Marriner Emi

Tout le monde connaît Les Noces de Figaro selon Giulini ? Le studio de 1959 chez Emi peut-être, mais sûrement pas ce rare concert du 6 février 1961, joyau de poésie et de vivacité où se surpasse une distribution de rêve.

To commemorate the great composer's birthday, today 200 years ago.

Blues guitarist David Gogo was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, and received his first guitar at the age of five (having been given a ukulele the year before). He honed his skills for the next decade and, by the age of 16, he was gaining work as a professional musician. Inspired by a meeting with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gogo became even more committed, forming a the Persuaders, which went from a post-high school band to one that was soon opening for acts like Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins. Following a stint in Europe which found the Persuaders opening for the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Gogo signed a solo deal with EMI Records. While writing material for his debut, Gogo managed to find time to appear on Tom Cochrane's highly successful Mad Mad World album.

These are modern, big band, 21st-century readings of Brahms’s Second and Fourth Symphonies. Textures are clear and transparent, so that we hear details of inner voices and the felicities of the composer’s wind-writing for flutes and oboes. Timpani are also quite prominent. Tempos, especially in the Second Symphony’s first movement, strike me as a bit on the measured side, but still within the mainstream.