Records To Die For

---

Kalman Rubinson

---

Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos 1 & 2, Rondo Brillant, Hebrides Overture
Roberto Prosseda, piano; The Hague Residentie Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend
Decca 4817207 (5.1-channel DXD download, CD). 2018. Bert van der Wolf, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 62:08

Bert van der Wolf of Northstar Recording, producer of many wonderful albums for Channel Classics and other labels, now has a license to release on his website, www.spiritofturtle.com, the projects he records for Decca "in all the High Resolution versions that I have available." I hope his model will lead to the release of more hi-rez multichannel recordings from major labels.

Equally important, these are excellent classic performances of the piano concertos and the Rondo Brilliant by a Mendelssohn specialist, and van der Wolf has captured the richness of Roberto Prosseda's Fazioli F278 piano in perfect balance with orchestra and hall. While others may play these works as if every movement is a scherzo, Prosseda and conductor Jan Willem de Vriend conjure from Mendelssohn the spirit of early Beethoven, and that added rigor is very refreshing. Only the Hebrides Overture seems less than ideal given this treatment, but it, too, is quite nice.

Rimsky-Korsakov et al: Originals
Major Arjan Tien, Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy, Soloists of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Channel Classics 40818 5-channel DSD256 download, CD). 2018. Jared Sacks, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 60:55

This is a delight to the ear. I began with Rimsky-Korsakov's Trombone Concerto, with the volume mistakenly set to a very high level. A joyous explosion of brass and percussion engulfed me, and for an instant I was reminded of the band classics conducted by Frederick Fennell for Telarc. But unlike Fennell's emphasis on American and British music, this program is all Russian and uncharacteristically fun. Producer Jared Sacks has miked the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy closely enough that you hear all the richness and dynamics of the instruments, but with enough perspective and breathing space to encompass the entire ensemble. Brass, woodwinds, and percussion delight and impress the ear.

The backbone of the album are Rimsky-Korsakov's three works for solo instrument and band: the Trombone Concerto, the Concert Piece for Clarinet, and the Variations for Oboe. All are enjoyable. The most serious work here, Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, is more elegant than stern. This is an album I can enjoy almost every day—especially when I'm able to turn up the volume.

---

Robert Schryer

---

Bruce Cockburn: Stealing Fire
True North TR-57 (LP). 1984. Jon Goldsmith, Kerry Crawford, prods.; John Naslen, eng. AAA. TT: 41:56

Thirty-five years after its release, Stealing Fire's collection of well-crafted, guitar-driven, folksy rock tunes, including the hit single "If I Had a Rocket Launcher," endures as 1980s pop music with substance. I may also have a soft spot for this album because I fondly remember hearing it, in all its crisp, punchy, impressively uncompressed, tastefully produced stereophonic splendor, being played at the first hi-fi shows I attended as a nascent audiophile. Apart from a couple of underwhelming tracks, this album is a musical and a sonic treat whose overarching cry against social injustice and government abuse remains, alas, as apropos as ever.

Jimmy Smith: Root Down: Jimmy Smith Live!
Jimmy Smith, Hammond B3 organ; Steve Williams, harmonica; Arthur Adams, guitar; Wilton Felder, bass guitar; Buck Clarke, congas, percussion; Paul Humphrey, drums
Verve V6 8806 (LP). 1972/2016. Eddie Ray, prod.; Ed Greene, Jack Hunt, engs. AAA. TT: 41:47

This vintage album's cover photo, of Jimmy Smith poised onstage over his Hammond organ in what seems a moment of intense creative reflection, is an apt metaphor for the music within. Performed in front of a small but appreciatively vocal crowd at L.A.'s Bombay Bicycle Club, this 1972 set hits its groove from the get-go and never lets up. Live jazz recordings don't get much better than this, musically or sonically. Such is its ability to convey the flesh and blood behind the act that, when listening to it, I often feel that I'm there, too, hooting it up with the others.

---

Jason Victor Serinus

---

Sandrine Piau: Chimère
Songs by Baksa, Barber, Debussy, Gurney, Loewe, Poulenc, Previn, Schumann, Wolf
Sandrine Piau, soprano; Susan Manoff, piano
Alpha Classics 397 (CD, 24/96 download in Europe). 2018. Martin Sauer, prod, ed., mastering. DDD. TT: 58:27

Exquisite is not a descriptor to be dispensed lightly. Yet as I listen to soprano Sandrine Piau's impeccable phrasing in this beautifully sung recital of songs addressing dreams and illusions—the "fake news" around which lives revolve—no other adjective adequately describes artistry of such refinement. The way Piau connects phrases and rounds off notes has been equaled by few other lieder specialists. Beyond superb renditions of Book I of Debussy's Fêtes Galantes, "Die Lotosblume" from Schumann's Myrthen, and Poulenc's five Banalités, Piau and Manoff present four settings of poems by Emily Dickinson—in all, six songs sung in English. The sorrow of Loewe's "Ach neige, du Schmerzenreiche," is so palpable and so immaculately rendered that, at a recent audio show, it reduced a roomful of audiophiles to rapt silence. For all who value the expressive potential of the art song, Chimère is a must.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony 6, "Pathétique"
Teodor Currentzis, MusicAeterna
Sony Classical 88985404352 (CD, 24/96 download). 2017. Damien Quintard, prod., eng.; Arnaud Merckling, asst. eng. DDD. TT: 46:18

Perhaps it takes a conductor as extreme as Currentzis to enable us to feel in our guts how Tchaikovsky's relentless inner torment over his homosexuality tore him apart. Ensuring that the pain he embedded in every note of his final symphony is inescapable, Currentzis and MusicAeterna overwhelm with torrents of emotion, buzzing dread, and incredible surges of passion and feeling. While some have criticized this recording for its lack of ultimate dynamic range, its successive tsunamis of emotion sweep such reservations aside.

---

John Swenson

---

Dave Bartholomew: Jump Children!
Jasmine Music JASCD-845 (2 CDs). 1950–62/2018. Dave Bartholomew, Bob Fisher, prods.; Cosimo Matassa, eng. AAD. TT: 2:18:06

Dave Bartholomew is well known for his work as a producer, cowriter, performer, and band leader with Fats Domino, but that legacy has overshadowed his important work on his own and with others in creating the sound of New Orleans R&B—and, hence, early rock'n'roll—at Cosimo Matassa's J&M studio, in New Orleans. These tracks offer a look at the work Bartholomew did under his own name, and as a talent scout for Imperial Records in this period, the 1950s and early '60s. A lot of this material ended up being covered by Domino, sometimes for major hits. This set of 57 tracks from the UK label Jasmine Music, collected by Bob Fisher, covers songs Bartholomew cut for Imperial under his own name, including such gems as "Carnival Day," "Country Boy Comes Home," "Who Drank the Beer While I Was in the Rear," and the phenomenal "The Monkey"—never a hit, but a major influence on the New Orleans scene, where it still resonates today, and in Jamaica, where it was one of the touchstones of reggae.

Dr. John: Professor Bizarre's Funknology
Atco/Run Out Groove ROGV-020 (2 LPs). 1970/2018. Matt Block, Allen Toussaint, Harold Batiste, prods.; Brian Kekew, remastering. AAD. TT: 66:43

This vinyl-only release culls alternate takes and previously unissued tracks recorded during Dr. John's remarkable run with Atco Records. The sonic detail of these remasters is astonishingly good in material that ranges from whispered incantations to raging vamps, making this an essential addition to the Dr. John catalog. The crown jewels of the set are tracks from the legendary The Sun, Moon & Herbs sessions, recorded in 1971 in London and Los Angeles and finished up at Atlantic's Criteria Studios, at 461 Ocean Boulevard in Miami. The Sun project was conceived by Dr. John as a three-record set, but after a series of mishaps only one disc was released. The rest of the tapes were thought to be lost . . . until now. These tracks, featuring Derek and the Dominos, Graham Bond, and members of the Rolling Stones including Mick Jagger, along with Dr. John's band, flesh out the album concept with: an eight-minute version of "Quitters Never Win," later rerecorded for the album Desitively Bonaroo; a six-minute version of Professor Longhair's "Tipitina" with Eric Clapton on lead guitar; and a version of "Craney Crow" entirely different from the one on the single-disc Sun. One imagines that the two takes of "Craney Crow" would have been used in different spots on the three-LP edition, just as two versions of "Familiar Reality" frame the single-disc release.