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One of the advantages of writing about LPs and turntables for the last 18 years is that sometimes records just show up in my mailbox without warning or reasonable explanation. I know nothing about Chicago's Milk Factory Productions, and even less about The 3.5.7 Ensemble, but my intuition tells me that the same intrepid individual... Read More »

Prokofiev, Scythian Suite & Symphony No. 3. Orchestra: Sao Paulo Symphony. Conductor: Marin Alsop. Recording: Naxos NBD0047 There certainly are significant differences in the music composed by Prokofiev compared to those famous Russian composers that preceded him. It is our good fortune to have his compositions available now. Yes, he turned out those compositions needed by performers in the... Read More »

Mozart, Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Alina Ibragimova, violin. Cédric Tiberghien, piano. 2 CD's. Hyperion CDA 68091. Most of us know when we're hearing the real Mozart and not a near miss, we know in our heads and elsewhere what is required of a genuine Mozart performance. Today we have the composer's Sonatas for Keyboard... Read More »

Schnittke, Penitential Psalms; Three Sacred Hymns. RIAS Kammerch0r, Hans Christian Rademann, conductor. Harmonia Mundi 902225. Russian Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), as I've written many times before here, is one of those second generation modernists who makes you go to him and who generally makes you glad you did. His Penitential Psalms confront us with sternness until... Read More »

Anne Bisson: Blue Mind, Co-sponsored by Wuti Larnroongroj, Brilliance Music and Studios and Gary Koh, Genesis Advanced Technologies. 15-ips, 2-track, reel-to-reel tape. Originally produced and recorded by: Guy St. Orge. Recorded July 21-22, 2008, Reference Studio, St-Calixte, Quebec. Remastered by Bernie Grundman. http://www.annebisson.com/en/. Price: $600. It's rare that performers get to revisit and remaster their... Read More »

Kinsky, Copula Mundi. SPV Poland/Requiem Records 104 | 2015. Premiere: 1993. Re-edition: 2015. Medium: Compact Disc The Kinsky band, which was created in 1992, existed only for six years and recorded only one album, but, perhaps thanks to this, it has become the legend of underground rock music in Poland. Its music is most frequently described as a combination of... Read More »

[Joe Cohen is a long-time friend of Positive Feedback, and owner of The Lotus Group, a high-end audio company in California. Joe is married to the Jazz vocalist Daria, and has a deep love of music going well back into the early days of his life. I read an earlier, shorter version of his musical... Read More »

Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 in D minor, "Wagner" (Nowak ed., 1877) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam/Nikolaus Harnoncourt Teldec 4509-98405-2. TT: 54.35 The "historical performance" movement that arose in the 1960s proved more popular, at first, among academics than among regular listeners; eventually, however, its notions of performing older scores without the stylistic accretions of later eras... Read More »

Star Wars Original Soundtracks in Stereo DSD and Analog Tape Horch House has released the first three original soundtracks from the Star Wars Series: Episode 4: Star Wars – A New Hope, Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back and Episode 6: Return of the Jedi in Stereo DSD, analog tape, and WAV formats. The albums... Read More »

George Frederick Handel, Water Music. Academie fur Alte Musik Berlin. Harmonia Mundi HMC 902216. Handel was German, but he was also a Londoner for 47 years and lived and studied for four years in Italy. We can hear all of this in his music, an extremely satisfying blend of three distinct baroque musical cultures. He... Read More »

Label: Aigle Music | Universal Music UK/Warner Music Japan WPCR-17045 Released: Nov. 20th 2015 Format: Mini LP CD Dark Sky Island is the 8th studio album by Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, known rather as Enya. Her career started in  1980. She, together with her family, became a member of the band called Clannad. She became really famous... Read More »

All of us who love music and audio have some sort of history that goes way back into our past. In my case, it was my Dad's love of all things classical and flamenco related in the vast world of the guitar. I grew up listening to Segovia, the Romeros, Sabicas, Montoya, and Bream, on... Read More »

Stefan Wolpe. Compositions for Piano, 1920-1952. David Holzman, piano. Bridge 9116. I decided I couldn't leave Wolpe where I left him last time out. Yes, he can be cerebral but there are other Wolpes whom I really only hinted at, mainly because Four Studies (1935-36) on the Bridge 9344 recording left such a strong impression.... Read More »

Homo Ludens. Piano Music of Lera Auerbach. Eli Kalman, piano. Centaur CRC 3441. There are three Lera Auerbachs (1973) in this program, held together by a powerful, singular voice that only becomes clear after extended listening. The first Auerbach we hear is in Images of Childhood (2000), a dozen short idylls focused on Auerbach's childhood... Read More »

J.S. Bach, Motets. Fabio Bonizzoni, Capella Cracoviensis. Alpha ALPHA 199, Compact Disc. Alpha label has been known for years for their sophisticated releases. It was founded in 1999 by Jean-Paul Combet and it's also known for very special covers of their releases, chosen by Denis Grenier. In December 2014 Mr Didier Martin was named the new director, which... Read More »

In the world of Jazz, there are the greats, the near greats, the great-but-obscure, and the close-but-no-cigar. It's easy (but contentious!) to list the obvious first tier…my own list, in no particular order, would have artists like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Nat King Cole, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday, Count... Read More »

I know, Carol when are you going to give the perfect song idea a rest? Well, unlike a 'favorite' song, I think there can be many versions of a 'perfect' song. In fact, this edition of my perfect song series revisits a song from the first article. The difference here is the venue, and the... Read More »

I've told this story before, so bear with me. I first met Janet Feder at the 2012 California Audio Show in San Francisco. That was the show that marked the US debut of the KEF LS50 loudspeaker—I know that because I supplied the Unison Research amplification that powered those amazing little Halloween-colored monitors. Janet walked... Read More »

Joan Tower. Violin Concerto. Stroke. Chamber Dance. Cho-Liang Lin, violin. Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor. Naxos 8.559775.   New Seasons. Gidon Kremer. Glass, Pärt, Kanchelli, Unabeyashi. Kremerata Baltica. Deutsche Gramophone. DG 4794817.   Rosary Sonatas. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. Rachel Podger, violin. David Miller, theorbo and arch lute; Marcin Swiatkiewicz, harpsichord, organ; Jonathan... Read More »