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SACD

Christian Zacharias – W.A. Mozart Piano Concertos Vol.3 (2008) [SACD / MDG – 94014886]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 373 Views

Title: Christian Zacharias – W.A. Mozart Piano Concertos Vol.3 (2008)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO

In this 3rd volume, Zacharias’ Mozart becomes essential, if not quintessential, in a universe for piano & concerto that is fascinating. The Concerto for Piano & Orchestra #17 in G major KV 453 dates from 1784, & inspired the musician Alfred Einstein to say: “In a friendly key are hidden many mysterious smiles & painful wounds – words cannot be found to describe the permanent irisation of feelings in the 1st movement, the passionate interiority of the 2nd.” The Concerto for Piano & Orchestra #19 in F major KV 459 was also composed in 1784 right after “the 4th of the 6 Quartets dedicated to Haydn”, states Mihel Parouty. Three days after finishing it on December 14, Mozart became a Freemason. Leading from the piano the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne to heights of subtlety, Christian Zacharias brings out a thousand colors from these eternal scores. With exemplary phrasing he opens the doors to a world that is often approached but rarely captured with such intelligence. It is true that Zacharias’ Mozart is rarely flamboyant, but he brings forth unique beauty that only the deaf cannot hear. He allows his musical discourse to breathe, a reminder of days when music had universal meaning. This is a Super Audio CD that eclipses all others.

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2 min read

SACD

Christian Zacharias – W.A. Mozart Piano Concertos Vol.2 (2005) [SACD / MDG – MDG94012986]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 334 Views

Title: Christian Zacharias – W.A. Mozart Piano Concertos Vol.2 (2005)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO

Will listeners raised on virtuoso performances of Mozart’s piano concertos be able to make room in the hearts for Christian Zacharias’ recordings with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne? It depends on how willing they are to forego the pleasures of virtuosity for the pleasures music-making. This is not to say that Zacharias isn’t a virtuoso pianist. As his 20 years of recordings make very clear, he has talents & abilities far beyond those of most mortal pianists. But it is to say that, as those recordings make equally clear, Zacharias is far more interested in music-making than he is in virtuosity. As both pianist & conductor here, Zacharias leads performances which are all about sympathetic interplay, about musicians listening to each other, about the meaning behind the notes & the joy inside the notes. The Lausanne musicians respond joyfully to Zacharias’ direction, playing with him & not for him & breathing life into every line & sonority. While listeners raised on virtuoso performances may find something lacking, those listeners who value playing together more than showing off will find much to enjoy.

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2 min read

SACD

Christian Zacharias – W.A. Mozart Piano Concertos Vol.1 (2003 [SACD / MDG Gold – MDG94011826]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 305 Views

Title: Christian Zacharias – W.A. Mozart Piano Concertos Vol.1 (2003
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO

Not just because this disk is the only 1 in the series without a review on this site, but also because it concerns a re-issue in SACD format, I thought it might be useful to share my views with the Super Audio community. To start with the end: My verdict is a wholehearted positive 1 in both artistic & technical sense. Although Mr. Zacharias’ playing hardly needs any further praise (in its CD format Vol. 1 has been widely lauded in various critics’ circles) I would nonetheless like to reassure potential buyers & lovers of an unadulturated Mozart that it is his stylistic & delicate playing that constitutes the best part of this disc. Mozart is not the kind of composer requiring key-bangers (no offence meant!). His piano concertos are best served by non-glamorous, non-virtuoso & non-eccentric, natural players, who understand the ingenious ‘simplicity’ of which Mozart seems to hold the secret. This is what we hear in this re-issued 1st installment of the (then) intended full cycle of the 27 concertos for piano & orchestra (with the obvious omission of the early concertos, wrongly or correctly attributed to Wolfgang Amadeus M. as well as, so far, those for 2&3 pianos).

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2 min read

SACD

Christian Willisohn – Hold On (2005) [SACD / Stockfisch Records – SFR 357.4038.2]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 357 Views

Title: Christian Willisohn – Hold On (2005)
Genre: Blues
Format: MCH SACD ISO

Christian Willisohn, pianist and singer from Munich, goes back to the roots of the blues, taking his listeners on a trip from the basics to the myriad facets of the music. In the midst of Scotland’s West Highlands, hidden between the Atlantic and the green hills, there is a very special kind of concert hall. Art-loving people have transformed a former farmhouse into a meeting place for musicians, dancers, painters and poets. A Scottish secret? Well, not enough of a secret, for ingenious bluesman Christian Willisohn came to know of that place via a friend. Without much planning Christian set up his dream team of staff and equipment. On the road and over the sea, five NAUTILUS 801 speakers, a whole range of CLASSE amps together with a SADIE DSD8 (1-bit) recording device made their way from Stockfisch-Records to the Scottish Isles. Here, the unique acoustic environment let impressive recordings find their way onto “tape”. It was just THE very thing for a 5.1 surround-sound recording on a Direct-Cut-SACD: On this SACD purists will find a stereo and a 5.1 layer in DSD quality. The surprising thing on this Hybrid-SACD is the CD version. Christian Willisohn has invited six fellow musicians to the studio who add drums, bass, guitar, saxophone and cor anglais to his original recording from Scotland.

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2 min read

SACD

Christian McBride, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Cobb, Cedar Walton – New York Time (2006) [SACD / Chesky Records – SACD314]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 352 Views

Title: Christian McBride, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Cobb, Cedar Walton – New York Time (2006)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

“New York Time offers jazz fans a wonderful opportunity to hear two rising stars of the genre (McBride, Jackson) performing with two respected elders (Cobb, Walton). The past also meets the present in other exciting ways on this recording. The set is highlighted by several of Walton’s original compositions and a cover of the legendary John Coltrane’s “Naima”. Meanwhile, McBride’s acoustic bass talents are spotlighted on his self-written composition “Grove” (for trumpeter Roy Hargrove) and Jackson represents the new vanguard of jazz with his own tune titled “Notes in Three”.

Having spent most of his time since the late ’90s re-appropriating pop, funk, rock, and fusion elements into his progressive jazz albums, bassist Christian McBride makes a joyously off the cuff return to straight-ahead acoustic jazz on 2006’s New York Time. Working here with the seasoned rhythm section giants of pianist Cedar Walton and drummer Jimmy Cobb as well as an equally engaging contemporary, tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, McBride has crafted a back-to-basics album that, while firmly in the mainstream jazz tradition, works to remind listeners why they dug him in the first place. New York Time is as creatively inspired, forward-thinking, and unexpected as 2000’s Sci-Fi and 2003’s Vertical Vision are with their mix of electronic-funk and angular, postmodern jazz, and McBride can’t escape the fact that his true gift is for swaggering, double-breasted, no holds barred, late-night, straight-ahead modern jazz. Primarily, it’s his big, full, commanding double-bass tone that not only drives his bandmates forward, but buoys them on fat swells of sound. It’s that natural acoustic tone and earthy pulse of McBride that fit so well with this kind of no-fuss jazz. It’s also that sound, paired with the soulfully urbane and elegantly muscular chops of Walton, Cobb, and Jackson, that makes New York Time a jazz lover’s dream.

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2 min read

SACD

Christoph Titz – Magic (2003) [SACD / Parashoot – PARACD001]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 344 Views

Title: Christoph Titz – Magic (2003)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Born in Aachen and now living in Germany’s buzzing urban metropolis Berlin, Christoph smartly moves within the jazz genre ever since the early 90s, but never felt responsible really to surrender to its boundaries and clichees. “Magic” is his first album.
Can’t believe this guy’s trumpet. Very creative, sultry, bright, subdued and always classy. The first two selections (Magic and Finally Alone) are typical jazz selections. Pearls for My Flat and Slow Mood are worth the price alone- very moody. Picked this up as a bargain SACD and absolutely love it. Trying to find other CDs from this lyrical genius. Will definitely keep my eye on him. – review from amazon.com

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1 min read

SACD

Christoph Pregardien, Michael Gees – Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin (2008) [SACD / Challenge Classics – CC72292]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 307 Views

Title: Christoph Pregardien, Michael Gees – Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin (2008)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, among the greatest interpreters of Schubert’s song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin”. The cycle deals with a period in the life of a young miller lad as he wanders along a stream in search of work; he meets a mill-girl and falls in love with her; then loses her to another man and, in deep despair, drowns himself in the millstream. “Die schöne Müllerin” – consisting of twenty songs – is an amazing compendium of the human psych which deals with the miller’s emotions as he finds, and then loses, his love.

German tenor Christoph Prégardien has recorded Schubert’s seminal song cycle Die Schöne Mullerin before, with Andreas Staier for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi in 1991. One immediate difference in this recording for Challenge Classics is that Michael Gees serves as accompanist and plays a modern piano rather than a period fortepiano, as did Staier. Moreover, this SACD recording of Die Schöne Mullerin and the early digital DHM are worlds apart; the sound on the DHM is distant, recessed and rather clattery, whereas the Challenge Classics recording is a huge improvement. Prégardien’s voice is attractively centered, and Gees’ piano is captured in a warm perspective that cloaks and envelops the singer. It’s a great sound; as Prégardien’s voice soars, the piano rolls through both right and left channels as waves in a babbling brook, echoing the very sentiments expressed in Wilhelm Müller’s pre-Romantic texts. Prégardien’s interpretation is much the same as it was Staier, though one could argue in the Challenge Classics recording he achieves a greater emotional projection, not to mention a more lightweight delivery in the tenor range; in the DHM recording he had more of a tendency to borrow from the baritone range in order to gain more heft. That’s not to throw the DHM, still available in August 2008, under the bus; it remains a very good performance, particularly in the domain of versions with a period instrument keyboard. However, this version is clearly superlative; Prégardien has grown with this work in the intervening time and it shows. This is a sensitive reading of Die Schöne Mullerin demonstrating complete integration with the material, in addition to embracing a generally more mainstream kind of performance idiom than the earlier recording. Challenge Classics’ Die Schöne Mullerin with Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees is a recording worthy of taking pride of place on the shelf alongside such “classic” versions as those by Richard Crooks, Aksel Schiøtz, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and is in considerably better recorded sound than any of them.

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3 min read

SACD

Christopher Wrench – Bach: Organ Sonatas, BWV 525-530 (2009) [SACD / Melba Recordings – MR 301125]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 326 Views

Title: Christopher Wrench – Bach: Organ Sonatas, BWV 525-530 (2009)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Christopher Wrench commands a broad solo repertoire including the complete organ works of Bach, whilst also working as a liturgical musician, pedagogue & chamber player. He teaches organ at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University & directs the music programme at St Mary’s Anglican Church, Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. In 2008 he was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Australia Day Cultural Award for his outstanding contribution to the musical life of Brisbane.

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1 min read

SACD

Christoph Deluze – Dmitri Kabalevsky: Piano Sonatas Opp. 6, 45, 46 (2011) [SACD / Praga Digitals – PRD/DSD 250 279]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 282 Views

Title: Christoph Deluze – Dmitri Kabalevsky: Piano Sonatas Opp. 6, 45, 46 (2011)
Genre: Classical
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

The Preludes and Sonatas of Dmitri Kabalevsky are amongst the best piano works of the forties, and deserve a place on concert programs alongside better-known works by composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Pianist Christoph Deluze has become well known for his interpretations of Kabalevsky, and here he performs the three Piano Sonatas. The first is reminiscent of Scriabin, and the second and the third are war pieces filled with highly virtuosic passages. Deluze’s performances confirm their impressive stature, intense lyricism and rhythmic vigor. Sonatas on the SACD disc are excellent, with a very natural ambiance, and Deluze‘s performance are exceptionally good.

Christoph Deluze’s second album devoted to the music on Dmitry Kabalevsky covers the composer’s sonatas. The three sonatas together fill just about an hour, but there is enough substance in the music that listeners who can appreciate Kabalevsky’s style should feel satisfied. Deluze presents the sonatas in reverse, beginning with the Sonata No. 3, the most popular one. For those who don’t know this music, but do know the music of Prokofiev, this may strike them as a lightweight imitation. Kabalevsky’s sonata often has some of the same staccato sound, but the character is not as outspoken as Prokofiev’s, even though there is clearly sarcasm in the final movement. The second movement is gentler, played with nuanced touch and phrasing by Deluze. Sonata No. 2, written during World War II, is the centerpiece of the recording, literally and figuratively. The succession of changing characters and moods in each movement seem to tell a story of the war, perhaps how it played out in one village or town. It is more substantial in that respect than No. 3, which was written a year later, and even the textures in it seem weightier. At times, particularly in the third movement, the different lines and voices Deluze brings out give it orchestral-like dimension. The much earlier Sonata No. 1 (1929) is a different animal, with an indebtedness to Scriabin. The melodies don’t quite seem to settle into anything that’s immediately easy to follow or into a single tonality, and there’s the impression that the young Kabalevsky was aiming to be modern and shocking, to not follow the more romantic path of Rachmaninov or others. Its finale does pay homage to those ever-present bells that are found in so much Russian music. Deluze understands this music thoroughly and performs with utmost skill, demonstrating that even though Kabalevsky was obviously a more conservative composer than his contemporaries, he was nonetheless a talented one with a unique voice.

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3 min read

SACD

Chris Lomheim Trio – The Bridge (2002) [SACD / Artegra – ART2004]

adminSeptember 13, 2025 393 Views

Title: Chris Lomheim Trio – The Bridge (2002)
Genre: Jazz
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Pianist Lomheim is a regular performer at clubs in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, and his rhythm section have both played with top names in jazz. The Trio has a very polished and straight-ahead approach to nine tunes that happened to includes five jazz favorites and three originals played by Chris Lomheim, Gordy Johnson, and Phil Hey, three leading players in the Minneapolis/St. Paul jazz community. The original title tune by Lomheim was recorded away from the studio in a chamber music hall at Hamline University.

All tracks are complete takes with no editing. This audiophile recording was made using tube and ribbon mics, Millenia Media preamps, Meitner converters, and DSD editing with the Sony Sonoma. The surround speakers are used simply for hall ambience. This album also has the technical warning about assigning the center channel string bass to the left and right front channels if you lack a center channel speaker.

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1 min read