LATEST ADDITIONS

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton : Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 Scythian Suite

C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Aug 01, 2015

96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS-2124 (supplied by www. eclassical. com) The Fifth Symphony has fared well on records, right back to the 1946 Koussevitsky/RCA and particularly with American orchestras. Prokofiev’s 1915 Diaghilev ballet commission for Ala et Lolli, a mythological Scythian concoction, met with rejection: the composer ‘did not understand a thing about dance’, said Balanchine.

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Emily Barker : The Toerag Sessions

A. Everard (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Aug 01, 2015

94kHz/24-bit WAV, Linn Records AKD531 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) This session came about by public demand – in between touring with her bands, Emily Barker was also playing solo acoustic shows of songs old and new, and kept being asked whether these versions of her catalogue were available to buy. As a result, she went into London’s Toerag Studios, known for its use of vintage equipment, along with producer Liam Watson, and recorded this live-to-tape, no edits set, accompanied only by her guitar and harmonica.

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Cassandra Wilson : Coming Forth By Day

A. Everard (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Aug 01, 2015

Cassandra Wilson will need no introduction to most audiophiles as the singer is a demonstration-room favourite, and it’s not hard to hear why in this latest album – Wilson’s homage to Billie Holiday. Wilson’s voice is close-focused and centre-stage, and the instrumentation captured with every detail intact, from the sparse backing to ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’ to the cinematic orchestra on ‘Strange Fruit’. The roster of musicians is also pretty impressive: production is by Nick Launay, T Bone Burnett adds guitar, and Van Dyke Parks wrote the string arrangements. And yet there’s something oddly one-note here as too many of these standards sound slow and mournful, while the Bond-esque orchestra on ‘Strange Fruit’ is at odds with the subject matter.

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Daniel Hope, Paul Neubauer, David Finckel, Wu Han : Brahms, Schumann, Mahler: Piano Quartets

C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Aug 01, 2015

Daniel Hope and colleagues (the pianist is the wife of former Emerson Quartet cellist David Finckel) recorded this programme live at Lincoln Center in March ’15. Mahlerians will want primarily to hear the fragment composed in 1876, not well represented in the catalogue. But it’s rather repetitive and Mahler only found his true voice a few years later in the Klagende Lied. The Brahms (First) Piano Quartet is the one orchestrated by Schoenberg.

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Jose James : Yesterday I Had The Blues: The Music Of Billie Holiday

A. Everard (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Aug 01, 2015

Like Cassandra Wilson’s Coming Forth By Day [reviewed here], this album marks the centenary of Billie Holiday’s birth – and while one might expect James’s voice to be less well suited to the music most associated with the singer than Wilson’s, in fact exactly the opposite is true. Whereas Wilson’s set sounds mannered and highly constructed, James’s has a more sincere feel to it, not least due to the relaxed interplay between his voice, Jason Moran’s piano, John Patitucci on bass and Eric Harland’s controlled, expressive drumming. The band sounds tight and intuitive – listen to the bluesy opening of ‘Fine And Mellow’ to appreciate that – and the perfect foil for James’s warm, rich voice. At the risk of labouring the point, this album’s gospelly, plaintive take on ‘Strange Fruit’ moves in a way Wilson’s widescreen epic reading entirely fails to.

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Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Soloists : Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimenti

C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Jul 01, 2015

192kHz/24-bit ALAC/FLAC, CKD 479 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) Most collectors will have discovered the Mozart Divertimenti and Serenades via Decca and its mono/stereo LP series with various Viennese ensembles, from the time of Willi Boskovsky. Linn’s enjoyable programme with the SCO players – pairs of clarinets, horns and bassoons – has more of an ‘outdoors’ style, fresh and open.

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Jacob Young Et Al : Forever Young

A. Everard (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Jul 01, 2015

See what they did with the album name? Hmmm – but obvious title aside, this is a striking set, combining the talents of guitarist Young with the piano of Marcin Wasilewski (whose trio also contributes bass and drums) and saxophonist Trygve Seim, to form a quintet clearly locked together and understanding each other’s every move. It works well, from the reflective opener, ‘I Lost My Heart to You’, through to the rather more upbeat ‘Bounce’, for which Young swaps acoustic for electric – and an electric with a lovely hollow-bodied tone – and the changing paces of 1970. The appeal is extended by a typically up close and personal ECM recording, though at times it does seem a little ‘hot’, with a bit too much sax breathiness and cymbal splash. However, it’s always interesting and involving, and the musicianship on offer here is peerless.

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Diana Krall : Wallflower

A. Everard (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Jul 01, 2015

I guess when you get to your 12th studio album you might be forgiven for running out of steam a bit, but this latest package from jazz diva Diana Krall has been received with somewhat mixed reviews, since its belated release due to the singer/pianist’s illness. It’s a bit of an oddity, comprising mainly of ’70s ballads by the likes of Randy Newman, The Carpenters and Elton John, and with not much sign of the piano fireworks Krall has brought to bear on some of her previous outings. It may be the familiarity of so much of the material, or that these new recordings don’t bring too much we didn’t already know, but this does seem something of an exercise in treading water. Even a new song by Paul McCartney doesn’t help much, a duet on Georgie Fame’s ‘Yeah Yeah’ is only 50% successful(!) and, while the sound is workmanlike, even that doesn’t really stand out.

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Sol Gabetta & Bertrand Chamayou : The Chopin Album

C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Jul 01, 2015

You don’t get a booklet PDF with this download so you’ll need to see the web page for full track details. Obviously, there’s the Chopin Cello Sonata and the Grand Duo he co-wrote with cellist and friend Auguste Franchomme. Track 9 is a Nocturne by him, track 8 his setting of Chopin’s Op. 15:1.

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Thomas Sondergard & Bbc National Orchestra Of Wales : Sibelius: Symphonies 2 & 7

C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab) | Jul 01, 2015

192kHz/24-bit ALAC/FLAC, CKD 462 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) This first instalment in a new Sibelius cycle with the BBC’s Welsh Orchestra has prompted a mixed response. Criticism of the sound from Cardiff’s Hoddinott hall strikes me as spectacularly wrong (Gramophone) as – at 192kHz/24-bit at least – this is an extremely fine, natural orchestral presentation.

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