23094. (Hec­tor Berlioz) Les nuits d’été [s. Kiri te Kanawa]
23095. (Hec­tor Berlioz) Le mort de Cléopâtre, Scène lyrique [s. Norman]
23096. (Mem­phis Slim) Beer Drinkin’ Woman [Blues Col­lec­tion #13]
23097. (George Fred­er­ick Hän­del) Fara­mon­do, Opera in 3 Acts [d. Palmer; For­tu­na­to, Baird] Read more »

The sin­fo­nia con­cer­tante is a form that sits a lit­tle uncom­fort­ably between the sym­pho­ny and the con­cer­to. Instead of a solo instru­ment bat­tling hero­ical­ly with or against the orches­tra, a con­cer­tante of var­i­ous instru­ments (usu­al­ly three or four) play solo parts in con­ver­sa­tion against the back­drop of the orches­tra. This def­i­n­i­tion has fuzzy edges, and many works might be clas­si­fied as sin­fo­nia con­cer­tante which are named some­thing else. The term is usu­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the late baroque peri­od, and Haydn com­posed three of them. Among them is his Sin­fo­nia Con­cer­tante in B‑flat, Hob. I/105, com­posed in 1792, which is a fine exem­plar. Vio­lin, cel­lo, oboe and bas­soon per­form the “solo” roles in this one. The “con­ver­sa­tion” seems like a pleas­ant one, as if the instru­ments were relax­ing with brandy and cig­ars after a fine din­ner. The vio­la’s voice, par­tic­u­lar­ly, comes across as mel­low, but nev­er maudlin. In fact, I think the best time to lis­ten to this would be pre­cise­ly in those phys­i­cal circumstances.

23046. (Ella Fitzger­ald) Ella Fitzger­ald Sings the Gersh­win Songbook
23047. (Pat Methe­ny & Lyle Mays) As Falls Wichi­ta, So Falls Wichi­ta Falls
23048. (Albert King & Otis Rush) Door to Door Read more »

I’ve been fond of Juno Reac­tor’s eclec­tic elec­tronica since I first heard Beyond the Infi­nite in 1996. I’ve lis­tened to most of their albums fre­quent­ly, espe­cial­ly Bible of Dreams. But I pret­ty much for­got about their first release, Trans­mis­sions (1993). Revis­it­ing it now, I see why. It has lit­tle of the input from world musi­cal tra­di­tions that they became famous for. It now sounds pret­ty much like con­ven­tion­al trance poised some­where between dark­rave and goa trance. But in fact, it was a pio­neer­ing work from which these trends sub­se­quent­ly evolved. It still plays well, and does­n’t deserve to be entire­ly ignored, just because the group went on to devel­op a more sophis­ti­cat­ed sound. 

23000. (George Fred­er­ick Hän­del) Brock­es Pas­sion, Ora­to­rio Hvw.48 [d. McGe­gan; Klietman,
. . . . . Gáti]
23001. (Weath­er Report) Weath­er Report
23002. (Ram­sey Lewid Trio) The Best of the Ram­sey Lewis Trio Read more »

22975. (Arthur Sul­li­van, mus. & W. S. Gilbert, text) The Mika­do [D’Oy­ly Carte; Ayl­don, Wright]
22976. (Purrkur Pill­nikk) Ehgji En
22977. (Jo Basile) Vienesse Waltzes for Accordion
22978. (Sun­na Gunnlaugs) The Dream Read more »

22953. (George Fred­er­ick Hän­del) Bels­haz­zar, Ora­to­rio [d. Knothe; Schreier, Frank-Reinecke,
. . . . . Treck­el-Burkhardt, Pohl]
22954. (7 Sec­onds) 7 Seconds
22955. (Youth Lagoon) The Year of Hiber­na­tion Read more »

22924. (Dead Kennedys) Spend July 4th With Dead Kennedys [Live at Cen­tral Lon­don Poly,Nov 26 . . . . . 1982] (released 1992)
22925. (Bing Cros­by) Bing Cros­by with Paul White­man Orchestra
22926. (Adele) iTunes Live from SoHo
22927. (Rasta­fari Elders) Rasta­fari Elders Read more »

22906. (Jimi Hen­drix) Band of Gypsys
22907. (Frank Zap­pa) Jazz from Hell
22908. (Cramps) Songs The Lord Taught Us
(Feodor Chali­apin) Feodor Ivanovich Chali­apin Sings: Read more »