Order Now Audiophile Audition gives a four-star rating to the Roberto Moronn Pérez Andrés Segovia Archive Vol. 2 recording in a new review: “This is the second in a hopefully longer series of recordings featuring music written at the request of Andrés Segovia. … Roberto Morron Pérez is a wonderful guitar virtuoso, having studied in Spain, Italy and the U.K., and toured worldwide… The sound on this disc is marvellous, as one might expect from…
Audiophile Audition‘s Steven Ritter says Joel Fan’s Dances for Piano and Orchestra “is riveting stuff!” “Joel Fan seems to relish these pieces as he attacks them all as if living in another age—crisp, vitally engrossing pianism that will set your feet tapping and your vocal chords humming. The Northwest Sinfonia plays with expertise and rousing commitment in a recording of exceptional analog-ish warmth and sensitivity. This is truly fine stuff.” —Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition Read…
Audiophile Audition‘s Robbie Gerson gives Doug MacLeod’s new Exactly Like This release four (out of five) stars in this latest review: “The material on ‘Exactly Like This‘ is very good. The recording environment by Reference Recordings is superlative. The live studio intimacy is enhanced significantly by the full sound of the 24-bit HDCD. The guitar resonates with natural vibration and echo. McLeod’s baritone reverberates with subtle prominence. Engineer Keith O. “Prof” Johnson” captures the essence…
Audiophile Audition‘s Steven Ritter asks, is the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck release “The best Bruckner Fourth ever recorded?” “There have been many fine recordings of this work, but none to my mind holds a candle to Karl Bohm’s 1973 Decca reading. I can honestly say that Honeck and the superb Pittsburghians have given us a performance in phenomenal—underline that—surround sound that launches this rendition to the absolute top of the pile. The…
Two RR releases land on the Audiophile Audition Best of 2014 list: Dvořák & Janáček “Interpretatively and sonically, this is one of the best releases of the Dvorak 8th I have ever heard.” —Steven Ritter Read the full review Mephisto & Co. “A 45 rpm 200-gram vinyl version of the orchestral favorites album which has been on the TAS Super Disc List since its CD release in 1998.” —John Sunier Read the full review See…
Audiophile Audition gives a four-star review for Robert Moore’s Outta My Soul: “Reference Recordings has expanded their Fresh series to include singer Robert Moore. With Southern gospel roots, Moore has developed a soulful, passionate delivery. … With the release of Outta My Soul , Moore has crafted an accessible, well-rounded musical statement. Drawing on his skills as a composer, singer and instrumentalist, this twelve-track, polished album combines accomplished session players with a seasoned band leader.…
Audiophile Audition calls Organ Polychrome “a colorful and sonically-impressive” recording in a new five-star review: “[Jan Kraybill’s] playing is expressive in the quieter portions and pulls out all the stops when hitting some of the big orchestral-imitation passages in these colorful pieces. Using the ProLogic IIx height setting on my mutichannel decoder produced an excellent soundfield with the disc, and my Oppo deck includes HDCD decoding, which is subtle but does make a slight improvement…
John Sunier gives our Mephisto & Co. Vinyl Re-issue a Five-Star rating on Audiophile Audition: “This is a collection of eight variously daemonically-influenced shorter orchestral favorites, ranging from not quite three minutes to twelve minutes. It got reviews calling it superb when it first came out in 1998 as a CD. Now Paul Stubbleine has remastered it and the double 45 rpm pair were pressed at QRP and they include a huge amount of notes…
Critic Steven Ritter says the new Pittsburgh Symphony recording is “Interpretatively and sonically, this is one of the best releases of the Dvorak 8th I have ever heard.” in a new Five-Star Review: “This album only confirms the fact that the Pittsburgh Symphony, always one of America’s greatest and most underrated orchestras, now tops the list in both interpretative finesse and recorded sound. … Phrasing is perfect; he lingers some places where others may not,…
Audiohpile Audition‘s John Sunier calls says the new Kansas City Symphony’s Miraculous Metamorphoses is a “fine trio of modern masterpieces.” “This is a fine trio of modern masterpieces, and the first recorded in the new Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, MO, which reminds one of the Sydney Opera House building in Australia. Grammy-winning engineer Keith O. Johnson has created a superb HDCD-encoded disc…” —John Sunier, Audiophile Audition…
Mel Martin of Audiophile Audition gives a four-star review to our Charles Denler Portraits of Colorado recording, calling it a “worthwhile listen.” “The music itself is quite listenable. There are certainly some references to ‘Americana’ and some ‘Coplandesque’ flourishes… The performance by the Colorado Symphony and Chorus conducted by Scott O’Neil is a fine one, and the HDCD recording is beyond criticism. … The CD as a whole is a worthwhile listen…just evocative music well-played…
Audiophile Audition has a five-star, and absolute rave review for Pittsburgh Symphony’s new Strauss recording: “ It never ceases to amaze me that a recording can be so near the real concert hall experience. Here is an exceptional collection of three of Richard Strauss’ engaging tone poems from Reference Recordings. With an inspired conductor, Manfred Honeck (from Austria), and a world class orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, recorded live, these performances are bathed in the latest…
Audiophile Audition has a new review for our new Reference Mastercuts LP of the Kansas City Symphony’s Elgar and Vaughan Williams recording: “This version of Elgar’s familiar “Greensleeves” variations may be the best one on recordings—absolutely spell-binding… “The work’s concluding “Finale” brings the variations to a tumultuous close, and since Reference stays away from the center label a good distance and there is only around 14 minutes maximum per side, fidelity is astounding. “…this 200-gram…
Audiophile Audition gives four stars to FRESH! From Reference Recordings release Andrés Segovia Archive, Vol. 1 featuring guitarist Roberto Moronn Pérez: “Andrés Segovia is regarded as the savior of the classical guitar and its literature…These are mostly short, rather quiet, guitar pieces by six Spanish composers: Aregui, Sanjuan, Cassado, Donostia, Pahissa and Mompou…Spanish-born Perez is an accomplished guitarist…The outstanding recording was made in 2010 in the acoustics of the Holy Trinity Church in Weston, Hertfordshire…
Audiophile Audition has a new four-star review of upcoming San Francisco Ballet Orchestra release Bizet: “These three works of Bizet are all well-performed, and two of them are completely unique. … The Variations chromatiques here receives its CD premiere. It was inspired by Beethoven’s 32 Variations in c, and is a dramatic set of 14 variations for piano, with the theme mostly unaltered thru all of them. It is considered the composer’s most significant piano…