Archive for Minnesota Orchestra
Classical Candor Celebrates Our Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Catalog
With Bruckner’s 200th Anniversary celebrations underway, Classical Candor critic Karl Nehring has a double-feature on our two recordings of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 from Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra and Stanisław Skrowaczewski: “Honeck and his orchestra deliver a powerful performance that indeed offers glimpses both of the divine and of the existential abyss. The recording was pulled together from live performances by the engineering team from Soundmirror, the recording firm…
Exotic Dances from the Opera Featured on Performance Today
Order Now Minnesota Public Radio’s Performance Today is highlighting Dvořák and featuring his Polonaise from Rusalka from our Minnesota Orchestra recording of Exotic Dances from the Opera! Listen Now Exotic Dances from the Opera Minnesota Orchestra and Eiji Oue Favorites and rarities, including Saint-Saëns: Bacchanale, Strauss: Dance of the Seven Veils, and Rabaud: Dances from Marouf. Available for purchase as HDCD, SACD, LP, and Hi-Res Downloads
New Reference Mastercuts LP! Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring!
NEW LP Release and NEW LP Stock! NEW! STRAVINSKY: THE RITE OF SPRING RM-1515180-gram 45RPM*Half-speed mastering by Paul Stubblebine The 1997 GRAMMY® nominated Minnesota Orchestra recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is now available on LP! “The Rite of Spring, The Firebird Suite and The Song of the Nightingale have never sounded more magical or more dynamic! This HDCD has more detail than any live performance I have attended. The orchestra and the hall…
Minnesota Orchestra’s Copland a Triumph
Celebrate #ThrowbackThursday with a 2013 review of our Minnesota Orchestra: Copland 100 CD, and buy the newly released LP today! “The Minnesota Orchestra has a rich history of excellence when it comes to Copland, both on record and with the various music directors who have led the ensemble. That tradition is gloriously upheld in this 2000 tribute program. As always, Oue leads his marvelous players with distinction, and the sound is top notch. If you’re…
Rad Bennett Listens to Minnesota Orchestra’s Strauss
Audiophile critic Rad Bennett has a new review of an HDtracks download of our Minnesota Orchestra recording of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben with Eiji Oue: “… the orchestra covered itself in glory. Lush, detailed, exciting, and heroic are all words that come to mind to describe this performance. The download also included a suite of interludes from the opera Die Frau Ohne Schatten, which is awesome, dramatic, and romantic music we should hear more often! ……
ClassicalNet Reviews Minnesota Orchestra’s Bruckner Symphony No. 9
Brian Wigman says our 1997 Bruckner Symphony No. 9 recording featuring Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and the Minnesota Orchestra should be “required listening.” “This disc dates from 1997, well before the Bruckner explosion and at a time when a small label like Reference Recordings was still carving a niche as an audiophile enterprise. Everything works wonderfully. I dare you to play this for friends; I imagine they would name a great European orchestra if asked who was…
Audiophile Audition Reviews Mephisto & Co. LP
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…
Now Available on 200-Gram vinyl — Mephisto & Co.
MEPHISTO & CO. Minnesota Orchestra/Eiji Oue Jorja Fleezanis, violin solos One of RR’s all time favorite recordings, available for the first time on vinyl! RM-2510 – NEW 45 rpm LP release NOW AVAILABLE. ORDER NOW!(2-LP set, half-speed mastered by Paul Stubblebine, 200-gm vinyl from Quality Record Pressings in deluxe gatefold jacket) Ghosts, goblins, spirits and demons run amok in this program of infernal orchestral favorites: MEPHISTO WALTZ (Liszt), NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (Mussorgsky), TAM O’…
New LP Available for Pre-Order — Mephisto & Co.!
MEPHISTO & CO. Minnesota Orchestra/Eiji Oue Jorja Fleezanis, violin solos One of RR’s all time favorite recordings, available for the first time on vinyl! RM-2510 – NEW 45 rpm LP release — available JUNE 2014. PREORDER NOW!(2-LP set, half-speed mastered by Paul Stubblebine, 200-gm vinyl from Quality Record Pressings in deluxe gatefold jacket) Ghosts, goblins, spirits and demons run amok in this program of infernal orchestral favorites: MEPHISTO WALTZ (Liszt), NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN (Mussorgsky),…
RESPIGHI — Reference Mastercuts LP Available NOW!
RM1509 – Our Newest 33 1/3 rpm LP release — available NOW! RESPIGHI Eiji Oue & the Minnesota Orchestra Grammy® Nominated: Best Engineered Album, Classical Keith O. Johnson, Engineer “Dazzling orchestral colors,” is one one way to describe the music of Ottorino Respighi. “Belkis, Queen of Sheba” was conceived as an evening-long ballet with singing whose lavishness has kept it from view since its La Scala premiere. This is only the second recording of a…
New Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances Review from ClassicalNet
Classical Net Review has a new posting for our Minnesota Orchestra Rachmaninoff release that is now available on LP: “For superior sound quality and orchestral execution, there is perhaps no more consistent series of discs than the Minnesota/Oue partnership on Reference from the early part of the previous decade. Oue and the orchestra were adventurous and clearly challenged each other. From Copland to Ravel, they revisited the orchestra’s rich traditions and explored them anew in…
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…
Available Now! Exotic Dances from the Opera Reference Mastercuts LP
RM-1505 Oue/MNO Exotic Dances from the Opera Single 33 1/3 rpm LP, half speed mastered, 200-gram disc from Quality Record Pressings, in gatefold jacket You will enjoy amazing sound on this deluxe half-speed mastered LP of favorites and rarities. This collection of exceptional performances from the Minnesota Orchestra has been a perennial favorite and best seller on CD, SACD and HRx, and NOW can be heard on LP! This recording is one of legendary engineer…
RR LP News
In January we will be releasing another new Reference Recordings Mastercuts LP — Rachmaninioff! RACHMANINOFF Symphonic DancesÉtudes-Tableaux (orch. Respighi)Vocalise Eiji Oue, ConductorMinnesota Orchestra Grammy® Nominated 2003Category 90– Best Engineered Album – ClassicalKeith O. Johnson, engineer Selected by SoundStage!.com as one of the “Best Recordings of 2001” Chosen by THREE reviewers of The Absolute Sound magazine as one of the best releases of 2001.Sergei Rachmaninoff was one of the most beloved composers of the twentieth century.…
Reference Recording LPs: The Reference Mastercuts Series
LP Release Day! Reference Recordings LPs: The Reference Mastercuts Series RM-2501 Dick Hyman From The Age of Swing2 LP set, 45 rpm, 200-gram discs from Quality Record Pressings, in gatefold jacket “Jazz piano master Dick Hyman, with some of the greatest jazzmen who lived and played through The Age of Swing: Phil Bodner, Urbie Green, Milt Hinton, Butch Miles, Bucky Pizzarelli, Joe Temperly, Frank Wess and Joe Wilder.” 4.5 Stars – Downbeat A longtime student…