Mastermix Issue 473

Erik Satie - The Complete Solo Piano Music - Jean-Yves Thibaudet (2003) {5CD Box Set, Decca 473 620-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks) +CUE+LOG -> 951 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 916 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 50 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2002, 2003 Decca Music | 473 620-2
Classical / Fantasies / Chamber Music / Improvisation / Piano

Jean-Yves Thibaudet has undertaken the complete solo piano works of another late nineteenth/early twentieth century French composer: Erik Satie. This even includes a sample of Vexations, that theme and two variations that Satie instructs to be played slowly, 840 times. It's interesting to compare Thibaudet's interpretations of these works with those of Aldo Ciccolini, who was one of Thibaudet's teachers. Overall, Thibaudet gives a less-Romantic interpretation, with less overt emotion and more introverted abstraction, but it is not overly academic.

Alicia De Larrocha - The Art of Alicia De Larrocha (2003) {7CD Box Set Decca 473 813-2}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.07 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.26 Mb
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© 2003 Decca Music | 473 813-2
Classical / Piano / Orchestral

This splendid seven-disc set marks Alicia de Larrocha's 2003 retirement from the concert stage after an extraordinary career spanning more than seven decades. To many listeners, she is a peerless performer of Iberian (particularly Spanish and Catalan) music. Indeed, as her rendition of Manuel de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain demonstrates, this Catalan pianist brilliantly captures the indefinable magic and charm of Iberian music, revealing a timeless richness and depth that lesser artists, conforming to ideas of national style, often miss. It would be a mistake, however, to define de Larrocha as an "Iberian specialist." As this set demonstrates, her rich repertoire encompasses various traditions and a timespan from the late Baroque to the present, from Bach to Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002).

Tommy Flanagan - Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1978) {Galaxy OJCCD-473-2 rel 1990}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 188 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 93 Mb
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© 1978, 1990 Galaxy Records / Fantasy | OJCCD-473-2
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Piano

This is a typically flawless trio set from the tasteful and swinging bop-based pianist Tommy Flanagan. With the assistance of bassist Keter Betts and drummer Jimmie Smith on this CD reissue, Flanagan plays his original title cut and jazz originals by Thad Jones ("Bird Song"), Tadd Dameron, Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk ("Friday the 13th"), Wes Montgomery and Dizzy Gillespie. If Flanagan had not recorded so many equally rewarding sets during the past 20 years, this fine CD would have received a higher rating; virtually every one of his recordings is well worth picking up.