 Brahms: String Sextets Nos. 1 & 2Stuttgart String Sextet  This is just yummy. Early Brahms is, in some ways, a great deal more fun that his somewhat dour later music—not that there's any real falling off in quality. His later works, though, have a certain austerity completely absent from the hedonistic textural richness of these two string sextets—which is why they have always been among the composer's most popular chamber music pieces. They are also the perfect length to fit nicely onto a single CD, so at budget price and with excellent performances, you can wallow in some of the most luscious string writing this side of Mantovani, and never once regret the investment. What could be better that that? —David Hurwitz  Sviatoslav Richter: The Sofia Recital 1958Sviatoslav Richter No Description Available  Pianist of the Century ~ Sviatoslav RichterSVIATOSLAV RICHTER Few classical pianists demonstrated equal mastery of Bach and 20th-century works like Richter did, and few recordings captured his singular brilliance like the nine Deutsche Grammophon LPs he recorded from 1956-62. Here they all are (and this is a fabulous price for all this music), featuring Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 ; Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 ; Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 5 ; Schumann's Piano Concerto ; Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 , plus pieces by Chopin, Debussy, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and more!  In Progress & in Motion: 1965-1998Taj Mahal Taj Mahal has become a blues ambassador, carrying the music to new audiences and melding it with other influences. It's altogether appropriate, then, that three of the early tracks on this three-CD set are unreleased from the Rolling Stones 1968 musical experiment, Rock and Roll Circus. This box emphasizes (but is not limited to) Taj's early career—the late-'60s through the mid-'70s—and whether he's playing solo acoustic instrumentals ("Buck Dancer's Choice"), revving up a rock band ("Statesboro Blues"), or weaving his National Steel guitar around tubas ("Sweet Mama Janisse"), the blues element is never far from center. He even brings out the Pointer Sisters, who funkify the blues standard, "Sweet Home Chicago." The latter part of the box ventures into the 1980s and '90s, and features some songs for kids. Taj Mahal makes a world gumbo of the blues, spiced with a nice hot sauce. —Robert Gordon |
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