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Baby Einstein - Lullaby Classics

Lovely and soothing!, 2010-02-14
We've got this CD as a present from our friends and it just gives the perfect background music to the evening. We use it when our 5 months old is feeding and drifting off to sleep. We can only recommend it!

Beethoven: Complete Piano Concertos (Paul Lewis)

Paul Lewis, BBCSO, Belohlavek: Beethoven P Ctos: Very, very, very worthy readings, all five ..., 2010-07-20
Concerto 1 opens with a lean and lively touch, with special phrasing and lilt in the contrasting woodwinds parts. Since the opening is long-ish, this helps sets the stage for good things to come? Sure enough, when the piano finally enters, Paul Lewis is keeping up just fine. He takes a lighter way with phrasing, though articulation is dry and essentially Beethoven-ian in its speed and wit. By the second extended band passages, we are getting early Beethoven punch in the sforzandos, usually with the piano offering up fast-improvisatory runs and just so explorations of the harmonic framework. The whole first movement walks a fine, deft musical path in balance, appealing with song and shape in a sophisticated Mozart-ean way while still yet bringing out a sense of the composer thinking up things to do at the keyboard, all on the immediate fly. The slow middle movement is hypnotically, deeply beautiful, tinged with remarkable wit and playfulness to enhance, not disrupt, the magical Beethoven spell. Our concluding first concerto movement is exactly the happy romp it was written to be. Clearly more Beethoven in its frisky energies and fresh good humor, than anything else it could possibly be played to be.

The second concerto also gets a very successful reading. Lewis and company manage it without calling undue attention to its precedent sibling, also-ran possibilities. Nobody needs to downplay the backwards-seeming glances involved in this firstly written piano concerto - they are what they are. Instead, our performers bring out the music's witty piquant songfulforce and flavor, sounding more indebted in symphonic scope than not -to, say, the late London symphonies by Haydn? Lewis lets his piano out, full-steam athletic and lithe though not necessarily Romantic-heavy; so that his contributions have constant intellectual and emotional drive, whereas many readings of the first concerto are happy enough to let ease-full song and Mozart-ean repose be watchwords. Truth is, I've always found this (first concerto, published second) to sound inferior, put side by side on most single discs as the habit of producers and players is. Not this time around, though. Lewis and partners really convey the composer's youthful stature, not just his familiar and fond great models. Ah, the brilliant intellect of Beethoven's improvisations, bright lights all shining far and wide. Give Belohlavek credit for having his BBC players open up the enlarged scope of the band writing, far beyond even good accompaniment to the young Beethoven at the keyboard. Just listen to how the band begins the slow middle movement; instantly true in phrasing and implicit punch to Beethoven styles. Lewis' elaborates lyrically, as if improvising again. The rock bottom grip on harmony and gears changing is pure Beethoven. Nor is the concluding fast movement anti-climactic, adding oodles of ideas seeming to flood out, a culminating effect, brilliant yet substantial.

The third concerto's start is a stealth beginning, insofar as it initially sounds like a slightly expansive continuation of the first two concertos before overflowing and bursting its standing classical molds. Belohlavek and players have a palpably warm way with melody that does not neglect sforzando punch and forward motion. Tempos are not eccentric - nothing overly fast, nothing overly slow; but the inner sense of the flow, paragraph to paragraph to paragraph, is compelling. When Lewis does enter with his declamatory gestures, as well as laying out his thematic ideas, we have superseded the first two concertos by long, long miles. This reading joins my other three fav versions of the third concerto, along with Pollini under Karl Bohm, Brendel under Haitink, Charles Rosen with Wyn Morris.

Clearly, by the time a disc and a half have spun, we have lift off.

The fourth concerto deserves - and gets, here - a positively sublime reading. My own fantastical recollected benchmark is from a long-ago live concert with Clifford Curzon at the piano. Revelatory, I felt at the time; and far deeper, far more mesmerizing than even the Decca/London recording Curzon did with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Knappertsbusch. Nobody on disc has so far quite equaled my memories of Curzon, live. Near to that height, the fav shelf holds Rubinstein (Leinsdorf), Russell Sherman (Vaclav Neumann, James Bolle at Monadnock), Moravec (Turnovsky), Perahia (Haitink), Hungerford, and Rosen (Morris).

One marker for the imperious Emperor concerto has been Rudolf Serkin with Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic. Lewis and company chart their own high paths. The reading is not carved in granite like some others; it is ... what? Alert, compelling, and touched again and again with what seem like improvisatory flights of immediate fancy. What does ring familiar Serkin-Bernstein bells is that Belohlavek stays right with Lewis, all the way, first notes to last. The musical partnership of band and keyboard, conductor and band and pianist, is interactively alive, apt, able, and utterly carries the day. Though this reading exhibits great, great strength, it never oversteps into bombast, nor needs to break through into blimply inflations. One can vividly appreciate how this concerto perennially appealed to the great virtuoso Franz Liszt without actually having to have the music become Liszt.

These players did the five concertos together, live - at the summer Proms, 2010. Remarkably, these recordings were done in 2009-2010, before the series of live summer concerts. One could be forgiven for thinking it was the other way around, so intensely musical and intellectually-emotionally unified is the partnership among conductor, band, and pianist - so filled with alert give and take, and always humming along the Beethoven highways with an abundant sense of great power and great finesse and great enjoyment. Based on his leadership in all five concertos, a listener may suspect that Jiri Belohlavek could offer us a complete Beethoven symphony set to rival Paul Lewis' complete piano sonatas?

Okay, forget stars ... we're that far out into the cosmos of music, of Beethoven. Save up for Lewis' piano sonatas if you don't already have them on your birthday and holiday wish lists. Just listen, listen, listen, listen.

Symphonicities

STINGINGLY SUPERB, 2010-08-18
I now live in France and, am in an extremely rural setting. Unable to get Radio either French or English. Saw Symphonicities advertised on T.V., ordered it there and then and, can honestly say je t'adore. It was superb and Sting seems to have improved with age , if that is possible. A really good buy.
Jennie

México

a personal project, 2010-09-01
Great singer, great players. It's a CD of contrasts. I love the bareness of the sound and the too-muchness of the feeling; the physicality of the rhythms and the fine arrangements; the balance of the players and then the big intoxicating richness of the voice. Warning: for some it could be almost too much. I have that relationship with chocolate. It's a whole bar-and-a-half of richness. Break it into little pieces to melt individually.

To my ears it's a more intimate collection than Villazon's disc of zarzuelas ('Gitano'), to compare like with like, but it's also more sophisticated. That's probably true of Villazon too. Largely because it's such a personal project, 'Mexico' captures something deeply worth capturing: a sense of yearning for what you actually have. Is there a word for that? Perhaps 'gratitude'.

Spanish Guitar Music

A panacea for 2nd home sickness, 2010-08-23
Classical Spanish music is much ,much more than vibrant tunes that have been passed down the years, it is the embodiment of Spanish culture and way of life. Since buying a 2nd home in Spain some years ago I was not prepared for the impact that Spain and her people would have upon my life. Although unable to spend very much time in Spain at the moment when I hear classical Spanish guitar music played by one our greatest musicians I am immediately transported back to warm evenings and vino at unbelievable prices (cheaper than coffee and much better for the body and soul) and I am comforted and cosseted. A truly wonderful album by a truly great artiste.

Forever Vienna

Enjoyment of good music, 2010-07-27
This was our first introduction to Andre Rieu and we were not disappointed. Good selection of music, thoroughly enjoyable listening. An added bonus was the DVD that accompanied this CD. Wow! This was pure entertainment at its best. A real showman, no stuffy orchestra this set up. The longer concert proceded the better it became. Both CD and DVD will be played many times.

The Guitarist

the guitarist, 2010-08-29
I purchased this cd after hearing it advertised on classic radio station, a very talented man and a good selection of music and it is on continuously in my car.I am very pleased I bought this cd and I love it.

Renaissance - Music for Inner Peace

How to relax, 2010-06-19
Just as the title states. I was in a state of inner peace listening to this wonderful CD.

Mozart - Symphonies Nos 29, 31 (Paris), 32, 35 (Haffner) & 36 (Linz) [Hybrid SACD - plays on all CD players]

Sir Charles Pull It Off Again!, 2010-03-23
This is just stunning stuff.

Hot on the heels of last year's multi award-winning set of Mozart's last four symphonies, Mackerras has delivered another little belter.

These readings are alert, buoyant, vital and simply crackling with energy. There is an obvious emphasis on the dance elements in the music and there is not a dawdle to be found anywhere - though refinement, thankfully, is preserved throughout. (Anyone who prefers their Mozart with much lace and wiggery should most certainly look elsewhere). Mackerras moves the music along at a fairly brisk rate but never does he over-drive it or lose touch with its inherent poise, shape - or humour. This is invigorating, joyful music-making of the highest order and simply demands that the listener sit up and take notice.

The combination of natural horns and trumpets with a modern band playing in scrupulous period style works brilliantly once more, delivering a slightly raw freshness/tang without sacrificing the overall tone of the orchestra. The SCO plays out of its collective skin (yet again!) handling the brisk tempi so skilfully that they make it seem easy and there is no loss of control or delicacy anywhere. (One wonders, though, whether any of the wind players needed replacement lips by the end of the sessions...)

Linn's recording is another peerless job - I don't have a high-end SACD deck (I wish!..) but even so, the recording has a firm, rich tone right across the spectrum and provides just the right amount of reverb/bloom whilst preserving detail, clarity and depth.

My one cavil concerns the presentation of the Paris Symphony (No 31) on Disc one. There are two alternative slow movements for this work and both are included here - so ticks in the box all round for that - but why, oh why, do they both have to appear between the outer movements? Surely it would have been better to include the additional movement after the last (third) movement of the symphony. Call me old-fashioned but if I'm listening to a symphony I would just like to be able to do that - listen to it (all of it!) without having to mess about choosing a second movement half-way through.

That said, it's a small thing and doesn't detract from my (pretty obvious) enthusiasm for this extraordinarily good set - and at the price, Dear Reader, it's an absolute steal!

Gloria / Te Deum

Gloria by Karl Jenkins, 2010-08-04
Once again, masterworks from the master of modern choral and orchestral music, which has many of his well know changes in mood and dynamics that Karl is now so well known for. This, the Gloria, has two stunning tracks, one of which surprises me with her sensitivity (Hayley Westernra) and the Prayer. But even more so, the small but beautifully crafted Te Deum need several visitations to fully appreciate the genius of this unique and brilliant composer.

An absolute must buy for any Karl Jenkins afficionado, but just as well recommended for the first time buyer as well