Hi-Res Downloads

From the off, this set by bluegrass/New Grass mandolin player Sam Bush explodes with the kind of authenticity sorely missing from Cyndi Lauper’s recent ‘Detour’ into country. The tongue is firmly out of cheek here, and instead we get realism thanks to Bush’s rootsy approach to the heritage of American acoustic music. It’s a wonderfully upbeat and affirmative set, from the ever-so-slightly funky ‘Everything Is Possible’ to the defiant ‘Carcinoma Blues’. Meanwhile, the instrumental track ‘Greenbrier’ finds Bush and his band working out with almost quartz-locked precision and superb interplay, and the quieter ‘It’s Not What You Think’ is simply beautiful, and almost classical in its scoring and performance.

The shadow of Diana Krall looms large over the school of female singer-pianists, but Sarah McKenzie, though still in her early 20s, brings a freshness and exuberance of voice, allied to delicious phrasing and some demon work on the keyboard, to make even familiar material shine anew. On this album, originally released by ABC Classics Australia and now picked up by associated label Impulse! for wider distribution, she also displays quite a way with a tune on the self-penned tracks. (Sarah McKenzie has a degree in jazz composition, after all. ) Together with compatriots Hugh Stuckey on guitar and Alex Boneham on bass, plus an international supporting cast, she makes a great job of the standards here, beside which her own songs stack up very well.

192kHz/24-bit FLAC/ALAC, Linn Records CKD 421 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) The SCO’s young conductor (31) is following in his mentor Sir Colin Davis’s recording path with a Berlioz series for Linn. The testing ‘Scène d’Amour’ from Roméo et Juliette I hope doesn’t preclude a complete version: the leaner orchestral sound here works well in suggesting the defiant youth of the lovers.

The time when the Manfred Symphony was cut (Toscanini, Kletzki) or worse, cut and pasted (Ahronovitch), has long gone; and it now seems it was Balakirev who first suggested replacing harmonium with organ in the finale – which nearly all conductors do (Markevitch excepted). In this marvellous recording from Prague’s ample Rudolfinum it’s the way Bychkov integrates all those finale episodes and flashbacks into a coherent whole that impresses most. Back in 1972 a HFN editorial review suggested that Decca’s earlier VPO/Maazel version ‘would be unlikely to be surpassed’ as an orchestral recording – but it clearly is by this one over 45 years later! Bychkov’s is a powerfully dramatic account with a glowing richness missing from Pletnev’s cooler Pentatone Manfred with the Russian National Orchestra, which we also reviewed in this section [Album Choice, HFN Jun ’14]. CB Sound Quality: 90% Hi-Fi News Lab Report Digital throughout (recording, mixing and mastering) and mercifully free of obvious distortion or compression, this file still shows some low-level (<–80dBFs) spuriae, particularly 20kHz-48kHz.

There’s no shortage of albums by drummers being released at the moment and this set is the third outing for Protocol, the outfit led by Simon Phillips and named after his first solo album of 1988. With as twenty years as part of Toto, Philips has also toured and recorded with the likes of The Who, Peter Gabriel, Joe Satriani, Tears For Fears and Roxy Music, to name just a few examples from an extensive CV. Recorded with the same core line-up as the previous Protocol album, with Steve Weingart on keyboards, guitarist Andy Timmons and bass player Earnest Tibbs, this album is more or less the definition of jazz/rock fusion, from Timmons’ wailing guitar to Phillips’ precise drumming. It opens with a little Indian percussion, but don’t let that fool you – this is a straight down the line powerhouse rocker, start to finish, and is treated to a clean, open sound quality throughout.

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.

Born in Milan in 1965, classical and jazz pianist Stefano Battaglia has recorded an astonishing number of albums during his varied career – more than 60 at last count. Songways, released on CD in 2013, continues his association since 2005 with Manfred Eicher’s ECM label, and his talented accompanists Salvatore Maiore on double-bass and Roberto Dani on drums. Battaglia describes Songways as ‘a new harmonic balance between archaic modal pre-tonal chant and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns, and abstract texture’. It certainly weaves a spell, often hypnotically ambient while sometimes exquisitely lyrical, for example on the enchantingly melodic ‘Mildendo Wide Song’.