978 3 608 12256 5

G.F. Handel - Concerti grossi, Op. 3, Sonata a 5
Academy Of Ancient Music / Richard Egarr
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 336 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # HMU 907415 | Country/Year: Europe 2007
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

…and the whole production is superbly engineered and presented with Harmonia Mundi's usual care for every detail of production. It doesn't get any better.

In 1957, drummer Walter Perkins formed a quintet, the MJT + 3, that recorded four albums before breaking up in 1962. Walter Perkins was a longtime fixture in the Chicago jazz scene. He gained some recognition for playing with the Ahmad Jamal Trio during 1956-1957 (right before Jamal really caught on). A 1957 set for Argo led by Perkins (and also featuring trumpeter Paul Serrano, tenor saxophonist Nicky Hill, the young pianist Richard Abrams, and bassist Bob Cranshaw) used the name of MJT Plus 3. The better-known version of the band (with trumpeter Willie Thomas, altoist Frank Strozier, pianist Harold Mabern, and bassist Bob Cranshaw) recorded three albums for Vee-Jay during 1959-1960 and was popular for a time locally before breaking up in 1962.

Schnittke - Concerto Grosso No.3, Symphony No.5 - RCO, Chailly (1991) {Decca 430 698-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 264 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 140 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 81 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1991 Decca | 430 698-2
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Concerto / Symphony

Decca have sportingly given the competition 18 months' free run with Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 4/Symphony No. 5. But fine though the Gothenburg/Jarvi performance is, the new recording surpasses it. In Schnittke's world expressive urge and structural constraint will never unite in total wedded bliss, but in the Fifth Symphony (for short) the thing they produce is certainly bigger than the both of them. I won't rehearse the description I gave in my review of the BIS issue, save to say that it progresses from Stravinskian concerto grosso, through Mantovani-with-a-nervous-breakdown pastiche (based on the teenage Mahler's unfinished Piano Quartet) to full-blown tragic symphony echoing archetypes from Mahler's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies.

The Mariinsky label presents the recording of two of Prokofiev’s most popular works, Piano Concerto No 3 and Symphony No 5. Denis Matsuev features as soloist, in this his fourth recording on the Mariinsky label. Since winning the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 Matsuev has established a reputation as one of Russia’s leading pianists and is renowned for his interpretations of Russian music. His recordings of Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 3 Shostakovich Piano Concertos 1 & 2 and Tchaikovsky’s first two piano concertos, have all received considerable acclaim.