Editorial Product Review: : Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko, opera's 'golden couple' (or is it 'dream team?') have just released their first CD of duets. In the duet that closes the first act of Bohème, both singers are in rapturous voice, their phrasing sensitive and sincere. The Lucia-Edgardo duet is passionate and tender by turns, with Villazon particularly good--he takes his solo softly and in a long breath. The Duke and Gilda are roles made for them: She sounds sweet and vulnerable ...
Editorial Product Review: :Guitarist John Williams (no, not John Williams the soundtrack composer) adds to his fine catalog of impeccable recordings with Classic Williams: Romance of the Guitar. But this isn't just a best-of collection (though some of his greatest work is included here) since the disc contains three new recordings. Among the new tracks, Fauré's Pavane is a real stunner, a short but gorgeous piece originally meant for orchestra and choir, where Williams's guitar sounds as though it always belonged there. ...
Editorial Product Review: essential recording:The clear-cut rhythms, riveting articulation, and contrapuntal acumen of Glenn Gould's 1955 debut Goldberg Variations characterize this 1981 remake to strikingly different results. This later version is more deliberate in pacing, stark in expression, thoughtful with ornamentation, and tightly organized (if a mite theatrical) in terms of tempo relationships. Whereas there are no repeats from 1955, Gould now observes 'A' section repeats in the canons, the Fughetta, and other fugue-like variations. The rapid, cross- handed sequences still ...
Usually we're fans of Logitech's gaming mice, but its highest-end G9 Laser Mouse is expensive, overly complex, and lacks the ergonomic thought we've come to expect. If you like to brag about dot-per-inch limits, perhaps the G9's 3,200dpi laser will be enough to sell you, but for the price, we expect the design to match.