Track Listing
1. It's a Lie
2. Mr. Smooth
3. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
4. Starting Over
5. Midnight Rendezvous
6. What Will It Take
7. Rainy Night in Georgia, A
8. Ardent Man, An
9. When Love Was New
10. Listen, I'm Talking

Personnel includes: Gil Parris (acoustic & electric guitars); Lauren Kinhan, Tommy McDonnell (vocals); David Sanborn (alto saxophone); Bob James (piano); Larry Goldings (Hammond B-3 organ); Michael Colina (keyboards, synthesizer, drum programming); Norman Pors (keyboards); Kip Sophos, Will Lee (bass); Mark Egan (fretless bass); Adam Weber, Harvey Mason (drums).

Recorded at Acme Studios, Mamaroneck, New York from November 1997 to January 1998. Includes liner notes by Bill Milkowski.

All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.

Personnel: Gil Parris (guitar, acoustic guitar); Lauren Kinhan (vocals, background vocals); Tommy McDonnell (vocals); Michael Colina (strings, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion, programming, drum programming); David Sanborn (alto saxophone); Hilary James (piano); Norman Pors (keyboards); Mark Eagan (fretless bass); Harvey Mason, Sr. , Adam Weber (drums).

Audio Mixer: Ken Freeman.

Liner Note Author: Bill Milkowski.

Recording information: Acme Studios, Mamaroneck, NY (11/1997-01/1998); Avatar Studios, New York, NY (11/1997-01/1998); Right Track Recording, New York, NY (11/1997-01/1998); Sound On Sound Recording, New York, NY (11/1997-01/1998).

Photographer: David Robin.

Unknown Contributor Roles: David Sanborn; Harvey Mason, Sr. ; Mark Egan; Will Lee .

When a producer studs an artist's debut with an impressive all star guest list, he runs the risk of overshadowing the leader. Not the case with a new CD by Gil Parris. Although half of Fourplay (Bob James and Harvey Mason), David Sanborn, Mark Egan and Will Lee were invited to Parris' coming out party, it's obvious that the 28 year old guitarist wasn't intimidated. Parris shows an equal facility for electric and acoustic and clearly has been influenced by Larry Carlton. He also holds his own by writing engaging melodies, by adeptly shifting dynamics (often employing distorted electric sounds and graceful acoustic tones on the same piece) and by hitting solo heights that would please fans of both George Benson and Eddie Van Halen. On "Starting Over," Sanborn plays a simmering harmony behind Parris' lead. Then the two soar together on the hook before Parris takes a crunching rock flavored solo. "What Will It Take" displays an even greater build-up, moving from a fluffy, tropical flavored intro to a blistering fit of aggression. Parris also varies the clarity of his tone to good effect. On the melancholy "An Ardent Man," he uses a dark murky sound that in the company of Egan's gloomy bass, creates a fog of romantic confusion. Then, on "Midnight Rendezvous," the crispness of his sound evokes a brilliant moon passing through the clouds. On "It's a Lie," Parris alternates between that clear, Neal Schon like tone and a crying country twang. All in all, an impressive beginning.

Borodin and Tchaikovsky were both hostile to Rimsky-Korsakov's Third Symphony when they heard it in its first version, but not as critical as the composer himself. What we have here is its third and final revision, purged of the excesses of technique that, he wrote in his memoirs, made it all too dry. In this version, which has had several recordings, it is enjoyable less as the solemn exercise to which Borodin objected than as a piece of vivid orchestral writing with some attractive ideas guiding it. It therefore fits easily into a programme of Korsakov orchestral show-pieces, of which the most substantial is the musical picture Sadko.

Svetlanov is an old hand with this music, and he draws properly colourful performances from the orchestra, clearly and brightly recorded. The version of the symphony is preferable to Yondani Butt's over-stressed performance with the LSO or the limper version by Kitaienko with the Bergen Symphony Orchestra. Serious collectors of Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonies will no doubt have acquired the fine set by Neeme Järvi with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra on DG: this is on two records, and contains all three symphonies together with the Russian Easter Festival Overture and the Capriccio espagnol. For those following Svetlanov's series (the two other symphonies were reviewed last November) or for what might be called a Rimsky-Korsakov taster, even if not of his best music, the present disc is very acceptable.

-- Gramophone [10/1995]

Forty years ago, as a teenager eager to hear anything and everything, I was easily influenced by anyone who could provide me with shortcuts to the greatest music, and divert me away from trivia, or anything which could wait another day. So I grew up with the notion that Beethoven wrote symphonies, but Schubert didn’t - not even when he wrote symphonies!

One still hears these arguments peddled. Schubert’s symphonies (they say…) suffer from echoes of Beethoven, slow harmonic tempi, oversized lyric building blocks, and under-engineered nuts and bolts holding everything together. But the same can be said of Bruckner, who, they might say…, made a virtue of such ‘weaknesses’. And when, in the B minor Symphony, Schubert so memorably combines solo flute, oboe and clarinet in unison to intone the opening theme, his writing for orchestra is considered impractical. Whereas Mahler, using exactly the same combination in the final Adagio of his Third Symphony, is ingenious!

Sitting through the complete set of finished or probably-finished symphonies, as one can do here, enables us to make a more objective assessment. No. 1 is the work of a boy-composer growing up: it’s full of Mozartian and Haydnesque charm and manners, as well as exaggerated teenage gestures. The voice of Beethoven - which Schubert tried but found impossible to ignore - can be heard in No. 2. This is most especially the case in the flattened seventh and quick move to the subdominant in the opening bars - straight out of the Prometheus overture! It can also be heard in the explosive pianissimo-fortissimo outburst in the finale’s coda - positively ‘ripped’ from the same place - even the same context - in Beethoven’s own Second Symphony. In the nicely-proportioned No. 3 - which I consider the finest piece before No. 8 - the young Schubert finds his symphonic feet and speaks with a new-found confidence. No. 4 reverts to the neo-Beethovenian mood of No. 2, and the same structural weaknesses and mismanaged resources. The perfectly-crafted No. 5, with unmistakeable echoes of Mozart’s great G minor, again harkens back to earlier models. And the rather faceless No. 6 shows clear signs of Rossini’s influence.

The Unfinished may have become a pop-piece, but is it not one of music’s most noble masterpieces? What other piece for orchestra of this vintage shows such richness of harmonic palette, such range of orchestral colour and imagination, such sense of sheer symphonic scale and ‘distance’? We can of course answer these questions - let’s not forget Beethoven’s Ninth, Oberon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Symphonie Fantastique - but we do tend to underestimate the originality of Schubert’s conception.

And then there’s the Ninth, whose ‘heavenly length’ reflects not only its considerable number of minutes and seconds, but also the vast range of human emotions, textural devices, instrumental effects and the harmonic mystery tours it encompasses. Surely, in the incomparable Great C major, Schubert - by virtue of doing it his way - embraced the previously-unembraceable Beethoven?

Ever since his classic Beethoven No. 7 with Beecham’s Royal Philharmonic, back in 1960, Colin Davis has been unimpeachable in this kind of repertoire. Although his complete Beethoven cycle with the Staatskapelle Dresden (for Philips) suffered from a general lack of momentum, and a middle-aged spread of orchestral tone, this Schubert set brings out all the playfulness of the early symphonies, as well as the warmth and lyricism of No. 8, and the boldness and majesty of No. 9.

It’s true that Kleiber’s Third has even more youthful energy; Beecham’s Fifth offers even more grace and lightness of touch; various Eighths (from Wand to Mackerras) make rather more of the music’s drama; and both Solti’s and Gardiner’s Vienna Ninths are - certainly superficially - more dynamic, more exciting. But Davis has the measure of this music. And, as well as attending to every expressive detail, his pacing and placing of the great moments results in a strong sense of symphonic structure. Schubert has No. greater advocate!

A word about Davis’s orchestra. In an age when orchestral membership tends to change from day to day, and of course members determine an orchestra’s character, it is good to savour the unsurpassed beauty of sound and unanimity of purpose a pedigree ensemble like the Staatskapelle Dresden - the world’s oldest orchestra? - offers us. Thanks to RCA’s truthful recording, their playing brings joy into our living rooms.

This is a uniformly strong ‘library’ set, and I urge you to hear it.

-- Peter J. Lawson, MusicWeb International
reviewing these recordings previously reissued as RCA 60392

Track Listing
1. Prelude
2. Ring, The
3. Yitta's Story
4. Baby Bolero
5. New Life, A
6. Mikvah
7. Sonia's Heart
8. Chamesh Avanim
9. Fire
10. Funeral
11. Boro Park
12. Family Business
13. Far Above Rubies
14. Beauty
15. Search
16. Ramon
17. Wild Bunch
18. Ring, The (Reprise)
19. Nightfall
20. I'm Not Paying Anymore
21. Passage
22. Selling Ramon
23. Solitude
24. Chase
25. I Swam
26. You'll Know
27. Ruby, The
28. Completing the Ring

Original score composed by Lesley Barber.

Audio Mixers: Kevin Doyle; Stuart Brawley.

Liner Note Author: Boaz Yakin.

Recording information: Record Plant, Los Angeles, CA (07/1997).

Director: Boaz Yakin.

Photographer: Abbot Genser.

The soundtrack to Boaz Yakin's powerful drama A Price Above Rubies contains Lesley Barber's haunting score, which conveys the tortured emotions and anguished love in the story. ~ Rodney Batdorf, AllMusic.com

BRAHMS: PIANO CONCERTO NO 1 G

BERNSTEIN: SONGFEST, SYMPHONY

BASIC 100 VOL 23 - BEETHOVEN:

TCHAIKOVSKY: SWAN LAKE, SLEEPI

MOZART: PIANO CONCERTOS 17 & 1

No longer available on cassette as of July 1993.

SCHUBERT: SYMPHONY NO 5, ETC

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: A SEA SYMPHO

This recording was formerly available as Eurodisc CD 610-510-231. It is
also available as 610 520.

Leonard Slatkin conducts the briskest Belshazzar in years. When we have had so recent a reminder of the composer's own very first wartime recording, far faster in most of its speeds than has become the custom, Slatkin's approach would have certainly pleased Walton himself... The choral ensemble is generally first-rate... What is superb is the singing of the baritone soloist, Thomas Allen, covering the broadest tonal and expressive range... Slatkin directs a splendidly rumbustious performance of the opening Toccata... [The final Giga burlesca of] the Pastorale Siciliana (with David Theodore sounding glorious on the oboe)...with its snappy cross-rhythms is exuberantly done...

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [9/1992]

Orental Echo Ensemble: Fung Ching-wan (cello); Danilo P. Delfin (trumpet); So Tak-tai, Chow Chi-chung (French horn); Benson Fan (keyboards, guitar, percussion); Ng Kwok-Kwong, Siu Sau-han, Soo Ying-yuen, Yeung Yeuk-chai (er-hu); Chan Hung-yin (di); Chan Kwok-fai, Li Wai-kwok (yang-gin); Cheng Tak-wai (sheng); Yim Man-ming (pipa); Chan Shuk-har (liu-gin).