This is an excellent Mahler Ninth. It does not feature the tortured anguish of Bernstein (Sony & DG), the elegant pain of Giulini (DG), or the stately gloom of Walter (Sony), but, like Libor Pesek (Virgin Classics), it successfully straddles more than a few fences. But "straddling fences" does not imply it's middle-of-the-road–it is, in fact, more middle-of-the-night. Dohnányi often makes inner voices turn disruptive, yet coaxes the strings to sound both sweet and eerie in their heavy use of portamento; and he is scrupulous in extracting just about every last meaningful detail in this monumental work.
Released in time for the 21st anniversary of the Rolling Stones' 1995 live album Stripped, Eagle Rock's Totally Stripped package focuses on the visual element. At its simplest, it's a CD/DVD set, with the DVD containing a documentary following the Stones through studio sessions and rehearsals for their club shows in London, Amsterdam, and Paris, while a super deluxe set contains Blu-rays of the full concerts of each of these gigs. In each incarnation, the CD cherry-picks highlights from these live shows, presenting 13 previously unheard performances plus recycling a "Street Fighting Man" initially released on Stripped.
The '60s pop outfit the Happenings enjoyed a three-year run of several hit singles late in the decade. Formed in 1961 in Patterson, NJ, the group has seen their lineup change from time to time, but founding member/lead singer Bob Miranda has been a constant member through it all…
The album, simply called "The Witcher (Music from the Netflix Original Series)," was arranged for the series by Swiss-Italian composer Giona Ostinelli and Russian-born American producer Sonya Belousova.