Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings, 1st mvt.: Pezzo in forma di sonatina

"A sonatina is literally a small sonata. ... In general, a sonatina will have one or more of the following characteristics: brevity; fewer movements than the four of the late classical sonata; technical simplicity; a lighter, less serious character. ... The first (or only) movement is generally in an abbreviated sonata form, with little or no development of the themes. For this reason, a sonatina is sometimes defined, especially in British usage, as a short piece in sonata form in which the development section is quite perfunctory or entirely absent: the exposition is followed immediately by a brief bridge passage to modulate back to the home key for the recapitulation" (Wikipedia).

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The Wailers: Burnin'

"Burnin' is a roots reggae album by The Wailers, released in 1973. The fourth album by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer (the last before Tosh and Bunny departed for solo careers and the band became known as Bob Marley & the Wailers), Burnin' opens with a signature song, the call to action 'Get Up, Stand Up' and includes a more confrontational and militant tone than previous records, such as in another Marley standard turned into a #1 hit by Eric Clapton, 'I Shot the Sheriff.' The songs 'Duppy Conqueror,' 'Small Axe,' 'Put It On' and 'Pass It On' are re-recordings of songs previously released. Burnin' peaked at #151 and #41 on Billboard's Pop Albums and Black Albums charts respectively. In 2003, the album was ranked number 319 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. ... In 2007 the album was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry for its historical and cultural significance" (Wikipedia).

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Flavours: Music for Cello and Piano

"The title is apt. Contrasted periods and composers are played by two musicians [Amber Docters van Leeuwen and Taisiya Pushkar] who clearly enjoy making the most of whatever mood the composer portrays. In the curious Debussy sonata each moment is part of a colorful or flavorful conversation between the players. Exaggeration of everything that happens is the rule of the game. This is the essence of the interpretation. I am accustomed to a more formally oriented reading of this lovely music, but this works also. Alfred Schnittke (1934-98) writes a three-movement sonata that offers a serious and pungent review of Russia's state of mind towards the end of the last century. It is dissonant but moving, and these players make us experience it in spades in the slowest performance of the two outer Largo movements that I have heard ..." (David W. Moore, American Record Guide, July/Aug. 2013, p. 174).

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Pearl Jam: Lightning Bolt

"Still flying the flag for independence of thought and movement while stoically avoiding getting bogged down in the music-biz bullshit that so plainly jars with their earnest motives, Pearl Jam have always been admirable, even when their music has fallen some way short of exciting. Pleasingly, Lightning Bolt finds the Seattle quintet in a more bullish and spiky mood than usual, as exemplified by the furious, spittle-spraying punk rush of Mind Your Manners. On the similarly urgent My Father's Son, they pull off the neat trick of sounding like Fugazi and UFO at the same time, as Eddie Vedder delivers one of his most intense performances to date. ... A few ponderous moments aside, this is a sturdy return to great form" (Dom Lawson, "Review," Guardian, 10/10/13).

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Mollie O'Brien: Tell It True

"Mollie O'Brien (born October 25, 1952) is an Americana, bluegrass, R&B, and folk singer from Wheeling, West Virginia. She has released a number of Americana albums with her brother, Grammy-winner Tim O'Brien. She has also released five positively received solo albums. ... In 1996, she released her solo album Tell it True on Sugar Hill Records. The album was in the top 10 of Gavin's Americana chart for six weeks, and helped further establish a following of bluegrass and R&B fans. The album received positive reviews, with the Graham Weekly quoting "The album ranges from very traditional material to contemporary songs, from gospel to jazzy to Western Swing, and even includes a wonderful acoustic treatment of a Terence Trent D'Arby pop song...virtually every one of the dozen tracks is a gem with either Ms. O'Brien's vocal shining or the musical arrangements being brilliant, or both" (Wikipedia).

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Bruce Springsteen: In Concert/MTV Plugged

"In Concert/MTV Plugged is a 1992 concert video and 1993 live album by Bruce Springsteen. It is part of MTV's Unplugged series. ... Springsteen famously played one song, the previously unreleased 'Red Headed Woman,' solo on acoustic guitar, then he and his hired band (this was during the time the E Street Band was dissolved) used amplified instruments the rest of the show; hence, the concert was called MTV Plugged. ... The sombre, folk-oriented 'Atlantic City' was played in a rock band setting, with a rhythm intro played on electric guitar as well as Springsteen's solos on the outro section. The show also, in a few ways, served to showcase Bruce Springsteen's soloing, as he played outro solos on most of the rock numbers, including the song 'Lucky Town.' Along with the applause from the audience, the common beloved chant of 'Bruuuuce...' can be heard with some of the songs" (Wikipedia).

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Freedy Johnston: Can You Fly

"Masterful songwriting in a vaguely midwestern-gothic mode, by a Kansan who relocated to Hoboken. The title track is a ballad about a farmer who discovers an angel in a field—and it doesn’t have one bit of spiritual mumbo-jumbo about it. 'The Lucky One' is the best song ever written about Las Vegas. The other eleven songs are just as good" (Jody Rosen, "60 Great Albums You've Probably Never Heard," New York, 11/18/13, p. 81).

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Kellie Pickler: The Woman I Am

"For my money, Pickler's last album, 2012's 100 Proof, rivals anything ever done by Carrie Underwood -- another American Idol alum who went Nashville, becoming the biggest country star to emerge from the show. Though she'll never be the vocal powerhouse that Underwood is, Pickler's fourth outing shows that she has really found her own voice as an artist. Her more traditional approach exudes a down-home warmth and tenderness, whether she's showing her sassy side on the divorce song 'Ring for Sale' or her sentimental one on 'Selma Drye,' about the great-grandma she wants to be buried alongside" ("Music," People, 12/2/13, p. 58).

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Fates Warning: Darkness in a Different Light

"Connecticut prog-metal legends Fates Warning return to Hartford for a homecoming show at the Webster Theater on Nov. 22 (7 p.m. doors open). The quintet is touring through the end of the year in support of Darkness In A Different Light, their first studio album in nine years and the recorded debut of their current lineup" (Mike Hamad, "Upcoming Concerts," Sound Check, 11/7/13).

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Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: The Heist

"Beyoncé sang for an estimated 104 million people at the Super Bowl on Sunday, and Justin Bieber has scored his fifth No. 1 album. But the biggest victory in the music industry is an independent rap duo from Seattle and its hit song about the pleasures of smelly secondhand clothes. The duo, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, is No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart for the third time in a row with its song 'Thrift Shop,' featuring Wanz, which had 381,000 downloads last week — far more than any other song — and continues to gain radio play on multiple formats, including pop. The track has had 2.7 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s self-released album, “The Heist,” is No. 16 this week with 21,000 sales. 'The Heist,' which opened at No. 2 in October, has sold a total of 313,000 copies" (Ben Sisario, "Rap Duo Wins the Week with 'Thrift Shop,'" New York Times, 2/7/13).

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Vienna Choir Boys: Britten, Bruckner, & others

"Two LPs from 1971 transferred to CD in excellent sound. I am among the people who don't care much for English boy choirs but respond much more warmly to German and Austrian ones. They don't make everything sound 'white' and antiseptic, like the English boys. They seem more human, more earthly, more real. I like their full sound, their vibrato, their warmth. ... The Bruckner pieces are lovely -- and beautifully done. Naturally there are men (at least young men) in these pieces and in most of the renaissance ones. The composers -- all from the 1500s -- are Gallus, Victoria, Palestrina, Nascus, and De Kerle. I like this kind of polyphony done this way ..." (Donald R. Vroon, American Record Guide, Nov./Dec. 2013, p. 174).

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Nick Lowe: Quality Street

"That’s right: Nick Lowe, the sly, snarling punk who once rhymed 'Rick Astley' with 'ghastly,' has made a rockabilly holiday album. A characteristically great, wry one, too, with a song called 'Christmas at the Airport.' Ho ho ho" ("To Do," New York, 11/11/13, p. 82).

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Labelle: Nightbirds

"Labelle is an American all female singing group. ... The founding members were Patti LaBelle (formerly Patricia Holt), Sundray Tucker, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. Tucker left before the group cut their first record and was replaced by Cindy Birdsong. ... After Birdsong departed from the group to join The Supremes in 1967, under the advice of Vicki Wickham, the group changed its look, musical direction and style and reformed as Labelle, in 1971. Their funk rock recordings of that period were cult favorites and they were raved for their brash interpretation of rock and roll and for dealing with subject matter that was not touched by black groups. Finally after adapting glam rock and wearing outlandish space-age and glam rock-adorned costumes, the group found success with the proto-disco smash, 'Lady Marmalade,' in 1974, leading to their parent album, Nightbirds, becoming a platinum success" (Wikipedia).

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Paul McCartney: New

"The unusual high-school assembly was part of Mr. McCartney’s promotional swing through New York for his album 'New,' due for release on Tuesday. ... Three songs from 'New,' which pairs Mr. McCartney with new producers, vigorously upheld the Beatles spirit. 'New' celebrated the hopefulness of new love with ebullient piano chords reminiscent of 'Penny Lane.' (Mr. McCartney dedicated it to [his wife Nancy] Shevell and the anniversary of their Oct. 9 wedding.) The guitar riffs of 'Save Us' arrived with an almost punky drive, even as the song headed for a vocal-harmony chorus. And 'Everybody Out There' was foot-stomping folk-rock that urged, 'Do some good before you say goodbye' (Jon Pareles, "Paul McCartney Makes Surprise Stop in Queens," New York Times, 10/9/13).

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Stravinsky: Complete Music for Piano & Orchestra

"This Stravinsky is big, warm, serious, and sophisticated; but it's also rhythmic, energetic, and entertaining. [Conductor Ilan] Volkov couldn't ask for a more fitting soloist than Steven Osborne. ... Osborne has great technique, a big warm sound, solid interpretive skills, and an affinity for this kind of music. Conductor, soloist, and orchestra work well together. The Piano Concerto reading is deliberate, full in tone, and commanding. ... Balances are exquisite from top to bottom: everything is gripping, clear-cut, and full in tone. The Capriccio (with echoes of Oedipus Rex from two years earlier) has the same qualities ..." (Roger Hecht, American Record Guide, Sept./Oct. 2013, pp. 189-190).

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Schnittke: 2 Concertos

"Alfred Schnittke (Russian: Альфре́д Га́рриевич Шни́тке, Al'fred Garrievič Šnitke; November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony (1969–1972) and First Concerto Grosso (1977). In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad with the publication of his Second (1980) and Third (1983) String Quartets and the String Trio (1985); the ballet Peer Gynt (1985–1987); the Third (1981), Fourth (1984), and Fifth (1988) Symphonies; and the Viola (1985) and 1st Cello (1985–1986) Concertos. As his health deteriorated, Schnittke's music started to abandon much of the extroversion of his polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style ..." (Wikipedia).

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Carlos Santana: Blues for Salvador

"Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican and American musician who first became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered a fusion of rock and Latin American music. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine listed Santana at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards. ... Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. He learned to play the violin at age five, and the guitar at age eight. His younger brother, Jorge Santana, would also become a professional guitarist ..." (Wikipedia).

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Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man and other works

"Written on commission for the Cincinnati Symphony as a concert prelude to honor the Allies -- one of seventeen commissioned by the orchestra's conductor, Eugene Goossens -- Fanfare can be understood as a coda to Lincoln Portrait. ... Virtually all of the pieces that Goossens received -- including one by an old comrade of Copland's from the Composers' Collective, Henry Cowell -- conformed to the same basic model: brief and snappy; heavy on trumpets and on rolling, military snare drums; filled with triplets and other traditional flourishes; and either starting out at full blast or quickly building to it. Copland's Fanfare, though, is stately and deliberate, perhaps the most austere fanfare ever written. Beginning with its opening crash and rumble, it builds slowly in sonority and complexity ..." (Sean Wilentz, Bob Dylan in America, pp. 29-30).

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Brahms: Songs

"A simply wonderful collection of Brahms lieder sung as it should be -- with impeccable diction, attention to detail, and a true collaborative partnership between singer and pianist. Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten sings without pretense and with great honesty, making her performance a memorable one. The phrasing! The inflection! The buoyancy! Each song has its own character and story while remaining correct in style. From the very first phrase of the first track, I felt as though I had stepped into a sublime performance already in progress. The choice of that particular opening song is a perfect beginning to this program. ... A few favorite tracks: 'Sehnsucht,' 'Dort in den Weiden,' and 'Nachtigallen schwingen lustig.' ... A terrific addition to a lieder collection" (Mary Southworth, American Record Guide, Sept./Oct. 2013, p. 84).

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Beethoven: Diabelli Variations and other works

"There are two sets of Diabelli Variations in András Schiff's collection of Beethoven's last three piano works, both in their very different ways period performances. On the first of the two discs, which also includes the C minor Sonata Op 111, Schiff plays the instrument he used for his memorable Beethoven cycle at the Wigmore Hall last season, a Bechstein, made in 1921, on which Wilhelm Backhaus regularly gave recitals and made recordings. On the second, which follows the Diabelli with the Op 126 Bagatelles, he plays a fortepiano made in Vienna by Franz Brodmann around 1820; Schiff now owns the instrument and has lent it to the Beethoven-haus in Bonn, where the recordings were made. Both discs are enthralling. In the sleeve notes Schiff makes an eloquent case for resisting what he sees as the 'globalisation' of piano music, in which everything is played on a Steinway ..." (Andrew Clements, "Review," Guardian, 10/3/13).

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