Xiaowen Shang’s debut album is a delightful program featuring a number of individual selections from Federico Mompou’s Musica Callada, interspersed with some of Antonio Soler’s eighteenth-century sonatas, and piano transcriptions of the sixteenth-century sacred composer Antonio de Cabézon- 3 centuries of Spanish music that she brings together flawlessly. She plays with crystal clarity, yet never […]
I don’t often listen to suites from Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballets. Over the many years I was a mainstream commercial broadcaster I overdosed on those parts of The Nutcracker that are ubiquitous at Christmas time. But I recently decided to put on the complete ballet and it turned out to be a wonderful discovery. Discovery #1 […]
It was a dark, drippy morning. Cable news was telling me that things were massively embarrassing, nonsensical, and other-worldly. Let’s face it. It was not the best of mornings. But on that morning, I decided to give a complete listen to a recent DSD discovery: Ludwig August LeBrun (1752-1790) was something of a musical superstar […]
Isn’t Bach amazing? So much music! So much precision! Truly Bach was a landmark composer. Knowing that, I was still not prepared for the ethereal beauty of Peter Dijkstra leading the Netherlands Chamber Choir in six Bach Motets. If you find Bach a bit on the mathematical, straight-laced side, you will be equally surprised by […]
Some things you just can’t get away from. Over the years I’ve acquired a rather silly number of recordings of Mussorgsky’s Night On A Bare Mountain (orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov) and Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestrated by Ravel). They get included with other works a lot. And I do mean a lot! Then there’s Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. […]
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 […]
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 […]