Editorial Product Review: :Pairing stars like Lang Lang and Valery Gergiev in two of Rachmaninov's most-popular works should yield a success, but it doesn't. In the Piano Concerto No. 2, Lang Lang's soggy rhythms and heavy phrasing are magnified by engineering that spotlights his instrument, even when the piano just doodles when the orchestra should shine. Gergiev also indulges in exaggerated phrasing and inadvisable pauses and hesitations that staunch the music's flow. His orchestra plays more like a provincial band than a world-class ensemble. Try the opening section ...
Editorial Product Review: :Pairing stars like Lang Lang and Valery Gergiev in two of Rachmaninov's most-popular works should yield a success, but it doesn't. In the Piano Concerto No. 2, Lang Lang's soggy rhythms and heavy phrasing are magnified by engineering that spotlights his instrument, even when the piano just doodles when the orchestra should shine. Gergiev also indulges in exaggerated phrasing and inadvisable pauses and hesitations that staunch the music's flow. His orchestra plays more like a provincial band than a world-class ensemble. Try the opening section ...
Editorial Product Review: : This latest addition to Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road project is a thrill a minute. The most 'famous' composer represented here is Osvaldo Golijov, whose 'Night of the Flying Horses' fascinates with its sampling of 'Je crois entendre encore' from Bizet's Pearl Fishers, while a high violin line and mournful cello alternate above it; the piece goes wild about two-thirds of the way through in the section called, appropriately, 'Gallop.' The other composers all offer equally fascinating pieces as well: the thrilling rhythms of Rabih ...
Editorial Product Review: : This latest addition to Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road project is a thrill a minute. The most 'famous' composer represented here is Osvaldo Golijov, whose 'Night of the Flying Horses' fascinates with its sampling of 'Je crois entendre encore' from Bizet's Pearl Fishers, while a high violin line and mournful cello alternate above it; the piece goes wild about two-thirds of the way through in the section called, appropriately, 'Gallop.' The other composers all offer equally fascinating pieces as well: the thrilling rhythms of Rabih ...
Editorial Product Review: :The Brandenburg Concertos seem to be Bach's most popular works by far, and there are so many recordings of them out there--on period instruments and 'modern,' and at all price ranges. Of course, it's hard to pick out one or even two to call the 'best'--but this reissue of a 1989 recording by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment has a good claim for the title of 'Best Buy Brandenburgs.' These performances don't have the splashy extroversion of Il Giardino Armonico or the caffeine-pumped, ...
Editorial Product Review: :'Beg to report safe delivery of a strong, healthy last movement to my Second. Father and child doing as well as can be expected.' So ran Mahler's jubilant message on completion of his 'Resurrection' Symphony, which after several years' painful gestation had come together in his mind with a sudden flash of inspiration. It had begun as a single-movement funeral rite, and gradually taken shape under the influence of Schubert's music, but the choral conclusion of Beethoven's Ninth was its Grail. Zubin Mehta's 25-year-old recording ...
Editorial Product Review:Description:• A terrific collection of five great piano concertos performed by Maurizio Pollini, one of the 20th centuries great virtuosos. • Filmed with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1970s at the beautiful Musikverein in Vienna. • Karl Böhm conducts the Beethoven and Mozart concertos, while Claudio Abbado reads the Brahms. TRACK LIST DVD1: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3, op 37 Piano Concerto No. 5, op 73 'Emperor' Vienna Philharmonic Karl Böhm, conductor DVD2: Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 19, KV 459 Piano Concerto No. 23, KV ...
Editorial Product Review: :Vivaldi has been accused--rather unjustly--of writing the same violin concerto over and over, but no one can deny that the Four Seasons are quite different from the others. Described as the first examples of program music, they evoke the sounds of nature so realistically that one can hear the thunder, the wind, the rain, the singing of the birds, the murmuring of the brook, the barking of a dog. One also hears the sounds of humanity: bagpipes, hunting horns, harvest dances, even shepherds snoring. To ...
Editorial Product Review: :Vivaldi has been accused--rather unjustly--of writing the same violin concerto over and over, but no one can deny that the Four Seasons are quite different from the others. Described as the first examples of program music, they evoke the sounds of nature so realistically that one can hear the thunder, the wind, the rain, the singing of the birds, the murmuring of the brook, the barking of a dog. One also hears the sounds of humanity: bagpipes, hunting horns, harvest dances, even shepherds snoring. To ...
Editorial Product Review: : This is a three-CD set that includes all of Villa-Lobos' moody Bachianas Brasileiras. The best known is the fifth, for soprano and eight cellos (well performed here), but there is a wealth hidden among the others. There are dance movements galore; the second builds to a wonderfully percussive and powerful final movement; the eighth, despite an upbeat old folk dance as its centerpiece, has a melancholic warmth that is irresistible. The flute and bassoon duet that makes up No. 6 is rich and expressive, ...
Sales of semiconductors in November indicate that consumer products such as LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs, digital music players, and other devices sold well during the holidays, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said Monday.
November chip sales rose 2.3 percent year-on-year to $23.1 billion, the SIA said.
Unit demand has far outpaced last year. But falling chip prices have hurt industry revenue, the chip association said. For example, DRAM (dynamic RAM) bit shipments grew 25 percent in the three months through mid-December, but average selling prices have declined 20 percent over the same period.
The association also noted that rising energy prices and concerns about the sub-prime lending issue in the U.S. do not appear to have had a significant impact on consumer spending for the holidays, the SIA said. The group reiterated its forecast that worldwide semiconductor sales will reach a new record in 2007. But it will take a stronger than expected December selling season to reach the 3.8 percent growth goal the group had forecast earlier this year, the SIA said.
Investment banking firm Credit Suisse was not as optimistic as the SIA.
The November data was below normal seasonal trends, noted analyst John Pitzer, in a report on Monday. Even if December reaches its normal seasonal growth, 2007 industry revenue will only reach $255.7 billion, up 3.2 percent over last year. The growth percentage would fall short of the SIA's 3.8 percent target.
The slow November prompted Credit Suisse to lower its 2008 chip industry revenue forecast to 9.4 percent year-on-year growth, down from a previous target of 13 percent.
Editor Annalee Newitz reveals the inspiration for the futurism-focused site's name, shares her obsession with the scientifically taboo and tells why sci-fi is going mainstream.
