Sensible Sound articles from January 2004

Sensible Sound archives from January 2004

Ramblings.
January 1, 2004... This issue is dedicated in loving memory to Pooch (Summer 1985-November 15, 2003). She was a mighty hunter, a faithful friend, and a sweet, sweet dog who died in my arms yet lives in my heart. Welcome to Issue 98 (Go, Parnelli, go!), which...

Subwooferation deliberation.(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... It's no wonder that DAR finds subwoofers to be as much a problem as an aid in a music system. Crossovers are never textbook in the better speakers and that is the best they can be in a subwoofer and main speaker that were not designed to work...

A silent minority?(Forum)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... Issue 94, p. 74: The reviewer does not have SACD? #*@!! I have Rossini Overtures (Pentatone PTC 5186106) and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (PTC 518607). I know the reviewer had to be kind to Pentatone for free samples, but my copies from vinyl...

Surveying the soundscape.
January 1, 2004... Scissors and Paper--Rockin'!: Although the subject at hand is the new Mobius speaker system from Artistic Audio (www.artisticaudio.com), I'm going to start by guiding you through a hands-on topological experience suggested by the name that the...

Work in progress.(Skeptimania)
January 1, 2004... It has been a while since I last did a Skeptimania column. The reason is that I have been doing a LOT of work on home improvements. The entire house is being refurbished (I have told people that we are essentially building a new house...

Canton ergo RC-A loudspeakers.(Components)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Manufacturer: Canton Electronics Corporation, 1723 Adams Street N.E. Minneapolis, MN 55413; 612/706-9250; www.cantonusa.com Price: $5,000/pair Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: David R. Moran You know much of this story,...

Godar FM-1A indoor FM antenna.(Components)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Manufacturer: Godar Electronics, 339 N. Gilbert Rd., Gilbert, AZ 85234; 480/892-2807 List Price: $59.95 Source: Reviewer Purchase Reviewer: Thom Moon For the past six years, I've been using a Terk Pi antenna as the primary...

Rane THX 44 3.1-channel equalizer.(Components)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Manufacturer: Rane Corporation, 10802 47th Ave. W., Mukilteo, WA 98275-5098; 425-355-6000; www.rane.com Price: $1,099 Source: Manufacturer loan Reviewer: Howard Ferstler Back in issue 83, I reviewed two very interesting and...

Sound Lab Dynastat loudspeakers.(Components)(Product/Service Evaluation)
January 1, 2004... Manufacturer: Sound Lab, P.O. Box 981508, Park City, UT 84098; 435/658-1341; www.soundlab-speakers.com, info@soundlab-speakers.com Price: $3,870 Source: Reviewer purchase Reviewer: Tom Lyle The opportunity to audition a pair...

VPI HW-16.5 record cleaning machine.(Components)
January 1, 2004... Manufacturer: VPI Industries, 77 Cliffwood Ave. #3B, Cliffwood, NJ 07721; 732/583-6895; www.vpiindustries.com. Price: $485 Source: Reviewer purchase Reviewer: Kevin East As I pondered the implications of archiving some...

The $ensible choice list: speakers and subwoofers.(Staff Picks)(Buyers Guide)
January 1, 2004... Speakers are where it's at when it comes to audio, recordings (not to mention the performers, of course!) are where it's at when it comes to music, and we just hope the rest of our gear stuff pretty much stays out of the way, which it pretty...

Accentus: Transcriptions.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Accentus Chamber Choir/Laurence Equilbey (Naive V 4947) This recording seems destined to become one of those "who'da thunk it?" classical cult best-sellers along the lines of the Nonesuch Gorecki Third Symphony. Like shrewd popular-music...

Art Ensemble of Chicago: Tribute to Lester.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (ECM 1808 B0000966-02) No, this is not a tribute to Lester Young, as those unfamiliar with the Art Ensemble of Chicago might guess from the title; it is rather a tribute to the late Lester Bowie, the Art Ensemble's longtime trumpeter. The...

Bach: the Art of Fugue.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Fretwork (Harmonia Mundi USA HMU 907296) Bach's The Art of Fugue is a piece that should be found in every music lover's CD collection in multiple versions. Just yesterday at work I listened to a version for two harpsichords, while a few...

Barati: Symphony No. 1; Chant of Darkness *; Chant of Light.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Budapest Symphony Orchestra/Laszlo Kovaks; * Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Valek (Naxos 8.559063) Hungarian-born composer George Barati (1913-1986) spent the majority of his life in the United States; this CD appears in Naxos's...

Beethoven: the Late String Quartets.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Emerson String Quartet (Deutsche Grammophon 474 341-2) I have probably told this story before in these pages; if you have heard it before, or if you don't really care, please feel free to skip directly to the next paragraph, where I will...

Dave Holland Quintet: Extended Play: Live at Birdland.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (ECM 1864/65 B0000967-02) Bassist Dave Holland has made some really outstanding studio recordings with his Quintet over the past few years, and now they have officially documented their live sound with this two-CD set on ECM. The interplay...

Kim Kashkashian: Hayren (Music of Tigran Mansurian and Komitas).(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (ECM New Series 1754 B0000213-02) This is not a recording that I would recommend to everyone; however, the more musically adventurous among our readership may well want to give this CD a listen. Kim Kashkashian is a violist, and violists...

Lonesome, On'ry, and Mean: a Tribute to Waylon Jennings.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Dualtone 803020-01137-2) I am writing this particular review the day after learning of the death of Johnny Cash, whom we lost to complications from diabetes, just like we lost Waylon not all that long ago. How sad it is to have these two...

Pat Metheny: One Quiet Night.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Warner Bros. 48473-2) After the disappointing Pat Metheny Group recording Speaking of Now, on which it seemed the gifted guitarist had simply run out of gas, it is quite heartening to hear how rejuvenated he sounds on this solo outing, on...

Mozart: the Late Symphonies Nos. 25, 29, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, and 41.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Leonard Bernstein (DG 474 349-2) The DG Trio series has made some wonderful recordings available at low prices; it's nice to see a major label with major artists finally doing something to compete with Naxos....

Christopher O'Riley: True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Odyssey SK 87321) There's a bit of history behind this review. Several years ago I had recently picked up Brad Mehldau's Songs recording. One day I put it on while I was in the car; two of my then-teenaged daughters perked up immediately...

Art Pepper: Landscape--Art Pepper Live in Tokyo '79.(Landscape- - Art Pepper Live in Tokyo '79)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (JVC VICJ-61035) The latest incarnation of JVC's XRCD process is now called "XRCD24." This time around their engineers have turned their attention to a live recording by the late saxophonist Art Pepper, whose musical talent and drug...

Rochberg: Symphony No. 5; Black Sounds; Transcendental Variations.(Sympphony No. 5; Black Sounds; Transcendental Variations)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra/Christopher Lyndon-Gee (Naxos 8.559115) I first became acquainted with the music of the American composer George Rochberg (b. 1918) about the time I became acquainted with this magazine, about 25 years...

Rorem: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, & 3.(Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, and 3)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Jose Serebrier (Naxos 8.559149) How can music as good as this have been overlooked for so long? Two of the three symphonies on this CD are world premier recordings. Ned Rorem (b. 1923) may not be a household...

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Lili Boulanger: Du fond de l'abime (Psalm 130); Psalms 24 & 129; Vieille Priere bouddhique The Monteverdi Choir/London Symphony Orchestra/John Eliot Gardiner (Deutsche Grammophon 289 463 789-2) Alas, this fine CD got lost in the chaos that...

Gianluigi Trovesi Ottetto: Fugace.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (ECM 1827 B0000849-02) Remember when Italian films were all the rage? This new release from ECM may well make some listeners recall those days. Indeed, some of the music on Fugace sounds like music Fellini would have used in his sound...

Yo La Tengo: Summer Sun.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Matador Ole 548-2) How sad it is to be writing of the perfect summer album as fall begins to turn the green leaves yellow, red, and gold; sadder still it is to realize that by the time this review is published, winter will be here and the...

Double double.
January 1, 2004... Long-time readers know that Tom Lyle and Ye Grumpy Olde Editor are big Mahler fans, and that we have often compared recordings of Mahler symphonies in this column. Long-time readers also know that Tom Lyle and Ye Grumpy Olde Editor are lazy,...

Libertines, Up The Bracket.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Rough Trade) Produced by ex-Clash Mick Jones, Up The Bracket bristles with precocious licks, some well-crafted melodies, a larder full of La's attitude, and just enough bare bones originality to be intriguing. The songs are time-honored...

The Stratford 4, Love & Distortion.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Jetset) The post-Smashing Pumpkins school of melodic rock has spawned a host of admirers, not least among which of the more skilled are The Stratford 4. Love & Distortion is chock full of both, the lyrics concentrated, if not precise,...

The White Stripes, Elephant.(Elephant)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (V2 Music) Ex-spouses Jack and Meg White--yes, they had me fooled, too, with their "brother and sister" act--still perform as a duet, guitar and drums. But on Elephant, their fourth full-length disc, Jack has taken a tentative step toward...

The Jayhawks, Rainy Day Music.(Rainy Day Music)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (American) Rainy Day Music is hands-down the best album I've heard in 2003. Gary Louris has rediscovered the vocal stylings fashioned on Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman's with The Flying Burrito Brothers and the classic high harmonies of...

Ringo Starr, Ringorama.(Ringorama)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Koch) When Ringo's first solo album, Beaucoups of Blues, hit the stands, there was a collective holding of breath. Generally considered the least of the Beatles' four musical talents, one wondered what Ringo could possible pull off on his...

Darden Smith, Sunflower.(Sunflower)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Dualtone) My buddy, Tarheel Charlie, is fond of pointing out the character flaws that often impede, and sometimes prevent, individuals from achieving otherwise worthy objectives, sometimes the peak of their potential. One "has to be the...

Jewel, 0304.(0304)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Atlantic) Just when we thought Jewel Kilcher had turned the corner from folksy chanteuse to mature singer/ songwriter, along comes 0304, erasing all one's preconceptions, indeed the career planning that critics think they're so good at,...

Rosanne Cash, Rules of Travel.(Rules of Travel)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Capitol) The progeny of one of the grand families of American music, Rosanne Cash's career has traveled from the Nashville version of power pop to personal tragedy to an acknowledgment of her place in the circle. Having finally conquered...

Lucinda Williams, World Without Tears.(World Without Tears)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Lost Highway) After Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and the underestimated Essence, Lucinda Williams hasn't lost any of the lonely roadweariness that characterizes her writing. World Without Tears pillories the vagrants that rotate through...

Joan Osborne, How Sweet It Is.(How Sweet It Is)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Woman Hips/ Compendia) Hot on her smoldering performances in Standing in the Shadows of Motown (see DVD review below), Joan Osborne surprises with this infinitely accessible disc of mostly Motown covers. From the Spinners' opening tune to...

Steely Dan, Everything Must Go.(Everything Must Go)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Reprise) The cruel version of this review reads: "Including this disc." Folks, the Dan are stuck in Gaucho-land. The melodies and tunes are safe, predictable, and pretty much fail to ignite one's imagination or booty, like the Dan of...

John Hiatt and the Goners, Beneath This Gruff Exterior.(Beneath This Gruff Exterior)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (New*West) The Goners of course are Sony Landreth's band, with David Ranson on bass and Kenneth Blevins on drums, the same band that astonished with Slow Turning lo so many years past. And beneath Hiatt's gruff exterior there's, well, an...

John Mellencamp, "Trouble No More".(Trouble No More )(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Columbia) 'Tis the season for covers apparently, and Mellencamp's joined the parade with this soulful, heartfelt roots record that simply rocks. I've praised Mellencamp for his grandiloquent and gritty sense of rock'n'roll and given him...

John Hammond, Wicked Grin.(Wicked Grin )(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Pointblank) Hmm. Bluesboy Johnny Hammond cuts an entire album of Tom Waits covers. Can anyone out-Waits Waits for audacious, growling down-and-out portraits of life's cast offs, where every scene could be painted on a thickly stained pool...

Solomon Burke, Don't Give Up On Me.(Don't Give Up On Me)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Fat Possum) The label the brought the late Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside to public acclaim, has taken an equally bold step by resurrecting the legendary voice of '60s soul king, Solomon Burke, who, despite his 2001 induction into the...

Fleetwood Mac, Say You Will.(Say You Will)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Reprise) Christine McVie once lamented that with three songwriters in the band (herself, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks) that they should be able to do better than one album every two or three years. Indeed, after her departure, the...

Midnight Blue, Inner City Blues.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Wildchild!) In every major city there's a cadre of scarred blues veterans who have toiled in the local glow and national obscurity, save for occasional mentions in Blues Revue, Living Blues, and a smattering of regional publications....

Bringing The Flame Home: From Havana to Africa.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Mapleshade) The really neat thing about the Mapleshade/ Wildchild! agglomeration is that there are no rules. If something sounds like it's making sense--or simply has everyone in the joint rocking, toe tapping, or swaying back and forth,...

Mark O'Connor, Hot Swing!(Hot Swing)(In Full Swing)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (OMAC) Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio, In Full Swing (Odyssey) It's difficult not to point to Mark O'Connor as the Andre Previn of his generation such is his prowess with multiple musical genres, neo-classical to bluegrass to swing....

The Jeff Pryor Band, Loverland.(Loverland )(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Teze) In every major city and a host of small towns there exists a cadre of guitarists who front local bands, staples of the club circuit, generally taking second billing behind a recording artist's club tour. Detroit has Jim McCarty,...

Annie Lennox, Bare.(Bare)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (BMG) For all of Annie Lennox's gifts, Bare is only her second album of original material since the dissolution of the Eurthymics, the first, 1992's Diva, a triple Grammy nominee. Bare fluctuates between quiet, almost confessional...

Joan Armatrading, Lovers Speak.(Lovers Speak)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Denon) We anticipate Joan Armatrading's rare personal stateside tours because she habitually is backed by probably the best band one will hear that year or any other. Her knack for putting the cream of Britain's young studio aces on the...

Badly Drawn Boy, About A Boy, Original Soundtrack.(About a Boy)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Artist Direct/XL) Damon Gough is Badly Drawn Boy, Britain's answer to E, a naughty little boy, working alone, and chock full of musical gifts. About A Boy is the one Hugh Grant picture that I've been able to sit through without wanting to...

Sam Bush & David Grisman, Hold On, We're Strummin'.(Hold on, We're Strummin')(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... (Acoustic Disc) If you took a poll of which mandolin player is the "most influential" of his generation, you'd likely turn up a dead heat between Sam Bush and David Grisman--with no offense to Mike Marshall, Larry Rice, Ronnie McCoury,...

Standing in the Shadows of Motown.(Movie Review)
January 1, 2004... (Artisan, 2002) Uriel Jones, Joe Messina, James Jamerson, Earl Van Dyke, Benny Benjamin, Robert White... and so many, many more. It's the impoverished fan and ignorant musician who asks, "Who are they?" They were the Funk Brothers, the...

R.I.P.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
January 1, 2004... Katharine Hepburn, Buddy Hackett, Campay Segundo, Benny Carter, Buddy Ebsen, Herbie Mann, Barry White, Leslie Townes Hope, Gregory Hines, Celia Cruz, Charles Bronson, Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, John Ritter, George Plimpton, Robert Palmer. It's...

Reissue roundup: Groove Note's concord reissues and a host of others.
January 1, 2004... The most recent major record company to jump onto the SACD bandwagon is Fantasy, the giant jazz label. In early summer they announced that they would soon be entering the ever-growing list of record labels that are hopeful that this new format...

Diamond, David: Symphony Number 1; Violin Concerto Number 2; The Enormous Room.(David Diamond: Symphony Number 1; Violin Concerto Number 2)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... The Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz conducting, Ilkka Talvi, violin. Recorded in 1991 and 1992, at the Seattle Opera House. Engineer: John Eargle. 71+ minutes. Naxos 8.559157. Diamond, like Roy Harris, Samuel Barber, Howard Hanson, William...

Ferrabosco, Alfonso: Consort Music.(Consort Music)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Rose Consort of Viols. Recorded in 1997, at Forde Abbey. Recording Engineer: Arnd Coppers. 75+ minutes. CPO 859. You might ask which Alfonso Ferrabosco we are talking about here, and the answer is both. Alfonso I, who was born into a...

Four of a Kind 2.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Music of Rossini, Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach, Boismortier, Defay, Harold Arlen, and others. Featuring trombonists Joseph Alessi, Blair Bollinger, Scott Hartman, and Mark Lawrence. Recorded in 2001, at The Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City....

Rosetti, Antonio: Bassoon Concertos.(Bassoon Concertos)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... New Brandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra; Albrecht Holder, bassoon. Recorded in 2001, at Neustrelitz Concert Hall. Engineer: Laszlo Dobos. 71+ minutes. Naxos 8.555341. These days, little is known about Rosetti, who lived from about 1750...

Three Guitars.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Featuring Larry Coryell, Badi Assad, and John Abercrombie. Recorded in 2002, in St. Peter's Church, New York City. Recording engineer: Barry Wolifson. 57+ minutes. Chesky JD 248. As Chesky notes in the blurb sheet that came with this disc,...

Haydn, Joseph: Symphony Number 92.(Symphony Number 92)(Video Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... plus the Arianna a Naxos and Scena di Berenice cantatas. Concentus Musicus Wien, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, featuring Ceclia Bartoli. Recorded and filmed "live" in at the Styriarte Festival, in Graz, Austria, 2001. Multiple engineers...

Shostakovich, Dmitry: the Bolt: Suite from the Ballet; Jazz Suites Number 1 and 2; Tahiti Trot.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Russian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky. Engineer: Aleksander Karasev. Recorded in 2001, at the Moscow State Broadcasting and Recording House, Studio 5. 62+ minutes. Naxos 5.110006. While Shostakovich is mainly known...

A short announcement.
January 1, 2004... Some of you may have noticed that the number of contributions I have been offering to this magazine has lately fallen off. The reason for this is fully practical. My wife and I are in the process of doing and supervising MAJOR home-improvement...

Bax: Symphony No. 6; Into the Twilight; Summer Music.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... David Lloyd-Jones, Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Naxos 8.557144. Where would we be without Chandos and Naxos? Well, we wouldn't have much of Arnold Bax, that's for sure. The British composer (1883-1953) was at one time well...

Beach: "Gaelic" Symphony; Piano Concerto.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Alan Feinberg, piano; Kenneth Schermerhorn, Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.559139. These days Amy Beach (1867-1944) may be more notable for being America's first successful female composer than for any of the actual music she wrote....

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Mary Dunleavy, soprano; Elizabeth Bishop, mezzo-soprano; Stephen Gould, tenor; Alastair Miles, bass. Donald Runnicles, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Telarc CD-80603. Despite using the new Urtext Edition edited by Jonathan Del Mar...

Dvorak: Serenades.(Serenades)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Myung-Whun Chung, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 471 613-2. Dvorak wrote his Serenade for String Orchestra in 1875, for the composer a most productive year that also saw the completion of various chamber works, a grand opera, and his...

Dvorak: Violin Concerto; Piano Quintet.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Sarah Chang, violin; Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony Orchestra. EM17243 5 57521 23. This may be the best Dvorak Violin Concerto currently before the public. It may not be the best ever, that would still be...

Haydn: String Quartets No. 3, Op. 33; Nos. 1 and 2, Op. 77; Hoffstetter Serenade.(String Quartets No. 3, Op. 33: Nos. 1 and 2, Op. 77; Hoffstetter Serenade)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Alban Berg Quartet. EMI 7243 5 57541-2. Chamber music is not as popular with the record-buying public as large orchestral pieces, so understandably music companies record less of it. But with music as felicitous as the quartets on this disc...

Hiroshima: the Bridge.(The Bridge)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Telarc Heads Up SACD HUSA 9076. Hiroshima's album The Bridge is one of the latest releases in Telarc's new line of Heads Up multichannel SACD hybrid discs that has concentrated largely on modern pop jazz. Given the slump the recording...

Massenet: Le Cid (Ballet Music).(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Scenes pittoresques; Saint-Saens: The Swan; Wedding Cake. Louis Fremaux, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. EMI Encore 7243 5 75871 2. The Le Cid Ballet Music recording brings back a lot of memories. Recorded quadraphonically in 1971...

Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 31 "Paris" and 38 "Prague.".(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Josef Krips, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. PentaTone Classics SACD 5186 119. Now, this is the way I remember Philips recordings and the Concertgebouw sounding years ago in their glory days. Way back before digital processing and before...

Mozart: the Late Symphonies Nos. 25, 29, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, and 41.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Leonard Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 474 349-2 (3-disc set). By and large, when Bernstein left the New York Philharmonic his performances tended to change. Especially after he took up with the Vienna Philharmonic, his...

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2; Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Werner Haas, piano; Eliahu Inbal, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. PentaTone Classics 5186 114. For a while now Telarc Records have been distributing a line of SACD recordings for the PentaTone label. About hall of these releases are of...

Rossini: Complete Overtures.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Philips Trio 473 967-2. When these 26 overtures appeared on four separate discs between 1974 and 1980, they were a revelation. Marriner and his comparatively small ensemble had...

Schubert: "Death and the Maiden" & Dvorak: "American," both scored for string orchestra.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Charles Rosekrans, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Telarc CD-80610. I suspect that one's reaction to this disc will depend largely upon one's familiarity with the original string quartet versions of the two pieces included. But the string...

Schubert: Complete String Quartets, Vol. 5.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Kodaly Quartet. Naxos 8.557107. Naxos has produced some pretty mediocre releases over the years as well as some absolutely top-drawer products. These Schubert string quartets from the Kodaly Quartet are among the top-drawer issues. The...

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A, "The Trout".(Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A)(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A The Beaux Arts Trio (augmented) and the Grumiaux Quartet (augmented). PentaTone Classics 5186 121. Schubert's "Trout" was probably the first piece of chamber music I ever feel in love with, but until the...

Sea Sketches.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Walters, Walton, Williams, and Warlock. Roy Goodman, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. CBC Records SMCD 5227. This album of English string music is well titled, as it is the Sea Sketches by Grace Williams that are among the most memorable tunes...

Stamitz and Richter: Early String Symphonies.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Simon Murphy, The Chamber Orchestra of the New Dutch Academy. PentaTone Classics PTC 5186 028. The Telarc people continue their merry way releasing hybrid stereo/multichannel Super Audio CDs on the PentaTone label. The discs are dual...

Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Lang Lang, piano; Daniel Barenboim, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. DG B0000666-02. This is young Chinese pianist Lang Lang's debut recording for DG, a daunting enterprise for a man just 21 years old. There is no doubting Lang's technical...

Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture; Romeo and Juliet; Capriccio Italien; Dance of the Tumblers; Marche Slave.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... Theodore Kuchar, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. Naxos 8.555923. This disc is something of a puzzlement to me. Why in the world, I thought when I first saw it, would Naxos think anyone needed another 1812 Overture? Likewise with...

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves; Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis; Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1; In the Fen Country; Concerto Grosso.(Sound Recording Review)
January 1, 2004... James Judd, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.555867. I can't think of a nicer way to spend five bucks. This little Naxos disc is as lovely a way to spend an evening listening to music as I can think of. Ralph Vaughan Williams...