The Square

Craig Morris, former principal trumpet player of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has recorded brilliant solo trumpet versions of three Philip Glass classics. Morris’s new recording features works ranging from Glass’s constantly shifting Melodies (1995) to the driving minimalist rhythms and figures of Gradus (1968) and Piece in the Shape of a Square (1967). Melodies was written as incidental music for a play based on the novel, Un Captif Amoureux (Prisoner of Love) by the French author Jean Genet. Glass’s thirteen melodies cover a wide range of emotion, from touching and introspective to joyous and dancing. The visual element of Piece in the Shape of a Square, is much more a part of the composition than it is in Gradus. The music is set up in a roughly 10’ square, with one performer on the inside of the square and one performer on the outside. The performer on the inside moves around the square in a clockwise direction, while the performer on the outside moves around in a counterclockwise direction. Virtuoso trumpeter Craig Morris plays both parts on this fascinating recording.

Despite the bald-faced references to bootlegs in the title, this is a totally legit four-CD box set release of live 1967-1970 Doors from numerous shows, all of it previously unissued…

T-Square (originally known as The Square and also known on numerous occasions as T-Square Plus, T-Square Super Band, and T-Square Super Special Band) is a Japanese jazz fusion band formed in 1978. They became famous in the late 1970s and early 1980s along with other Japanese jazz bands. They are known for songs such as "Truth", "Japanese Soul Brothers", "Takarajima", "Omens of Love", among others. "Truth" has been used as the theme for Fuji Television's Formula One coverage from 1989 to 2000 and since 2012. A special arrangement, "Truth 21c", was used as the theme for Japan's F1 2001 and 2002, respectively, and other remixes were used from 2003 to 2006.

A fusion instrumental band from Japan, they greeted the world with their proud debut in 1976. In 1978, their debut album "Lucky Summer Lady" was released. They have released more than 30 original albums to date. They exude energy abroad; after their initial performance in 1994, they carried out four more performances all around Asia, particularly in Korea. Yet other than an album release in the United States and the lah Eve tour, their popularity has never stretched worldwide. In 1989 due to activity in the U.S.A, they changed their band name to "T-Square". In 2003, they celebrated their 25th anniversary and formed "The Square" once again…

It is a hefty box in every sense: 13 CDs, supplemented with two DVDs, accompanied by a gorgeous hardcover book and a variety of tchotchkes, including a poster that traces the twisted family trees and time lines of the band and, just as helpfully, replicas of legal documents that explain why the group didn't retain rights to its recordings for years…

The good news is this recording of Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony is in the same class as the best ever made. The even better news is it's the start of a projected series of recordings of all the Soviet master's symphonies. Vasily Petrenko has demonstrated before this disc that he is among the most talented of young Russian conductors with superb recordings of Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony and of selected ballet suites. But neither of those recordings can compare with this Eleventh. Paired as before with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Petrenko turns in a full-scale riot of a performance that is yet tightly controlled and cogently argued. Said to depict the failed revolution of 1905, Shostakovich's Eleventh is not often treated with the respect it deserves, except, of course, by Yevgeny Mravinsky, the greatest of Shostakovich conductors whose two accounts have been deemed the most searing on record. Until now: Petrenko respects the composer's score and his intentions by unleashing a performance of staggering immediacy and violence, a virtuoso performance of immense drama, enormous tragedy, and overwhelming power.

Among the great instrumental composers who were active in Italy in the 18th century, Giuseppe Tartini (Pirano d’Istria, 1692 - Padova, 1770) is the one who most explicitly focussed his production on his own chosen instrument, the violin, neglecting genres that in his day were very popular. 135 violin concertos and about 200 sonatas for violin and basso continuo form, in fact, the main bulk of his output. The Arte dell’Arco ensemble, who have met with great success with this series, measure themselves once again with Tartini’s beautiful and difficult concertos, all works recorded here for the first time.