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.
Noseda & National Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven Complete Symphonies
Gianandrea Noseda, Music Director of a superbly crafted American orchestra, combines exuberant Italian passion with stylistic Viennese élan. Anyone looking for a new set of Beethoven symphonies, do count these blessings. Save 15% on the entire series with the DSD Bundle! One more to choose from. What’s on offer? After all those years, Beethoven is […]
Notes from Recent Finds, No. 17 – Releases from NativeDSD
This is a reposted article originally written for Positive Feedback by our friend Rush Paul. The great team at Positive Feedback, as well as Rush himself, have kindly given us permission to repost this and you can find the original article at this link. Thanks to Rush the PF team! I’m excited about this most […]
Abel: Pieces for Viola da Gamba
The surprise couldn’t be grander. In his liner notes Ralph Rousseau tells us that except for a handful of Viola da Gamba players, few have for a long time been aware of Carl Friedrich Abel’s Sonatas. I, too, was not all too familiar with many of them. With this TRPTK release, the surprise couldn’t be […]
Händel: Neun Deutsche Arien (9 German Arias)
Nothing but remarkable discoveries. As a staunch supporter of multi-channel, I usually stay clear of stereo-only recordings ever since the surround format became available. In my belief, the latter creates more depth and a considerably improved sense of presence. Not that surround is always better. Much depends on the mastering. I have recordings in which […]
Folk Songs / Delius: A Mass of Life / Kynaston on the Organ
These reviews were originally written by Rob Pennock for The Classical Source. Folk Songs Works: Béla Bartók – 5 Hungarian Folk Songs, BB 108, Sz. 101 Luciano Berio – Folk Songs Maurice Ravel – Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques Xavier Montsalvatge – 5 Canciones negras Artists: Magdalena Kožená (mezzo-soprano), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle Recorded at the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, […]
Cartografía del Mar (Maps of the Sea) (Pure DSD)
This is a reposted article originally written for Positive Feedback by our friend Rush Paul. The great team at Positive Feedback, as well as Rush himself, have kindly given us permission to repost this and you can find the original article at this link. Thanks to Rush the PF team! The Gift of Great Sound […]
Songlines Recordings | Group Review #2
Peter Epstein Group – Lingua FrancaAnalog to DSD 64 transfer A hybrid of jazz improvisation and Balkan rhythms where communication forges a collective sound that is consistent and personal From the opening bars of the album, a quiet invocation stated by the alto sax, sustained guitar and gentle touches of percussion, the trio of Peter […]
‘Fathers & Daughters’ Fedorov and Zemtsov
A release no one should be without. Why? Two of the world’s prominent rising stars, The Ukrainian-born pianist, Anna Fedorova, and the Mexican-born violist, Dana Zemtsov, joined here by their equally renowned fathers, Borys Fedorov and Michail Zemtsov, have created a programme that is as interesting as it is unusual. Rather than repeating the gist […]
Review of ‘B.ACH’ from TRPTK
An intriguing release Who is scared of Bach? According to his very personal liner notes, Kersten McCall, principal flautist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, was. A youth trauma? “This is not Bach” said the jury when Kersten, aged 12, played a Bach Flute Sonata at the National Youth Competition in Germany. Now, many years later, […]
New Discoveries – Autumn 2023
Lately I’ve been spending more time listening, and It really paid off! I found these albums I want to showcase. Each has some unexpected rewards. Take some time yourself and listen! Remember, many of the samples are full length, and have quite good sound quality. So let’s dive in! Stravinsky/Poulenc/Debussy: Works for Cello and PianoAmalie Stalheim & Christian Ihle Hadlan […]
Pentatone – ‘Purcell: Dido & Aeneas’
“The only perfect English opera”, says Lindsay Kemp in the foreword to this issue, and artistic director David Bates elaborates this statement further: “…its strongest suit is its sense of theatre. By that I essentially mean contrast, the juxtaposition of differing moods, colours, orchestrations, songs. It constantly shifts from one thing to another in the […]
‘DUO’ from Cobra Records
Are female Cellists better than male? Of late an array of young and talented female cello players have drawn our attention, like the promising Dutch, Ellen van Poucke, the Swiss revelation, Nadège Rochat, and, of course, the slightly more mature American, Alisa Weilerstein, and Argentinian, Sol Gabetta, both already playing at the highest international level. […]