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Chet Baker – Early Chet: Lost Tapes (2013/2018)
DSD128 (.dsf) 1 bit/5,6 MHz | Time – 35:34 minutes | 2,81 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 35:34 minutes | 609 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: HDTracks | Booklet, Front Cover | Genre: Jazz | ©2xHD
“Early Chet” compiles tracks jazz trumpeter Chet Baker recorded while on tour in the mid- and late ’50s. These tracks were made at the height of Baker’s popularity and showcase him in fine form throughout. Featured here are several (rare for Baker) big-band numbers, as well as two superb duets with Italian vocalist/guitarist Caterina Valente, “I Remember April” and “Everytime We Say Goodbye”.
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Charles West, Susan Grace – Treasures for Clarinet & Piano (2015)
DSD64 2.0 | 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Time: 00:53:14 | 2.1 GB
or 24-bit/96 kHz | Flac(Tracks) | Time: 00:53:14 | 742 Mb
Official Digital Download | Genre: Classical | Label: Wilson Audiophile Recordings
Recorded at Lucas Film Studios, USA, 1991
The four short French works, Canzonetta, Petite Piece, Fille aux chevaux de lin, and Piece en forme de habanera have more in common than their brevity. All three composers studied at the Paris Conservatory at very young ages—Debussy and Pierne entering at ten and eight, and Ravel at the advanced age of fourteen. Debussy and Pierne were born within a year of each other in 1862 and 1863, and Pierne and Ravel died in 1937. Debussy’s Petite Piece was composed in 1910 at a time when he was involved in numerous conducting engagements: that year in Paris, Vienna, and Budapest, and the following year in Turin. This short work was used as a sightreading piece for the Conservatory’s annual concours, just as his more famous Premiere Rhapsodie has several times been the required prepared piece. Dating from the same year was Debussy’s first book of twelve preludes for piano, in which Fille aux chevaux de lin (Maid with the Flaxen Hair) is found. The transcription of this work is by Conservatory professor Gaston Hamelin, who knew Debussy and who has also contributed excellent didactic works to the clarinet’s literature.
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Charles Lloyd – Manhattan Stories (2014/2017)
DSD128 (.dsf) 1 bit/5,6 MHz | Time – 42:36 minutes | 3,36 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:36 minutes | 742 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Source: HDTracks | Digital booklet | Genre: Jazz | © 2xHD
Charles Lloyd’s status as one of the iconic figures of jazz has been thoroughly established for nearly five decades. His recordings from the ‘60s – especially releases such as Of Course, Of Course, Dream Weaver and Forest Flower – introduced a stunning, new jazz saxophone talent at a time when new ideas were rapidly being triggered by the likes of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. But Lloyd had a voice of his own, one that blended rich, contemplative improvising with an irresistible flow of dynamic rhythms. No wonder Down Beat selected Lloyd as Jazz Artist of the Year in 1967.
This live 1965 recording from New York’s Judson Hall features Lloyd with his previously unreleased quartet of Gábor Szabó, Ron Carter, & Pete La Roca.
This is a must have for Charles Lloyd fans, jazz collectors & audiophiles.
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Chantal Chamberland – Temptation (2019)
DSD64 (.dsf) 1 bit/2,8 MHz | Time – 53:10 minutes | 2,09 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 53:10 minutes | 0,99 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | Genre: Jazz | © evosound
Every music genre is characterized by a unique style and specific instrumentation. For French Canadian guitarist & jazz vocalist Chantal Chamberland her sensuous, smoky voice is her trademark instrument. With some of Chamberland’s personal musical influences as her canvas, this Quebec born chanteuse delivers knockout performances that are as unforgettable as the singer herself. With 6 contemporary jazz releases, and her highly anticipated 7th release, “Temptation”, Chantal’s star shines brightly on an international stage.
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Chantal Chamberland – Autobiography (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 54:30 minutes | 2,15 GB | Genre: Jazz
Source: ISO SACD | © Evolution Media Ltd.
The Hamilton Music Award winner Chantal Chamberland releases her ‘Best of’ compilation album, Autobiography. Her trademark smoky, sultry jazz vocal is perfectly expressed in a wonderful diversity of genres, moving from sultry and soulful to bluesy and brassy with graceful ease.
Her previous success with Soirée, hitting #1 on the HMV Hong Kong Jazz Charts cements her role as one of the nest female interpreters of jazz today. The Best of compilation has all of Chantal’s nest tracks in one, featuring tracks La Mer, Besame Mucho, Hit The Road Jack, Fever, You Are My Hero and more. Together with an all-new recording, Chantal’s take on Ed Sheeran’s heart-warming hit, Thinking Out Loud, performed with touch of tender affection and charm.
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Ikuyo Nakamichi – Frederic Chopin – Waltzes (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 01:45:57 minutes | 4,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Source: ISO SACD | © RCA Red Seal
◎長年のショパンへの取り組みが結実した新録音
現代日本を代表する人気ピアニスト、仲道郁代による2年ぶりの新譜は、ショパンのワルツ集です。ショパンは、仲道にとって、モーツァルト、ベートーヴェン、シューマンと並ぶ自らのレパートリーの中心的作曲家であり、演奏会でその多くを演奏するかたわら、これまでにも2曲の協奏曲(1990年と2010年の2種類 )をはじめ、即興曲4曲(1989年 )、バラード4曲(1990年 )、前奏曲(1991年録音 )、夜想曲全集(1989~92年 )、ピアノ・ソナタ第3番(1993年 )、スケルツォ4曲(1993年 )と、ピアニストとしてのキャリアの初期10年のうちに主要曲を集中的に録音しています。最近では、ショパンの生涯と音楽を、演奏、映像とエピソードを交えながら立体的なコンテクストの中で紹介するシリーズ『ショパン鍵盤のミステリー』を企画し、各地で公演し好評を博しています(2016年7月からは、東京Hakujuホールで開催予定 )。また2007年にはワルシャワ~パリ~ノアンなど、ショパンが残した足跡を辿るNHK制作のドキュメンタリー『ピアノの詩人 ショパンのミステリー』にも出演し、さらに同番組は2010年のショパン・アニヴァーサリーに際して、『仲道郁代 ショパンのミステリー 特別編』として追加制作・再放映されています。また同じ2010年には、『NHK趣味工房シリーズ〔あなたもアーティスト〕 仲道郁代のピアノ初心者にも弾けるショパン』に講師として出演、さらにCD付きのMOOK『CDでわかる ショパン鍵盤のミステリー』(ナツメ社 )も上梓するなど、ショパンの音楽への探求には大きな情熱を持って取り組んできています。
Celia Craig – Artaria plays Bax, Britten, Finzi, Vaughan Williams (2018)
DSD256 (.dsf) 1 bit/11,2 MHz | Time – 49:10 minutes | 7,75 GB
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 49:10 minutes | 870 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover + PDF
Named after Mozart’s first publisher, having debuted with his delightful Oboe Quartet, five of Australia’s world class musicians unite to explore some of the extensive repertoire for oboe and strings. Founding member, Celia Craig, former Principal player with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London, & current Principal Oboe of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, said the concept was inspired while playing the Bax Quintet at Royal Academy of Music. Artaria’s debut recording features Bax, Britten, Finzi & Vaughan Williams recorded in the highest possible resolution at the newly designed Jeffrey Kong Performing Arts Centre, home of Brighton Secondary School’s Government-sponsored Specialist Music Program.
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Dragon Quartet – Schubert & Dvorak: String Quartets (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD256/11.20 MHz | Time – 64:19 minutes | 10,1 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Channel Classics
The Dragon String Quartet is an ensemble that was formed in 2012 of four celebrated, young Chinese musicians: first violinist Ning Feng, second violinist Wang Xiaomao, violist Zheng Wenxiao and cellist Qin Liwei. Ning Feng and Qin Liwei, both internationally established Chinese soloists, came up with the idea of forming a string quartet after a series of concerts that brought them together. Wang Xiaomao is concertmaster of China National Ballet Orchestra, Zheng Wenxiao is Principal Viola of Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Symphonie orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks). The Dragon String Quartet performs around the world regularly, introducing the masterworks of string quartet to the audiences, rediscovering rarely performed but outstanding pieces, and promoting contemporary works especially the great pieces created by Chinese composers.
If you don’t already have recordings and want this combination, these are fresh, played with pinpoint accuracy, well paced and free from excessive vibrato…If “Death in the Maiden” feels a little cool for some tastes, the Dvork is a delight. ~ The Observer, 16th July 2017
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Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 1:35:46 minutes | 3,78 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Channel Classics
I love the whole symphony but from the second movement two favorite moments, two details, spring to mind. First, the recapitulation when the solo violin takes flight, like a buzzing bee around a flower, and then accidentally finds itself in a wonderful modulation to E major. The second is the ending. The flowers, that move and dance elegantly against the wind, suddenly expose their Tristan-like soul. From the vast first movement I would choose the huge, yawning creature’s (Pan’s?) first appearance. Conducting the Scherzo I am always carried away by the inserted episodes which interrupt the post horn — first by a group of baroque birds, then rococo ones flying up from the pages of a Mozart piano concerto. What an ingenious and unpredictable use of different styles! Finally, the endless melody of the last movement moves me every time with its intimate beauty and honesty. There is something divine in the wealth of this great masterpiece. – Ivn Fischer
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Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Jan Willem de Vriend – J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio (2006)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82 MHz | Time – 72:01 + 66:56 minutes | 5,48 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records
Jan Willem de Vriend shares his thoughts on the Christmas Oratorio:
‘The Combattimento Consort Amsterdam has always performed the complete Christmas Oratorio with only two exceptions. On these two occasions the concert hall did not want a complete performance and the choice was left to us which movements to leave out. However, this is in fact an impossible choice, as in my view the work forms a single entity. So, it has happened on occasion that we have performed four cantatas. And even though prior to the concert we thought that on the one hand it would be fine to finish earlier, as it turned out — and I think I can speak for all my colleagues — after the performance we felt it a great pity after all, not to have included those two cantatas. During a performance of the complete cycle we have become accustomed to pausing between each cantata, to insert just a short break of around five minutes before beginning the following cantata. Incidentally, this is just one of the ways to divide up the work; I could also imagine that the cycle could be spread out, that one decides: “This morning I will perform one, then this evening another, with another cantata the following day.” Nevertheless, the point is that even when a performance is spread out over a number of days, as happened in Bach’s time, the work still continues to function as a unified whole. I am absolutely convinced that the churchgoers of the time had a far greater retention of the music, that the music remained more firmly entrenched in their memory until the following church service. Just compare how it is these days. After the concert, you may be sitting in your car and you switch on the radio to hear if there are any traffic jams reported, so you keep hearing fragments of music and as a result of this a large part of your recent musical experience is erased. I myself am glad that after performing a work it stays in my head for some time. Perhaps this was much more often the case in those days. As far as this is concerned, the effect of such a cantata would have been far stronger and of longer duration back then. Something similar also applies in the case of the various tonalities. In view of the fact that even temperament was nowhere near as widely in use in those days, a much greater differentiation was experienced between the various keys with their individual characteristics. With the advent of modern tuning, this entire sensibility to the different keys has vanished.’
Kuijken Piano Quartet – Mozart: Piano Quartets K.493 & K.478 (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:06:31 minutes | 5,25 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Surround 5.1 (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:06:31 minutes | 9,18 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:06:31 minutes | 3,69 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
For anyone wishing to approach any type of music, a ‘virginal’ listening experience, I believe, is the best possible choice. For those of us who have mastered score-reading, could that alone be enough, and ultimately perhaps the true essence? (Naturally, I can ask this only about notated music.) So, paradoxically, are we closest to that essence when listening inwardly to music in our heads?
I was asked to write something about the music presented on this recording. For those who wish to read on, please feel free, but doing so is by no means compulsory.
The two piano quartets, written in 1785 and 1786, are all-encompassing — the appeal of a piano concerto in miniature on the one hand, and the mystery and intimacy of the most heavenly chamber music on the other. Mozart created this genre practically from scratch. Indeed, his treatment of these four instruments as equal partners was unheard of in his day. The silence, both empty silence and full silence, I experience in the slow movement of the second piano quartet, is like a balm, while the intense power of expression of both opening movements leaves me speechless.
Hannes Minnaar, Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2017)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 00:34:38 minutes | 2,73 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Surround 5.1 (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 00:34:38 minutes | 4,26 GB
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 05:40:43 minutes | 1,74 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
The missing link. Hannes Minnaar’s release of the beginning and end phases (numbers 1 & 2 and 4 & 5 respectively) of Beethoven’s piano concertos is now ‘followed’ by No. 3. It forms a link in another sense as well. The first concertos: replete with youth, sparkling, often even rambunctious; the last two both more mature and more heroic. And Piano Concerto No. 3 then? In part still building on his youth (Beethoven was around 30 when he wrote it), this is the first one where we hear heroism. Might has become the central theme.
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Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, James Gaffigan – Prokofiev: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7 (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:12:53 minutes | 5,75 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records
Prokofiev wrote his Sixth Symphony almost straight after the Fifth. The Sixth is quite different from the Fifth, despite the success of the latter at its premiere, which the composer himself conducted in January 1945. Where the mood of the Fifth is triumphant and heroic (the Nazis had almost succumbed to defeat by this stage), the Sixth is more elegiac, less compact and more diffuse. Opinions differ widely on the work’s form; the Russian musicologist Nestiev, one of Prokofiev’s first biographers and of course toeing the Party line as he wrote, argued that the composer had swapped over the exposition and development in the first movement. If this is true, it may explain why the opening seems like a bombardment of motifs tumbling over each other, so that the surfeit of themes only gradually gives way to a semblance of order as the movement progresses.
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Ewald Demeyere, Quatuor Dialogues – Mozart: Gran Partita (2016)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 01:44:46 minutes | 4,12 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records
The Serenade in B flat major K. 361/370a by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the so-called Gran Partita (this appellation is not the composer’s), is inarguably one of the greatest works in the wind instrument repertoire. It adheres to the Viennese tradition of Harmoniemusik-music for wind ensembles intended to add lustre to aristocratic events and banquets-yet transcends the genre by its instrumentation (two basset-horns, two horns and a double bass were added to the traditional octet), its monumental proportions (seven movements) and the richness of its musical inventiveness.
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Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend – Mendelssohn: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 (2014)
DSF Stereo DSD128/5.64 MHz | Time – 56:30 minutes | 4,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: nativeDSDmusic | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records
It was only when he reached Naples in April 1831 — after almost a year of his journey — that Italy began to seep its way into Mendelssohn’s music. Naples also called a halt to the pleasures of travelling. The weather was dreadful, with continual rain, so it was better to remain indoors. Mendelssohn used his ‘free time’ for a new symphony in the vibrant key of A major, the Italian. It seems to have fl owed from his pen with consummate ease, although he was only to complete the work some two years later, in Berlin, when his journey to Paestum on the Gulf of Salerno was far in his past.
The Italian is a real party piece. This was certainly the view following the work’s premiere in London on 13 May 1833, given by the Philharmonic Society. (Mendelssohn was highly acclaimed in London, where he had been commissioned to produce a new symphony). This makes it all the more remarkable that Mendelssohn himself described this masterpiece as having been ‘one of the most bitter moments of my entire career’, fretting, for years to come, about whether he ought to rewrite the second, third and fourth movements.
The opening Allegro vivace abounds with Mediterranean exuberance. The slow movement probably depicts a religious procession, witnessed by the composer in Naples. The third movement — Con moto moderato — seems to have little in the way of Italian infl uence. Rather one might imagine oneself in the shade of Germanic limes, beech and pine trees, Biedermeier-style. But the fi nale is drawn directly from Italian folk life: an irresistible, whirling dance to the rhythmic beat of the saltarello.
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