Album of the Evening

[Boris75]

Debussy La Mer, Respighi Fountains and Pines of Rome, RCA Living Stereo SACD. Superb sonics, as usual with the Living Stereo SACDs.

[Blake]

[Booster MPS]

[Savage]

Dizzy Gillespie

School Days

 

[Musicophile]

This afternoon in the tropical heat; two of my favorite Qobuz purchases:

 

Giovanni Mirabassi Trio: Live at the Blue Note Tokyo (redbook).

 

 

Thanks 27Globes for pointing out this great artist to me.

 

Followed by:

 

Bach: Orchestral Suites - Freiburger Barockorchester (24/44).

 

 

By far my favorite version of these immortal classics.

[Boris75]

 

I like this album too. By coincidence, just a few hours ago I was listening to Drums Between the Bells in high-res.

[Boris75]

This afternoon in the tropical heat; two of my favorite Qobuz purchases:

 

Giovanni Mirabassi Trio: Live at the Blue Note Tokyo (redbook).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6688[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks 27Globes for pointing out this great artist to me.

 

Followed by:

 

Bach: Orchestral Suites - Freiburger Barockorchester (24/44).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6689[/ATTACH]

 

By far my favorite version of these immortal classics.

 

+1 on Mirabassi (though I still struggle to understand how the picture relates to the music but that's perhaps the point) and the Bach Overtures by the Freiburger Barockorchester. The Freiburger get the bronze medal in my personal podium for the Bach Overtures after Savall (slow-paced gold, 2SACDs) and Fasolis (fast-paced silver, 1SACD).

[Boris75]

Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, SHM-SACD. A bit dated at times, but very well recorded.

 

Vangelins, Blade Runner, Audio Fidelity SACD. The redbook layer is very good sonically, and the SACD layer even better. Of course Vangelis is not Bach or Beethoven, but it is nice music.

 

Zador, 5 Contrasts and Children's Symphony, Naxos No: 8.572548 CD.

[davidovada]

This afternoon in the tropical heat; two of my favorite Qobuz purchases:

 

Giovanni Mirabassi Trio: Live at the Blue Note Tokyo (redbook).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6688[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks 27Globes for pointing out this great artist to me.

 

Followed by:

 

Bach: Orchestral Suites - Freiburger Barockorchester (24/44).

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6689[/ATTACH]

 

By far my favorite version of these immortal classics.

 

Ciao, Sig. Musico!

How cool is this. I read your post, go to Qobuz, select the Mirabassi and immediately appreciate your recommendation(streamed in flac 16/44). We live in an interesting time. Salute.

[Musicophile]

Ciao, Sig. Musico!

How cool is this. I read your post, go to Qobuz, select the Mirabassi and immediately appreciate your recommendation(streamed in flac 16/44). We live in an interesting time. Salute.

Buona notte Italia! I suppose I need to check out their streaming offer at some point.

[Snowmonkey]

The Freiburger get the bronze medal in my personal podium for the Bach Overtures after Savall (slow-paced gold, 2SACDs) and Fasolis (fast-paced silver, 1SACD).

Haven't heard any of the above versions, but I adore Masaaki Suzuki/ Bach Collegium Japan doing these. Has anyone heard them all, for comparison?

[Musicophile]

Haven't heard any of the above versions, but I adore Masaaki Suzuki/ Bach Collegium Japan doing these. Has anyone heard them all, for comparison?

For once I disagree with Boris. I very much like Savall on many recordings, but for these suites, that are dances after all I don't like his tempi.

 

Suzuki does what he always does, same with the cantatas, same with the oratorios: everything is perfect, but the recordings can sometimes be a bit "clinical" if you know what I mean.

 

In my collection I have Freiburg, Fasolis, Suzuki, Savall, Pinnock, and in non-HIP Münchinger (my first), Rilling, and Marriner. These days I wouldn't recommend any non historically informed performance any more, and of the HIP my ranking would be Freiburg first, Fasolis 2nd, and no clear favorite among the others.

[Musicophile]

For once I disagree with Boris. I very much like Savall on many recordings, but for these suites, that are dances after all I don't like his tempi.

 

Suzuki does what he always does, same with the cantatas, same with the oratorios: everything is perfect, but the recordings can sometimes be a bit "clinical" if you know what I mean.

 

In my collection I have Freiburg, Fasolis, Suzuki, Savall, Pinnock, and in non-HIP Münchinger (my first), Rilling, and Marriner. These days I wouldn't recommend any non historically informed performance any more, and of the HIP my ranking would be Freiburg first, Fasolis 2nd, and no clear favorite among the others.

Forgot to mention Café Zimmermann, as the suites are spread across several albums. The one I have is really nice though.

[Savage]

Nusrat Ali Khan & Michael Brook

Night Song

 

[Melvin]

It's not evening in this part of the world but ..

 

[Boris75]

Haven't heard any of the above versions, but I adore Masaaki Suzuki/ Bach Collegium Japan doing these. Has anyone heard them all, for comparison?

 

As I am very fond of Masaaki Suzuki in the cantatas and on the harpsichord, your post means that I'll probably end up buying yet another version... Thank you Snowmonkey :-)

[Boris75]

Forgot to mention Café Zimmermann, as the suites are spread across several albums. The one I have is really nice though.

 

You're very right to mention the Café Zimmermann takes - they are absolutely excellent. I had not tought of them as they are scattered across the albums. I bought them all separately just before they sold the whole set at a discounted price which annoyed me except that buying them one by one allowed me to buy the last ones in high res. They are part of the "fast bunch" and quite close to Fasolis in my opinion. One set of Bach Overtures I haven't listened to in a long time is S. Vegh and the Camerata Academica. I have a faint memory that the interpretation is good but the sound quality mediocre. One set I have never listened to is Klemperer's, but I have my doubts I would enjoy it now that I am used to period instruments in this repertoire.

 

Back on topic: Saint-Saens, Symphony No. 3 by Fremaux and the Birmingham SO. Thanks to those who recommended the disc. The sound quality is indeed excellent as advised. In terms of interpretation, I think this recording lacks the punch of Paray or Plasson and the Birmingham SO does not have the orchestral magnificence of the BPO with Karajan or the Paris Opera Orchestra with Chung.

 

Off-topic again: yesterday evening I listened to organist Franz Hauk playing pieces by Martin Helmschrott in Notre-Dame de Paris: these pieces (Haghia Sophia and Ex Oriente Lux) and the Cavaillé-Coll were so bass rich that the printout for the concert was shaking under the soundwaves. I reached for the SPL app on my iPhone (which I calibrated with a proper SPL): it oscillated between 75 and 81 to 84dBa. The Great Organ of Notre-Dame de Paris is a powerful sound system...

[oscarnr]

 

Ethan Johns - If not now then when?

 

 

Producer (Ryan Adams, Laura Marling et al) passes to the singer-songwriter side. Solid effort and good songs.

 

Happy evening (night here)

 

Oscar

[Boris75]

 

 

Finally had a free moment to rip my Hybrid SACD of Kevin Gray's 2013 remaster of the Blade Runner Soundtrack. I have no ability to listen to the SACD layer in my system, so my comments are with respect to the redbook cd layer.

 

Richard, you are dead on with your assessment of the sonic quality of this release. The sound is spectacular. Mr. Gray knocked it out of the park. At certain points in the soundtrack, the sound is so incredibly spacious your room seems to become one giant speaker. The sound envelops you. There are so many details, nuances and soundstaging elements I had not noticed with the earlier cd release.

 

If you like this soundtrack and have an older version, you really need to check this one out. Well worth the price of admission. I love it.

 

Oscar, Richard, Blake: many thanks for your recommendation. I listened to this SACD tonight after I got it in the mail yesterday: it is a real pleasure. Now I want to see the movie again.

[lfs]

[accwai]

 

CD1: Appendices & Diversities, 23 Sonatas from existing and unpublished manuscripts. This CD contains sonatas that have duplicates from secondary sources and recent discoveries that are not in the Kirkpatrick catalog.

 

Andy

[REShaman]

Oscar, Richard, Blake: many thanks for your recommendation. I listened to this SACD tonight after I got it in the mail yesterday: it is a real pleasure. Now I want to see the movie again.

 

Boris,

You're welcome. I have four editions of Blade Runner including the HD-DVD edition which I refuse to part with even though I do not play my HD-DVD collection for years now. You may already have this edition: I recommend the Blu-ray 5 Disc Complete Collector's Edition which also includes the work print. The score is beautiful in the blu-ray edition in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Enjoy the music,

Richard

 

[oscarnr]

Oscar, Richard, Blake: many thanks for your recommendation. I listened to this SACD tonight after I got it in the mail yesterday: it is a real pleasure. Now I want to see the movie again.

 

You're welcome!

Cheers

 

Oscar

[oscarnr]

William Tyler - Impossible Truth

 

instrumental guitar folk and rock. A mixture of Fahey and less-heavy Earth (the band) tunes. You can almost feel the sand of the desert....

[oscarnr]

 

 

breathtaking...

 

Absolutely fantastic (electronic) music. Just listening right now (my album of the morning ;-). Better than Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest? I don't know what to say...Anyway, solid candidate for electronic album of this year.