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Danish guitarist Jakob Bangsø, 32, may not be widely known in the US, but he has already commissioned seven works. This generous recital includes premiere recordings of Constantine Caravassilis's beautiful, must-hear Saudade: Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra (2018) and Wayne Siegel's more derivative Chaconne: Concerto…

Dame Ethel Smyth didn't call The Prison an oratorio, but it resembles Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. Her musical idiom suggests the more advanced side of Vaughan Williams—think of the late cantatas and oratorios—although the opening of Part Two is pure Mendelssohn. Despite the somber subject matter, the piece is…

From Reference Recordings, we can count on pellucid sonics, including here. You can "hear through" the textures even in the most violent tuttis, with no trace of congestion. In the finale's "recitatives," the divided low strings are wonderfully enveloping. The Adagio's airy woodwind chorales are almost tangible.

After decades of increasingly weighty…

What on Prism III is more exquisite, the music or the musicianship? The question is beside the point when you're dealing with the exalted level of refinement, restraint, and elegance that the Danish String Quartet brings to the great music of Beethoven, Bartók, and Bach.

The deaf Beethoven, in his late String Quartet No.14 in C sharp minor, Op.131, journeys through deep, pervasive sadness and isolation into joy, song,…

Despite there now having been many opportunities for audiophiles to compare MQA-encoded recordings with the PCM originals—as well as comparisons at shows and dealer events, the Norwegian 2L record label has offered downloads of MQA/PCM files for quite a long time—there are still members of the press who insist that no-one, other than some reviewers, has been able to perform such comparisons. At the 2017 LAAS, not only were some exhibitors demonstrating MQA—Aurender, Meridian—Covina, CA retailer Sunny Components…

From the Brahms symphony's soft-edged yet clean and transparent opening, this issue sounds special. As the textures fill out, sonorities expand rather than merely getting louder. The woodwinds' fanfares are crisply placed, yet their soft playing still has presence. Two legato brass chorales in James MacMillan's Larghetto register with satisfying depth…

The Silkroad Ensemble represents a specific sort of intermingling. Founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and named for the ancient trading route that for centuries connected Asia, East Africa, and Southern Europe for commercial and cultural exchange, the ensemble seeks to promote global understanding through the blending of artistic traditions.

There may be no more powerful…

dCS Bartók Apex D/A Processor
($20,950–$22,950; reviewed by Herb Reichert in Vol.46 No.8 review)

Finalists (In alphabetical order)
Benchmark DAC3 B D/A Processor ($1890; reviewed by John Atkinson in Vol.46 No.3 review)
CH Precision C1.2 D/A Processor ($36,000–$43,500; reviewed by Jim Austin in Vol.46 No.2 review)
dCS Vivaldi Apex D/A Processor ($46,500; reviewed by Jason Victor Serinus in Vol.46 No.3 review)
HiFi Rose RS250A Streaming D/A Processor ($2695; reviewed by John Atkinson in Vol.46 No.10 review)
…

So it looks like the downturn is just us. A few short years ago, high-performance audio had a thriving presence here. We occupied three floors of regular rooms at the Venetian hotel, with plenty of exhibitors occupying large swaths of the top…