What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XI)

It's the right sort of day for an afternoon of The The - starting with...

While ripping around 700 CDs. Oh, the joy!

Streaming | FLAC 24/192 from Qobuz

(1963)

While I'm desperately trying to pretend that we are actually having a summer the first glimpse of sun has me playing this recent download. 

On CD:-

Stuck at home due to Tube strike, neighbours away, time to crank up the 72. First play of the Analogue Prods 200g  Amused to Death. Even on my system, all I can says is... wow. AMAZING.

I have the '92 vinyl as well and this is a rare case of a reissue being better than the original (and the original was good!).

Capital Letters: Wolverhampton

Because it arrived today and I am enjoying side two!

Richard

Rico: Man From Wareika

Because the sun is still shining.

Richard

Great album, old but still swinging...

Always time for some ZZT, AIFF CD tip:-

Followed by :-

The Guess Who - American Woman

(2011)

The first post Portnoy album for DT and very good it's sounding again this evening. 

An evening of Schumann concertos.

First up: Hewitt. She is always at her best in Schumann, and this is a wonderful recording of the concerto. An intimate performance which trades the sense of grandeur for flexible sensitivity. Minor point: I

wish she had gone with a Steinway for this recording, as the Fazioli risks sounding underpowered and tends to lose colour in loud passages.

EJ

Next up: Pires' first recording with Abbado. Ouch - coming from the Hyperion disc, it's as if DG draped its mikes in a wet towel. What is also striking: Pires (on a Steinway) is a much more colorful pianist than Angela Hewitt. The performance is efficient and fast-ish, but with excellent build-up and Pires' oh-so-subtle inflections are magical. This is a performance that doesn't wow at first hearing but could grow on you over time. 

Cheers,

EJ

Original Vinyl.

Vinyl..

Love this album....especially so on the Music Matters vinyl pressing

Pacini's debut disc for Onyx claims that she studied Op. 54 with Martha Argerich, and as this would lead you to expect, it is indeed a barnstorming performance. As of yet, she doesn't project like her colleagues above, loses articulation below pp (the piano equivalent of mumbling) and occasionally clips her notes for no apparent reason. But she has good ideas and together with the conductor plots a good and interesting course through the work, which raises this performance into the realm of the flawed but good fun. The orchestra is competent, but no Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

EJ

Totally agree the MM reisue of this album is outstanding.

First 'spin' of today's new recording. First impression is... not so good. Many very beautiful moments, most of them from the orchestra's wind section, offset by a feeling that the musicians are struggling through the piece without vision or musical/emotional build-up. The three protagonists of this mini series did announce some serious rethinking of this music before recording, and that is indeed the case. Maybe  a question of getting used to - but that leaves the rather thin, monochrome-sounding period grand used by Melnikov in the concerto. As a mini series of Schumann's piano trios and concertos on period instruments, I'm sure that these three discs will eventually find their place, but so far I've not been totally convinced by the concertos on the first two issues (they are worth it for the trios, though).

EJ

Streaming | 16/44.1 FLAC Download from Bandcamp

(2012)

A fairly unique sound from Dirtwire, a band that I have really come to enjoy in recent months. Quite an eclectic style of music and tracks on their albums so far and its probably just best described by copying their genre tags; americana, blues, bluegrass, electro-acoustic, swamptronica, rising appalachia, world music.

"This music combines a number of disparate influences, prominent among them Appalachian, African and Asian into something that sounds new and refreshingly different." ~ Bandcamp Commenter

https://dirtwiremusic.bandcamp.com/album/dirtwire

Interesting assessment, the first disc of the set was in my ears interesting.

Nils Lofgren on vinyl. Given to me years ago, and in a real mess. No inner sleeve even. Cleaned it on the moth a couple of times, and sounds close to as good as new!

Vinyl