Sony has brought together Shostakovitch's greatest concertos in first recordings made soon after their American premieres by the artists most closely identified with them. Neither performance has been bettered, though some, such as Vengerov's Teldec Violin Concerto, come close. The Violin Concerto is in solid, detailed mono; the Cello Concerto in fine stereo. Oistrakh goes to the heart of the violin work, playing with extraordinary tonal magnificence and emotional power. He's matched by Mitropoulos, whose identification with the score is apparent. Rostropovitch is as good in the Cello Concerto, getting excellent support from Ormandy's Philadelphians. Both performances share the white heat of fresh discovery and have stood the test of time to become classic recordings. —Dan Davis

Torke (b. 1961) writes some of the more interesting minimalism being done today. His punctuated rhythms are always framed around a tonal, melodic core and are as colorful as the titles of the works. But Torke is a bit more than a minimalist; he knows jazz inside and out and makes use of syncopation and even Modern dance rhythms as in Ecstatic Orange. The performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is quite good, but the booklet notes are obscure and of no help to anyone. Still, the music is what counts. Start here if Torke is new to you. — Paul Cook

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 27-SEP-2005

It is both something of a paradox and a truism that the richest musical experiences can be derived from minimal sounding forces. Of these combinations, the configuration represented on this recording, the duo for two strings, is among the most austere: two single-line instruments pitched an octave and a half apart, constructed of the same wood, gut and horsehair, realize the coded specifications of three musical scores. Part of the richness we experience resides in the tonal range produced by virtuosi fully engaged by the works they are performing, as is obviously the case here. In their hands, instruments become an extension of the vocal tract, effecting subtle modulations of timbre, pitch and amplitude analogous to those which a fine singer imparts to the text of a song. [from the liner notes by John Halle]

Recorded in April 1996 in New York with Steve Gadd, Joey Defrancesco and James Genus. This Title for Export Only.

You'd never guess that Didier Lockwood began his career playing violin in a rock group. He went on to play fusion and eventually join drummer Tony Williams's band. But in this evocation of Stephane Grappelli, Lockwood shows that he's completely at home with the music of Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Lockwood's playing here is in the great French tradition of jazz violin that Grappelli and Jean-Luc Ponty dominated during the last decades of the 20th century. Lockwood's a virtuoso in any terms, whether he's bowing or dazzling with pizzicato on "Les Valeuses". There's a good selection of classics here—including "Nuages," "Minor Swing," and "Tears"—and the mood is heightened by the acoustic guitarist Bireli Lagrene, whose solos rocket along, and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. How could such a convention of virtuosos fail? It doesn't, of course. The music, coupled with the CD's superb balance and recording by the French engineers, manages to be at once nostalgic and fresh. That's because, while holding onto and respecting the spirit of Steph and Django, the trio brings its collective imagination to bear on the old tunes. C'est magnifique! —Steve Voce

Diedre Murray, Fred Hopkins / Stringology

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