Dan Oullette
BOB DYLAN: Highway 61 Revisited
Columbia CK 9189 (CD). 1965. Bob Johnston, Tom Wilson, prods. AAD. TT: 51:38 The folk hero plugs in and rocks on the album that gave early warning that Bob Dylan was dead set on breaking rules and making brilliant albums in the process. Even if this disc included only the bookends—"Like A Rolling Stone," the unlikely AM radio hit that galvanized listeners, and the epic melancholic poem "Desolation Row"—it would be considered a classic. But with the help of guitarist Mike Bloomfield and keyboardist Al Kooper, Dylan delivers one great…
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Richard J. Rosen
NIRVANA: In Utero
Sub Pop/DGC 24607 (LP), Mobile Fidelity UDCD 690 (CD). 1993. Steve Albini, prod.; Bob Weston, eng. (Scott Litt, eng. on "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies"). AAA/AAD. TT: 41:24 I'll never forget the first time I listened to Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral full loud, and Trent Reznor's dark images of pain and fear. When I put on In Utero directly afterwards, I felt the potential for stark, stripped human pain to be stamped on a black plastic disc. By the time Kurt Cobain screams "Go away!" on the second track, "Scentless Apprentice," I was…
NIRVANA: In Utero
Sub Pop/DGC 24607 (LP), Mobile Fidelity UDCD 690 (CD). 1993. Steve Albini, prod.; Bob Weston, eng. (Scott Litt, eng. on "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies"). AAA/AAD. TT: 41:24 I'll never forget the first time I listened to Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral full loud, and Trent Reznor's dark images of pain and fear. When I put on In Utero directly afterwards, I felt the potential for stark, stripped human pain to be stamped on a black plastic disc. By the time Kurt Cobain screams "Go away!" on the second track, "Scentless Apprentice," I was…
Richard Schneider
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphonies 4, 5
BRITTEN: Sinfonia da Requiem, Four Sea Interludes & Passacaglia from Peter Grimes
André Previn, Chicago Symphony (Shostakovich), London Symphony (Britten)
EMI 72658 (2 CDs). 1977/1998. Christopher Bishop, prod.; Christopher Palmer, eng. ADD. TT: 2:32:40 The Britten and Shostakovich Fifth notwithstanding, the R2D4 here is the Shostakovich Fourth. Voluntarily suppressed by the composer for nearly a quarter century, the piece is a living journey into the mind and soul of Shostakovich—a deeply haunted and disturbing view of the…
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphonies 4, 5
BRITTEN: Sinfonia da Requiem, Four Sea Interludes & Passacaglia from Peter Grimes
André Previn, Chicago Symphony (Shostakovich), London Symphony (Britten)
EMI 72658 (2 CDs). 1977/1998. Christopher Bishop, prod.; Christopher Palmer, eng. ADD. TT: 2:32:40 The Britten and Shostakovich Fifth notwithstanding, the R2D4 here is the Shostakovich Fourth. Voluntarily suppressed by the composer for nearly a quarter century, the piece is a living journey into the mind and soul of Shostakovich—a deeply haunted and disturbing view of the…
David Patrick Stearns
AUDRA McDONALD: Way Back to Paradise
Songs by Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, others
Audra McDonald, soprano; Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern
Nonesuch 79482-2 (CD). 1998. Tommy Krasker, prod.; Joel Moss, eng. DDD. TT: 49:41 Do you ever get the feeling that a recording company is reading your mind and giving you exactly what you want? That's the case here: Three-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald has been overdue for a solo album just by virtue of her Dawn Upshaw-like voice and keen acting ability. But rather…
AUDRA McDONALD: Way Back to Paradise
Songs by Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, others
Audra McDonald, soprano; Orchestra conducted by Eric Stern
Nonesuch 79482-2 (CD). 1998. Tommy Krasker, prod.; Joel Moss, eng. DDD. TT: 49:41 Do you ever get the feeling that a recording company is reading your mind and giving you exactly what you want? That's the case here: Three-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald has been overdue for a solo album just by virtue of her Dawn Upshaw-like voice and keen acting ability. But rather…
Steve Stolder
JUNIOR WELLS: Hoodoo Man Blues
Delmark D612 (CD). 1965/1991. Robert G. Koestler, Stu Black, engs. AAD? TT: 46:30 Junior Wells and his frequent foil, Buddy Guy, were not known for their restraint. Young turks who served apprenticeships with the Chicago blues élite (both were mentored by Muddy Waters), their tendencies were to take their urban forays into more frenzied directions than their old-guard tutors favored. This peerless collaboration, however, found them meshing their exhibitionist tendencies with uncharacteristic refinement. "Snatch It Back and Hold It" (the…
JUNIOR WELLS: Hoodoo Man Blues
Delmark D612 (CD). 1965/1991. Robert G. Koestler, Stu Black, engs. AAD? TT: 46:30 Junior Wells and his frequent foil, Buddy Guy, were not known for their restraint. Young turks who served apprenticeships with the Chicago blues élite (both were mentored by Muddy Waters), their tendencies were to take their urban forays into more frenzied directions than their old-guard tutors favored. This peerless collaboration, however, found them meshing their exhibitionist tendencies with uncharacteristic refinement. "Snatch It Back and Hold It" (the…
Peter van Willenswaard
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 6
Evgeny Svetlanov, State Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation
Emergo Classics EC 3624-2 (CD). 1993. Tomoyashi Ezaki, prod.; Robert de Godzinsky, eng. DDD. TT: 46:26 There are many performances of this symphony (see "Building a Library," Stereophile, April 1996, p.273), and I possess 30 of them, but this one, recorded in concert in Tokyo, is my favorite. It is very emotional: mindlessly desperate in its fortes, deeply sad in its ppps. Svetlanov unleashes the orchestra—it nearly explodes. Sound quality is questionable. There is…
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony 6
Evgeny Svetlanov, State Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation
Emergo Classics EC 3624-2 (CD). 1993. Tomoyashi Ezaki, prod.; Robert de Godzinsky, eng. DDD. TT: 46:26 There are many performances of this symphony (see "Building a Library," Stereophile, April 1996, p.273), and I possess 30 of them, but this one, recorded in concert in Tokyo, is my favorite. It is very emotional: mindlessly desperate in its fortes, deeply sad in its ppps. Svetlanov unleashes the orchestra—it nearly explodes. Sound quality is questionable. There is…
Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I was drawn to this aphorism by a letter published on p.11 of our February double-zero issue, under the title "Unfulfilled Expectations." In it, reader Harvey Bodashefsky bemoaned our December '99 cover story on a Yamaha desktop receiver, the @Pet RP-U100, which he feels "looks like a plastic air purifier!" He chides us for taking it seriously: "Stereophile is supposed to be a high-end journal, not PC Magazine or Stereo Review's Sound & Vision....A magazine cover should grab your attention, make you do a double take, and entice you to pick it…
LED ZEPPELIN: How the West Was Won
Atlantic 83587-2 (3 CDs). 2003. Jimmy Page, prod.; Eddie Kramer, orig. eng.; Kevin Shirley, reissue eng.; Drew Griffith, asst. eng. AAD?. TT: 2:49:51
Performance ****½
Sonics ***
Atlantic 83587-2 (3 CDs). 2003. Jimmy Page, prod.; Eddie Kramer, orig. eng.; Kevin Shirley, reissue eng.; Drew Griffith, asst. eng. AAD?. TT: 2:49:51
Performance ****½
Sonics ***
Live albums get a bad rap for one simple reason: the sound is usually less than thrilling—poorly mixed, with limited dynamic range, the imaging of a tin can. The list goes on. Few live sets, including of jazz—which, given its improvisational nature, has more classic live albums than any other genre—have ever made an appearance as Stereophile "Recordings of the Month…
PÄRT: Te Deum, Silouans Song, Magnificat, Berliner Messe
Tõnu Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Talinn Chamber Orchestra
ECM 1505 (CD only). Manfred Eicher, prod.; Peter Laenger, Andreas Neubronner, engs. DDD. TT: 66:01
Tõnu Kaljuste, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Talinn Chamber Orchestra
ECM 1505 (CD only). Manfred Eicher, prod.; Peter Laenger, Andreas Neubronner, engs. DDD. TT: 66:01
To describe Arvo Pärt, I am forced to adapt his own metaphor. I am not a Christian, but I believe that the Holy Spirit must move through this man as light is refracted through a crystal; its nature is discovered, but its essence is unchanged. His music requires, I think, to be spoken of in such Renaissance terms.
Here we have four pieces, each…
You dodged a bullet.
My first idea was to open this column with a thinly veiled rewrite of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," the story in which Jim sells his watch so he can buy a set of tortoiseshell combs for Della, and Della sells her hair so she can buy a watch fob for Jim, and blah blah blee. I would have brought it up to date, of course, not only because it lacks some relevance in its original form—curiously, no one stands in line to buy hair from strangers anymore—but because I get enough grief as it is from angry men who don't like it when I write about things other than audio…