Friends Talk is an album from the Jazz group ArpiShow on the Hunnia label. ArpiShow is a Jazz Swing orchestra founded in 2017 by clarinet-saxophone artist Árpád Dennert with the aim of providing the kind of easily accessible, yet artistically high-quality performance of traditional Jazz and Swing music which he loves, and which is popular with the audience. The group’s motto is “Pure Swing, Nothing Else!”

This is a Live to Stereo Pure DSD 256 Recording that is exclusively available from NativeDSD Music in Pure DSD.  In addition to the recorded DSD 256 bit rate, the other DSD bit rates have been created in the DSD Domain using the Signalyst HQ Player 4 Pro mastering tools by Tom Caulfield at the NativeDSD Mastering Lab.

Friends Talk features the title track written by Arpad Dennert along with a number of classics from the American Songbook. The selections include Them There Eyes, Young At Heart (made famous by Frank Sinatra), Makin’ Whoopee, I’ve Found A New Baby, Shine, Goodnight My Love and The Pink Panther Theme written by Henry Mancini.

ArpiShow
Arpad Dennert – Clarinet, Saxophone
Eszter Lukács – Vocals
Iván Nagy – Piano
Márton Soós – Double Bass
Balázs Cseh – Drums
Attila Korb – Guitar, Trumpet

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The Jewish culture is interwoven with that of the country of adoption. This music is also a way to interpret the collective imagery of the Jewish people. A way to become acquainted with the history of a group through its artistic creations.

The songs on this album are liturgical, religious, celebrative, or linked to special occasions. They bring together elements from diverse styles and traditions – the Mediterranean (North Africa, Yemen, and the Middle East), Italy, the Sephardic area (in Ladino) and the Ashkenazic area.

Miriam Meghnagi is a composer, musician, scholar, writer, and interpreter of the Jewish musical tradition. She is an attentive and critical connoisseur of the Jewish and Mediterranean musical heritage. She composes traditional songs and writes new interpretations, drawing on both the Yiddish repertoire and the Sephardic repertoire. She sings in Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, Italian, Judaism, Bagitto, and other languages.

Miriam Meghnagi – Vocals
Domenico Ascione – Guitar

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Reference Recordings proudly presents Symphony No. 4 of Johannes Brahms, with James MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra, in exceptional performances from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. We are excited that this release coincides with the orchestra’s 2021-2022 season and triumphant return to live concerts! These works were recorded live in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall, now celebrating its 50th Anniversary season.

Maestro Honeck honors us again with his meticulous music notes, in which he gives us great insight into his unique interpretation as well as the history and musical structure of Brahms’s final and beloved tragic symphony. James MacMillan is the preeminent Scottish composer of his generation. His Larghetto for Orchestra was commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in honor of the tenth anniversary of Manfred Honeck as Music Director. It had its world premiere performance in October 2017. This album contains the world premiere recording. The composer generously includes his own album notes about this solemn and repentant, but hopeful work.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 125 years, is credited with a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians, and is deeply committed to Pittsburgh and its region. Since 2008, the Pittsburgh Symphony has been led by worldwide acclaimed Music Director Manfred Honeck. Past music directors have included many of the greats, including Fritz Reiner, William Steinberg, André Previn, Lorin Maazel, and Mariss Jansons.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has always been at the forefront of championing new works, including recent commissions by Mason Bates, Jonathan Leshnoff, James MacMillan, and Julia Wolfe. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and live radio broadcasts dating back to the 1930s. It has toured frequently both domestically and overseas since 1900—including more than 40 international tours. The Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Manfred Honeck, Music Director

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Made almost three decades after the composer’s own iconic recording with the Orchestra, Alsop’s new version was captured during celebratory concerts marking Bernstein’s centenary year, and features an outstanding array of soloists, including Leonardo Capalbo (Candide), Jane Archibald (Cunégonde), Anne Sofie von Otter (The Old Lady) and Sir Thomas Allen (Dr Pangloss, Narrator).

With lyrical contributions from acerbic writers Richard Wilbur, John Latouche, Lillian Hellman, and a young Stephen Sondheim, ‘Candide’ marries raucous humor with the extraordinary genius of Leonard Bernstein.

Leonardo Capalbo – Candide
Jane Archibald – Cunégonde
Anne Sofie von Otter – The Old Lady
Sir Thomas Allen – Dr. Pangloss, Narrator
Thomas Atkins – Soloist
Marcus Farnsworth – Soloist
London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Chorus
Guildhall School Young Artists
Marin Alsop, Conductor

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Shaping Chopin is pianist Anna Fedorova‘s 6th appearance at Native DSD Music on the Channel Classics label.

The album features the music of Chopin that made her feel less lonely in 2020 and will hopefully bring some consolidation and joy to you as well. The album’s cover art was created by Marcelle Schoenmaker during a live concert.

This is a Pure DSD 256 Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound release, exclusively available in Pure DSD at NativeDSD. This album was recorded, mixed, and balanced in Stereo & Multichannel DSD 256 using Brüel & Kjær 4006 and Schoeps microphones, 3T Van den Hul cables, Rens Heijnis custom mixing board, Grimm Audio LS1 speakers and Pyramix Workstation software and the Horus Analog to Digital Converter from Merging Technologies at DSD 256. No post-production has been done. Shaping Chopin stayed within the DSD domain throughout.

Anna Fedorova is Artist in Residence at the Haarlem Philharmonie in the Netherlands and will be presenting Shaping Chopin in a Solo Recital on September 3, 2021.

She tells us “Chopin’s music had an important place in my life from early childhood and I worked extensively on various pieces with my parents, who were my teachers at that time in Kiev. While we were separated for a long time, I felt closer to them through his music. Practicing certain waltzes or nocturnes seemed to transport me in time and space and reflected the current mood with their dreaminess and melancholy.

When the opportunity to record a new album spontaneously arose, I immediately thought about the music of Chopin. I selected various Waltzes, Nocturnes and Mazurkas, and added the Fantaisie Impromptu, as they cover a wide spectrum of emotions, moods, and colors. It’s incredible how Chopin can express himself so intensively and so deeply in a piece which lasts just a few minutes. He always manages to create a captivating atmosphere and a unique dreamworld. While performing Chopin’s miniatures it feels like diving into a living painting, artistically shaping its unique story, colors, and characters with music.”

Anna Fedorova – Piano

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Exclusively available in Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound DSD 256, DSD 128 and DXD plus Stereo DSD 512 & Stereo DSD 1024 at NativeDSD

Patricia Barber, the singer known for boldly blurring the lines between Poetry, Jazz, and Song, has released Clique! a new all-standards album in breathtaking Stereo and 5.1 Channel Surround Sound DSD and DXD.

The long-awaited successor to Nightclub, her critically acclaimed and fan-favorite first all standards album, Clique! features a track list of tunes that Barber has frequently performed as encores throughout her illustrious career, including classics by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stevie Wonder, Lee Hazlewood, Lerner & Loewe, Thelonious Monk and more. Each track renders every inflection of Barber’s voice with astounding presence and clarity, perfectly complementing her nuance in ways that continue to redefine the standards of sound.

After growing an international cult following, earning the first-ever Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to a non-classical songwriter, and becoming an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Patricia Barber is back with a “silk, velvet, languid, warm” journey through music history as she “respects traditions, bends them to make her own points, and freshens them into something new,” as noted in the album liner notes by NPR’s Susan Stamberg.

These are relaxed, communal sessions. Her long-time core duo of bassist Patrick Mulcahy and drummer Jon Deitemyer ride up and down, in and out of Barber’s complex, sensitive playing and reflective singing. The support of her long-term players, along with guitarist Neal Alger and saxophonist Jim Gailloretto allow her to shine brightly while digging out striking moments for their own unique contributions. The chemistry is palpable, all-encompassing. This group’s long-developed synergy—painstakingly curated by these musicians for years—provides both a metaphor and the perfect title for her new album.

Clique! was produced by Patricia Barber and Jim Anderson and recorded at Chicago Recording Company’s Studio 5 by Grammy-winning Recording Engineer and Producer Jim Anderson in Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound DXD. The album was mixed by Anderson at Skywalker Sound and mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering. The album’s Technical Producer is Ulrike Schwarz at Anderson Audio New York. The recording was made using a Horus Analog to Digital Converter with Merging + Clock U in DXD (352.8 kHz) and Pyramix Workstation software, all from Merging Technologies.

Patricia Barber says “The harmonic language of Jazz, as well as that of The Great American Songbook, is certainly rich. Look how much has come of out of it. But it’s circumscribed. I started wanting to hear something else.” 

Co Producer Jim Anderson writes “To Patricia Barber fans, One of Patricia Barber’s talents loved by her audience has been not only her compositions and piano playing, but her reinterpretation of well-known standard tunes. In her new release Clique! Patricia reimagines eight classic tunes with her working trio and a couple of her favorite soloists. It is available in Stereo and 5.1 high definition DSD & DXD Surround Sound audio. Enjoy!”

Note: Stereo DSD 1024 playback requires the use of Signalyst HQ Player 4 software and a DSD 1024 capable DAC from Denafrips, Holo Audio, Matrix, Musician or T+A.

Patricia Barber – Piano and Vocals
Patrick Mulcahy – Acoustic Bass
Jon Deitemyer – Drums
Neal Alger – Guitar
Jim Gailloreto – Saxophone

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2021 NativeDSD Album of the Year Award – Classical Guitar

On Take Me Along (Ta’ Mig Med), guitarist Jesper Sivebæk plays the music of rock musician Kim Larsen on Classical Guitar. Kim Larsen – the much-loved Danish rock musician and multi-artist – captured – in music and words – the Danish soul. With 500 recorded songs and 40 albums he was known by Danes of all ages.

Jesper Sivebæk, Guitarist, and head of guitar department at The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, had two heroes in his youth: Andrés Segovia and Kim Larsen – and they have followed him ever since.

For more than 10 years Jesper Sivebæk has worked on the pieces on this album. With his vast experience he uses the possibilities of the guitar to the utmost and follows the classical tradition of making instrumental versions of folk songs – like in Miguel Llobet’s arrangements of Catalan folksongs, in Benjamin Britten’s English and Chinese folksongs arrangements, and in Bela Bartok’s Hungarian folk songs. Sivebæk is true both to the beauty and the simplicity of Kim Larsen’s songs, and to his instrument – the classical Spanish guitar. In these arrangements, classical guitar players around the globe now have 12 new pieces to discover and put on their concert programs.

Erik Jensen, journalist, and former musical editor at Politiken wrote:
“Kim Larsen was unrivalled at taking the big moments and feelings of existence and converting them into music and lyrics in a playful, direct language that Danes loved. In his songs we were able to mirror ourselves and be precisely the Danes we wanted to be free and brazen, willful, and provocative, but also poetic and elegant, sensitive, and standing shoulder to shoulder with those struggling in society.

It is also striking that because the Danes’ favorite artist had so many roles and forms of expression, people in Denmark often underestimate his most important capacity: that of a composer. Thanks to Sivebæk’s fine versions of some of the melodies, they can now stand beautifully and pure in their own right – without being ‘packaged’ in all the commotion and mythology that surrounded Kim Larsen.”

Jesper Sivebæk – Guitar

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The Exclusive NativeDSD Edition of Empty Triangles features a flat transfer of the instrumental self-titled debut album from the Original Analog Master Tape.  All the DSD Bit Rates have been created in the DSD Domain by NativeDSD Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield using the Signalyst HQ Player 4 Pro mastering tools.

Audio Define says “The result of this DSD release is drastically different from the digital release of the album available on streaming services and other digital stores. This edition is a NativeDSD Exclusive.” 

Empty Triangles

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The follow-up album Empty Triangles 2.0 (2021) can be found here.

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Producer and Recording Engineer Gonzalo Noque says: “We can unashamedly say it is a reference recording of this iconic work!”

NativeDSD Music Technical Advisor Brian Moura says: “This is one of the most realistic recordings of a pianist that I have ever heard.”

The most important Catalan Classical piano work, Frederic Mompou’s Música Callada is performed by the most eminent Catalan pianist of our time, Josep Colom on a 1957 Model D Steinway & Sons piano.

Mompou’s Música Callada is a special, elusive work of the piano repertoire. Their pieces speak with a minimalist simplicity; as Mompou himself stated: “Its mission is to reach the profound depths of our soul and the hidden domains of the vital force our spirits. This music is silent as if heard from within.” The title refers to a poem by the Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross, who also wrote the “Cantar del alma”, the poem which Mompou set to music, and which closes this recording with Soprano Cecillia Lavilla Berganza and pianist Josep Colom.

This is a Pure DSD 256 Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound release – recorded in Stereo and 5 Channel DSD 256 by Gonzalo Noque of Eudora Records.

Noque made the album with Sonodore, Neumann U89 & Schoeps microphones and the Horus Analog to DSD 256 Converter and Microphone Preamp from Merging Technologies.

Monitoring was done with Sennheiser headphones and Dutch and Dutch 8c studio monitor loudspeakers.

The other DSD bit rates (DSD 512, DSD 128, DSD 64) were created in the DSD Domain by NativeDSD Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield using the Signalyst HQ Player 4 Pro mastering software with no DXD processing.

Josep Colom – Piano
Cecillia Lavilla Berganza – Soprano (on Cantar del Alma)

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On Amulet, Berner and Moore selected a number of their favorite songs plus a few original compositions. They brought them to the studio where they were recorded in Stereo DXD with just One Microphone – a Josephson Engineering C700S using the Horus Analog to Digital Converter from Merging Technologies.

Chemistry between musicians is a magical thing. Michael Moore and Paul Berner have that kind of magic. When they play, the music seems to flow in a natural unhindered stream, each note being an obvious continuation of what was played before. It was a thrill to be in the producer’s seat at this session, witnessing these two masters going about their craft. How they would feed each other and pass the ball at just the right moment. Observing how they would shape a song into a whole by polishing, simplifying, or embellishing where needed, yet all the time being aware of the freshness and immediacy of creating in the moment.

The album starts out with I Never Knew, written by Gus Kahn and Ted FioRito in 1925, ends with You’ll Never Walk Alone from 1945 and along the way includes Night Ride Home, a late 1980’s Joni Mitchell song, as well as Emptier and Amulet, two recently composed Michael Moore originals. That’s almost 100 years of song writing right there, yet it all sounds as if each song was composed especially for the Amulet album.

Frans explains how the Josephson C700S works to Michael and Paul

“Since Bach’s time it has been clear that two voices are all you need for functional harmony to be heard. This recording is a dialogue between Paul and myself – we collected a number of our favorite  songs and a few originals with the only concept being we wanted to play them simply. Actually I have been wanting to do something like this since I heard the great New Orleans clarinetist Louis Cottrell’s Riverside recording ‘Bourbon Street’. That recording is pure joy! There’s several recordings of saxophone/bass duets and trios with drums, such as Sonny Rollins at the Village Vanguard, but clarinet/bass duos in jazz seem to be very rare. I’d especially like to thank Frans de Rond and Peter Bjørnild – they were a joy to work with. The simplicity of just one microphone in front of us and the relaxed atmosphere in the studio, helped create this very close intimate recording, so perfect for this music.”
Michael Moore

“I’ve loved Micheal’s unique voice, especially on clarinet, since I first heard him. Happily and quietly, he and I have been working together for years, collaborating on projects of his and mine. This is our magical Corona-era AMULET: our good luck charm to keep us artistically safe and thriving through this difficult period. Heartfelt melodies played simply and honestly.”
Paul Berner

Michael: Your blurb is much more loving, of course, but ya gotta spell my name right, okay?
Paul: Oops, sorry about that! Mine is simply a PR blurb. Yours is more informative but less gushy…
M: Yours is a love letter, mine is pretentious.
P: Yours is descriptive, aimed at the jazz listener. Mine is emotive, aimed at the general audience.
M: Perhaps we should include this conversation as well!
P: Like you were reading my mind.

Michael Moore – Clarinet
Paul Berner – Double Bass

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