Lara St. John - Gypsy (1997) [Reissue 2004]SACD Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 66:29 minutes | Front/Rear Covers | 1,85 GB
or DSD64 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Front/Rear Covers | 1,63 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/44,1 kHz | Front/Rear Covers | 615 MB
Lara St. John is a fabulous Canadian violin player. In this entertaining collection, she plays freely and on a very large scale, just what gypsy music requires. It may not take much intellect to play Waxman's Carmen Fantasy (I like Sarasate's better, anyway). But it does take intellect, and lots more, to play Bartók's Second Rhapsody as convincingly as she does here, with the very assertive collaboration of Ilan Rechtman. St. John doesn't make the difficulties of Ravel and Sarasate sound easy, but both musicians play with such flair it doesn't matter. Rechtman's gypsy arrangements are goofy and enjoyable. The recording on this SACD is world-class and of audiophile quality. Wide-range sound.