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DIVERSIONS
DAVID SNELL Chamber Music for Harp: This really should be billed as a Skaila Kanga release since Snell is the featured composer but Kanga is actually the leader and featured player. Snell is like an English harp version of Andre Previn as Snell is at home in jazz, classics or film scoring and can be found taking his harp to places you’ve only seen in dreams. Kanga is a skillful and fine interpreter putting the proper sheen on these works that make them equally at home in new age or classical ears. This is first class kind of recording that real music fans are always on the prowl for. Hot stuff.
24130
OTTO/Little Pieces: So who knew that long time John Stewart sidekick Jim Hoke was such a Zappa fan and that among his many talents was an appreciation of classical music? Rounding up three other like minded Nashvegasians, Hoke and company mix classics with Zappa and Talking Heads and originals and let the good times roll. Music making purely for the fun of it, this is a delightful new side to one of the hardest working men in show business.
62401
DIVINE ART
AVISON ENSEMBLE/Avison-Scarlatti: A double cd of the kind of devotion you just don’t find much in the stateside recording world. The Ensemble recreates on period instruments the recasting of the piano works of Scarlatti by Avison for concerto grossi. If that sounds like a mouthful now, it must have really been one back in the day when these guys were busy running around doing all that variations on a theme stuff. Stretching out on a collection of 12 concerti, the crew does a fine job of playing note perfect with passion. A solid diversion from warhorse repertoire for jaded ears looking for a new take on something reliable.
21213
SUSANNE BEER/Cello Diverse: The co-principal cellist for London Philharmonic steps out with a tour de force program in which she tackles everything from Debussy to Morricone with some Brahms and Stravinsky stops in between. A certainly diverse program, she brings those low tones to bear in a most stately fashion but isn’t afraid to unleash the funk when the passages call for it. Easily essential listening for ears wishing to push the limits of where classical music has been without cheapening it’s heritage.
25068
FAUST: Is this too cool or what? A 1920 recording of “Faust”, recorded at LaScala with a cast that has names that sound like something out of a Marx Brothers movie making fun of classical music. Well, call me Emmanuel Ravelli! A double disc set taking the whole performance in, released probably for the first time on cd. Any self respecting opera fans will want to grab a copy of this just for the bragging rights. Then, after while, they’ll probably get into the cool job of sonic restoration as well. Quite the dandy find for the real hard core opera fan.
27810 (Historic Sound)
METIER
CHRISTOPHER REDGATE/Oboe Music: Redgate surveys oboe music from Edwin Roxburgh’s last 40 years of composing here. A progressive thinking contemporary classical composer as well as a fine player, Roxburgh’s work is in fine hands with Redgate at the wheel. Showing the proper feeling to give life to the works, Redgate knows when to lead and when to pull back letting other soloists have the space to add to the proceedings. Solid source material, solid hands on, it all adds up to something special.
28508
Volume 31/Number 353
October 18, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
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