If you lean towards greater attack, dynamics and impact, try the Trifonov/Babayan Rachmaninoff For Two, with its fascinating Steinway/Bösendorfer face-off (DGG 486 4805)…
Violin
Lisa Batiashvili/Salonen/Bayerischen Rundfunks – Echoes In Time
DGG 477 9299 (CD), DGG UCCG 52086 or 53106 (SHM CD)
Texture, articulation and bowing, projection, intensity and instrumental voice: a great violinist depends on them all and, currently, Batiashvili is amongst the greatest. Her Shostakovisch Concerto No.1 is a towering, authoritative and emotionally compelling achievement, wrapped in a murky recording. A system’s musical and dynamic coherence must be at its highest level to release the soaring emotional intensity of the infamous Passacaglia, its temporal coherence must be spot on too, to hold the pattern of the disjointed phrasing and detonate the explosive orchestral accompaniment to maximum effect.
Honourable mentions: recent additions to the regular fiddling list include two that are testing in their own distinct ways: Isabelle Faust’s Locatelli concerti (il virtuoso, il poeta, with Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico, Harmonia Mundi HMM 902398) is a model of precision, articulation and pattern. Played with gusto, that energy and enthusiasm is a sure tell for a system that’s on song – or not. Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s Exile (Alpha Classics Alpha 1110) is as varied as it is demanding, as eclectic as it is evocative. No easy listen it’s no easy task for a system either. The better the system, the more accessible the music.
Voice
Eleanor McEvoy – Yola
Market Square MSMSACD 113 (SACD), Market Square VA302 (LP)
The voice is the most familiar and revealing instrument of all. From accent to diction, vocal ticks to individual character, any compression of expressive range or deviation from the natural is instantly apparent – especially if it’s a voice/singer with which you are personally acquainted. McEvoy’s distinctive contralto, accent, delivery and mannerisms are all beautifully captured on Yola, with a variety of songs of different densities to suit any situation. I never set out without it.
Honourable mentions: Everybody has their favourite vocal tracks, but two other albums I constantly return to are Janis Ian’s gentle and evocative Between The Lines (Boxstar Records GCD 3009-2 (Gold CD), BSR 3009-1 180g LP) and Neil Young’s Sleeps With Angels (Reprise Records 9362-45749-2 CD, 9362-45749-1 2xLP). Both feature distinctive voices captured with natural warmth and intimacy against musical backdrops of differing attack and intensity.
OST
Hans Zimmer – Thin Red Line
RCA Victor 09026 63382 2 (CD), Music On Vinyl MOVATM291 (2xLP)
When it comes to the outer reaches of a system’s ability to project scale and dynamics, there are few more fertile sources of material than film soundtracks. Not the bubble gum pop compilations that have become popular since Tarantino hit it big with Pulp Fiction, but genuine, honest to God, incidental music…
Undisputed heavyweight champ in the field of motion picture music is Hans Zimmer – but there are two Zimmers: BG and AG. ‘After Gladiator’, where he hit the popular motherlode, his work becomes more predictable, formulaic and frankly, just loud. But BG, it’s far more inventive varied and atmospheric – and never more so than on the Terrence Malick Masterpiece, Thin Red Line. From huge Taiko drums to a field recording of indigenous choir, tension in the Floyd-esque ticking of ‘Journey To The Line’ or the throbbing ‘Beam’, to the incongruous beauty of ‘Light’ or ‘The Village’, this music manages to encapsulate the fear and elation, confusion, uncanny calm and sudden violence of combat. To do that, it travels the whole range of scale, density, dynamics and textures, making it a fabulous audio assault course.
