Hi-Res Downloads

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Hi-Res Downloads
Belenus Quartett : Streichquartette Joseph Haydn Op. 76.2/bela Bartok Nr. 4
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jul 01, 2013
These gifted Zurich graduate string players joined forces in 2004: this is their debut recording, produced last July at the University of Arts concert-hall (the booklet PDF includes full technical details). Their musical responses are lightning-fast and in the Haydn ‘Fifths’ Quartet their slow movement is poised, the finale high-spirited. The great Bartók Fourth is exemplary as an abstract realisation (not unlike the Juilliards’), superbly played but with little of the ethnic colouring you hear with the Hungarian Qt [DG]. The sound is as fresh and clean as Swiss air, notwithstanding the resonance of the hall, with richness to the cello and clear decay of notes.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Minnesota Orchestra & Osmo Vanska : Sibelius: Symphonies Nos 1 & 4
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jul 01, 2013
96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS-SACD-1996 (supplied by www. eclassical. com) With Vol. 1 in this new cycle [HFN May ’12] I concluded that Vänskä’s earlier BIS versions of Symphonies 2 and 5 were by no means superseded.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Nils Landgren : Funky Abba
J. Ford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jul 01, 2013
This is not some random attack on ABBA’s canon; Landgren is Swedish, he played horn on Voulez Vous and has been friends ever since with Benny Andersson, who gave this project his blessing and plays piano on ‘When All Is Said And Done’. Plus this was recorded in Polar Studio A – ‘it’s in the walls’. Besides, many tracks barely nod to the originals, retaining only a few lyrics while transfunking the chords into new territory. ‘Money Money Money’ and many others gain tight rap sequences; the verses of ‘Thank You For The Music’ are thrillingly re-souled (though nothing could save the choruses).
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Hi-Res Downloads
Yes : Going For The One
J. Ford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jul 01, 2013
192KHZ/24-BIT ALAC/FLAC/WAV, Rhino/Elektra (supplied by www. hdtracks. com) To hear ‘Turn Of The Century’ and ‘Awaken’ at 24-bit/192kHz was a near pant-wetting prospect for this reviewer who once fought daily with a sibling for possession of this seminal 1977 album by the Anderson, Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White line-up. But the high-res files deliver the lesson that more bits don’t fix a mix.
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