EL SONIDO DE LA GRAN ORQUESTA - Reference Recordings

THE SOUND OF THE GREAT ORCHESTRA

Reference Recordings - (ARGUI005)

Available: CD

Tracks

1) Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Introduction - (2’ 07’’)
2) Liadov: Baba Yaga - (3’ 21”)
3) Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre - (6’ 50”)
4) Rachmaninoff: Etudes-Tableaux “Little Red Riding Hood...” - (3’ 04”)
5) Brahms: Hungarian Dance n. 3 - (2’ 36”)
6) Mussorgsky: Pictures of an Exhibition: Baba Yaga and Great Gate of Kiev - (8’ 53”)
7) Satie: Gymnopedie n. 1 - (3’ 37”)
8) Rimsky-Korsakov: Dance of the Tumblers - (3’ 47”)
9) Dvorak: Polonaise from Rusalka - (4’ 30”)
10) Respighi: Dance of the Gnomes “Allegro” - (4’ 44’’)
11) Strawinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps, Conclusion - (4’ 45’’)
12) Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story - (4’ 15’’)
13) Grainger: “The Duke of Marlborough Fanfare” - (2’ 24’’)
14) Grainger: “The lost lady found” from “Linconlshire Posy” - (2’ 47’’)
15) Malcom Arnold: “The Padstow Lifeboat” - (3’ 15’’)
16) Susato: Selections from The Danserye - (1’ 49’’)
17) King: Rough Riders - (1’ 55’’)
18) Sousa: The Stars and Stripes forever - (3’ 34’’)
19) Stafford Smith: The Star-Spangled Banner - (1’ 17’’)
20) Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Conclusion - (6’ 28’’)

Notes

For many readers of our publishing house’s magazines, Reference Recordings needs no introduction. Already featured in several memorable record productions, once again a selection of its high-dynamic-range music tracks offers an excellent opportunity to broaden the more traditional audiophile repertoire.

Over the years, the Reference Recordings label has continued to attract attention. Some of its more recent recordings have also been released in “HD” versions — the California label was among the very first to do so — in two-channel high resolution, one of the technological frontiers of music software.

Titles such as the Britten release Britten’s Orchestra are available not only on CD but also on multichannel SACD and special DVDs containing high-resolution material. It is no coincidence that it also won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album in 2010.

Our new sampler therefore opens, quite appropriately, with Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, an educational work by the great English composer that presents the different instrumental sections through evocative variations, crafted with taste and refinement from a theme by Purcell. The broad, full and generous sound, together with the presence and transparency of the instrumental lines, reveals a successful combination of performance and recording technique. Ideally closing this listening cycle is once again The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, in its dazzling final section.

I wanted at all costs to avoid a jumble of sounds, the kind of audiophile compilation that simply throws everything together. Instead, we preferred to offer a musically credible tasting menu that can also be enjoyed in one continuous listening session, like a special concert of familiar and lesser-known pieces united by the winning theme of sonic pleasure. To preserve the programme’s coherence, we limited ourselves to the symphonic repertoire, leaving out otherwise tempting tracks from the extensive catalogues of solo piano and organ music.

The same applies to jazz, an area in which the San Francisco label has produced important recordings highly appreciated by audiophiles. Alongside the symphony orchestra we have included works for wind band, well-known scores that Reference Recordings has consistently recorded to an exceptional standard. The woodwinds, brass and percussion of the Dallas Wind Symphony are strongly represented on this new disc, which — it should be said from the outset — is not for the faint-hearted.

Enjoy the music
MARCO CICOGNA