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The Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra Et Al : Elgar: The Dream Of Gerontius & Symphony No. 1
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  May 01, 2014
Thanks to preparation and de Waart’s keen ear for balance, every detail of Elgar’s orchestration of the A-flat Symphony is heard – possibly with greater definition than you’ll find elsewhere. But it’s all rather literal and comes at the cost of passion, heartache and a sense of momentum. Gerontius has been the almost exclusive recording preserve of English knights – Ashkenazy the exception. The attractions here are fine orchestral playing and choral sound (set back in a spacious Antwerp hall).
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Academy Of Ancient Music & Richard Egarr : Birth Of The Symphony: Handel To Haydn
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Apr 01, 2014
Produced/engineered by Philip Hobbs in Sept ’11, for AAM Records’ first release, this programme takes us from the Sinfonia from Handel’s Saul to Haydn’s F-minor Symphony 49, ‘La Passione’, via works by FX Richter, Stamitz and Mozart: the remarkable K16 – written when he was eight! There’s a related documentary at www. aam. co. uk/birthofthesymphony where Egarr and leader Pavlo Beznosiuk describe the pieces and their salient features (such as the ‘busy’ bowing in the Stamitz opening Presto) intercut with film from concert performance – the two natural horns are quite a sight.
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Yevgeny Sudbin & Minnesota Orchestra : Beethoven Piano Concerto 3 & Mozart Piano Concerto 24
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Apr 01, 2014
96kHz/24-bit FLAC, BIS BIS-1978 (supplied by www. eclassical. com) I don’t think these two C-minor concertos have been coupled on records before, in spite of obvious connections. As if to stress these, the Mozart is given a Beethovenian vigour and scale – not inappropriately.
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Giovanni Guidi Trio : City Of Broken Dreams
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Apr 01, 2014
Still in his 20s, acclaimed pianist Giovanni Guidi is regarded as one of the most original and inventive pianists on the Italian jazz scene. While he accompanied trumpeter Enrico Rava on his ECM albums Tribe and the live On The Dancefloor this is his first album for the label as a band leader, where his creatively daring improvisations are shared with American bassist Thomas Morgan and Portuguese drummer João Lobo. ‘The Forbidden Zone’ demonstrates Guidi’s talent for creating sublimely haunting atmospheres, its meditative melody achingly beautiful in its apparent simplicity. And ‘Just One More Time’, in which the bass and drums are given space to work out, highlights the recording’s splendidly natural feeling of musicians performing in a room.
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Ayo : Ticket To The World
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Apr 01, 2014
Nigerian-German singer-songwriter Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin – stage name Ayo – has enjoyed considerable success in Europe since her 2007 debut album Joyful and its follow-up Gravity At Last, both produced by renowned American sound engineer Jay Newland. This is her fourth studio album, produced and mixed by Newland once again, containing both the original version of her 2013 single ‘Fire’ and its subsequent remix featuring Congolese-French rapper Youssoupha [see Lab Report]. As usual her songs cover a mix of styles from reggae and rap to the country-esque ‘Justice’ and the beautiful ballad ‘Fallin’’ that bears comparison with Joan Armatrading at her most heartfelt. Standout tracks such as ‘Teach Love’ and ‘Complain’ showcase the album’s superior recording quality, with the backing instruments separated across a believable soundstage.
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June In The Fields : June In The Fields
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Apr 01, 2014
This collection of chilled-out country/folk songs by the curiously-named June In The Fields duo of composer Jean-Michel Renaud (guitar/vocal) and singer Mélissa Brouillette hails from Canada’s Fidelio Musique audiophile label. Visit a hi-fi show in North America and you might bump into recording engineer René LaFlamme – who runs Fidelio Musique in Montreal – demonstrating his recordings promoted with the tag line: ‘We capture the feeling…’. This is an intimate set, the duo accompanied on tracks such as ‘Andaman Sea’ and ‘Summer Road’ by Sebastien Saliceti on double-bass to flesh out the sparse arrangements. The vocals in particular have been beautifully captured by LaFlamme’s all-tube mic and preamplifier set-up to produce a ‘charming’ sound that’s exceedingly cosy and seductive, if a tad lacking air and space.
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Gotlieb Wallisch & Piatti Quartet : Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 12, 13 & 14 The Chamber Version
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Mar 01, 2014
192kHz/24-bit FLAC, CKD 424 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) Why would you wish to forgo orchestral strings and the pairs of oboes and horns of the orginal scores for these three concertos from 1783/4? Mozart himself sanctioned just strings ‘a quattro’ as in this new recording, produced at Potton Hall, Suffolk, in May 2012. The Viennese pianist plays a Steinway D in this, his third programme for Linn Records, and provides the booklet notes; his supporting string players are all equally young.
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Lisa Batiashvili & Staatskapelle Dresden, Christian Thielemann : Johannes Brahms/clara Schumann
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Mar 01, 2014
In this mid-2012 Brahms recording from the reverberant Lukaskirche, Dresden, Batiashvili is playing the Stradivarius owned by Joachim. She doesn’t play his familiar first-movt cadenza, however, but – like Isabelle Faust on Harmonia Mundi last year – the one by Busoni which has timpanist and orchestral strings joining in. The three Romances Op. 22 are by Schumann’s sister Clara (Joachim was again the dedicatee); these are airy and gracious pieces, and the violinist is nicely partnered by Ott.
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Jean Guihen Queyras, Bbc Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek : Sir Edward Elgar: Cello Concerto/tchaikovsky: Rocco Variations
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Mar 01, 2014
HRA has recently started offering Harmonia Mundi recordings as downloads (at low prices too). This particular programme – a recent classical Album Choice [HFN Jan ’14] – was made in May ’12 at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios only at 44. 1kHz resolution. Does this (24-bit) download offer a sonic gain? I thought there was a discernible difference: switching from an iMac/Audirvana/MF V-Link192/DAC to preamp chain to CD player/preamp brought a thicker, flatter sound.
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Hi-Res Downloads
David Chesky, Fundacao Orquestra Estudio, Rui Massena : The Zephyrtine: A Ballet Story
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Mar 01, 2014
96kHz/192kHz/24-bit AIFF/ALAC/FLAC/WAV, Chesky Records (supplied by www. hdtracks. com) David Chesky is committed to fostering music education in young children and composed The Zephrytine as a fantasy ballet. The booklet PDF includes the narrative – in which a young boy meets a magical creature and travels to a utopian world where people are of all colours and ice cream grows on trees – along with vibrant illustrations by artist Ângela Vieira.
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