Album Reviews
Dutch Jazz Orchestra: Moon Dreams (Challenge) £12.72
Here's an unusual and engaging record – wonderful arrangements by Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans brought back to life by a superb repertory orchestra.
The scores were originally written for the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in the late '40s, a band that had a sound all of its own, and reviving them makes for some wonderful music. It's resourceful and full of light and shade. Numbers such as Moondreams, The Happy Stranger and Brew's Tune are superbly performed. There are fine solos from tenorman Simon Rigter and trumpeter Ruud Breuls. AV
Vassilis Tsabroupolos: The Promise (ECM) 12.72
Tsabroupolos divides his time between jazz and classical, and there are moments here where his poise and interpretative skills brings them together.
It's a solo piano recital, and in its quiet way, is absorbing. Tsabroupolos has a phenomenal technique, but here he delivers performances that have a stripped-down quality. The 11 tracks are perfectly-crafted miniatures, with subtle harmonic progressions. It has moments of great beauty, even though a sense of formality hovers over the proceedings here and there. AV
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15 Mariinsky SACD MAR0502 13.70
Conductor Valery Gergiev, is a man of the theatre, who can create the most dramatic and hyper-charged symphonic performances. Yet in this first disc of a new Shostakovich cycle, it is the quiet moments he draws from the Mariinsky Orchestra that make it so special.
His tempos are ideal and the internal balance within the orchestra speaks volumes of the meticulous preparation that has taken place. There are dozens of alternative version, but this is my top recommendation by a large margin, and the sound is stunning. DD
Britten: Songs Harmonia Mundi HMU907443 13.70
Two major song cycles, The Holy Sonnets of John Donne and Winter Words share the disc with arrangements of music by Henry Purcell and British folksongs. Mark Padmore comes in the lineage of the great Britten interpreters, his voice seemingly tailor-made to that special quality on which the music thrives.
The Donne Sonnets are as technically demanding as anything in the tenor repertoire, Padmore making them electrifying and at the same time beautifully lyrical. Helping him shape the music to perfection is pianist, Roger Vignoles. DD
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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