Over the years, I have unearthed a great number of pieces by composers that even the biggest music afficionados have never heard of – like a musical treasure hunt. I considered some of these hidden gems so valuable, that I wanted to make recordings of them. This has resulted in the Eclipse project. – Mattias Spee

There is a lot of music in the world. Some of it, like Bach or Mozart, you hear often. Other brilliant composers slip through the cracks, for reasons that often have nothing to do with their music. Their music raises questions like “Why have I never heard this before?” and “What other treasures are still waiting to be discovered?”.

The circumstances leading to some composers being recognized as geniuses and others being completely forgotten, is something I find endlessly fascinating. I spend a lot of time looking for music on the brink of oblivion.

The internet is a great source of material and once you get a reputation as a pianist who is interested in unusual repertoire, the music starts finding you. People from my personal network regularly send me things and even complete strangers reach out to me with music that they think might be of some worth.

Over the years, I have unearthed a great number of pieces by composers that even the biggest music afficionados have never heard of – like a musical treasure hunt. I considered some of these hidden gems so valuable, that I wanted to make recordings of them. This has resulted in the Eclipse project.

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This DSD Bundle contains 3 albums from the Vancouver-based label Songlines Recordings. They specialise in producing modern and avant jazz that typically crosses musical borders, and these three albums are on par with that description. This DSD Bundle highlights some of the amazing piano music from the label.

Sweeter Than The Day [Pure DSD]

Cat. No. PWSGLSA15365
Wayne Horvitz, Piano
Timothy Young, Electric Guitar
Keith Lowe, Acoustic Bass
Andy Roth, Drums

Wayne Horvitz‘s sideline acoustic project Sweeter Than The Day, released in 2002, expresses the reflective side of pianist Horvitz’s temperament. Bittersweet, melodically distinctive Chamber Jazz, an evocative combination of Swing, Bop and Blues.

Stillpoint

Cat. No. SGLSA15402
Chris Gestrin – piano, synthesizers, sampler, electronics
Brad Turner – trumpet, flugelhorn, electronics
Jon Bentley – tenor & soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, electronics
André Lachance – double bass
Dylan van der Schyff – drums, percussion, electronics
Joseph ‘Pepe’ Danza – percussion (4)
Deanna Newton – voice (11)

Chris Gestrin is a Vancouver-based pianist, keyboardist and composer who might occasionally put you in mind of Bill Evans or Keith Jarrett, if either of those masters were young today and equally at home with the acoustic and the electronic, jazz and ambient. Stillpoint was his first release on Songlines Recordings, and it stands as perhaps his most personal statement as a jazz-and-beyond composer-performer.

Dreams and False Alarms

Cat. No. SGLSA15652
Andy Milne, piano

Dreams and False Alarms contains deeply considered re-workings of long-remembered pop, rock, folk, reggae classics (and three originals), reaffirming and expanding Milne’s creative process as a jazz improviser.

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The Audiophile Masters series from Octave Records is an extensive collection of recordings from various artists. These albums each contain something for every music lover that wants to stretch the sonic limits of their system. Every album was recorded in Pure DSD 64 to the best audiophile standards.

Octave Records was launched by PS Audio founder Paul McGowan and is designed to highlight state of the art audio with the top musicians and talent in the Boulder, Colorado area. They specialize in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound Pure DSD recordings.

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Click here for the DSD Bundle of Volumes I, II and III.

“Choppy and no legato”! This was Beethoven’s description of Mozart’s playing years after the latter’s death. The way we hear Mozart nowadays has become such a cliché, it’s virtually impossible to ever dream of Mozart today being played in the way Beethoven describes. Nor are we able to hear all his originality when it is always played the same, clichéd way. No one could ever be more qualified than Beethoven to make this call, therefore this is arguably the closest we will ever come to a ‘recording’ of Mozart’s playing. The sweet, pretty, right-handed (where everything in the left hand is nothing more than a mere accompaniment) playing, with all those competition fingers smoothly & effortlessly ironing out all Mozart’s eccentricities, has become the norm, where repeated phrases and whole sections are always played exactly the same way!

Recently listening to one of the greats of our time playing K284, I naturally found the playing wonderful, though unexpectedly observed myself admiring this much more than Mozart’s actual music. I think this sums up my basic philosophy about Mozart; his music today has become just a vehicle for beautiful, smooth piano/orchestral/instrumental playing, instead of Mozart’s music – with all it’s effervescent eccentricities, it’s joie de vivre, it’s extemporaneous, spontaneous qualities, plus its hiccuped, jolted and jerky dynamics (especially in the slow movements) – all being at the centre of what one listens to.

We know Mozart was arguably the greatest improviser in history, and this element should be glaringly obvious in the performance of his music. A score posted to the publisher on Monday may well have been quite different had he sent it the following Friday, so nothing about his music should ever be set in stone! To play a phrase or whole section twice exactly the same way is a cardinal sin, and in my view, the music momentarily stagnates; it ceases to move forward when this happens.

In this cycle of the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas, I have – in some small way – tried to strip back all the Botox, the lip gloss, the false eyelashes, the mascara and makeup, and – though admittedly on a modern Steinway – get back to Mozart in the raw!

Gil Sullivan, Piano

The post Hidden Voices: Mozart Piano Sonatas: Volumes IV, V & VI [Pure DSD] [DSD Bundle] appeared first on NativeDSD Music.

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. A child prodigy, he began performing and composing at the age of seven. He studied in Vienna and Leipzig, and held teaching positions in Helsinki, Moscow, and the United States. Busoni was a highly influential figure in the world of classical music. He was a brilliant pianist and conductor, and his compositions were innovative and forward-thinking. His most famous works include the opera Doktor Faust and the piano piece Indian Fantasy. Busoni was also a passionate advocate for contemporary music. He conducted many concerts of new music, and he wrote extensively about the future of music. His writings on music theory and aesthetics are still studied today.

Supreme Art of Counterpoint and bold Innovation
The artist here deliberately avoided pure transcription, the form for which he was unfortunately far better known than the composer Busoni. His unique musical personality shaped a kind of contemplation and rediscovery of the aspects of Bach’s work.

Musical Landscapes and Avant-Garde Visions
Busoni’s literary education and keen intellect allowed him to write the text of his operas himself, to correspond with the greatest figures of his time, and to publish some essential works, of which the most significant is the Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst (Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music) (1907), in which he describes pioneering intuitions, such as the dodecaphonic system, microtonality, and new notation systems, and even makes predictions about electronic music.

Tra Mistico e Occulto
The revolutionary treatise by Busoni which caused quite a stir in the European music scene of that era, is dedicated to the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, a “musician of words,” from whose works the composer drew both the title and the character of the Elegies. Romanticism had already signaled a return to ancient mystical ideas, and with the turn of the century, a period laden with decadent expressions and tragic premonitions, mysticism found fervent advocates such as M. Maeterlinck, P. Claudel, and, in the German-speaking world, R. M. Rilke. Sartre wrote, “…the West was suffocating… Since it had no visible enemies, the bourgeoisie began to feast on the fear of its own shadow… there was talk of spiritualism and ectoplasms, the hereafter seemed so near…”

Transformations and Transfigurations
His impressive virtuosity never seemed imposing, and his avant-garde and highly original musical vision became legendary.
Beloved by audiences since his youth, he often baffled critics. His later compositions in particular rank among the most important and brilliant of his time: his works for piano and especially those for orchestra and opera influenced an entire generation of musicians. He vehemently advocated for the performance and publication of works and critical essays of then-contemporary music. Arnold Schoenberg, for example, who succeeded him as teacher of the composition class at the Berlin Academy of Music, found great support in his work through Busoni.

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Octave Records proudly offers The Art of HiFi series. Each recording in this series showcases a different aspect of high-quality audio reproduction. All recordings are carefully crafted collections – all done at Octave Studios in Boulder, Colorado. CEO Paul McGowan was the recording and mixing engineer and captured all 6 albums in Pure DSD 256 Stereo. 

All recordings are carefully crafted collections. Recorded at Octave Studios in Boulder, Colorado. PS Audio and Octave Records CEO Paul McGowan was the recording and mixing engineer on each album. Mastering was done by DSD Pioneer Gus Skinas from the Super Audio Center. Recording all 6 albums in Pure DSD 256 Stereo.

Octave Records was launched by PS Audio founder Paul McGowan and is designed to highlight state of the art DSD audio with the top musicians and talent in the Boulder, Colorado area. They also specialize in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound Pure DSD recordings.

Because of Octave Records’ uncompromising performance standards, it is not possible to use off-the-shelf-recording, mixing, and mastering equipment. They had to build their own from the ground up.

A word from Paul McGowan: “Native DSD has been one of our favorites since the beginning of Octave Records. Their unwavering support for DSD is an inspiration to anyone who truly loves the purity and emotional connection that only DSD can offer.”

The Art of HiFi bundle includes 6 albums:

• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 1: Bass
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 2: Soundstage
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 3: Percussion
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 4: Strings
• The Art of Hi-Fi Vol. 5: Woodwinds
• The Art Of HiFi Vol. 6: Guitars

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This DSD Bundle contains 4 albums from the Vancouver-based label Songlines Recordings. They specialise in producing modern and avant jazz that typically crosses musical borders, and these four albums are on par with that description.

Ditty Blei [Pure DSD]

Cat. No. SGLSA15472
Hilmar Jensson, Electric & Acoustic guitar
Jim Black, Drums
Andrew D’Angelo, Alto Sax & Bass Clarinet
Trevor Dunn, Double Bass
Herb Robertson, Trumpet

An acoustic quintet of hand-picked players from the downtown New York scene gives Jensson’s challenging compositions a rhythmic flair and melodic/harmonic interest.

The V16 Project

Cat. No. SGLSA15442
Jerry Granelli – electro-acoustic percussion
David Tronzo – acoustic & electric guitars
Christian Kögel – acoustic & electric guitars
Anthony Cox – bass

The V16 Project was Jerry Granelli’s core group of the 2000s. It featured a two-guitar frontline and diverse approach – jazz improvisation, blues-rock-funk fusion, freeform jamming, sampled soundscapes and more – making it equally at home in jazz and avant-rock contexts.

Alleviation

Cat. No. SGL16232
Mikkel Ploug, Acoustic Guitar

Solo jazz guitar records are not that common, solo acoustic guitar records perhaps even less so outside of the classical and folk/world traditions. But Mikkel Ploug (co-leader and main composer of the avant chamber jazz trio Equilibrium, with three releases on Songlines) is a Jazz Guitarist with interests in Folk, World and Classical Music.

Speak To It (Remastered) – transferred from analog tape

Cat. No. SGL25142
Andrew D’Angelo, alto sax, bass clarinet
Chris Speed, tenor sax, clarinet
Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar
Jim Black, drums
Holly Palmer, voice (6)

Originally released in 1996, the fourth recording by the then Brooklyn-based collective Human Feel ranges across jazz, improv, and contemporary classical/new music, with a passing nod to the traditions of eastern Europe. As composers, Black, Speed and D’Angelo provide different frameworks for the band’s characteristic, often tensile explorations, heard as well in their atmospheric rendition of the Billie Holiday standard “Left Alone” where they’re joined by vocalist Holly Palmer.

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Ivan Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra have recorded nearly the entirety of Mahler‘s symphonies, excluding Symphony No. 8. With this DSD Bundle you can explore them in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound DSD at a special price.

In 1983 Mr. Fischer founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra. With this ensemble, of which he is still chief conductor, he introduced many innovations, such as the famous ‘Cocoa Concerts’ for young children, the ‘Midnight Music’ concerts for young audiences, surprise concerts without any announced programs, and several education and outreach projects including a tour of former synagogues.

In the past Iván Fischer was Music Director at Kent Opera, Opéra National de Lyon, Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, and chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, which named him honorary conductor.

He is active as a composer and as opera director for his Iván Fischer Opera Company. He is also the founder of several festivals, including the Vicenza Opera Festival.

His critically acclaimed Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound DSD recordings for Channel Classics received many prizes. Iván Fischer received the prestigious Kossuth Prize, the Ovation Prize, and the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for his support of international cultural exchange. He was named Chevalier des Arts et des Letters and made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Ivan Fischer, Conductor
Budapest Festival Orchestra

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The latest album Bruckner: Piano Works marks Mari Kodama‘s third solo piano release in the last two years. We thought we would make it convenient for you to explore her recent solo piano albums with Mari Kodama Solo Piano, a new DSD Bundle.

Bruckner: Piano Works
Mari Kodama celebrates the Bruckner bicentenary year with a collection of piano works, most of which are rarely heard. While some of them, such as the Fantasie, Erinnerung and Stille Betrachtung, reveal the serious symphonist and church composer, the many dances included on this album illuminate a lighter side of the composer.

New Paths
This album explores the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The album derives its title from Robert Schumann’s famous essay “Neue Bahnen”, in which he heralded the young Brahms as the most eminent musical voice of the future.

Kaleidoscope – Beethoven Transcriptions
Mari Kodama records a programme consisting of Beethoven string quartets transcribed for piano by Saint-Saëns, Mussorgsky and Balakirev, as well as Beethoven’s variations on the finale of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. Most pieces are recorded for the first time. Kaleidoscope is designed as a homage, considering and experiencing Beethoven through the lens of other great composers.

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With his innate musicianship, charismatic energy, gift for communication, and irresistibly joyous spirit, Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare is “electrifying in front of an orchestra” (Los Angeles Times). The 2024-25 season marks his third as Music Director of Canada’s Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and his sixth as Music Director of California’s San Diego Symphony.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg, and Rafael Payare, a passionate advocate for that composer’s music, serves on the Artistic Honorary Committee of Schoenberg 150, dedicated to the worldwide celebration of the occasion. An all-Schoenberg album that includes Pelleas und Melisande and Verklärte Nacht is due for release in October. It marks Payare and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s third on Pentatone, which means it’s a great time for a DSD Bundle and the opportunity to explore Payare’s releases at a special price.

Mahler: Symphony No. 5
For Payare, the Fifth is the last symphony that shows Mahler still looking forward to what the future might bring, unlike his subsequent, much darker and existential works. Despite that optimism, there is enough tragedy and struggle along the way, resonating with Mahler’s life at the time of creation. Payare’s proficiency in late-Romantic repertoire coupled with the matured, distinctive sound of the Montréal players make this a collaboration to look out for. NativeDSD Senior Reviewer Bill Dodd calls the album “An Outstanding Mahler 5th!”

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben – Mahler: Ruckert-Lieder
The pairing of works may seem odd at first, with Strauss at his most exuberant and Mahler at his most introspective. They share, however, a deeply personal and autobiographical approach by two giants of fin-de-siècle music coming to terms with the world they lived in and their place in it.

Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande & Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night)
The pairing of works may seem odd at first, with Strauss at his most exuberant and Mahler at his most introspective. They share, however, a deeply personal and autobiographical approach by two giants of fin-de-siècle music coming to terms with the world they lived in and their place in it.

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