c d. Rose

Youngest son of J.S. Bach, Johann Christian Bach rose to prominence in England during the early Classical period much the same as his father dominated the German Baroque. His writing was influenced by his father, of course, but also by the fashions being explored by Haydn. J.C. Bach also served as a bridge to Mozart, whose work and early writings were also influenced by the junior Bach. A total of 15, three-movement symphonies were published under Opp. 6, 9, and 18.

Mendelssohn: Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2 (Istomin, Stern, Rose)
Apple Lossless (XLD) | Cue + Log | Sony Classical | 1 CD, 285 MB
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Chamber Music seems so right during the boisterous mechanics of the holidays and one sure respite from the garish noise of the external season can be found in works like the Mendelssohn Piano Trios.

Here Eugene Istomin, Leonard Rose, Isaac Stern perform Piano Trios 1 and 2 in a manner that bespeaks camaraderie of the performers as well as a complete respect for these luminous works. Some have called these works piano sonatas with obbligato and while for this listener that is an unfair judgment, Eugene Istomin plays the piano part with enough flair and thoughtful propulsion that he does at times sound the more important. But that is Mendelssohn's writing and not a self-aggrandizement of a pianist.

The overall sound is simply superb. These two trios are some of the loveliest ever written from that era and the gentlemen performing them offer sophisticated and informed interpretations. The recording is excellent, the music is rarefied! Highly recommended.

– Amazon.com [5-star] reviewer

All right, he's made a record with his wife and a record with his pickup band where democracy is allegedly the conceit even if it never sounds that way, so he returns to a solo effort, making the most disjointed album he ever cut. There's a certain fascination to its fragmented nature, not just because it's decidedly on the softer side of things, but because his desire for homegrown eccentricity has been fused with his inclination for bombastic art rock à la Abbey Roa…

k.d. lang's first major-label album (and debut American release) was a bit of a switch from the polished retro-country of her best-known work; with Dave Edmunds in the producer's chair, Angel with a Lariat often sounds more like rockabilly or roots rock than classic C&W, with a big, snappy drum sound, plenty of guitars mixed upfront, and lots of slapback of lang's vocals (a production decision lang mentioned with little enthusiasm several years after the album came out). "Turn Me Around" and "High Time for a Detour" rock significantly harder than most of lang's body of work, and "Watch Your Step Polka," "Diet of Strange Places," and "Tune Into My Wave" find lang and her band (who are in fine form throughout) indulging her sly sense of humor, which tended to get lost in the shuffle on later albums such as Ingénue.

The Anthology of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a recorded history of six decades of performances by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, taken from broadcasts contained in the archives of Dutch Radio and Radio Netherlands World Service. RCO Live has chosen not only legendary performances under chief conductors of the RCO but also concerts led by countless guest conductors of both greater and lesser renown. The sixth volume of the anthology features broadcasts from the 1990s, and presents a fascinating and colorful portrait of the orchestra s artistic development under various conductors during that period.