Archive for Album of the Month
Pittsburgh’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 an Audiophile Sound Album of the Month
Italian magazine, Audiophile Sound, has named the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording their December 2019 album of the month! “Over the last decade Manfred Honeck has moulded the Pittsburgh Symphony into a world-class band and on this album they give a compelling account of Bruckner’s greatest symphony using the Nowak edition. … The magnificent recording also allows one to hear how Honeck delineates instrumental lines and builds massive, structured…
Reference Recordings Celebrates The Rite of Spring 100th Anniversary
Today marks the 100th Anniversary of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring premeire at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Here’s a look back at our Stravinsky recording with the Minnesota Orchestra which features The Firebird Suite, The Song of the Nightingale, and The Rite of Spring: Stravinsky scarcely needed more than The Firebird to assure his fame, but he followed it with Petrouchka exactly a year later, and then, in 1913, delivered the ballet that caused a riot: The…
Celebrate Women’s Equality Day With The Blazing Redheads
Celebrate Women’s Equality Day Sunday, August 26th is Women’s Equality Day which marks the anniversary of the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote (click here for more information). Reference Recordings was started in 1976 by one man, founder Tam Henderson, who produced almost all its releases until very recently. He quickly collected genius recording engineer Keith O. Johnson, and the magic blossomed. But women took on…
Album of the Month: Looking Back on RR-70 “Stravinsky”
Sunday, June 17th is Stravinsky’s 130th birthday, and considering RR has recently released their 1997 Grammy nominated recording (Best Engineered, Classical) featuring the Minnesota Orchestra performing Stravinsky’s Song of The Nightingale and The Firebird Suite on LP, we felt that June would be a great month for a “Looking Back” feature on RR-70: Stravinsky! “Igor Stravinsky celebrated his 28th birthday only weeks before the unveiling of The Firebird at the Paris Opéra on the night…
Happy Birthday Brahms! Looking Back On Eddie Daniels & The Composers String Quartet
Happy Birthday Brahms! In honor of Brahms’ 179th birthday today, we’re taking a look back at one of our past releases which features Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 performed by clarinetist Eddie Daniels and The Composers String Quartet. Eddie DanielsThe Composers String Quartet Weber: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B-flat, Op. 34Brahms: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B minor, Op. 115 Leonard Bernstein called Eddie Daniels “a well-bred demon.” He…
Looking Back On: Psalms – Turtle Creek Chorale
In continuing our ongoing new series “Looking Back:” albums from Reference Recordings’ past, we are taking the opportunity to feature a 1999 release that is particularly appropriate for the current Holy Week holidays — Psalms, featuring the Turtle Creek Chorale. Why Psalms? In the continual search for repertoire appropriate to a large male chorus, our attention turned toward the multi-faceted texts of the Psalms. Over the past 3,000 years, much has been written about the…
Looking back on Chihara: The Tempest
Earlier in the month, RR released a new recording of the ballet music of Delibes, featuring suites from the ballet’s Sylvia and Coppélia. But this was not the first release of ballet music from Reference Recordings. In fact, one of RR’s first releases featured the Paul Seiko Chihara’s score of The Tempest, which was premiered by the San Francisco Ballet in 1980 (the orchestra which appears on the new Sylvia/Coppélia release!), and recorded by The…
Valentine’s Week – Torch Songs
To finish off our Valentine’s Week features, we present Eileen Farrell singing “Torch Songs.” The very name Eileen Farrell summons affection and respect. Without doubt one of the most celebrated and versatile singers of the century, on this disk Miss Farrell is singing music she holds especially dear — classic American popular songs. This important series boasts arrangements by master accompanist Loonis McGlohon, and two albums for full orchestra by the legendary Robert Farnon, “Arranger…