Mrz 1995 Hamburg

Tocotronic - Digital Ist Besser
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 561 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Rock-O-Tronic Records # RTR. 004 | Country/Year: Germany 2007, 1995
Genre: Rock | Style: Indie Rock, German Alternative, Hamburger Schule

Tocotronic is a German rock band founded in 1993 (see 1993 in music). Similar to Blumfeld or Die Sterne they are considered a part of the Hamburger Schule (School of Hamburg) movement. They are influential for bands such as Wir sind Helden. (…) Despite never being overly commercially successful, Tocotronic have a steady fanbase in Germany and their records are regularly reviewed in mainstream newspapers and music magazines alike.

The Penguin Guide (a classical cd review bible) gave this recording three stars, their highest rating. I agree (and was actually suprised to find that they had reviewed it). It has perfect sound and the performance is clean and lively and just-right sounding in terms of pacing and character. These are the earliest works Haydn composed (when he was 25), and they are full of creative melody and unique turns of phrase (and the classical music equivalent of 'hooks'), and also long, beautiful (often minor key) slow movements often reaching to and beyond 9 and 10 minutes in length.

The concept of The Romantic Piano Concerto series was born at a lunch meeting between Hyperion and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra sometime in 1990. A few months later tentative plans had been made for three recordings, and the first volume, of concertos by Moszkowski and Paderewski, was recorded in June 1991. In our wildest dreams, none of us involved then could ever have imagined that the series would still be going strong twenty years later, and with fifty volumes to its credit.