68 Vol 2

Once again, the piano duo of Goldstone and Clemmow has discovered works transcribed for piano, four-hands that are sure to fascinate not only fans of piano duets, but also those of the original composer. Through observant reading of a biography of Schubert, the team realized that transcriptions had been made of some of his chamber music by one Josef von Gahy. Gahy was one of Schubert's closest friends in Vienna, a civil servant, and very accomplished amateur pianist. Gahy frequently played Schubert's piano music at evening Schubertiades, but more importantly, Gahy and Schubert often played duets at the piano together.

The Best of the Alan Parsons Project, Vol. 2 typically picks up where its predecessor left off. With 11 tracks covering seven albums, including Gaudi, Stereotomy, and Vulture Culture, the songs here are a tad weaker than those on the first collection, since some of the albums that these songs originate from were not of this band's finest caliber. The highlights here include both "Prime Time" and "Don't Answer Me" from Ammonia Avenue, and the provocative instrumental "I Robot," the only non-vocal track on the album. All of the selections on this package convey their purpose much better within their former albums, since each song is a link in the album's conceptual chain.

GRAMOPHONE Magazine Editor's Choice - February 2016. dB Productions celebrate the 150th anniversary of Carl Nielsen with two CD volumes of his music! Featured again on this second volume is one of Sweden’s leading violinists, Cecilia Zilliacus, in Nielsen’s violin concerto. The Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra is conducted by young rising star, Daniel Blendulf.

Includes the albums Hum & Strum Along (1959), Mister Guitar (1959), After The Riot at Newport (1960), Teensville (1960), The Other Chet Atkins (1960), Chet Atkins Workshop (1960), Most Popular Guitar (1961) and Christmas with Chet Atkins (1961).

Various Artists - Sweet Dreams: Where Country Meets Soul Vol. 2 (2013) {Ace Records CDKEND 395}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks) +CUE+LOG -> 449 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 190 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 31 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Ace Records / Kent Records | CDKEND 395
Country / Soul / R&B / Country Soul / Southern Soul

Sweet Dreams: Where Country Meets Soul, Ace's second dip into the country-soul well, is every bit as good as its 2012 predecessor. Basically, it's cut from the same cloth as the first volume, concentrating on recordings from the late '60s but stretching deep into the '70s (Millie Jackson's "Sweet Music Man" dates from 1977), with Ted Taylor's 1962 "I'll Release You" and Orquestra Was' 1996 "Forever's a Long, Long Time Ago" functioning as de facto ringers. "Forever's a Long, Long Time Ago" may fit aesthetically but certainly not sonically, as it's a crisp digital blast on a collection devoted to warm, lush, analog soul.

Masaaki Suzuki was an organist before he was a conductor, and his recordings of Bach's organ works have made a delightful coda to his magisterial survey of Bach cantatas with his Bach Collegium Japan. This selection, the second in a series appearing on the BIS label, gives a good idea of the gems available. You get a good mix of pieces, including a pair of Bach's Vivaldi transcriptions. Fans of Suzuki's cantata series will be pleased to note the similarities in his style between his conducting and his organ playing: there's a certain precise yet deliberate and lush quality common to both. And he has a real co-star here: the organ of the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel, built in 1983 by French maker Marc Garnier. The realizations of Bach's transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos fare especially well here, with a panoply of subtle colors in the organ. Sample the first movement of the Concerto in D minor, BWV 596, with its mellow yet transcendently mysterious tones in the string ripieni. BIS backs Suzuki up with marvelously clear engineering in the small Japanese chapel, and all in all, this is a Bach organ recording that stands out from the crowd. Highly recommended.