Hdtt

George Frideric Handel's "Alcina", "Ariodante" and "Il pastor Fido" (The Faithful Shepherd) were cornerstone of Sir Thomas Beecham’s so-called ‘lollipops’ and are beautifully rendered here. These recordings represent some of Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields with Sir Neville Marriner's earliest, dating from 1970 and 1971.

The Count Meets the Duke is an album by American pianists, composers and bandleaders Duke Ellington and Count Basie with their combined Orchestras recorded and released on the Columbia label in 1961. On stereo releases of the album, Basie's band is featured on the left channel and Ellington's on the right.

Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. was an American Latin jazz musician, known as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, even as he continued to perform the music of Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America for the rest of his life. "Soña Libré" is his 1963 album. Billboard magazine reviewed the album in their May 25, 1963 issue and wrote that on the album Tjader has "a solid collection of tracks that have swing and a quiet insistent sound".

"In a Latin Bag" is an album by American jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader featuring performances recorded in 1961 and released on the Verve label. AllMusic review stating "Cal Tjader recorded prolifically for Verve during the first half of the 1960s, though this is one of his lesser-known dates … it is well worth snapping up if found".

"Two of a Mind" is an album recorded by American jazz saxophonists Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan featuring performances recorded in 1962 which were released on the RCA Victor label. This is an album of great melodic interaction between Desmond and Mulligan. It's too bad that they did not perform more often with each other. But what the did give us, will have to do.

Composer, conductor, educator, and music theorist Howard Hanson (1896-1981) was, indeed, an “American romantic”. He was among the last of the breed, a kind of twentieth-century throwback to the nineteenth century, so you’ll find little of the avant-garde here, the experimental, the dissonant, the discordant, the odd, the atonal, or the eccentric. Yet as a prizewinning composer and director of the Eastman School of Music for over forty years, he continually championed new American music (Copland, Barber, Carter, Thomson, Sessions, Harris, etc.). On the present album, recorded over thirty years ago, released on the Albany label, and here remastered from the original tapes by HDTT (High Definition Tape Masters), we hear a lighter side of the composer, chamber and choral music mainly. It is not among his most-popular material nor is it his best, but some of it can be downright entertaining, and HDTT’s recording quality, as always, is excellent.

This recording, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, was made in 1961. Gould’s performance is thoughtful, nuanced, and not at all eccentric. What’s most striking about his playing is the degree to which he’s able to bring out the individuality of the contrapuntal lines. His performance is extremely graceful. The New York Philharmonic’s sound is warm and full, and the playing is absolutely secure. Gould’s characteristic humming is occasionally audible, but at such a low level that only the purist who demands absolutely clean sound is likely to be offended.