Donald Harrison [Free Style] 

An album that i bought ages ago [probably 5 years!], and i never got round to listening to [this is somewhat usual!], but wow!, what a gem, if i had known it was going to be this good, i would have been a rash all over it sooner, Harrison sounds a cross between Joshua Redman and Kenny Garrett, this album is in effect a Trio setting [sax, bass & drums], with Glen Patscha on piano for tracks 1, 3 & 5 only, Harrison is superb in a Trio, reminds me of Kenny Garrett's album TrioLogy [3rd March 2010], and it would have probably been better to play the whole album as a Trio, Vicente Archer [bass] and John Lamkin [drums] play throughout, except for the last two tracks, with famous names Ron Carter [bass] and Billy Cobham [Drums] filling in, it's superbly recorded, the bass is to the fore, and instead of being lost in the mix, you can hear the ideas of the Bassist clearly, a real revelation, as he's not merely there to make up the numbers, and especially in a Trio setting he becomes a bigger percentage of the group, the drums have that crisp attack and snap, as well as a gorgeous resonant echo, drums should become a foreground instrument, they're not merely in the background to keep the beat!, a well recorded disc doubles the joy for me, notice also it's called Free Style, rather than Freestyle.

Donald Harrison he made this recording in 2002, the front and back cover is a great idea [photo by Frank Nagel-Heyer], a black and white shot, with a yellow background, the yellow lettering all down his front, notice white lettering for himself, on the back there's a silhouette of Harrison, with the track listing clearly laid out in yellow and white, a great visual product, i like it a lot.

The sheer invention of the opening ideas of each track are a joy to behold, there's inspiration aplenty, and i'm sure i will love this album much more deeply on subsequent listens, well on this listen i really liked tracks 2-7 & 10-11, with track 5 'So What' the best of the bunch, a Miles Davis creation, a superb intro, a drum and cymbal solo by John Lamkin [0:00-0:10], and it's nice to hear Harrison go off on a funky solo [0:51+], slurring his notes at times like a drunk man, playing in extreme registers, really high and right after low [2:34-2:47], and some more high squealing [3:44-4:01], Patscha's solo break is a welcome deviation [4:16+], Harrison takes the track out in style [6:12-6:42], fluttering away as it were on the wind, a great invention, and i can't wait to hear this album again.

Here's on YouTube.

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 'Emperor' [Lupu/Mehta-Israel Philharmonic Orchestra] 

I would put Classical Pianists into two categories, 'Staccato Pianists' and 'Legato Pianists', Lupu is definitely Legato, and that's the way i lean in my love, someone who knows how to shade and blend ideas, and from one section to another, Lupu doesn't do anything to spoil the spell that he weaves, with strange personal musings, rather he gives us straight Beethoven, i'm sure that the Master himself woild have exclaimed 'now that's exactly what i meant!', even though this disc has no coupling, and only lasts for 38 minutes, yet i feel i got my moneys worth more than lots of 80 minute filled discs.

Radu Lupu is Romanian, he's now 66, yet with that shock of unruly white hair he now has, he certainly looks older, he's a fairly shy Pianist, he doesn't make many recordings these days, but what he has recorded is quality, he made this recording in 1979, the front cover shows Lupu seated at his piano, reflection in the underside of the lid, fists on thigh and cheek, looks too serious i guess, but he's framed nicely in a triangle, a nice idea.

This was a great experience, a performance that i enjoyed beginning to end, but more especially in the first movement, a 20 minute span of pure unbridled joy, couched in Beethoven's heroic key of E Flat Major [the key of the Third Symphony Eroica], Lupu is fleet fingered in the opening phrases [0:00-1:12], not ruminative, and likewise Mehta doesn't slow down into meditative gush, there's a headlong rush of joyous Allegro, maybe the recording shows its age somewhat [33 years old], the treble can have a slight shrillness in the orchestra, but the piano is well caught, just over halfway through the first movement, the opening returns, and it's with a lovely exuberance from Lupu [12:39-13:22], the restatement is stronger than at the opening, and it really shows, the way he can shade volume in and out of the orchestral soup is lovely, it's as if certain phrases can come out of nowhere, like someone's entrance into a room is only noticed after they're in the room, and at the end, the way in which Lupu chimes trills in the treble, and then slowly makes his way down the keyboard [19:45-20:00], it's paced so well on so many levels, i'm not a Lupu aficionado, i just haven't heard enough of him, but on this listen i want to hear more.

Here's Claudio Arrau playing the first movement on YouTube.

Tchaikovsky - Piano Trio [The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio] 

This is the third time this disc appears in my Blog [28th January 2010] & [10th September 2011], and what a lovely disc it is too, each of the members of this Trio are no superstars, and outside this Trio i've never heard of them before, but their interpretation of the Tchaikovsky Trio is excellent, and it's good to hear this wonderful work yet again.

The Moscow Rachmaninov Trio are from Russia, they began in 1994, and of course have mainly been active in Russia, but they've recorded 3 discs on the Hyperion label, this one was recorded in 2000, the front cover is fantastic, it's a painting by Nikolai Sergeyev entitled 'The Secret Garden', a lovely piece of art couched in dark greens, depicting a lake in a forest, the half lights produce a sense of mystery, and the highlights in the water are gorgeous, Hyperion have chosen a truly excellent painting for this disc.

Usually the highlight of the whole work is the individual variations, but on this listen i just so loved the Variazione, Finale e Coda, it's played with such passion, and it's such a great culmination to everything that's gone before, it's those heavy chords that the Piano plays that get me every time,  

Here's the Variazione, Finale e Coda being played on YouTube.

Schubert - Piano Sonata 21 [Kovacevich] 

This is the eleventh time this Piano Sonata makes it into my Blog, it's my favourite Piano Sonata of all time, and it's a joy to listen to every 2 or 3 months that i get round to it, here's my top six favourite discs of this work,

 1 - Alfred Brendel

 2 - Mitsuko Uchida

 3 - Stephen Kovacevich

 4 - Murray Perahia

5 - Paul Lewis

 6 - Maurizio Pollini

Kovacevich comes in third, it's a great searching performance, not the best recorded, a bit too resonant, but the depth of the reading makes up for any limitations in recording, i played this disc in the second month of my Blog [5th February 2010], albeit it was the Hyperion version of this performance last time.

Stephen Kovacevich is American, his surname comes from his Croatian Father, he's now 71, and he made this recording in 1994, the front cover portrait [by David Thompson] is a wonderful study, showing Kovacevich leaning on the piano, mirror image in the varnish, a stark black and white photo, it's a really nice image.

The first movement has that sublime poetry about it, cast in B Flat Major, it sounds at times as if it's in the minor, Kovacevich plays the exposition repeat, which makes the first movement last 20 minutes, and with the whole Sonata lasting 42 minutes, this now tips the balance of the whole work almost into this first movement, 

Here's Alfred Brendel playing the first movement on YouTube.

Jean Michel Jarre [Oxygene] 

I don't get to play this disc all that often, but when i do i just think it's simply stunning, i really get into it, i always get an idea what it's going to sound like, but when i put it on the realness of the sounds always outdo my expectations, like a firework that explodes louder than you can ever imagine it, and on this record Jarre creates the perfect blend of eerie sounds, with the hummable melodies of Pop, without falling into sillyness, after all this time it still sounds very 'adult', and yet is a length which can easily be digested in one listen.

Jean Michel Jarre is of course French, he's now 63 years old, doesn't seem possible, he was only 28 when he composed this masterpiece, this is a digitally re-mastered copy i have, and certainly the sound is absolutely fantastic, also the album art is re-done to a high standard, the album even came free with a newspaper recently, the front cover is a painting by Michel Granger, of the planet earth, seemingly a living tissue, and underneath a skull [what does it mean?], but it's an iconic picture that conjures up a hidden world beneath the one we're living on.

The opening is just tremendous, like rotating worlds, over ghostly mystery, really affecting, but on this listen i found Part 5 to be very special, and part 5 can be split into two halves, the first sounds like something out of Bach's Organ Music, or Albinoni / Tomasi's Adagio, but it's the second half which i found stunning, it fades / blends in with the first half [5:17+], a very bubbly dance track, starts of with a catchy rhythm, sounding like woodblocks, but it's the swirling synthesizer that comes in a minute later that makes the track [6:38+], like an organ played high in the treble, especially those high swirls, it's quite mesmerizing, until the wave breaks and the seagulls come in for Part 6, the whole album is groundbreaking, i don't believe Jarre ever bettered this masterpiece. 

Here's Jean Michel Jarre playing Oxygene 5 on YouTube.

Mozart - Piano Concerto 20 [Uchida/ Tate-English Chamber Orchestra] 

This is my favourite Mozart Piano Concerto, and my favourite recording of it, however many times i've listened to this work, this was still a powerful revelation today, like hearing the work anew, it's truly quite revolutionary, and it's also in my favourite key [D Minor], one in mind.

Mitsuko Uchida is Japanese, she's now 63, and she made this recording fairy early in her career in 1985, she did a full cycle of Mozart Concerto's with Jeffrey Tate, and also she's started to record a second cycle, with her conducting from the keyboard too, the front cover for this booklet [by Walter Schels] is fairly ordinary, Uchida and Tate discussing a score, she's got a weird expression on her face, furrowed brow, and that Yoko Ono hair!.

Wow what an experience, it was the first movement that really got to me, what a genius of a creation, usually Mozart's a fairly 'happy' Composer, he's the jangly Pop of the Classical world, but here he delves into a world of some dissonance and jarring, the very opening of the Concerto is a stroke of genius, maybe not quite a revolutionary as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but here's a real statement of intent from Mozart, dark and brooding strings becoming more and more restless / frantic [0:00-0:31] until the brass explode in anger [0:31+], it sets the scene perfectly, the introduction lasts two and a half minutes [0:00-2:26], and then the piano comes in, solo and sweet at first [2:26-2:52], 

Here's Uchida conducting and playing the first movement on YouTube.

Shostakovich - Symphony 10 [Shostakovich-London Symphony Orchestra] 

This Tenth is recorded by Dmitri Shostakovich's son Maxim, someone you would feel very credible to know his Father, and possibly interpret his works, i'm not so sure a blood linage qualifies anyone to 'get inside the Composer', and certainly Maxim doesn't seem an all round Conductor, only really performing his Father's works, it's an interesting effort nonetheless, and it's good to hear the Tenth yet again, last month i played Solti's offering [9th May 2012], and it's good to hear this one with that one in mind.

Maxim Shostakovich is Russian, born in 1938, he's now 74, he recorded this disc in 1990, the booklet front cover shows the Soviet red star in the middle, and the letting is boxed in what looks like metal indentations, polished to a high sheen, a strange front cover, but i like it, the back cover of course has a nice portrait of Maxim Shostakovich on it, a nice dark background makes him stand out.

On this listen i was taken aback with the third movement Allegretto, it's solemn, starts of by a dialogue with strings, but turns quickly into a 'string quartet', i like the way Shostakovich introduces the piccolo [1:08-1:44], a great use of orchestral colour, and later he uses dark and slow strings, meandering but welding [4:15-4:48], again the use of piccolo is great [5:38-6:06], horns constantly bookend each section, there's an extended section where pizzicato strings are used, lazy and fractured [6:12-7:40], Shostakovich is a genius with the way he can marry up all the different woodwinds, especially where the music is rather sparse, and then almost out of nowhere he gives us a startling march [8:47-9:25] replete with oompah sounding brass, with a military side drum for a beat, only a few days ago i mentioned that Bruckner did this with the fourth movement of his Eighth Symphony [18th June 2012], the movement ends quietly, horns and low pizzicato strings, but at the very end a solo piccolo gives us four pips twice, and then four last ones at half speed [13:10-13:28], very strange, but very effective, a sparse Symphony, but one that's teeming with action if you listen carefully.

Here's Ulyses Ascanio conducting the third movement Allegretto on YouTube.