Music Reviews
A grand collection of reviews. If you are a professional music reviewer and would like to contribute a review to this blog, please contact us.
Great Conductors
Jaap van Zweden, the newly named Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in a dynamic and emotional performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. There have been a number of quite fine new recordings of this massive work in the last few years, and some would say that the […]
Contemporary Classical Masterpieces
Some out of the way yet close to us in the classical music composing history discoveries today… Contemporary Classical 20th and 21st Century Masterpieces in DSD. Here’s a really lovely Cello-Piano duo recital! Terry Drinkall and Dian Baker combine to perform two beautiful sonatas and some other wonderful duets. “20th Century Masterpieces for Piano and […]
Peace, Paris and Piano
I talk about discoveries, and this album, “Herbert Howells” with Gloriae Dei Cantores is full of them. Howells is is a 20th century British composer who has composed a huge number of religious choral works– Surprising because he wasn’t all that religious. The Choir, Gloriae Dei Cantores, and its director Elizabeth C. Patterson, is superb. […]
Dangerous DSD Discoveries
Here’s one I’m very excited about: an album featuring music by a composer I’d never heard of, performed by an ensemble I’d never heard of. The Amsterdam Bridge Ensemble absolutely carries me away with the music of Dutch composer Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981). Jacobien Rozemond – Violin, Doris Hochscheid – Cello, and Frans van Ruth – Piano […]
Orchestras, Oboes & Elbows
I’m beginning to really mistrust comparisons. People compare Mahler to Bruckner and Strauss. Except for speaking German and composing for big orchestras making big sounds— Their musical languages are quite different. This is why I’ve had trouble warming up to Nielsen in the past. Too many people have compared Nielsen to Sibelius. I love Sibelius […]
Stravinsky on my mind & Musical forces of nature
I’ve got Stravinsky on my mind— No, hold on, I’m not talking about my 25th recording of Le Sacre. Here’s some different Stravinsky to enjoy: Philippe Herreweghe is largely thought of as a conductor of Baroque music, especially Bach. He has however branched out to record other more modern composers– Mahler, Dvorak, and even Stravinsky. […]
Forces of Nature in DSD
Musical forces of nature: Ning Feng, Rosanne Philippens and Gerard Schwarz conducting The Colburn Orchestra. In this edition of Dodd’s Discoveries Bill included some of the most intense music ever written, in refreshing performances. Ning Feng is absolutely a “force of nature.” He startles with his clarity and technique, but manages to do so with a warm […]
Head-spinning DSD Discoveries
Mahler, Khachaturian, Take One Here’s something special: Mahler Symphony No. 1 (Hamburg, 1893 version) Jan Willem de Vriend conducts The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra in a very early version of Mahler’s First Symphony, complete with the later-deleted “Blumine” movement. I have about 20 different recordings of the Mahler 1st, and I probably listen to one of […]
Music doing pirouettes in your head
There’s a myth that only French conductors and orchestras should perform French music, or only conductors and orchestras from the UK should be doing British music, and so on. I don’t believe it. Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony are extraordinarily fine with their “This England” set: Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958) had been working on […]
Amadeus and brothers Haydn
Here’s a great idea: Next time you have a party, hire a group of wind players to play arias and other bits from famous Mozart operas– popular and tuneful music made accessible (and affordable). This was Harmoniemusik — and it was very popular around Vienna, Prague, and Budapest from the 1780s to the 1820s. You […]
A Hidden DSD Treasure
Native DSD is a treasure trove of great music, but you may not be familiar with some of it. My goal is not to “teach” or to “review” — I simply want to share my thoughts on some of the discoveries I’ve made here. Many years ago I discovered Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem (1947). For a […]