Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Two Humoresques Op. 87 Four Humoresques Op. 89 Two Pieces, Op. 77 (Two ‘Earnest Melodies’) Two Serenades, Op. 69 for violin and orchestra Suite for Violin & Strings in D minor, Op. 117, JS 185 James Ehnes (violin)
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner (Chandos CHSA 5267 SACD)
Wow, this is one of the most heartrending and breathtaking performances of the Violin Concerto! Gramophone rightly says: "The orchestral detail, both accompanying and soloistic, is ear-prickingly ‘present’, revealing inner voices too often covered in recordings of the piece. Ehnes is at one with the landscape in the Adagio, tender and melancholic ..."
György Ligeti String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2; Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 4 Marmen Quartet (BIS 2693 SACD)
Wow, these performances and recordings are absolutely astonishing! It's as good as it gets. The Marmen Quartet playing sounded so alive in my listening room. Every musical nuance (the subtle variations in dynamics, tempo and expression) were reproduced with absolute clarity and in the form of a three-dimensional soundscape.
Aram Khachaturian Piano Concerto in D flat major, Op. 38 Masquerade Suite (arr. for solo piano by Alexander Dolukhanian, 1952)
Concerto-Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra in D flat major Iyad Sughayer (piano) BBC National Orchestra of Wales/Andrew Litton
(BIS-2586 SACD)
These are highly enjoyable performances! The recordings are able to superbly captured the timbre, scale, depth and transient attack of live acoustic instruments. Gramophone says: "Sughayer’s exciting delivery has clarity, rhythmic precision, brilliant virtuosity and a translucent impressionism in the gentler passages."
Anton BRUCKNER Symphony No.2 in C minor (arr. Anthony Payne) Johann STRAUSS II Wein, Weib und Gesang, Op. 333 (arr. Alban Berg)
Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble/Trevor Pinnock (LINN RECORDS CKD 442 SACD)
This chamber arrangement of the Bruckner No. 2 is fresh, intimate, detailed and satisfying. Gramophone says: "The Scherzo’s Trio works especially well and there are times in the finale where the music takes flight in a way that I’ve virtually never heard in an orchestral performance (just get that piano). Those passages alone would deem the disc an enjoyable supplement to your existing Bruckner collection." I agree. The recording is state-of-the-art. The timbres, the dynamics, the 3-D soundscape are all great!
Berlioz: Harold En Italie, James Ehnes (viola), James Ehnes (violin)
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos 5155 SACD)
The Telegraph says: "James Ehnes, playing violin in the Rêverie et Caprice and switching to viola for Harold en Italie, is the protagonist in this all-Berlioz programme, but the disc is equally distinguished by the lucid, exhilarating, smoothly contoured playing of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under that experienced Berliozian Sir Andrew Davis." The recordings are crisp, focus, immediate and realistic. The bass lines are lifelike and the acoustic space is well captured.
Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 7 Symphony No.3, Op. 27 "Sinfonia Espansiva" Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo (BIS-2048 SACD)
I will only comment on the Symphony No. 3. Wow, the performance here is so intense, so impassioned and so riveting! As to sound quality, the soundscape is very wide and spacious. Instrument separation and imaging are excellent. The BIS engineers were able to reproduced a tactile, glowing sonics. Every textural detail was captured with palpable presence. The woodwinds are especially enchanting.
James MacMILLAN Sun-Dogs Visitatio Sepulchri Netherlands Radio Choir; Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic; Celso Antunes/James MacMillan (BIS 1719 SACD)
MusicWeb International rightly says: "The performances are absolutely superb. Both the playing and the singing are incisive and assured and I’m sure the composer will have been delighted with the results. ... The recorded sound is in the demonstration class, in every respect; in particular the percussion in Visitatio Sepulchri is recorded with stunning realism." Indeed, the recordings are very transparent, vivid, atmospheric and dynamic. Voices and musical instruments sounded lifelike in a reverberant space.
Anton Bruckner Symphony No.. 7 in E major, Mason Bates Resurrexit Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck
(Reference Recordings FR-757 SACD)
The Pittsburgh's performance of the 7th is dazzling. The recording provides a detailed, spacious, deep and wide soundscape. Fortissimos are awesome! The burnished orchestral sound holds the listener’s attention from beginning to end.
Gustav Mahler SACD 1 Adagio from Symphony No. 10; Symphony No. 8, Part I SACD 2 Symphony No. 8, Part II San Francisco Symphony Chorus; Pacific Boychoir; San Francisco Girl’s Chorus; San Francisco Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas (SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY 821936-0021-2 SACD)
The sound is brilliant, refined, full, rich, detailed, intense and very atmospheric. The big fugues are astonishingly clear, grand and exciting.
Lim Yunchan Chopin Etudes Op.10 and Op.25 (UHQCD + MQA-CD Japan Edition Decca UCCD-45027)
Wow! What a performance! His right-hand octaves are explosive, the tenor of his playing, earthshaking. The stretto playing in the left-hand is like gunshot. The audio quality is excellent for this edition.
Ludwig van Beethoven The Complete Symphonies Camilla Tilling (soprano), Kelley O’Connor (mezzo-soprano), Issachah Savage (tenor), Ryan McKinny (bass-baritone), The Washington Chorus, National Symphony Orchestra / Gianandrea Noseda (National Symphony Orchestra NSO 0013 SACD)
BBC Music says regarding Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3: "Gianandrea Noseda secures from the players an insistently singing sense of line that has this instrumentally-minded composer sounding like one of his more vocally inspired colleagues (for instance Schubert), while in no way short-changing the music’s rhythmic firepower. Tempos are brisk in a way that on the whole convinces: Noseda’s choice for the ‘Eroica’ Symphony’s Allegro con brio first movement feels satisfyingly right, as does the second movement’s ‘Marcia funebre: Adagio assai’, which comes across as it should – a slow march, not a comatose dirge. Noseda includes all the repeat sections indicated by Beethoven; the first movement of the ‘Eroica’ sounds all the more impressively spacious as a result."
The Sound Mirror’s Sobotka/Donahoe team have done a great job here, with its well spaced out soundscape, great imaging and strong bass line. I love the airy textures and the way the inner detail comes out very naturally.
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 Barber Violin Concerto, Op. 14 Renaud Capuçon (violin) Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Daniel Harding (Erato WPCS 13874 SACD, Japan Edition)
The Guardian says "Capuçon makes the start of the Sibelius a yearning oration, each note carefully placed, with the occasional little slide. It’s a meaty interpretation that’s matched by Daniel Harding's conducting: the big moments thrillingly punchy, the brass scything around the orchestra." Capucon's bowing is powerful, his cadenzas are immaculate, thrilling and with a gleaming tone. The violin sound was realistic, detailed and beautiful. The warmth of the acoustical space is nicely captured.
Live from The Cliburn: Liszt Transcendental Etudes Yunchan Lim (piano) (Steinway & Sons 30217)
This performance of the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Yunchan Lim is absolutely stunning and electrifying! Gramophone rightly says: "In this young pianist's hands you will hear one of the finest-ever performances of the 12 Transcendental Studies, and I include all those made in the studio or captured, as here, live in front of an audience without a safety net. To play this ferociously demanding music with such technical perfection and poetic insight in any concert performance is something, but to do so while taking part in the semi-finals of a major international piano competition is nothing short of miraculous.” The recording is state-of-the-art.
Tchaikovsky The Seasons; Bruce Liu, piano (Deutsche Grammophon UCCG 45102; Hi-Resolution CD - MQA + UHQCD Japan Edition)
The pianist's playing is exquisite, polished, musical and free of mannerisms. His dynamic shadings are subtle. His voicing, phrasing and shaping are all excellent. The sound quality is great. Timbres are spot-on
Bent Sørensen Fragments of Requiem; Johannes Ockeghem Missa Pro Defunctis; Ars Nova Copenhagen/Paul Hillier (Dacapo 6.220571 SACD)
BBC Music correctly pointed out that "Sorensen specifies the positioning of the choir and individual voices: the outstanding performances and recording vividly bring out this spatial aspect of the music in both SACD and stereo." The sound is lifelike and the soundstage is deep and pleasingly resonant. Articulations are excellent.
Tchaikovsky The Seasons; Bruce Liu, piano (Deutsche Grammophon UCCG 45102; Hi-Resolution CD - MQA + UHQCD Japan Edition)
The pianist's playing is exquisite, polished, musical and free of mannerisms. His dynamic shadings are subtle. His voicing, phrasing and shaping are all excellent. The sound quality is great. Timbres are spot-on
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 Sinfonia of London/John Wilson (Chandos CHSA 5351 SACD)
To me, this is the best Symphony No. 1 (both in performance and sound quality) in my collection! Gramophone say it all: "The hand-picked players of his Sinfonia of London are thrilling in [the] big moments, a relatively small ensemble conjuring the heftiest sonorities." The strings and the brass here possesses unusually rich tones. Dynamics are explosive!
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 Sinfonia of London/John Wilson (Chandos CHSA 5351 SACD)
To me, this is the best Symphony No. 1 (both in performance and sound quality) in my collection! Gramophone say it all: "The hand-picked players of his Sinfonia of London are thrilling in [the] big moments, a relatively small ensemble conjuring the heftiest sonorities." The strings and the brass here possesses unusually rich tones. Dynamics are explosive!
Saint-Saëns Sonates (Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 75; Violin Sonata No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 102; Fantaisie for violin & harp, Op. 124; Berceuse in B flat major Op. 38) Cecilia Zilliacus (violin), Christian Ihle Hadland (piano), Stephen Fitzpatrick (harp) (BIS 2489 SACD)
This album is a gem! There is fire and there is ice and there is beauty here. Zilliacus' virtuosity is amazing! The sounds are so alive, transparent, three-dimensional, gorgeous and enticing.
This is a 2024 recording of the Requiem performed by the Pygmalion Ensemble & Raphael Pichon on historically (mis)informed instruments. Unusually and refreshingly for a historically misinformed performance, vibrato is allowed, screeching is disallowed, and bass is welcome. The performance is very good overall (IMO); keep in mind however that Pichon intersperses additional pieces (which one can edit out when listening to the file). It is also a very fast performance, but not at the expense of expressivity. And of course, it is well recorded! On Harmonia Mundi
