SACD

Bryan Ferry – These Foolish Things (1973) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2015] [SACD / Virgin – UIGY-9684]

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Bryan Ferry - These Foolish Things (1973) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2015]

Title: Bryan Ferry – These Foolish Things (1973) [Japanese Limited SHM-SACD 2015]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Much like his contemporary David Bowie, Ferry consolidated his glam-era success with a covers album, his first full solo effort even while Roxy Music was still going full steam. Whereas Bowie on Pin-Ups focused on British beat and psych treasures, Ferry for the most part looked to America, touching on everything from Motown to the early jazz standard that gave the collection its name. Just about everyone in Roxy Music at the time helped out on the album — notable exceptions being Andy Mackay and Brian Eno. The outrageous take on Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” with Ferry vamping over brassy female vocals, sets the tone for things from the start. All this said, many of the covers aim for an elegant late-night feeling not far off from the well-sculpted Ferry persona of the ’80s and beyond, though perhaps a touch less bloodless and moody in comparison. In terms of sheer selection alone, meanwhile, Ferry’s taste is downright impeccable. There’s Leiber & Stoller via Elvis’ “Baby I Don’t Care,” Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party” (with narrative gender unchanged!), Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears,” and more, all treated with affection without undue reverence, a great combination. Ferry’s U.K. background isn’t entirely ignored, though, thanks to two of the album’s best efforts — the Beatles’ “You Won’t See Me” and the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” Throughout Ferry’s instantly recognizable croon carries everything to a tee, and the overall mood is playful and celebratory. Wrapping up with a grand take on “These Foolish Things” itself, this album is one of the best of its kind by any artist.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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SACD

Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Wagner: Die Meistersinger (2013) [SACD / Channel Classics – CCS SA 32713]

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Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer - Wagner: Die Meistersinger (2013)

Title: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Wagner: Die Meistersinger (2013)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO

Performances of the music of Richard Wagner will for many be associated with Ivбn Fischer’s elder brother Adam who has conducted complete Ring cycles at Bayreuth & in Budapest. Those, however, who follow the concert schedules of Ivбn Fischer & his phenomenally hard working Budapest Festival Orchestra will know that they have performed the Wagner programme featured on this SACD – or variations on it – to great acclaim in many of the major European cities over the past couple of years.

hraudio | allmusic 

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SACD

Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Dvorak: Symphonies 8 & 9 (2010) [SACD / Channel Classics – CCS SA 90110]

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Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer - Dvorak: Symphonies 8 & 9 (2010)

Title: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Dvorak: Symphonies 8 & 9 (2010)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

As orchestras and conductors have been demonstrating for more than a century, you don’t have to be Bohemian to play Dvorák. All you need is profound musicality, a deep love of life, and an overwhelming urge to communicate. These are all qualities that Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra demonstrate in full in this 2000 Channel Classics recording of the composer’s Eighth and Ninth symphonies. In these performances, one hears not only edge-of-the-chair excitement from the Hungarian musicians, one hears joy, happiness, and good old-fashioned fun. Listen to the rollicking horn trills in the Eighth’s Finale, the thundering timpani in the Ninth’s Scherzo; the interplay between winds, strings, and brass in the coda of the Eighth’s Scherzo; the lush string tone in the Ninth’s Largo; the headlong rush of the Eighth’s opening Allegro con brio; or the awesome power of the Ninth’s closing Allegro con fuoco. Although there are dozens of great recordings of both these works, these performances deserve to be heard by anyone who loves life, love, and joy. While the digital sound is a bit thin, it is also very clear, very clean, and very, very colorful.

hraudio | discogs

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SACD

Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 6 (2014) [SACD / Channel Classics – CCS SA 30710]

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Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer - Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 6 (2014)

Title: Budapest Festival Orchestra, Ivan Fischer – Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 6 (2014)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO

Two fundamentally different symphonies: both works explore feelings from an entirely different point of view. The Fourth is about human feelings and moods: obsession, love (what a melody in the second movement!), happiness, fun, wit, (Beethoven’s most humorous finale!). The Sixth is about feelings that nature awakens in us: calmness, meditation, thankfulness.It has been an especially creative process to work on these masterpieces. We discovered that the Fourth Symphony sounds better with natural horns and trumpets. In the Pastorale we used a different seating arrangement, with the winds scattered among the strings, so that each soloist was surrounded by musicians playing the flow of Beethoven’s nature music. After the storm, when we hear the first tentative horn call with a bagpipe-like accompaniment, suggesting signals across the mountains, we found it appropriate to answer with a solo violin, which is gradually joined by the whole orchestra. Iván Fischer

hraudio | nativedsd | discogs

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SACD

Bruno Walter & New York Philharmonic/Columbia Symphony Orchestra – Schubert/Beethoven: Symphonies (1999) [SACD / Sony Classical – SS 06506]

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Bruno Walter & New York Philharmonic/Columbia Symphony Orchestra - Schubert/Beethoven: Symphonies (1999)

Title: Bruno Walter & New York Philharmonic/Columbia Symphony Orchestra – Schubert/Beethoven: Symphonies (1999)
Genre: Classical
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Just like the other three Bruno Walter releases in Sony Classical’s current crop of SACD reissues, this classic Beethoven/Schubert coupling benefits from the DSD transfer, which reproduces as faithfully as possible the musical content of the original reel-to-reel master tapes. The reviewers have noted elsewhere, the cost is a small amount of tape hiss, eminently preferable to the so-called “no noise” digital editing which tampers with the musical signal as it tries to remove noise. Here is a transfer which presents the original intentions of the artists in the best possible light, capturing the acoustic signature of the recording venue (American Legion Hall in Hollywood) perfectly — warm, reverberent, yet transparent, ideally matching Bruno Walter’s interpretive idiom.

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SACD

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Nott – Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (2016) [SACD / Exton – OVCL-608]

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Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Nott - Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (2016)

Title: Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Nott – Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 (2016)
Genre: Classical
Format: SACD ISO

Jonathan Nott, who has served as music director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra since 2014, has released his first CD. Two years after taking up his post, this duo has enjoyed a honeymoon period of frequent collaborations. Now, they have finally released their first live recording. The beautiful sound of the strings leads the listener to heavenly heights. The woodwinds play with elegance. The brass section produces a powerful yet rich sound. Jonathan Nott’s meticulously crafted interpretation of Bruckner combines heavenly sounds with sensual and intense tones. While the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has previously delivered remarkable Bruckner performances under the guidance of conductors like Hubert Soudant, this recording builds on that legacy with an even more intense and thrilling sound.

hraudio 

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