Album Reviews
Freddie Hubbard: Without a Song: Live in Europe 1969 (Blue Note) £12.72
Here's a wonderful find – previously unissued performances by the great trumpeter at the peak of his form. Hubbard's playing is a marvel. His swagger, drive and energy light up a programme of mostly standards, and the quality of his solos is of a uniformly high quality. His charge through A Night in Tunisia is exhilarating, and his ballad work on The Things We Did Last Summer is deeply felt. A top-drawer trio of pianist Roland Hanna, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Louis Hayes is superb in its backing. Warmly recommended. AV
Sean Jones: The Search Within (Mack Avenue) 12.72
Jones has consistently grown in stature throughout his records for Mack Avenue, and The Search Within is another satisfying listen. He's a young trumpeter who covers a lot of bases, and here he moves from driving swingers to rockish grooves via pensive ballads. He's on fine form, though he sounds most at home on the uptempo Transitions and Sean Jones's Comes Down. There is good support from pianist Orrin Evans and altoist Brian Hogans. One or two of the original ballads are a bit too mournful, but overall, it's an enjoyable CD. AV
Strauss: Guntram (Sony, 2CDs) 13.70
Though written under the influence of Wagner, Richard Strauss' first opera, composed when he was just 20, is on the theme of good triumphing over evil, with the heroic Guntram and his love of Freihild. Poor storyline, but we have glimpses of the Strauss to follow, and with the great heldentenor, Reiner Goldberg, breathing life into the name part, and a fine Hungarian cast, including the soprano Ilona Tokody, it could not hope for a more persuasive performance, Respectable mid-1980s sound but poor accompanying booklet. DD
Handel: Clori, Tirsi e Fileno (Glossa GCD 921525) 13.70
Appearing on Sunday at the York Early Music Festival, the French-based instrumental group, La Risonanza, continue their acclaimed series of Handel's Italian Cantatas, works that marked the beginning of his career. Clori, Tirsi e Fileno is a lyric rural story of love, inhabited by shepherds and shepherdesses, the period instruments of Risonanza magnifying its inherent beauty, while in Roberta Invernizzi they have a soprano soloist of rare elegance. The sound is superb and the whole disc a jewel among Baroque releases. DD
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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