Popular Mehanics 2014

Hot Rize is one of the most influential and pioneering bluegrass bands of the last 35 years. In 1978, Hot Rize began conjuring up their addicting brand of Colorado bluegrass that honors the traditional while embracing their own influences of blues, country, and celtic music. They have influenced a wide range of popular artists such as Nickel Creek, Punch Brothers, Steve Martin, Yonder Mountain String Band, and Dierks Bentley. The group disbanded in 1990 to pursue solo careers and it has been over 24 years since their last studio album and major tour together. Hot Rize is Tim O’Brien (lead vocals and mandolin), Nick Forster (bass and vocals), Pete Wernick (banjo and vocals) and newest member Bryan Sutton (guitar and vocals) who replaced the late Charley Sawtelle after his death in 1999. Their new studio album, When I’m Free captures a group of incredibly talented veterans making some of the best music of their careers.

Johann Rosenmüller (1619-1684) was without a doubt the greatest German composer of his generation. He artfully combined elements of Italian and German styles to create distinctive and intensely beautiful music that sounds as fresh today as it did in the 17th century. Rosenmüller was born in southeastern Germany around 1619, just when the Thirty Years’ War was getting started. As a young man in 1640, Rosenmüller entered the University of Leipzig to study theology – a discipline that included music.

French soprano Patricia Petibon is known for recordings with ambitious, original programs, spaced several years apart. This is one of her most ambitious, and one of her best, even if some might find it a bit outrageous. Petibon approaches the French art song of the late 19th and 20th centuries from the perspective of popular song, suggesting that the boundary is blurry (noncontroversial in itself), and adding a few songs by Léo Ferré, the vastly underrated older contemporary of Jacques Brel. Where things start to get wild is not with the inclusion of popular songs, or even with the heavy emphasis on the music-hall rhythms of songs going back as far as Gabriel Fauré.

The debut album from Ariana Grande, 2013's Yours Truly, is a surprisingly sophisticated and unique showcase for the Nickelodeon sitcom star's soulful R&B vocals. As the character Cat Valentine on several Nickelodeon television shows including I Carly, Victorious, and Sam & Cat, Grande developed a huge fan following and the expectations were high for her debut album. Three years in the making and held up by numerous delays, Yours Truly lives up to those expectations. Produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Yours Truly is an impeccably engineered affair. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find a better platform for Grande's voice. A resonant singer gifted with a lithe affinity for both high-energy melisma and gentle balladry, Grande often brings to mind the intonations of Mariah Carey.

Tzimon Barto is recognised as one of the foremost American pianists of his generation. His new double-CD for Ondine features Paganini variations by three composers, Liszt, Brahms and Lutoslawski, and the popular Paganini Rhapsody Rachmaninov, on which Christoph Eschenbach conducts the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. The Schlewig-Holstein Festival Orchestra was founded by Leonard Bernstein in 1987. This recording is Tzimon Barto’s 5th Ondine release.