
LATEST ADDITIONS
Capital Audiofest: Hitting the Ground Running
My first stop was the room sponsored by a new loudspeaker manufacturer called IMC Audio...
Basil Audio Presents "It's About the Music" Tuesday November 6
Power According to Pass
Music in the Round #94: Benchmark & Marantz
Vandersteen Event in Atlanta Thursday November 1
Audio Element Open House, Saturday November 3
Listening #191: The Smartractor
At age 19, in my first job as a hi-fi salesman, I was asked to adopt the first of those views. The shop I worked in carried only two loudspeaker linesEPI and Ultralinear, both long goneand the owner urged me to push the former on lovers of classical music, and the latter on rock fans. So I did. To paraphrase Jiang Qing, I was the shopkeeper's dog: What he said to bite, I bit.
Bonus Recording of November 2018: J.S. Bach: Six Suites for Viola Solo
Kim Kashkashian, four- & five-string violas
ECM New Series 2553/54 (2 CDs). 2018. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Judy Sherman, eng. DDD. TT: 2:22:35
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Little is known of the origins of the Solo Suites, usually performed on the cello. No manuscript in Bach's hand survives, and in the copy produced by his second wife, Anna Magdalena, markings for slurs, articulation, and dynamics are sparse even by baroque standards. The suites may actually have been composed for the violoncello da spalla, an instrument smaller than the cello but larger than the viola, and played while held on the shoulder (some modern players use a neckstrap). But what are problems for the musicologist present a world of latitude to the interpreter, in this case master violist Kim Kashkashian, who takes full advantage of them.