Posted in reseña, tagged Arensky, Camille Saint-Saëns, classical music, Delibes, Franz Liszt, Glinka, Grieg, Johannes Brahms, music, reseña, Sunday Times Music Collection, Tchaikovsky on October 20, 2007| Leave a Comment »
In the mid-90s, London’s Sunday Times produced a cheap CD series that managed to be both eclectic and excellent. In the ‘Classical’ branch of that series, High Romantics appeared, presenting tuneful offerings from Glinka, Arensky, Liszt, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Grieg, Delibes, and Tchaikovsky.
It all adds up to 43 minutes of fine listening, by about minute 22 of which one begins to wonder why we ever moved on from the Romantic period.
Posted in reseña, tagged Christmas, music, reseña on October 20, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.
I kid you not, there is a market for gentle, Christmas instrumental music that preserves the religious nature of the holiday and does not overpower the motley collection of family, friends, and hangers-on that gather at such times.
This Maranatha two-disk album meets the need. You won’t remember any of these arrangements by February, but that’s not the point anyway. What you want is a little musical Christmas cheer. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Jim Croce, music, reseña on October 20, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.
Jim Croce’s music, the art of a master storyteller, lives decades after the fact and after the passing of this musician himself because of its profound and accessible human-ness. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Indigo Girls, music, reseña on October 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.
If a reviewer titles his scribblings this way, this does not run against the tide of his admiration for this amazing duo. Rather, it nods in the direction of the deeply introspective tone of the lyrics of this album, prone as they are towards examining the unseemly part of the human heart, both those of the writers and of the flawed human beings they know. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Casablanca, film, film music, Max Steiner, music, reseña on October 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Casablanca, one of the twentieth century’s great films, is memorialized here not so much by stirring film music as by the fact that you get the exquisite screenplay banter that still evokes grins at its genius on, say, the forty-second hearing.
I assume that technology did now allow the separation of Max Steiner’s score from the spoken witticisms that begin at the beginning and don’t end until the end of this fantastic movie. As a result, this ‘soundtrack’ is actually a trip through some of Casablanca’s finest moments, spoken and played. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Gloria Estefan, Latin music, music, reseña on October 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »
Full product information for this item, together with my review, my rating of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at http://www.amazon.com.
She lives parallel lives. And even when she misses, she hits.
These are the thoughts that occur to this long-time Gloria fan upon close and repeated listenings to Into the Light. This 1991 release shows Gloria losing the girl-next-door sweetness and putting on some ‘tude. Some of it doesn’t work. Some of it does. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, jazz, music, reseña, Sunday Times Music Collection on October 5, 2007| Leave a Comment »
In the mid-1990s, the Times of London flogged a very cool disk-per-week club that was everything eclectic can mean. One of those CDs, betitled with formidable understatement simply Two Jazz Ladies, featured Ella and Billie, two African-American stage presences who set the bar on what it meant for a lady to sing the blues. (more…)
Posted in reseña, tagged Brian and Kim tabor, Christian music, Kim Tabor, music on October 5, 2007| Leave a Comment »
The Christian music scene is full of solid people and fine artists who live in the shadow of, say, the Sandy Pattis and Chris Tomlins of the genre. Kim Tabor and husband Brian are examples.
Kim’s voice is supple and strong. Her performance is heartfelt. Yet she remains a relative unknown at the national level. Go figure. (more…)
Posted in my hometown, reseña, tagged classical music, Ensemble Music Society, Frank and Katrina Basile Theater, Indiana History Center, music, reseña, Takacs Quartet on October 5, 2007| Leave a Comment »
My wife recently introduced me to yet another hidden treasure of our Circle City, the Ensemble Music Society (www.ensemblemusic.org). Established in 1944 (!), this all-volunteer assemblage of chamber music enthusiasts manages to bring world-class talent to Indianapolis year-on-year, providing an intimate complement to our very fine ISO. (more…)
Canter Bridge 