Elvis Presley may be the single most important figure in American 20th century popular music. Not necessarily the best, and certainly not the most consistent. But no one could argue with the fact that he was the musician most responsible for popularizing rock & roll on an international level…
Despite their legendary status, the Police only released five albums during their brief reign from 1978-1983. In addition, the trio had amassed a healthy amount of both studio and live B-sides, plus songs that only appeared on soundtracks. For the 1993 four-CD box set Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings, every single song the Police ever recorded is included. All the tracks were digitally remastered for the project, sounding superior to the original CD versions of the single albums. Also included is a 68-page booklet that includes an interesting (and often humorous) biography, a time line, and notes from all three bandmembers regarding the rarities that appear for the first time on compact disc here.
Daishin Kashimoto, a Japanese national born in London who studied at the Juilliard when barely in long trousers, started prodigiously young – he gave his first full recital aged nine and has scooped most of the world's top violin prizes. Today he is first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He also has a lively career as soloist and chamber musician. His clean, elegant tone and peerless accuracy suit these Beethoven sonatas, requiring digital precision in, say, the early "classical" Op 12 set or the witty, tail-chasing Scherzo of the C minor, Op 30 No 2. In contrast he easily embraces the big-boned ambitions of the Kreutzer Sonata Op 47, never sounding forced. Konstantin Lifschitz is a sympathetic, alert partner, even if the recording seems to favour the violin perhaps more than Beethoven would have expected. But the musicianship is never in question.