Hi-Res Downloads

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Hi-Res Downloads
David Crosby : Croz
J. Ford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Sep 01, 2014
His first monikered material for two decades is ‘solo’ though created over several years with adopted-out son James Raymond and accentuated by guests – a Mark Knopfler solo for opener ‘What’s Broken’, Chet Baker-soft trumpet solo from Wynton Marsalis on ‘Holding On To Nothing’, and underpinned almost throughout by fine beat-skipping rhythms from Steve DiStanislao. Unlike his 1993 album A Thousand Roads, however, those visiting don’t overstay their welcome – this is Crosby to its core, traditionally presented and thoughtfully constructed on a span from jazzy folk to quite dark rock, and slathered in those signature stacked vocals, staking a claim to the West Coast soft-rock sound of Eagles and Toto in his choruses on ‘Dangerous Night’, and layering harmonies over a four-bar bridge of ‘What’s Broken’ like some manually-made Mellotron. A delight. JF Sound Quality: 85% Hi-Fi News Lab Report Though close-miked, compression is held in check by Croz’s engineers resisting the temptation to hit the 0dBFs limit, most peaks ending at a sensible –6dBFs to –3dBFs.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Gil Shaham : 1930s Violin Concertos Vol. 1
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Aug 01, 2014
After recording for DG in the 1990s – with memorable versions of the Bartók Second Concerto with Boulez, the Brahms with Abbado and the Barber with Previn – Gil Shaham founded Canary Classics in 2004. This present compilation is from live recordings, apart from the Hartmann Concerto funèbre (where the strings are also directed by Shaham), made between 2008 and 2013 in Boston, Dresden, London and New York. Shaham seems able to identify with each of these markedly different scores – his Barbican Stravinsky is especially enjoyable – but it’s not an ‘audiophile’ package: the Britten has the best sound and brilliant accompaniment (Boston SO); the Berg is pretty good (Dresden); but the Hartmann is quite claustrophobically close-balanced. CB Sound Quality: 70% Hi-Fi News Lab Report The Stravinsky, Berg and Hartmann were recorded and delivered here at 44.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Dunedin Consort/john Butt : Mozart Requiem (reconstruction Of The First Performance)
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Aug 01, 2014
192kHz/24-bit FLAC/ALAC, Linn Records CKD 449 (supplied by www. linnrecords. com) Linn already has a fine Mozart Requiem under Sir Charles Mackerras [BKD 211]. But that was using a version by Robert Levin, whereas this new production from Greyfriars Kirk Edinburgh is a reconstruction of the first performance, based on a new edition of Sussmäyr’s completion of Mozart’s score.
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Jennifer Pike : Sibelius: Violin Concerto
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Aug 01, 2014
96kHz/24-bit FLAC, Chandos CHSA 5134 (supplied by www. theclassicalshop. net) Jennifer Pike’s playing in the concerto is satisfying for the consistent purity of her intonation, although you need patience – it really needs more bravura, some of Heifetz’s nonchalance. The rest of the programme is mostly unashamedly popular Sibelius, but there’s no trace of routine.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Torque Trio : Osmosis
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Aug 01, 2014
Described by several commentators as the most inventive jazz trio to have emerged from Europe in many years, the German/Dutch Torque Trio describes the jazz scenes of Amsterdam and Cologne as its ‘home turf’. Osmosis is a striking follow-up to the trio’s 2011’s debut Forward. Both are on Neuklang, a label owned by Bauer Studios, one of Germany’s largest studio complexes. This is a fine recording, with a good sense of space around the players who clearly enjoy keeping listeners on their toes with constantly shifting melodies and rhythms.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Shelby Lynne : Just A Little Lovin'
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Aug 01, 2014
Story has it that for her album of Dusty Springfield covers, American singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne insisted on having the legendary Phil Ramone produce Just A Little Lovin’, with recording engineer Al Schmitt at the controls in Capitol’s Studio A in Hollywood. This is an analogue recording made on 2in tape that LPs fans might want to own on Analogue Productions’ 200g vinyl [AAPP 041], while this recently-available 96kHz/24-bit download is perceptibly more dynamic and refined-sounding than the (already very good) Doug Sax-mastered CD issue that’s been an audiophile favourite since its 2008 release. In her interpretations of classics made famous by Dusty, Shelby Lynne makes the songs her own, with intimate vocals and refreshingly sparse arrangements. The title track you’ll find particularly revealing of system performance.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Russian National Orchestra/mikhail Pletnev : Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jun 01, 2014
Pletnev’s first recording with the RNO, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique [Virgin Classics, 1991] created a sensation. He went on to record a complete symphony cycle for Deutsche Grammophon, which included a 1993 Manfred, and currently a Pentatone cycle is under way. What’s interesting is to find this new recording – made in a Moscow studio last April – has consistently longer timings, Pletnev adding 5m+ to his previous reading. It’s the proper score, rather than the cut ’n paste various Russian conductors offer.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Tobias Becker Bigband : Life Stream
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jun 01, 2014
Not to be confused with the German DJ who founded Top Dog Records, this Tobias Becker is a young musician who recently completed studies in classical and jazz piano at Stuttgart’s University of Music and Performing Arts. Centred on his self-penned Life Stream Suite, a composition in four parts for 17-piece ensemble, the album is an impressive outing for Becker who has already garnered an impressive CV for his talent as a musical arranger. It’s vibrant and exhilarating big band jazz, redolent of Count Basie at his swingin’ best, albeit interspersed with a 21st century twist here and there. The album’s excellent sound quality, recorded in Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg, has captured the vivid colours and textures of the Bigband ensemble most authentically.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Stefano Battaglia Trio : Songways
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jun 01, 2014
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’.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Ronny Graupe : Spoom
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jun 01, 2014
Pirouet’s studio complex in Munich is responsible for many fine audiophile recordings, this eclectic experimental jazz outing being no exception. The sound is intimate and beautifully balanced. Ronny Graupe’s Spoom is in fact the name of a working jazz trio founded a decade ago, comprising composer Ronny Graupe on electric guitar, Jonas Westergaard on bass and Christian Lillinger on drums. Graupe plays a seven-string guitar and his compositions are – how should I put this? – er, ‘difficult’.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/robin Ticciati/karen Cargill : Hector Berlioz: Les Nuits D'ete & La Mort De Cleopatre
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  Jun 01, 2014
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.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Bill Carrothers : Castaways
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  May 01, 2014
The reclusive American pianist Bill Carrothers has recorded several albums for the Munich-based Pirouet label over the years. For Castaways he was accompanied by fellow American bass virtuoso Drew Gress and Belgian drummer Dré Pallemaerts, the set recorded in April ’12 and first released on CD. Now the studio master can be enjoyed in its native 88. 2kHz/24-bit format and it sounds beautifully balanced, the trio laid out in a sound image you can virtually walk into.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Ben Van Gelder : Reprise
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  May 01, 2014
Young Dutch saxophonist Ben van Gelder’s 2012 debut album Frame Of Reference, published by his own BvG Music enterprise and released on vinyl as well as CD, is followed up by a fresh outing recorded in New York’s prestigious Sear Point Studios. Less contemplative than his auspicious debut and featuring pretty much the same line up of Craig Weinrib (drums), Peter Schlamb (vibraphone) and Rick Rosato (bass on all but two tracks), but with pianist Aaron Parks replaced by Sam Harris, van Gelder’s quintet once again exhibits a medley of styles, shifting from angular unisons to freewheelin’ blowing. It’s hard to believe they’re all in their 20s such is the maturity of their playing, van Gelder’s inventive compositions certainly belying his age. It’s a pity the sound isn’t more open and airy, the textures at times masked by the slightly cramped soundings.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Tizian Jost Trio : United In The Big Blue
J. Bamford (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  May 01, 2014
Jazz fans craving that spine-tingling sensation of being in the performance space with musicians should look no further than United In The Big Blue, where pianist Tizian Jost is accompanied in these original compositions by bassist Thomas Stabenow and drummer Mario Gonzi. Jost is perhaps best known as a member of the Stephan Holstein Trio and accompanist to saxophonist Till Martin over the years, as well as being a passionate champion for Brazilian music. He was co-leader of the band Domundo during the ’90s. There’s much to admire in the creativity of Jost’s writing, tracks such as the brooding ‘Missing The Right Word’ and intriguing ‘Not An Easy Way To Go’ replete with ingenious juxtapositions in melody, harmony and phrasing.
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Hi-Res Downloads
Iona Brown & The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra : Schubert/mendelssohn
C. Breunig (Music); P. Miller (Lab)  |  May 01, 2014
192kHz/24-bit; ALAC/FLAC/WAV, naimcd026 (supplied by www. naimlabel. com) Recorded live in Hamar, Norway in August 1997, this is the later of Iona Brown’s two Naim programmes with the orchestra, resampled from co-producer Ken Christianson’s original tapes [see also HFN Oct ’13, p103]. She had almost reached the point where arthritis stopped her from playing the violin and allegedy she was found to be a hard taskmaster by the young Norwegian players.
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