Kammerflimmern 2004

This Covent Garden performance has transferred to video and DVD remarkably successfully, partly because the singing and acting of the principals is so good, but chiefly because conductor Georg Solti finds an excellent balance between sharp characterisation and sumptuous romance; between wit and mischief on the one hand and profound feelings on the other. Though sensitive to its beauties, Solti keeps the music moving along, never becoming sloppy or over-indulgent.

The wonderful timbres of original Baroque instruments and the vigorous period interpretations by Paul Dombrecht and Il Fondamento go far to make this 2004 release a delightful listening experience, even if Johann Friedrich Fasch's music falls short of genius. Not that Fasch was considered a mediocrity in his time: despite his later reputation as a modest Prussian kapellmeister, he was widely traveled, well-educated, and popular in his youth; and he enjoyed the benefits brought by continued publication of his Ouvertures, even after settling down in Zerbst in 1722.

On his first solo-piano CD, dedicated to the pioneering bandleader James Reese Europe, Sample demonstrates his jazz cred with a mastery of stride and ragtime. Save for reflective and expansive reprises of hits "Spellbound" and "Soul Shadows," Sample delves into early 20th Century pop and Tin Pan Alley standards. The supple, southern syncopations on Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" and Jelly Roll Morton's sizzling "Shreveport Stomp" offer evidence of Sample's strong left hand and the elegance of his improvisations, mixing blues feeling, Creole rhythms, and elements of the European classics.