Robert Mazurek [Badlands]

And yet another disc that got airplay during the early days of my Blog [24th Janyary 2011], i picked this disc up in a second hand record shop in London for £4 i believe, and it's proved to be a supreme bargain, took me a while to really get into it, at the time i had a superb Eric Alexander disc in my possession, and he's great, so if he's on it, it must be good, the star of the show of course is Robert Mazurek, some of the best tunes on the album come from his pen. 

Robert Mazurek is American, and now in his mid forties, he recorded this record in 1994-1995 on the Scottish Hep Jazz label, the front and back cover shows the two horns in close up, very nicely diagonally from each other, with excellent use of lettering inbetween, and the back cover's great too, an easy to read track list, superb layout, one of the things that attracted me to the disc in the first place. 

This is quite a traditional Quintet, a Sax & Trumpet led Piano Trio, and the music is of course in the traditional of good Hard Bop, with themes and then solos, especially for the two horns, all members are inventive and very well recorded, i especially liked tracks 3, 5, 7 & 10, and these four tracks include three of the four self penned tracks by Mazurek, so certainly i like his ideas, Mazurek also uses the brittle use of a mute fairly extensively, my favourite track is the longest, the nearly 10 minute title track 'Badlands', 

Here's some samples of the album from CD Universe.

Schubert - 8 Impromptus [Perahia]

Here the are again, my most favourite work in the whole of the Classical repertoire, if i had to choose one work and be banished to a desert island, then this is the work i would take with me [though not this performance], this recording was originally brought out on the CBS label, which i believe Sony bought or owned, and many CBS recordings were re-issued as Sony recordings, and so it is with this one, with the added bonus of three Schubert Lieder transcriptions by Liszt. 

Murray Perahia is American, he's now 64, and lives in London, the booklet cover is inspired [photo by Mel Curtis], of a clearing in a wood, with a park bench, shot i believe with infra-red black and white photography, the image has a wonderful serenity, and a secret favourite spot about it, i can just imaging sitting on that bench listening to this disc, and the world just melts away as i'm transported into another world for an hour, such are the Impromptus of Schubert. 

The three impromptus which sent me to heaven were 1, 3 & 5, and of the three it's the most gentle and sublime of them that i feel Perahia transported me heavenward the best, namely the Third Impromptu, there's a soothingness about it, 

Here's Murray Perahia playing the Third Impromptu [D899 / 3] on YouTube.

Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio [The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio]

Here's one of the beautiful things about my Blog, just lately i've had a rash of discs that originally were reviewed early on in my Blog, this disc is no exception [28th January 2010], of course no disc is bought merely to play once and enjoyed, and then forgotten about, but the whole point of me collecting discs is to find treasurable discs that are worth playing 'again and again', and therefore such discs will appear in my Blog 'again and again', and eventually such discs that only appear once should become rare as time goes by. 

The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio are from Russia, they record on the Hyperion label, but sadly are fairly unknown in the west, they recorded this disc in 2000, the front cover is phenomenal, Hyperion are wont to using paintings and artwork on their covers, a lot are really quite poor, but this one is a treasure, the painting is 'The Secret Garden' by Nikolai Sergeyev, a wonderfully atmospheric painting, showing a secret lake, the half lights are wonderful, the dark green haze that covers everything is magical, a well chosen painting. 

Well i just have to admit on this listening it's again those incredibly 'varied variations' that show Tchaikovsky at his genius, more than ever it shows what a profound depth of ideas he had, the outer movements are glorious [if you consider the Variation Finale and Coda a movement] in themselves, but the heart of the work lays at the twists and turns, and sheer colour and profundity of those variations, each one is a gem in itself, and when listened to independently from those either side, it's a piece of music that can stand up on its own, but when presented in tandem with its neighbours, the joy is then heightened, it's this ability to clap your eyes on a tree in the forest, and delight in its individuality, but also at the same time to be able to stand back, and appreciate how each tree is only a part, and creates the whole wonderful forest.

Bruckner - Symphony 4 [Harnoncourt-Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra]

This was a really enjoyable experience today, there's a certain gentle way with Harnoncourt, he doesn't show you his whole hand, but keeps cards up his sleeve, there's also a degree of understatement about his reading, the thing doesn't immediately grab you by the throat, but there's a slow and sure asphyxiation all the same!, i played this disc in the first month of my Blog [25th January 2010], and it's good that this has come round again for playing. 

Nikolaus Harnoncourt is Austrian, now 81 years old, he has recorded most of the later Symphonies of Bruckner on the Teldec and RCA labels, and this recording was made live in 1997, i love the booklet cover, a sharp black and white shot of Harnoncourt [by Marco Borggreve], lovely use of jet black, fantastic shadows on the left side of the face, nice highlights in the eyes, and simple white lettering top and bottom, a really classy cover. 

This time i thoroughly enjoyed the first two movements, with surprisingly a new found admiration for the second movement, Harnoncourt is certainly more gentle than most, allowing the composer / music to speak for himself / itself,  

Here's Christian Thielemann conducting the second movement on YouTube.