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December 21, 2013
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A 220-hertz buzz starts in the left, center, and right speakers near the end of the second movement of Rouse's concerto and persists throughout the entire ten and a half minutes of the third movement. It returns in just the left front speaker in Debussy's Syrinx and Martin's Ballade. It might be ... more |
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December 21, 2013
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The Utrecht Quartet clearly has the measure of Tchaikovsky's long, complex quartets, in macro and micro terms, both the long-range dramaturgic sweep of each movement and every fleeting detail. It's obvious they've lived as a group with this music for some time and have thought through their approach ... more |
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December 20, 2013
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All three orchestrations of Liszt's pieces are more enjoyable than as originally composed for solo organ, especially Ad Nos and Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen. The Prelude and Fugue on BACH isn't as appealing, but then I'm not a big fan of the organ original anyway. The organ solo Orpheus, largely ... more |
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November 30, 2013
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Five organs, five musicians, five discs, 130 pieces, 350 minutes, 45 dollars.
FUGUES (75):
Pachelbel's fugues, on average, last just over two minutes here. The fugue subject appears in almost every bar of almost every fugue, so I'm hard-pressed to say whether these are 2-, 3-, or 4-voice fugues. ... more |
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November 23, 2013
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For 1969, this is as good as it gets. For 2013, it's a nonstarter.
After listening to these SACDs, I immediately dropped the laser on my only other recording of Berlioz's Requiem: a pair of 1999 Naxos RBCDs (by one Elora Festival Orchestra under Noel Edison, vocals by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir ... more |
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