Denon Digital Sound

The digital sound on the Budday CDs is excellent, catching the details of the soloists, choir, and orchestra as if it were a studio recording, but with the added atmosphere of a live hall - it sounds absolutely great in my listening room (using Yamaha 200W amp, ADS 9 speakers, and Denon CD player equipment). The Mackerras recording has great studio sound which I would characterize as detailed and full, but less atmospheric since it's ADD and not live. It also sounds a little "closer", which is an artifact of being a studio recording.

This extraordinary pianist studied the piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Emil Gilels and Yakov Zak…

If you don't already know Portuguese pianist Maria-João Pires, there's every reason to get this two-disc set. There's the exquisite beauty of her Mozart F major Sonata from 1990, the restless intimacy of her Schubert Drei Klavierstücke from 1997, the unbearable intensity of her Chopin Nocturnes from 1995, the reckless fervor of her Schumann Concerto with Claudio Abbado leading the Chamber Orchestra of Europe from 1997, and the transcendent rapture of her Mozart A major Concerto with Frans Brüggen leading the Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg from 1995.

Few chamber music groups have as proud a history as the Smetana Quartet, or a history that evokes as much nationalistic passion. Founded during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, the group's very existence was an anomaly during an era when any manifestation of Czech nationalism was outlawed. They survived into the post-Nazi era, and went on to an acclaimed international performing career, making some of the finest chamber music recordings of the 1950s and 1960s…

Claudio Abbado’s 1981 performance of Berlioz’s Te Deum for three choruses and pipe organ easily outranks the handful of widely-available recordings of the work. Abbado’s closest competitor is 1969’s Sir Colin Davis with similar London forces on Philips, but Davis’ tenor soloist does not have the solid heroic quality of Mexican tenor Francisco Araiza, and Davis’ choirs are a little more recessed (although Abbado’s is not miked particularly close either), in particular the almost lost sound of Davis’ boys choirs which cut through forcefully in Abbado. In addition, Abbado moves purposefully forward through Berlioz’s treacherous choral/orchestral writing, whereas Davis takes his time, perhaps allowing more time for climactic build-up; however, I find Berlioz’s talent with choral writing was not his particular forte as it is not particularly melodic or thoughtful for singers, so I appreciate Abbado’s fluid, forward momentum.

What happens when an orchestra that is so determined to break the barriers of big band and what jazz should be, attempts to take on the greatest and holiest of Jazz works? Why, you’d get 1977’s grand masterpiece Toshiyuki Miyama & The New Herd’s Orchestrane: New Herd Plays John Coltrane. This has been one of my absolute favourite discoveries of 2020 and I’m surprised it’s not talked about more. Miyama and band are well known for their adventurous experiments with the big band sound and concept even reaching as far out as free jazz on occasion. However on Orchestrane, they pay respects to the source material by being more restrained yet injecting new life into these timeless classics. Far from derivative perhaps even a giant step for big bands and orchestras in the modern age.