Schubert - Piano Quintet 'The Trout' [Schiff/Hagen String Quartet]

This is the first Trout Quintet disc i bought, and it's a great version, and it's become my touchstone recording that i gauge all other recordings with, i got to fall in love with Schubert's Trout Quintet with this recording, and it opened up my mind to other Piano Quintets, the String Quartet, with the piano is a great combination, a sunny and uplifting work, you can almost hear the bubbling brook, this disc was originally only my third post in my Blog, way back at the beginning of 2010 [3rd January 2010].

Andras Schiff is Hungarian, is now 58, he made this recording back in 1983 when he was 30, the front cover shows a painting by Joseph Anton Koch.

I enjoyed the whole of this work, it's in A major, and even though all the movements are in the major, there's still somewhat of a dark undercurrent to the work at times, however i enjoyed the most the very sunny fourth movement variations, 

Here's Clifford Curzon and the Amadeus String Quartet playing the fourth movement variations on YouTube.

Various Composers - 'Con Amore' Violin Encores [Chung/Moll]

'Con Amore' meaning 'with love', one of the nicest violin & piano encores discs i own, i actually sold one of these discs on Ebay for £63!, nice money, this has many of the usual pieces you would expect to get on a recital like this, but it also has a few rarer pieces which are welcome, the longest piece is track 16, the Saint-Saens / Ysaye work [over 8 minutes], and maybe slightly out of place, almost all the pieces last between 2-4 minutes [13 of them], but everything is nicely apt for the gist of the whole thing.[11th March 2012].

Kyung-Wha Chung is South Korean, now 63 years old, she made this recording in1985, the front cover photo is wonderful [by Vivianne Rome], a lovely portrait, the fur hat, and the orange shawl give it a certain regal look, and the golden necklace on black top really stands out, the brown background also works wonders, one of the best photos for a disc cover.

Lots to enjoy here, my favourite tracks were 1-2,4-5, 9-10 & 16, and surprisingly it was track 9, the 'Moto Perpetuo' by Novacek that i found really compelling, and as the title suggests, it's a motorised type of piece that just goes on and on for 3 minutes, it opens angrily as a piano introduction [0:00-0:12], Chung comes in with rapid bowing, the focus isn't so much on a tune, but on developing tension and dynamism, of course there is a tune, but it only seems secondary as you listen to the piece closer, it's ideas come at you in waves, there seems no beginning or ending of the theme, it's like one big loop, it's great the way Novacek weaves violin and piano together, the Pianist [Phillip Moll] mostly plays a supporting background role, it's a 3 minute tightrope walk, i'm thankful i listened to this work i don't know all that well, but i certainly know it better now. 

Here's Novacek's 'Moto Perpetuo' being played on YouTube.

Focus [Focus 3]

I first heard this album as a vinyl gatefold double album, must have been roughly late Seventies, eventually i sold all my vinyl [1985], and slowly replaced the best stuff with CD's, and this is one i didn't initially replace until 1996, i saw it new in London for a really good price, the double vinyl album has turned into a single disc, now i debated if i should get it, so many Record Company's churn out their back catalogue without any regard to sound quality and remastering, you get discs poorly indexed and full of 'analogue hiss' [think of the Led Zeppelin albums brought out on disc for the very first time], so i wasn't expecting sonic fireworks when i first loaded it into my player, but i was gobsmacked with a sound which was absolutely beyond expectations, even better than the original, the drums especially were terrific, it was good to revisit this album today.

Focus were a Dutch Band, originally formed in 1969, this album [their third, of course!] was released in 1972, with their best line-up, the group broke up in 1978, but have reformed again, though not with all the original members, the front cover shows Thijs Van Leer on flute, and the original gatefold LP had some inner band photos, this release is a wonderful remaster by Mike Vernon, expertly done and lovingly put together, a great big thank you from me.

Almost the only track i ever liked was the huge 26 minute 'Anonymous Two', which on the original discs, was split halfway on disc two i believe, just as the big drum solo comes in, it fades out of side three, and fades in on side four, but... on the disc, there's no fade in or out, and it's a perfect join, it's a wonderful moment, the only other track which i felt had something was 'Answers? Questions!, Questions? Answers!',

Here's Focus playing Anonymous Two on YouTube.

Stereo MC's [Double Bubble]

I played this just over a year ago [25th February 2011], and marvelled then at how 'different' this album sounded, it was new territory for me, and yet at the same time i was really excited that i was opening up a new Pandora's box of strange sounds, that i was sure i would fall in love with, well one year on i can say this album has taken on some new deeper appreciation, some of the tracks which i liked a lot the first time around, i'm now beginning to love, especially the early tracks on disc one, and the music?, well it's hard to pigeonhole, there's certainly a sense of Rap Music in there, but they're very electronically dancey too, who cares about definitions, if it's great music it's great!.

The Stereo MC's are an English Band, formed in 1985, they started out more in the Britpop explosion, but i guess they're more like The Beastie Boys, or The Prodigy, this is like one and a half discs long, the bonus disc is less than 20 minutes, in fact both discs could have fitted on a single disc, so why the double album?, the album came out in 2008, the front cover is truly excellent, a simple set of rings, but subtly coloured to give the impression of 3D, also they have a tendency to feel that they're spinning!, a great simple idea, i like shapes.

Well the tracks i liked the best are 1, 3-4 & 11, last time i felt that track 11 'Human' was the track that caught my attention the most, on this listen i guess it's the opener 'Get On It', nice intro, giving off a nice beat, but it's when the vocals come in [0:16+] that it just blossoms out into something more atmospheric, and the keyboard synths bubble and scream, now that's a lovely slamming vibe!, the chorus goes 'get on it, get off it...', those keyboard synths, now they're infectious, after the third chorus the recording controls are pushed into overdrive [2:17-2:28], with a great big 'wooooo' at the end of it, and then a moment of magic as a real hard slamming echo beat follows [2:28-2:42], with a nice tribal drumming beat, at the end there's a fade-out with 'flarnham calling' [that's what it sounds like], while a jangly telephone bell rings [3:29+], the whole thing is fantastic!, and it's only one of many on the album, i need to check out some more Stereo MC's albums.

Here's the Stereo MC's playing 'Get On It' on YouTube.