, subtitled "Dans le caractère populaire roumain" (In the Rumanian Folk Character) dates form 1926 and, along with the later "Impressions d'Enfance" (1940), also for Violin and Piano, is possibly the composer's towering masterpiece, equal to anything that was written for these two instruments in the first half of the 20th Century. There, the composer invented a uniquely personal sound-world, inspired by Rumanian Gipsy music, rhapsodic and whimsical, and displaying a wide array technical effects used for their unique coloring and expressive possibilities: trills, mordents, acciaccaturas (also in the piano writing, lending it a unique, "aquatic" quality), upward portamentos, quarter tones, harmonics, non vibrato playing, sul ponticello (on the bridge), striking with the tip of the bow.

Gertler contributes a reading far removed from the tradition established by Enescu himself (in his recording with Dinu Lipatti from 1943, once available in a 2-CD Box from the Philips Legendary Classics series) and by his pupil Yehudi Menuhin (who made the first recording, in 1936: [[ASIN:B000005GT0 Menuhin Plays Enescu, Szymanowski, Prokofiev, Ravel]]). In the first movement Gertler's approach is much more spacious (compare his 8:50 to Enescu's 7:24 and Menuhin's 7:58), more nostalgic, less playful and whimsical. But Gertler plays with admirable purity of tone, and all the piano details come out crystal clear - one of the windfalls from the moderate tempo.

Though you won't notice it without a score, the second movement doesn't start too well: Gertler adds one beat in the second bar and takes one away in the fourth, and against Enescu's explicit marking ("eguale"), the pianist, after hurling in breathlessly, slows down her ostinato quintuplets in the sixth bar. A few bars later Gertler changes two half-notes into two quarter-notes. The first page is strewn with such little inaccuracies. I'm sorry to pass for a Beckmesser here, as later on all comes back in order and Gertler turns out a fine movement, a bit lacking in power in the most passionate moments but with very subtle and refined sonorities throughout and crystal clear piano articulation. The Finale has lean tone, impressive rhythmic stability and great elegance. Again Diane Andersen plays with admirable clarity of articulation and sparse pedalling, making the textures always clear even in the thickest moments. Gertler's elegance and purity of tone are still much in evidence. What is amiss is a touch of savagery. For modern recordings exemplifying the same type of slow, meditative approach, go to Kavakos (recorded in 2002 for ECM with the composer's later and haunting "Impressions d'Enfance", and pieces by Ravel: [[ASIN:B0000CNVFL Ravel: Sonate posthume; Tzigane; Enescu: Impressions d'enfance; Sonata No. 3]]), and to the most mesmerizingly extreme of all, Ami Flammer, with pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier, recorded in 1988 for the small French label Thesis ([[ASIN:B0000028XO Jean-Claude Pennetier, Ami Flammer: Works for Piano and Violin]]).

Milhaud's Sonata No. 2 op. 40 from 1917 makes a fine if lightweight complement to Enescu's. It is a sunny work, neo-classical in outlook, at times (the opening motive) evocative of Copland's pastoral style, very typical of Milhaud in the jaunty polytonality of some other passages (1st movement at 0:40) and overall, not surprisingly, reminiscent of Roussel.

All in all, this is an enjoyable disc, presenting an interesting and valid alternative approach to Enescu's masterpiece.


title: The original release of a cult CD from a cult composer on a now defunct cult label

text: This is the 1992 original release on the Manchester-based Factory label of Martland's "Crossing the Border", comprising five pieces written between 1985 and 1991 : Crossing the Border for string orchestra (1991), Principia (1990), American Invention (1985), Re-mix (1986) and Shoulder to Shoulder (1986). The disc has been reissued by the Catalyst label, a branch of Bmg, and as I write can be found in this guise for virtually free ([[ASIN:B000003ELS Crossing the Border]]). It is an exciting disc, too: see my review for longer comments on the compositions. But for those with a taste for this kind of cult collectors item, the original release is a rarity, worth paying a price.


title: Favorite CD music compilation of all time.

text:
This is one of favorite CD compilations of all time. It is a musical journey that has been the soundtrack for many of my most pleasant life experiences.

"Large rooms distract the mind; small rooms focus the mind"
Leonardo da Vinci


title: Four Stars

text: Interesting concept CD with good guitar work


title: Love the CD!!

text: Jeff Beck never disaappoints!!!


title: Five Stars

text: Tim Reynolds is an incredible guitarist! Well worth the purchase!


title: The Friars Roast of Don Rickles (1968)

text:
If you enjoy comedy roasts then this one is a must have. There is no let up from the list of great comedians who let it all out in this absolutely hilarious roast. This roast brings together Johnny Carson, Ed Sullivan, Jackie Leonard, Jackie Vernon, Norm Crosby, Flip Wilson, just to mention a few of the notables. This roast is not for the squemish! I thoroughly recommend it!

gyrene


title: Five Stars

text: Great CD... love Brandi.  Saw her live.


title: on time and as promised

text: music


title: Just as I remembered!

text: I try to bring my childhood media to my kids and this was one of them I love it sounds great and just as I remember.


title: Jinks Rocks

text: Great Music


title: A fun trip back through time

text: It was nice to find this CD from someone we used to see live.


title: Been looking for this for 20 years.

text: Having heard their progression over the next couple of albums, it's clear that this was their freshman effort. Still sounds great, and like everything Athenaeum did, some incredible tunes that, in the right time and place, could be hits today.


title: Everything you've come to expect from Butch, except...

text: Everything you've come to expect from Butch. Great material, I just didn't expect for it to sound like it was mixed in 1969 as well. Not a lot of low end, not high res. Of course, it shouldn't have come as a surprise for an artist such as Butch to make the creative decision to have a record named after his birth year to sound that way, but it did for some reason and it kinda took some of the wind out of my sails.  I still like it, but as I listen to it I always wonder what it COULD have sounded like. If I had known, I still would have bought it, but at least I would have expected it. Regardless, for me, Butch is one of those rare artists that I will continue to buy anything he does without hearing a single note first.


title: Five Stars

text: My son loves it


title: Costa brava

text: Thank you


title: Johnny Bravo

text: Salsa romántica


title: Los Melodicos

text: Los melódicos


title: Ángel Canales

text: Excellent thank you


title: Los años maravillosos

text: Thank you


title: Thank you

text: Thank you


title: The Salsa

text: Thank you


title: Franki Ruiz

text: Thank you


title: Adolescent’s Orquesta

text: Thank you


title: La misma gente

text: Thank you


title: Five Stars

text: Thanks you


title: Five Stars

text: Thanks


title: Five Stars

text: Thank you


title: Don't Give It A Bad Review Just Because There's Music

text: I love this CD. I've had it for years and am looking to get another cuz mine is getting old. The CD states right on it that there's music with the sounds. No reason to give it a bad review due to that. I hope you enjoy your copy!


title: Five Stars

text: Great


title: Here is my problem - This is bull that I ...

text: Here is my problem - This is bull that I bought this not knowing it was released by her "other" name Rachel Ryan.  I already have it !!! Really- are we supposed to know this!!!  When I put the cd in and it started with her telling me it was released under another name I was totally pissed.  Not only did she cheat me, but she had to rub my face in it. That's just not right.


title: Would be higher than a 3 Star... if I liked tea

text:
There is some great music and musicianship on this CD.  However I have to admit that I am disappointed that the genre was not harder/more progressive.  Thus the reasoning for my review title is that while I can hear and appreciate the great work put forth, the softer jazz (if needing to categorize) is not my cup of tea.

I had found this as a result of wondering what projects Tony Levin and Steve Gadd have worked on together (other than Paul Simon's One Trick Pony).  Each of these two artists are of the highest levels of talent.  To my ears it seems some of that talants is wasted.  Do not get me wrong, restraint deserves to be recognised as a good thing.  Yet I was hoping for a little less holding back.  Steve Gadd's brush work is very good.  Yet (again) not what I had hoped for.

I have only mentioned the two whom brought me to this album.  Each musician sounds very good.  I recommend if you do not mind a lighter side of things.


title: More Paris Wells

text: Love her music. Wish I could download "Various Small Fires" by Paris Wells. Unfortunately it is not available at Amazon music store. Sad-face.


title: CD

text: Pleased with Order


title: Intro.to soft music/CorinneBailey Rae

text: This was a C/D that was heard in a nice winery,and I asked about the singer,then had to try out Amazon.com,to see if they had her music.Her voice is melodic,the condition of the C/D was better than advertised,and the packaging,and speed of mailing was great.Great customer service


title: Relaxing music

text: This is such relaxing music. I just love it and recommend the cd to everyone.


title: Beautiful liturgical music with Cuban and Caribbean rhythms that are just right

text:
Fantastic production, beautiful arrangements and voices.  These compositions are just right and these recordings are very pleasant to just listen to and pray along with. Highly recommend.

Producción de primera, hermosos arreglos y voces. Estas composiciones son perfectas y las grabaciones son muy agradables para solo escucharlas y rezar.  Les doy toda mi recomendación.


title: Love it!

text: Enjoy the cd with all his great music!


title: Cal Jam 2

text: It contains more songs than the album.


title: Favorite CD when I need a pick-me-up

text:
This self-titled CD is performed by Candian musicians Tyler Stewart (Barenaked Ladies, Chris Brown (Bourbon Tabernacle Choir) and Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar) and features some of their equally talented friends.

A mix of studio and live recordings, the CD is fun, with a driving beat, deep grooves,  and some of the best cover songs I've ever heard. Don't Talk Dance can't possibly be buttonholed into one musical genre. As the insert reads:  "it's where anything and everything exists side-by-side, challenging the preconceived notions of music. ... Hip-hop meets classical, soul meets hard rock."

Song List:
01. Theme From DTD  3:26
02, The Ketchup Song  3:46003. Jake's Rant  1:59
04. You've Been Instrumental  4:22
05. Funky Dollar Bill  3:50
06. Sweet Beets  5:33
07. Theme From Sanford and Son  2:03
08. Word Up  5:39
09. Fred and Barney Miller  1:57
10. Into the Groove  3:20
11. Bold as Love
12. Zap Beets  4:35
Bonus Track 77: Dreams

Track 77?!? Yeah, 'cause that's the year Fleetwood Mac recorded it.

Tipper alert: some explicit language


title: Five Stars

text: Excellent!!! Highly recommended for kids and adults!!! Thank you.


title: A great disk

text: This is a wonderful disk if you like American miscellany. Great arrangements and very talented performers


title: great christmas music from recording stars

text:
This album is part of a series from True Value.  I got one every year because they had great songs.

  SIDE ONE: Let It Snow,Let IT Snow - Lee Greenwood; Noel - the Miracles; Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bing Crosby with the Andrew Sisters;
HAve Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Eddie Fisher; The Christmas Song - Roger Williams; Ave Maria - Raphael Mendez.

  SIDE TWO: Give Love on Christmas Day - Jackson Five; I'll Be Home for Christmas - Jack Jones; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Burl Ives; My Favorite Things - Diana Ross and the Supremes; Deck the Halls - The Trapp Family Singers; God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bing Crosby.


title: Christian Music CD

text: The product is great. It reminds me of when I was saved and Benny Hester was in concert that night at Harvest Christian Fellowship church in Riverside, Ca..


title: Four Stars

text: Very good old school sounding sleaze metal! I recommend this one pretty highly.


title: Awesome

text: I love Morrissey. His voice soothes my soul. This compilation is a most have


title: So Cool, Only to Live And Never Die - SCOTLAND

text: Scocha is so cool!  This is great music, and well done.  This CD is a must have for lovers of Celtic music.  The voices are well balanced, and the harmonies are right on.  Even though we all have our own taste in music, my whole family loves it!


title: A hidden gem

text: I happened to buy this CD at a yard sale a long time ago.  It contains some of my favorites in my classical music collection.  Great recordings of Holst the planets and Carmina Burana and Mozart.  It's a gem for sure.


title: A great Holdsworth Album

text: This is a solid Holdsworth album. Snag it if you’re just curious and snag it if your into Holdsworth. It’s pretty heady stuff, theoretically as far as the music is concerned. It’s unique as well. This album exemplifies Holdsworths style very well.


title: Great CD ... available from Folkways

text: I have the original vinyl and this is a lovely album. With the number of great albums Jean Redpath has released, it's impossible to say which is best, but this is close. Note that this (and most of the Folk Legacy catalog) is available from Smithsonian/Folkways for $17 & shipping. You can save quite a bit vs. the outrageous prices some sellers ask on Amazon.


title: Bought 2 times, both skipped tracks.

text: I returned the first one because it was skipping tracks. The second one did the same.<br />This is my favorite CD, a classic. Will buy from a record store. I can’t share a photo. Wish I could share the audio. Bummer.


title: One of the best Classical Guitarists

text: Good record! The copy I got was in good condition.


title: Five Stars

text: Works fine, no problems.


title: Excellent quality

text: Although used, it was in great condition and plays great.


title: Very sweet

text: I love this CD!  It's very rare any more to find such kind music for kids.  Songs like I Love My Grandpa, and One Little Girl teaches kids kindness and love...and it's not annoying like some "character" music can be.


title: I have the vinyl and now I have the cd...LOVE it.

text: ..LOVE it. Saw him in concert in Copenhagen in about 1975


title: terrible sound.

text: terrible sound quality.


title: Great cd

text: Very relaxing helps me get a good night's rest and help with my panic attacks.


title: Exquisite!

text: Without question, this is the most beautiful piano music I have ever heard. It inspires me, calms me, and fills me with joy.


title: Toscanini Pictures at an Exhibition

text: This is very good. It is a live performance so the quality is not as good as the studio performance but I have not found it except in vinyl as it was recorded in 1953.


title: Great surreal textures for relaxing.

text: I discovered this album on cassette a few decades ago.  In this age of CD's, I no longer have a cassette player, and the cassette is virtually worn out.  Because of this, I have spent YEARS looking for this music and finally found it on CD.  This was and still is my go-to relaxation music.  Yes, there are others that have the same effect.  However, I have always been a fan of electronic/synthesizer music since it's inception (i had my own that I played as well).  I have let this CD put me to sleep on countless occasions.  IMHO, this is WELL worth the money for fans of this style of music.


title: Great

text: Arrived safely!!  Great condition


title: Five Stars

text: very good cd. wished it had more songs on it. I love the Budapest song


title: Great songs

text: I received this product a few days ago and just played it in my car stereo today. I love every song on this CD. I'm sure I will play this over and over and over again until I can't hear it another time. Just like on fm radio when they play the same hits over and over a billion times. I have bought this CD a couple times before and I can play Megadeth on my alexa car when ever I want but the quality of streaming music is by far less quality that a CD. Buy this, you will love it.


title: Fantastic! This is one of the best "Afro-beat" cd's ...

text: Fantastic! This is one of the best "Afro-beat" cd's ever!! (Funky Jazz w/ African Flair) It's also my personal favorite by Euforquestra, an extremely talented band. Everyone should own this cd.


title: Old tape

text: Old tape scratched on it


title: Old tape

text: Had scratches on tape.


title: Probably the best Trucker's album ever.

text: One of the greatest albums ever. My Dad bought the album new in the early 60s. He actually met Coleman Wilson (a real truck driver). I have it now, although it's worse for wear. I know every song by heart. Gear Jammer, Passing Zone Blues, Green Truck Driver, Truck Driver's Queen, Swanee Caldwell's version of Six Days On the Road. Wish it would come out on CD.


title: Amazing

text: I love Grimes, she is an amazing and creative young woman. This album can take you places in your mind that you never knew existed 100% recommended.


title: New moment of progressive rock with Lifesigns.

text: Simply Speechless,great production and too much talents in this Albums,magnificent musicians ,done with taste,congratulation John Young and company.🙏


title: Another jewel of formula v

text: Fantastic


title: This is a fraud

text: This CD was grest problem,dont listen good is a fraud


title: exelente grupo,exelente musica

text:
Esta epoca creo muchos grupos pero yo insisto que uno de los mas logrados,con tremendos arreglos,com un gran acoplamiento vocal,con exelente calidad interpretativa se llaman LOS ANGELES,solamente una pieza musical de ellos, pone de manifiesto lo que acabo de decir,me refiero a MONICA,quien pone atencion a esta cancion sabe que detras de esta cancion exite un deroche de calidad interpretativa,de exelentes musicos.
No me extiendo mucho porque no terminaria con este grupo solamente digo felicidades a los viejos que quedan y los nuevos incorporados por tanta calidad.
  best regards
  jose


title: great!

text: A  toe-tapping delight


title: Four Stars

text: love the complete series


title: Great collection of over 75 recording. all great!

text: Makes you feel like you are listening to live music in a jazz club


title: Informative and very accurate.

text: This was a great CD.  We just went to Maui on 5/19.  It followed the mile markers pretty much spot on, and every landmark it described was exactly where it said, which was nice. The narrator's voice was fine.  In between the markers there was a lot of little history and fun facts, which we liked.  The music seemed more out of Jurassic Park than Hawaii, but was fine for us.  Having listened to a couple of other CD's, this one was by far the best.


title: Ahhhh, a breathe of freah air

text: When Baba gets rolling, he opens all the windows &lets the stank out


title: Five Stars

text: Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!


title: Great Song

text: First heard this song on an EA Sports commercial. Great song that gets you pumped up. Awesome before a workout


title: A Snooze in Austin

text: I bought this CD after hearing some work by pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on the radio and being really impressed by it. Didn't know much about the CD, but there was a pretty limited selection of her work available for purchase. And ... I have a serious case of buyer regret. The CD consists of 8 songs featuring Alcorn and improvisionational artist Eugene Chadbourne, recorded in one day in an informal studio in Austin. There are a few covers, including a pretty good rendition of Mickey Newbury's "How I Love Them Old Songs," as well as an 11+ minute Merle Haggard cover that meanders, dawdles, nearly stops at times, and ultimately makes you feel like slitting your wrists. The next song is a 17-minute improvisation, and the final two numbers both clock in at around 13 minutes and will bore you to death. I have nothing against improv music, but couldn't the artists have listened to this and said to each other, "Boy, we really didn't nail it at all! Maybe we should do it again tomorrow?"<br />  In short, I was really surprised by how uninspired and amateurish this sounded. Hopefully I'll find something better by Susan Alcorn at some point.


title: Doesn't fit

text: Looks great but didn't fit my jazz bass. Had to cut it down myself.


The copy I was sent was not by the original narrator.  The new narrator is terrible.  He totally ruins the book.


title: Came as advertised. So happy.

text: Always love the music from this group! Such beautiful detail to the photo book.


title: Smells Like Cheap Candy

text: I don't like this scent at all, good thing because it only lasts a few minutes.


title: Awesome Euro Club Music!

text: I love this band. They're hard to get in the U.S.A. but if you like the types of dance music you hear in European discos, you'll love it. Check out songs "Kylie" and "Jokero". They sing in Spanish and English sometimes but they're Romanian (I think).


title: Nope

text: Boring. No difference made


title: who would pay 300.00 dollars for one CD

text: Only a moron would pay 300.00 Dollars for a single CD. That has got to be a typo, but when ordering it isn't.<br />I want to meet the purchaser of such an item myself just so I can laugh at them.


title: LosLonelyBoys

text: I am completely satisfied with this item.  The item was as described and I received great customer service.  Great music from a very talented group.


title: Real CD you should try

text: I gave it to my friend as a birthday gift and she likes it so much.


title: Poetic, Heartfelt, and Truly Enjoyable

text: I love this record. It begins with "Man in the Moon" and you don't want to miss the epic guitar solo by Daniel Donato that ends the song. I could go through the record track by track, but I'll just say that I love every song. Irwin's lyrics are poetic, his melodies are catchy, and it's an all-around enjoyable record.


title: The best Pink Floyd album not by Pink Floyd

text: A live album of Pink Floyd numbers respectfully performed by a great band - Gov’t Mule’<br />Best part - Roger Waters voice is upgraded 😊


title: Jeff Beck found his Yoko

text:
Johnny Depp has done to Jeff Beck what Yoko did to Lennon - i.e. piggy back onto a great talent and tarnish the result.
This album is Jeff Beck’s answer to Double Fantasy.
Woeful!


title: Lovely album!

text: My sister loved it! Perfect condition.


title: Good gospel music

text: No dislike. Listen to to the cd. This guy is a great singer.


title: I'M IN LOVE

text: ONE OF MY FAVE BTS ALBUMS, I LOVE IT SO MUCH AND I GOT LUCKY WITH THE PHOTOCARDS AND GOT A NAMJOON AND JUNGKOOK ONE ALONG WITH THE OT7 ONE

user_id: AHCFLLTJGTKHDSCMENAXBBGKWPVA


title: Cincinnatians out of town love this.

text: A touch of home for our out of state homesick Cincinnati family at Christmas.


title: average

text: pretty boring and not what I was expecting based on the description.  The tracks are mediocre and I personally would prefer more relaxing music and positive affirmations .


title: Sometimes our music doesn't sound like noise.

text: There is nothing wrong with the music on this CD. It just doesn't have the brazen attitude of their first (I think) album, "Dirty Diamonds," a proto punk-metal masterpiece from the mid 70's. You really should buy "Dirty Diamonds."


title: Stripped down and raw!

text: These guys came out when AC/DC first debuted in the states. Their sound is similar in its electric rawness and male proto-punk arrogance. They should have been bigger. This is one of my favorite albums from the mid-seventies. Boys will be boys, sometimes our music sounds like noise! Check it out!


title: James P. Johnson: Harlem Stride Piano (Hot'N Sweet) - Yes!

text: What are you waiting for?


title: Selections of well-known historical jug bands to get you oriented

text: A good collection - I feel like I know what I'm doing now. Also obviously very pleasurable.


title: Amazing album.

text: Amazing album. Very unique with time changes and Melody changes. Each song sounded like 3 songs in one. Different than their previous albums but still excellent.


title: Extra track.

text: Bought this for the extra track. Why japan gets extra tracks and we don't is beyond wrong.


title: Cream will never perform again.

text: What a journey to the sixties! If you knew them then, you will love them in 2005. Concert which will never happen again as two band members are deceased now.  Music speaks for itself, so sit down, relax, get yourself a drink and immerse yourself into this music. The band effortlessly swings thru the wonderful sound they created over 50 years ago.


title: Nikki Clan reviewed

text: El CD solo tiene como tres canciones que realmente valen la pena el resto pues la vermdad estan mas omenos pero como dice el dicho el gusto se rompreeb generos. las canciones que real mente valen la pena son A Mi Lado, Corazon Abierto & Dame Un Dia Mas.


title: Great music

text: Husband love this singer.  Great music


title: Five Stars

text: Anything Chris Cornell sang on is great!  A one of a kind voice that was silenced way too soon.....


title: Five Stars

text: GREAT CD!!!!!


title: More of the same

text: This is more if the same..it’s have been a long, long time since Banco Popular made a worthy musical special. Same formula using old classic songs with new arrangements but either change the formula or the music producer. The have decent new artists but the production has to be better


title: Great product. Bought as a gift.

text: I would recommend this to anyone.


title: Barbara Streisand: Just for the Record

text: Barbara has been one of the greatest vocalists of all time.  I appreciated the information about how she got to be a star.  I highly recommend these CD's for anyone who loves to listen to Barbara.


title: Just close your eyes and you can hear the war.

text: One of the best scores ever in any language. A story about a Soviet spy lodged as a high ranking officer of the SS at the very start of WWIi is unforgettable.  Through this soundtrack you can hear the music of his tortured sole.


title: *Smile*

text: Every Beatles fan should have this Anthology CD Set. You'll be so glad you did.


title: Easy listening. Calming

text: I listen to it while sewing or doing crafts.


title: great music

text: can't put this cd down got to listen to it everyday


title: Five Stars

text: was well worth the wait for it to come from germany


title: Fun for any beatle fan

text: It was awesome when they started this album with the new song Free as a Bird. It is a great song that really grabs you. the full alum is fun to listen to our favorite lads growing and evolving. if you get this you must get vols. 2 and 3 also just because. Highly recommend.


title: Titus Welliver, meet Harry Bosch...

text: Titus Welliver does a fine job narrating this work.  Oddly though, Welliver's outstanding performances found on Amazon Prime's original Bosch TV series does not really translate to this version.  That might not be Welliver's fault though.  Michael Connelly's Bosch is starting to age a bit, and sadly it is showing through.  In The Burning Room, we see a Bosch who has largely resolved his personal issues, and seems resigned to the last year or so of his career.  Paired with a dedicated young partner, Bosch sets about his business of finding and trying to arrest the bad guys.  And that is pretty much it.  While Connelly is still a master at building interesting case stories with interesting characters to carry the load, he seems to have written Bosch into something of a corner.  The crisp edges have all worn down, and there is no sustaining drama that compels a reader to flip the page.  I love Bosch, but Connelly just makes me sad.  Welliver is an interesting choice for the audio versions, but Connelly is going to have to give him better stories to work with.


title: Spy Comics Are Back!

text: The idea of a comic book about a James Bond 007 type character NOT using protection for every [Bond] woman after sexual intercourse always made me wonder how many Spy Kids would be running around and trying to save the world. I never much read spy comics before, except for one comic/manga I got my hands on called The Agency from Image Comics. Since then I guess I have been trying branch myself more into the genre since the TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The story of The Illegitimates itself proves to be a smash hit and hope the comic turns into a movie like Kingsmen: Secret Service (I'll probably be wanting to read it next after I watched it).


title: Teaching children about real music

text: Got my grandson some classic music that I enjoyed in the day and still listen to now. He got a Black Sabbath t shirt to go with the music.


title: Five Stars

text: Solid period music.


title: That cd works.

text: Great music.


title: That it plays.

text: The songs being remaster sounds not too good .The songs suffer.


title: A fine 21-song introduction to Berigan

text:
This one CD anthology from ASV/Living Era was issued in 1992. Most of the tracks are from the mid-1930s, when Bunny Berigan was playing as a sideman. Berigan plays with The Dorsey Brothers, Artie Shaw, Connie Boswell (a singer Ella Fitzgerald adored), and others. Berigan's solos elevate the energy and musicality of every track. Songs include Marie, Black Bottom, I'm Coming Virginia, Blue Lou, and King Porter Stomp.

There are five tracks with Berigan leading his own orchestra in the late 1930's. The nearly five minute version of I Can't Get Started is simply wonderful, and Berigan's playing has been justly praised for decades. This is a great single CD introduction to Berigan. Some of the arrangements are pretty conventional, designed to appeal to the pop market rather than to emphasize jazz content. Still, the solos are always worthy of interest. If the price is right, do not hesitate buying this 21-tune introduction to Bunny Berigan. ****1/2


title: Great Album

text: I've seen The Cure 3 times as I was growing up and they remain one of my favorite bands.  I had been waiting for this album to come out and I got mine as soon as I could.  Its a great looking album and the songs don't disappoint.  Great item.


title: Out of Order

text: I was looking for one specific song that was on this CD.  The songs that were on the CD, were not the ones that showed up in the LIST on my computer.  I had to go in and edit the Titles of the songs and the Recording Artists because the music on the CD was not the same as the List of songs that popped up on my computer. Luckily, the list on the back of the CD are the songs recorded on the CD in that order.  These are all original hits and a few that are not easy to get without buying a full CD by one artist/group when you really only wanted that one hit wonder.  Very happy with the purchase.  If you are a little OCD, getting the correct titles/artists in order on your computer may drive you a little batty.


title: Always ch ch ch changes

text: Seminal Bowie from the Eighties.


title: My favorite bajans cd

text: This is my favorite bajans CD from the Sri Kaleshwar group.  Gustav is amazing in this cd.  It's so heartfelt and uplifting.  The music will move you to feel love of God.


title: Two Stars

text: Thought I was getting the full CD. Ended up being only the instrumental version. Very disappointing.


title: Five Stars

text: very nice


title: Watching the Africa song was fun

text: I liked to watch the Africa song while they sing. They don't use instruments just there voice to make the sounds and it is very interesting.


title: Only like one song

text: I only like one song but I thought I would like the others but not so good. The song I liked was Africa.


title: Not as Good as the First lord of the dance

text: The music is not too good to me. The dvd wasn't to thrilling. I love Michael and his tapping that is why I bought it thinking it would be just as good as the other but I was wrong. I only watched and listened to it once. Still on my shelf collecting dust.


title: Entertaining and Fun

text: This music gets you singing and dancing. I listen to this alot in my car and I enjoy it. I bought this cd to replace my old one because it got scratched up...


title: YES

text: Been looking for this cd for a long time and I finally found it at a great price came in great condtion too


title: great cd

text: Works great. Clear sound.


title: Some good stuff - there's potential here

text: This little known Canadian band has a sound that passes through several genres in one album.  My personal taste makes Optic Nerve the standout song on this album - haunting and beautiful, I really feel like that is the direction flux A.D. should be moving.  A good listen though, and some really catchy tunes.  This is a group to watch.