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SACD

Dejan Lazić, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano – Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2010) [SACD / Channel Classics – CCS SA 29410]

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Title: Dejan Lazić, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano – Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 3 (2010)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Channel Classics presents the world premiere recording of Dejan Lazić’s arrangement for piano and orchestra of Johannes Brahms beloved violin concerto. Recorded live with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra led by Robert Spano, the work’s creation was driven by two major inspirations. One was keyboard arrangements of violin concertos by Bach and Beethoven that were penned by the composers and the other was Brahms own countless arrangements and transcriptions of his and other composers works. Although Lazić completely re-wrote and re-thought the solo part, penning it in a clearly recognizable Brahmsian style and adding his own cadenza, the orchestral score remains entirely unchanged. Ultimately, Lazić’s goal was to translate Brahms’s unique musical language into a new setting without losing any of its original musical value and, in addition,to give pianists an equal chance to perform and enjoy this wonderful music. After hearing it, you will agree that there is a strong possibility that his goal will come to fruition.

In the notes accompanying this recording, Dejan Lazic points to the transcriptions for keyboard of Bach’s and Beethoven’s violin concertos as inspiration for his own piano arrangement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto. It is rare that something as large as a full concerto is arranged for a different instrument, but Lazic took on the challenge for two reasons: he loves the music and Brahms was a pianist who wrote as a pianist. Lazic went back to Brahms’ correspondence with the violinist for whom he wrote the concerto, Joseph Joachim, in essence to reverse-engineer the soloist’s part and rebuild it for the piano. Lazic’s arrangement generally works well. There is nothing missing in terms of the melodies, harmonies, and emotion; anyone who is familiar with the Violin Concerto will immediately recognize this. Looking deeper, however, it seems like the contrapuntal nature of the piano isn’t used to its full advantage often enough; in other words, there are numerous times when the left hand is just a note-for-note harmony of the right’s melody. The pianistic writing of Lazic’s cadenza and other passages could have been used even further to make the concerto sound more native to the instrument. Another detraction is when Lazic is obviously trying to imitate the articulation of the violinist’s double- and triple-stops in declamatory passages. On the piano it comes out as choppy chords. Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony tend to stay out of Lazic’s way, allowing the piano to take the spotlight, and the recording’s sound is good, if slightly shallow. The disc is filled out with Lazic playing the solo Rhapsodies, Op. 79, and Scherzo, Op. 4, where the sound is closer, a little richer, and captures the nuances of his playing. On the whole, this is not recommended for the purists among Brahms’ lovers and pianists, but it is of interest to those who are open to sampling other possibilities.

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3 min read

SACD

Deep Purple & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Concerto For Group And Orchestra (1969) [Reissue 2002] [SACD / Harvest – 7243-541009-2]

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Title: Deep Purple & The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Concerto For Group And Orchestra (1969) [Reissue 2002]
Genre: Classical, Hard Rock, Symphonic Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Back in 1970, it seemed as though any British group that could was starting to utilize classical elements in their work — for some, like ELP, that meant quoting from the classics as often and loudly as possible, while for others, like Yes, it meant incorporating classical structures into their albums and songs. Deep Purple, at the behest of keyboardman Jon Lord, fell briefly into the camp of this offshoot of early progressive rock with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra. For most fans, the album represented the nadir of the classic (i.e., post-Rod Evans) group: minutes of orchestral meandering lead into some perfectly good hard rock jamming by the band, but the trip is almost not worth the effort. Ritchie Blackmore sounds great and plays his heart out, and you can tell this band is going to go somewhere, just by virtue of the energy that they put into these extended pieces. The classical influences mostly seem drawn from movie music composers Dimitri Tiomkin and Franz Waxman (and Elmer Bernstein), with some nods to Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, and Mahler, and they rather just lay there. Buried in the middle of the second movement is a perfectly good song, but you’ve got to get to it through eight minutes of orchestral noodling on either side. The third movement is almost bracing enough to make up for the flaws of the other two, though by itself, it wouldn’t make the album worthwhile — Pink Floyd proved far more adept at mixing group and orchestra, and making long, slow, lugubrious pieces interesting. As a bonus, however, the producers have added a pair of hard rock numbers by the group alone, “Wring That Neck” and “Child in Time,” that were played at the same concert. They and the third movement of the established piece make this worth a listen.

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2 min read

SACD

Deep Purple – Machine Head (1972) [Japanese SACD 2011] [SACD / Warner Music – WPCR-14166]

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Title: Deep Purple – Machine Head (1972) [Japanese SACD 2011]
Genre: Hard Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Released in 1972, Deep Purple’s best-selling album remains a landmark hard rock recording. The album hit #1 in the UK and #7 in the US and was eventually certified Double Platinum. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple-—particularly Machine Head-—paved the way for countless progressive rock bands who followed in their wake.

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1 min read

SACD

Deep Purple – Live On The BBC (1972) [Audio Fidelity 2004] [SACD / Audio Fidelity – AFZ 017]

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Title: Deep Purple – Live On The BBC (1972) [Audio Fidelity 2004]
Genre: Hard Rock
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Recorded by the BBC on March 9, 1972, this previously difficult to find live show captures the classic Mark ll version of Deep Purple in all their incendiary power. This performance — basically the entirety of the then just released Machine Head minus “Pictures of Home” — is easily as good, and at times better than, Made in Japan, recorded five months later. The band apparently felt the Japan tapes were of inferior quality, and initially did not want them released, which makes this arguably the most potent document of the group’s live show from that year. Although this SACD hybrid adds studio versions of “Hush” and “River Deep Mountain High” from the Mark l edition to flesh out the playing time, one of the live tracks, their version of Little Richard’s “Lucille,” is only available on the SACD layer. That means that anyone without an SACD player won’t be able to hear it, but will be able to play the two studio tracks, a perplexing decision that is unexplained in the liner notes. In any event, the live BBC tapes find Purple slamming through these songs like they had something to prove. Although “Child in Time” is MIA, it is replaced by “Maybe I’m a Leo” and “Never Before,” two tracks that didn’t make the Japan set list. Even without those additions, this is a find for all Deep Purple fans, and a great place for all classic rock fans to jump in. Since this release is from an audiophile label, great care was spent making sure the sound is as crisp as possible from tapes this old, and the work has paid off. Those with SACD equipment get to hear “Lucille” and also experience the band in a wider soundscape, making the performance even more lifelike.

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2 min read

SACD

Deep Forest – Comparsa (1998) [Reissue 2001] [SACD / Epic Records Group – ES 68726]

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Title: Deep Forest – Comparsa (1998) [Reissue 2001]
Genre: Electronic, Ambient
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The duo’s third album, Comparsa, continues the world music potpourri Deep Forest are known for, though there is a pronounced focus on Latin and Caribbean grooves provided by musicians from Cuba, Belize, Mexico, and Madagascar, among other places. Although the nationalities present are truly global, the actual sound of Deep Forest hasn’t changed that much, centering mostly on lush new age music with just a bit more of an edge than is usual, plus several tracks with whispered or restrained vocals. For fans of the debut album, Comparsa is a noteworthy, though hardly necessary, acquisition.

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1 min read

SACD

Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism (2003) [SACD / Barsuk Records – bark32sa]

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Title: Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism (2003)
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

US underground sensations’ fourth studio album is truly a major work, blending subtle intelligent songwriting, amazing production, boundless creativity, and thoughtful rock. This is their best offering to date – dreamy and lovelorn in places, but also epic, gritty and twisted in others.

As musical lunacy goes, things have gotten as crazy as it gets for Death Cab for Cutie since 2002’s You Can Play These Songs with Chords compilation. A wildly successful tour with Dismemberment Plan, a collaboration for singer Ben Gibbard with emo-electronic guru Dntel under the Postal Service moniker, and a whole new legion of fans swooning to Gibbard’s lyrics as if he were a modern day answer to Kiss Me-era Robert Smith have all amassed considerable hype around Transatlanticism. But the group proves themselves more than equal to the task, answering the call and proving the cynics wrong with their most focused and most mature work in their entire catalog. Transatlanticism wastes absolutely no time and dives in head first with “The New Year,” one of the most melodramatic openings to an album since the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The mellow, mixed-meter percussion and dense atmosphere of “Lightness” is a brilliant lead into the pop-happy “Expo ’86” and “The Sound of Settling” before setting up the climatic and intensely dramatic title track. Unconsciously taking a page from Blur’s “Sing,” the hypnotic drumming and guitar call and responses through the eight-minute climax of the album are backed with a singalong finale that unquestionably will have every audience on the next tour singing along and holding up their lighters. And while most albums would be left exhausted after such a track, the group keeps things moving, albeit at a much slower pace than compared to the anthems that packed the first half. Gibbard seamlessly makes the transition between songs that full out rock to songs that are comparable to Elliott Smith’s finest hour with great ease. But it’s Gibbard’s poetic lyrics and signature introspection that remain a bench mark for Death Cab; and it’s the group’s maturity as musicians as well as songwriters that make Transatlanticism such a decadently good listen from start to finish. The band has never sounded more cohesive, the track sequencing is brilliant, and it caps off a triumphant year for not only Gibbard, but a band whose time and greater recognition is finally due.

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3 min read

SACD

Dean Martin – This Time I’m Swingin’! (1960) [MFSL 2013] [SACD / Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab – UDSACD 2135]

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Title: Dean Martin – This Time I’m Swingin’! (1960) [MFSL 2013]
Genre: Jazz, Easy Listening
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Dean Martin finally got access to conductor/arranger Nelson Riddle for an album project, and the result was an easy swinging collection with appealing horn charts and a series of comfortable readings of recent and vintage standards. Especially notable were the two songs borrowed from My Fair Lady, “On the Street Where You Live” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” which Martin and Riddle re-imagined as straight-forward love songs; “You’re Nobody ’til Somebody Loves You” (which Martin would try again in a more contemporary arrangement four years later for one of his biggest hits); and a solo version of “Just in Time,” which the singer had recently done with Judy Holliday in the film version of the musical Bells Are Ringing. This Time I’m Swingin’! was a good, confident set by an artist who had figured out how to make competent albums without expending a lot of effort, which was a key to his charm.

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1 min read

SACD

Deodato – Prelude & Deodato 2 (1972/1973) [Reissue 2017] [SACD / Vocalion – CDSML 8532]

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Title: Deodato – Prelude & Deodato 2 (1972/1973) [Reissue 2017]
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Produced by Creed Taylor and Rudy Van Gelder, ace arranger Deodato’s huge-selling 1972 debut solo album Prelude – which is here reissued back to back with Deodato 2 on an enhanced CD which features the rare quadrophonic mixes previously only available on 8 track – remains one of if not the key release in the CTI catalogue which unforgettably stirs into life with the stately Schifrin-esque jazz rock reworking of ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ which scored a 45 hit in both Europe and the US. Previously an arranger for Luiz Bonfa, Marcos Valle and Astrud Gilberto, surrounded here by a veritable ‘A’ list of session players including Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Stanley Clarke, Airto Moreira and Billy Cobham, Prelude which comes bathed in the warm glow of the Fender Rhodes arrived as Deodato’s platinum coated international calling card by virtue of its phenomenal success.

His work on Nascimento’s 1969 album Courage brought him into contact with Creed Taylor, and when Taylor set up CTI in 1971, he wasted no time in engaging Deodato’s arranging skills. Deodato’s early CTI work included his beautiful orchestrations for Astrud Gilberto and Stanley Turrentine’s 1971 album Gilberto with Turrentine, and by 1972 Deodato himself had earned a solo contract with the label. He struck gold with his first effort, the aptly titled Prelude, thanks to Creed Taylor’s penchant for getting his artists to record jazz/crossover versions of well-known classical pieces. In Deodato’s case, it was the Sunrise fanfare from Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, which had become popular through its use in Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Deodato’s funked up, Fender Rhodes-laden reimagining of it brought both him and CTI chart success – it would become an international hit – and while it casts a long shadow over the remainder of the album, Prelude nevertheless contains several other gems. Notable among them is the Latin-flavoured jazz of Carly & Carole (Deodato’s tribute to singer-songwriters Carly Simon and Carole King) and the low-slung funk of September 13, powered by Billy Cobham’s muscular drumming. The sequel, Deodato 2, recorded during April and May 1973, adhered to the same formula: funky originals alongside his interpretations of various classical pieces. And although it failed to emulate the success of its predecessor, Deodato 2 is arguably the better album, containing one of Deodato’s finest compositions in the dramatic Skyscrapers – sounding for all the world like a theme in search of a film – and superb jazz-rock adaptations of The Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin and George Gershwin’s immortal Rhapsody in Blue. Both Prelude and Deodato 2 feature stellar lineups, including CTI regulars Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke (basses), Billy Cobham (drums), Hubert Laws (flute) and Airto Moreira (percussion). As well as the original stereo mixes, Vocalion’s reissue includes the quadraphonic mixes of both albums (their first ever appearance in digital format), which were made by Rudy Van Gelder at his historic studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Heard in four-channel sound, both Prelude and Deodato 2 are given new and exciting life, and rounding out this reissue is a detailed essay giving the full lowdown on Deodato and the music itself.

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3 min read

SACD

Dead Can Dance – Spiritchaser (1996) [MFSL 2008] [SACD / 4AD – SADCD 2713]

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Title: Dead Can Dance – Spiritchaser (1996) [MFSL 2008]
Genre: Electronic, Modern Classical, Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Spiritchaser is the seventh studio album by Dead Can Dance, and the last before Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard went their separate ways. It expands on its exploration of world music, and like Into the Labyrinth, was recorded at Quivvy Church, Perry’s personal studio in Ireland. The album was dedicated to Lisa Gerrard’s deceased brother, Mark Gerrard. The track “Indus” contains a melody that is very similar to that of “Within You Without You”, a Beatles song that George Harrison wrote and recorded with Indian musicians in 1967. Although not deliberate, Perry and Gerrard were asked to contact Harrison for his permission to use it; he granted it, but the record company insisted that they give him partial songwriting credit on “Indus”.

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1 min read

SACD

Dead Can Dance – Toward The Within (1994) [MFSL 2008] [SACD / 4AD – SADCD 2712]

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Title: Dead Can Dance – Toward The Within (1994) [MFSL 2008]
Genre: Electronic, Modern Classical, Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Toward the Within (1994) is the first official live album of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard’s group Dead Can Dance. It contains 15 songs, of which only four appeared on their previous albums, and two of which were later re-recorded and included on Lisa Gerrard’s first solo album, The Mirror Pool. The others previously existed only in live performances and unofficial bootlegs, but were not officially released until Toward the Within. Along with Perry and Gerrard were a number of musicians who had performed with them on other occasions.

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1 min read