Auryn's
Haydn: Op. 9
(2013/Tacet Audio Blu-ray)/Baptiste
Trotignon (2009 -
2010/Naive DVD/CDs)/Peter
Gabriel: Front To Back - Live In London/Elton
John: The Million Dollar Piano
(2013/Eagle Blu-rays)/Mozart/Stuttgart
Winds Serenade In B Flat Major
(2013/Tacet
Audio Blu-ray)/Petersson
Symphony No. 9/Lindberg/Norrkoping
(2013/BIS Multi-Channel SA-CD/Super Audio CD w/CD + DVD)/Rossini:
Complete Overtures 2 w/Barber Of Seville/Benda
(2014/Naxos Audio Blu-ray)
Picture:
X/C+/B-/B-/X/C/X Sound: B-/B & B-/B/B/B/B- & C+ &
C+/B- Extras: C/C-/C+/C-/C/C+/C- Main Programs:
B-/B/B-/B/B-/B/B
These
new music releases include concerts and audio-only formats with
higher definition than old CDs...
What
surprised me are the number of classical works by major composers we
never covered before. Auryn's
Haydn: Op. 9
(2013) is an audio-only Blu-ray by the Auryn Quartet that plays the
piece in 135 minutes and does it well. This is well recorded for the
most part, but playback is slightly lacking, but the DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix still sounds better than the 2.0
Stereo mix and the disc allows you to use the colored buttons (red
for 5.1, yellow for 2.0 on your remote to choose the tracks quickly,
though 5.1 is the default. Nice to hear the work in its entirety,
but be awake for it.
Baptiste
Trotignon (2009 - 2010)
is an older kind of set from the Naive label with one DVD and two
CDs. Meant as a catch-up if you have not heard this musician/pianist
in action, we get the Suite...
(2008; all original material, save closing track I
Fall In Love Too Easily)
and For A While
(2011 Best Of set, with This
Is New being the only
cover sing) albums on CD, with the latter joined by a 2010 DVD
concert, this shows off his talent, good taste and makes for some
solid listening. Like Leslie Pintchik, Trotignon sees Jazz as a
living, breathing genre and not just oldies material. The PCM 2.0
16/44.1 Stereo on the CDs are as good as the format will allow, while
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the DVD is good for the format, but
holds back the music.
Peter
Gabriel: Front To Back - Live In London
is a newer 2013 show where he performs all his latest hits, but I
found the show unusually uneven fir a great talent that rarely
misses.
It
lacks flow and he is not always singing at the top of his game, but
the 21 songs include Red
Rain, Shock
The Monkey, In
Your Eyes, Digging
In The Dirt, Big
Time and Biko.
The band, set up, audience and backup singers are fine, but this one
was mixed for me, so only expect so much. At least the DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix impresses, while the 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer still has some detail
issues, looks good for the most part.
Elton
John: The Million Dollar Piano
(2013) is a sequel concert of sorts to his The
Red Piano show we
reviewed on Blu-ray at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8625/Elton+John
Yamaha
has designed a piano with video screens around it, one that also
integrates visually with a huge stage production that offers more
massive video. The 18 song set is not bad and includes hits like
Levon,
Tiny Dancer,
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,
Your Song,
Blue Eyes
and Philadelphia Freedom.
In addition, John has some great stories to tell in between sings as
usual, has a great audience and that makes it a fun watch. The
1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer looks good from
a well-shot show, but has minor detail limits, while the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is as good as anything on
this list.
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart with Stuttgart Winds
(2013) Serenade
In B Flat Major
KV 361 Gran Partita and Fantasia in F Minor KV 608 are, after over 11
years of this site, two pieces by the all-time music giant we never
got the chance to cover. Through this audio-only
Blu-ray, we get the piece in PCM
5.1 and 2.0 Stereo, but 5.1 wins again and Tacet once again allows
their
disc to let you use the colored buttons (red for 5.1, yellow for 2.0
on your remote to choose the tracks quickly, though 5.1 is the
default. I liked the sound better here than on their Haydn release,
but this runs just under an hour. Not bad.
Allan
Petersson: Symphony No. 9
(2013) offers the piece in a 5.1 multi-channel SA-CD/Super Audio CD
w/CD layer and we get a bonus DVD in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
of Peter Berggren's documentary Vox
Humana on Petersson. The
SA-CD's DSD (Direct Stream Digital) 5.1 mix (credited as 5.0 in the
notes, but having some LFE .1 sound as rightly explained in the liner
notes) sounds best, despite showing the age of the recording while
outdoing the PCM 16/44.1 Stereo on the CD layer. A solid work, we
get some great background and history, music and otherwise in the
Berggren film, which runs 81 minutes. A nice package overall for
those who love classical instrumentals and might like this change of
pace for a lesser-known conductor.
Finally
we have Gioachino Rossini:
Complete Overtures 2
(2014) an audio-only Blu-ray by Christian Benda with the Prague
Sinfonia Orchestra and includes The
Barber Of Seville.
We get a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that has its
limits, but is not bad, while the PCM 2.0 Stereo is passable, but not
as good. And again, this is actually the first time we have ever
covered this work.
Extras
include illustrated booklets for every release on this list (save
Trotignon with text all over the folding packaging), with Gabriel
and Elton
adding Making
Of
featurettes and Elton
also adding four songs live on camera from a recent Kiev concert.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
