What do Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, Elvin Jones, Lee Konitz, Stanley Clarke, Eddie Daniels, Joe Farrell, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, Gwen Stefani, Seal, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Martha Reeves (to name a few) have in common? The answer is, Mike Garson has played with them all!.

These have been called “The fastest fingers in jazz.” David Bowie, for whom Garson has long been music director, says, “He’s the best rock & roll pianist I know.” Recording group Free Flight took advantage of his classical training, and Hollywood calls when it needs a virtuoso assoluto. In short, Mike Garson is a phenomenon, able to mimic Bill Evans or Liberace on command, or to soothe an audience with New Age hypnotics. But he’s at his very best wearing his “jazz hat.”

Supported by a stellar cast of Brian Bromberg (acoustic bass), Ralph Humphries (drums) and Eric Marienthal (alto saxophone), Garson turns in a memorable set of originals and imaginative arrangements of standards. Most tracks were previously available on RR-53-—long out of print—plus, for this re-release, we’ve added Garson’s “take no prisoners” improvisation on Gershwin themes—also long out of print. The package is graced by his own computer art. Is there no limit to Garson’s talent?

Everyone at RR thinks this is one of our finest jazz productions. Recorded acoustically at the Oxnard, California, Civic Auditorium, Mike Garson’s Jazz Hat was captured in three-dimensional, high-resolution HDCD sound by RR’s resident guru, “Prof.” Keith Johnson, recipient of seven GRAMMY® nominations for engineering.

First, you need to play this recording at a higher than normal level because it's got a very realistic dynamic range--which means that the opening's soft string chirpings won't register fully at a low level. But then, watch out (I said it's a realistic dynamic range): when the orchestra rips, you'll be abruptly transported to Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall. Okay, so what's all this state of the art 24-bit digital technology bringing to us? Namely one of the best Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances on disc! The playing by the Minnesota Orchestra is simply stupendous: tremendously unified ensemble, immaculate balances that let you hear all the important lines, and a palpable sense of enjoyment from the players (those trumpets rule!).


Eiji Oue sets an ideal tempo for the first movement and employs perfectly timed rubato in its lyrical central section. The second movement flags a bit, lacking the snarling sexuality of Jansons with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, which remains the most gripping performance of recent years; but with the finale Oue gears up again for a blockbuster reading of tremendous excitement and bracing virtuosity. And yes, he lets the final tam-tam stroke reverberate uninterrupted, as (confusingly) indicated in the score.


A gently passionate performance of the ubiquitous Vocalise functions as an interlude (with serenely singing strings) before the Études-tableaux, where Oue again exploits his orchestra's radiant sonorities to fully flesh out Respighi's brilliant orchestrations of these mysterious, sensuous, and evocative pieces. Reference's recording renders all the music's color, irony, and drama in true high fidelity. An excellent conclusion to an excellent disc, one you are wholeheartedly urged to investigate.
--Victor Carr Jr., ClassicsToday.com

This selection is also available on Walking Frog (distribution) 266.

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14, H. 48

The operas of Carlisle Floyd are some of the most performed of living American opera composers. This is the world premiere recording of Floyd’s opera, Wuthering Heights, which was first performed in 1958 by the Santa Fe Opera, but has never been recorded until now. This recording was made by the Florentine Opera in January 2015, with the composer acting as artistic advisor. Carlisle Floyd, who will turn 90 in June 2016, is still composing new operas, his newest presented by Houston Grand Opera in March 2016.

Tropic Affair

XLO / REFERENCE RECORDINGS TEST & BURN-IN CD
"The Absolute Sound Super Disc List"
This is THE step-by-step guide to setting up and fine-tuning your audio or home theatre system. Roger Skoff of XLO Electric (innovators in the field of cables and interconnects) and "Prof." Keith O. Johnson (audio guru and co-inventor of HDCD) lead you through a quick and easy system set-up. Included are tracks dealing with Balance, Wiring and Polarity, Speaker Placement, Soundstaging, Imaging and Depth, Absolute Phase, Component Demagnetization and Burn-In, PLUS a varied selection of RR jazz and classics to show off your fully-tweaked system!

(Music includes: "Stormy Weather"; "Shiny Stockings"; GOULD: Derivations; JANACEK: Sinfonietta (excerpts); BIEBL: Ave Maria; WEINBERGER: Polka and Fugue)

Includes liner notes by Frederick Fennell.
This selection is a High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) recording.

Eileen Farrell Sings Torch Songs

Of his Symphony No. 6, Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky wrote, “But I absolutely consider it to be the best, and in particular, the most sincere of all my creations. I love it as I have never loved any of my other musical offspring.” Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 was the composer’s final completed symphony. He led the premiere performance in October of 1893, only nine days before his death. This release also includes the world premiere recording of the “Rusalka Fantasy.” This orchestral suite is taken from Dvorak’s opera by Manfred Honeck and Tomas Ille. Performing these works is the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which has a long and rich history of touting the world’s finest musicians and conductors. This is the fifth release in the well-received Pittsburgh Live! Series.

Reference Recordings proudly presents Holst’s best known and beloved works in an outstanding interpretation from Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. This release was recorded in the beautiful and acoustically acclaimed Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It was produced by David Frost, six-time winner of the Classical Producer of the Year GRAMMY® award. It was recorded by RR’s engineering team, comprised of GRAMMY® winning engineer and Technical Director Keith O. Johnson, and multi-GRAMMY® nominated engineer Sean Martin. This is the seventh in Reference Recordings’ series with Kansas City Symphony. Previous albums are "Shakespeare’s Tempest"; the Grammy® Award-winning "Britten’s Orchestra"; an Elgar/Vaughan Williams project; "Miraculous Metamorphoses"; an all-Saint-Saëns album featuring the magnificent Organ Symphony, and the music of contemporary American composer Adam Schoenberg (nominated for two Grammy® Awards).

-----

REVIEW:

Top quality sound supports a superb performance by Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, pulling out all the stops in each of Holst's seven visits to the then known planets: Mars is given a massively bellicose sound and is then followed by a transparently crystalline Venus and on through a fleeting Mercury, a hyper-active Jupiter, a sulking Saturn, a mystical Uranus and a riveting Neptune that fades off into eerie infinity. The accompanying Perfect Fool ballet music is vintage Edwardian fluff – charming though it is. Outstanding.

– RafaelMusicNotes.com

Anton Bruckner is known as a deeply religious composer whose Catholic spirituality is prominent in his music, particularly his later symphonies. However, his Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major ("Romantic") is one of his most secular, most influenced by nature and most popular works. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Manfred Honeck offer a bold new interpretation of this great music, breaking Bruckner out of the strictly interpreted box in which he is often placed. Here, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Honeck present the 1878/80 version, the same version that was used for the symphony's premiere in 1881.

Reference Recordings is proud to present True Concord's newest album, A Dream So Bright, featuring two world premiere recordings of works by Jake Runestad. His EMMY-winning choral/orchestral work, Earth Symphony, with poetry of Todd Boss, was commissioned and premiered by True Concord in 2022. Dreams of the Fallen, Runestad's prize-winning work for solo piano, chorus & orchestra, features pianist Jeffrey Biegel and includes texts of the poet Brian Turner, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan war. Turner states: "When the music lifts to it's peak, when the choir sings into the high cathedral of the human experience-the hairs on the back of my neck take notice, my own heart takes notice, and I am moved once again by the fusion of sound and story. "Dreams of the Fallen" is a compassionate, emotionally-layered, elegant, and poignant work of art that I am proud to be a part of. " A Dream So Bright was recorded in outstanding fidelity by engineer John Polito, and produced by GRAMMY�-award winner Peter Rutenberg of Los Angeles. Recorded May 24-26, 2023 at Camelback Bible Church, Paradise Valley, Arizona

Reference Recordings proudly presents Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7, in a new interpretation from conductor Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. It is coupled with the first recording of Mason Bates' Resurrexit, which was composed in 2018 on a commission from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Maestro Honeck. This album was recorded live in 2022 in beautiful and historic Heinz Hall, home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, in superb audiophile sound.

Grammy® nominated classical guitarist, performer and educator Marc Regnier has won the attention and respect of musicians, producers and critics for over three decades, having been variously described as “a master of his instrument” and “a musician of intelligence, lyricism and subtlety.” On Tempo do Brasil, an album showcasing a fine variety of modern Brazilian music and his first Reference Recordings release, Mr. Regnier is joined by Marco Sartor, guitar, Volodymyr Vynnytsky, piano, Natalia Khoma, cello and Tacy Edwards, flute, all world-class musicians and dear friends of the guitarist.