From Audiophile Audition: The Curios – Pillow Book – Fresh!/Reference RecordingsNorthern California folk band shines on new release The Curios – Pillow Book – Fresh!/Reference Recordings FR-701, 61:41 ****: … The band members share a passion for creating music that resonates with authenticity and have been together for thirteen years. Pillow Book represents a variety of observations on life’s struggles, ironies and complexities. Fifteen songs, primarily written by Nancy Hall, boast an assortment of folk…
The reviews for our Britten’s Orchestra SACD keep coming in, and we can’t help but share them with you! From Robert E. Benson at ClassicalCDReview.com: This is Reference Recordings first multi-channel SACD and it is a brilliant success. The label’s engineering staff headed by Producer David Frost and Recording Engineer Keith O. Johnson, has done a magnificent, imaginative job in capturing the sound of this American orchestra… The performances are first-rate, showing off the entire…
Since we have been involved in some discussions about our dive into the SACD realm, we thought we would share a couple of reviews of our first two SACDs from Audiophile Audition. “Tutti!” Orchestral Sampler from Reference Recordings – stereo-only SACD RR-906SACD, 71:33 [Distr. in U.S. by Allegro] *****: Tutti! is a packed program of spectacular orchestral demo selections, and all of them are complete movements or sections – no fading out anywhere here as…
We had a good response yesterday when we posted the Dick Hyman video, so today we thought we would direct you to some good information about Bix and the “Thinking About Bix” album. From our friends at Audiophile Audition: Dick Hyman, piano solo – Thinking About Bix – Reference Recordings RR-116 (HDCD), 66:26 ***** – John Henry: Bix Beiderbecke of Davenport, Iowa was the first white jazz musician of note. He had minimal instruction on…
Check out this review from Audiophile Audition Magazine! “Britten’s Orchestra” = BENJAMIN BRITTEN: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra; Sinfonia da requiem; Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from “Peter Grimes” – Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern – Reference Recordings HDCD RR-120, 60:46 [Distr. by Allegro] *****: There are quite a few competing versions of these important Britten works, especially of the first and last, but the Kansas City Symphony has grown to a stature that…
Today we want to introduce you to the first of our two SACD releases that have come out. We are very excited about introducing more and more of this increasingly popular high-def audio format. Our newest re-release is of course the Exotic Dances from the Opera that we have introduced recently, but will give more attention to tomorrow. The first of our SACD releases was a compilation that was released in 2008. TUTTI! is Italian…
Here on the blog we like to give exciting upcoming information. As many may know last February, Reference Recordings partnered with the Kansas City Symphony to create a number of albums. This fall (2009), the second of those albums will be released. We will not be giving away the title or contents of that album today, but in order to get you excited we want to turn back the pages to last summer’s debut, Tempest!…
Joel Fan, piano – West of the Sun, Music of the Americas – Reference Recordings Fan has created an album with more programming innovation than most such piano recitals. Joel Fan, piano – West of the Sun, Music of the Americas – [TrackList below] Reference Recordings RR-119, 67:17 [Distr. by Allegro] ***** [Release date: Apr. 14, 09]: We liked Joel Fan’s previous CD for Reference Recordings – World Keys – and similarly find this new…