Gershwin Orchestral Work

Gemini Suite Live is a recording of Jon Lord's classical/rock piece Gemini Suite featuring the original Mark II band lineup of Deep Purple, recorded live during this one and only live performance in 1970. A follow up to their "Concerto" Project, it featured five movements for the individual members of the band, including a guitar piece from Blackmore.

Hyperion’s record of the month for January presents, for the first time, the original version of Delius’s Piano Concerto. Two years after completing this work in 1904, Delius recast it, rejecting the third movement and reorganizing other material. Perhaps thinking that the solo part wasn’t sufficiently pianistic, Delius also consulted a friend, the Busoni pupil Theodor Szántó, who rewrote the piano part in virtuoso style (with Delius’s ultimate approval). It is the Szántó version that has, until now, always been performed. With Delius’s original, characteristically refined orchestration also restored (from the orchestral parts that survive from the first performance in 1904), we can now hear this work as the composer envisaged before the involvement of another hand.

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra / Raymond Leppard - American Dreams: Barber's Adagio & Other American Romantic Masterpieces
Chadwick, Barber, Foote, Carpenter, Canning, Carmichael & Gershwin
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 230 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Decca # 458 157-2 | Country/Year: Europe 1999 | Genre: Classical

…Leppard and his Hoosiers nevertheless do an exquisite job on everything. The orchestral sound itself is beautiful, the shaping of phrases lovely and detailed, and the overall flow of each piece unimpeded. Leppard knows how to tell the musical tale, especially evident in the Gershwin, which can pall in less committed performances. Based on the Chadwick and Foote, I especially want to revisit Leppard's Dvorák and Tchaikovsky.

Billie Holiday - Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday On Columbia (1933-1944) [10CD Box] {2009 Columbia Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.74 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.42 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 243 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 88697538062
Jazz / Blues / Swing / Vocal

When Sony/Columbia began its ambitious Legacy reissue project, those who followed their jazz titles knew it was only a question of time before the massive Billie Holiday catalog under their ownership would see the light in its entirety. The question was how? Years before there was a host of box sets devoted to her material, but the sound on those left something to be desired. Would they remaster the material in two- or three-disc sets with additional notes? Would it be one disc at a time? Would the material be issued as budget or midline material or at full price? The last item could be ruled out based on the label's aggressive and very thorough packages of single discs by Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and others.