Classical

High Altitude Drums 07/08 — Blue Knights and Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps

A drum and bugle corps recorded so far below normal level that it needs the volume control at 11:30 — and then becomes the most startling demonstration disc I have heard.

Dahl, Martinů and Husa — Sonolumina Ensemble

A whole disc of works for clarinets and strings, vibrantly played and miked closely enough that the breathing and the bowing come with it.

Haydn: String Quartets Op. 9 No. 4 and Op. 77 No. 2 — Fry Street Quartet

The sequel to Voices of Modernism, with the same fiery playing: an early quartet that sounds Beethovenish and a late one that sounds Mozartean.

Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians — GVSU New Music Ensemble

My favourite piece of music in its first multichannel release, where for the first time I could hear the three pianos apart instead of one wall of sound.

Voices of Modernism and the String Quartet — Fry Street Quartet

Beethoven, Stravinsky, Rorem and Scearce across two IsoMike discs, in gripping performances and one of the best string quartet recordings I have heard.

Wagner: Götterdämmerung — Asher Fisch and the Adelaide Ring

The final instalment, middle of the road in both performance and sonics, and a closing verdict ranking all four Adelaide Ring titles against one another.

Bach: Goldberg Variations — the Zenph re-performance of Gould’s 1955 recording

Gould’s 1955 mono recording reverse-engineered into note data and replayed on a Disklavier direct to DSD: a stunning piano recording, and a performance that is his and yet subtly not.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 — Australian Youth Orchestra, Anissimov

A well played Tenth from an orchestra not to be dismissed as amateurs, and a faithful capture of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall's difficult acoustics, warts included.

Believe in Love — Elizabeth Whitehouse and Richard Bonynge

Soprano arias billed as rare and mostly not, sung with style and flair, with the voice imaged left of centre exactly where a soloist stands in a real hall.

Wagner: Siegfried — Asher Fisch and the Adelaide Ring

The opera in the cycle I had always liked least, in a performance and recording that changed my mind — the best balanced of the four, and the one to sample multichannel SACD on.

Wagner: Das Rheingold — Asher Fisch and the Adelaide Ring

The second Adelaide instalment, and the weakest: a faultless recording of a staging whose energy was largely visual, with stage water reading on the microphones as crackle.

Wagner: Die Walküre — Asher Fisch and the Adelaide Ring

The first instalment of the Adelaide Ring on SACD, reviewed by someone who sat in the hall: an emotional rather than physical Walküre, on a recording that may beat being there.

Bach: Italian Concerto and Partitas — Glenn Gould

Gould at his most accessible, playing the piano rather like a harpsichord — the best introduction to him on SACD, stray clicks and omnipresent hiss notwithstanding.

Bach: Keyboard Concertos 1 — Angela Hewitt and the Australian Chamber Orchestra

Hewitt plays the piano as a piano, prettily; the unconventional surround mix is the interesting part, with the double bass sitting almost wholly in the 0.1 channel.

Vivaldi: Concertos for the Emperor — English Concert, Manze

Six reconstructed concertos from the set presented to Charles VI, recorded, edited and mastered in DSD, in a reading I found a shade too languid.

The Goldberg Variations

The Region 4 DVD of The Goldberg Variations (1981), reviewed for MichaelDVD — 4 out of 5 overall.

Adagio (2nd movement) from Oboe Concerto in D minor Alessandro Marcello

Soundcloud

My first arrangement for 2018! This is a synth arrangement of the slow movement from Alessandro Marcello's beautiful Oboe Concerto in D minor, op. 1 using Logic Pro native instruments. It is a beautiful and tranquil piece that is perhaps not well known (even though JS Bach transcribed it for harpsichord).

Ave Maria (Vavilov)

Soundcloud

Incorrectly ascribed to Giulio Caccini, this work was actually composed by Vladimir Fyodorovich Vavilov (Влади́мир Фёдорович Вави́лов) in 1970 and featured in his album "Lute music of the XVI-XVII cent." (Лютневая музыка 16-17 веков) released on the Melodiya label. I listened to the original recording, transcribed it to Notion, then rearranged it for woodwinds, strings and harp, voiced using the EWQL Symphonic Orchestra.

Ave Maria (Vavilov) - Finale/GPO4

Vimeo

Incorrectly ascribed to Giulio Caccini, this work was actually composed by Vladimir Fyodorovich Vavilov (Влади́мир Фёдорович Вави́лов) in 1970 and featured in his album "Lute music of the XVI-XVII cent." (Лютневая музыка 16-17 веков) released on the Melodiya label.