I’ve not heard this, so another album to add to the queue…
and also this one, which seems to have garnered good reviews from critics and listeners alike…
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I was really taken with this disc at first and played it for my guests at my recent playdate. Unfortunately my friend T (the piano teacher at the Royal Conservatory) was less impressed and proceeded to dissect it pretty mercilessly and point out all the shortcomings. Quite educational but I am afraid he has spoilt it for me a bit. I still love Ólafsson’s Mozart though.
Rounding out the evening with a change of tempo and mood. Love this album and I have to say it is a great demo disc for my “first draft” room correction FIR filter from Mitch at Accurate Sound. This is definitely a massive step forward in the sound-staging and although the smoothing of the room modes is strangely harder to hear (maybe my ears have just got used to them?) I can’t deny that the frequency balance somehow sounds more ‘right’. Anyway, more on that in my New Kid thread in due course…
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Haha. However many Goldberg recordings you’ve heard (and I’v heard a fair few) there is always a new one waiting around the corner. Not heard this one, thanks for the heads up!
A tad brutal but, as you say, educational…
Coincidentally, I have a friend (who is an accomplished pianist) coming over today for a listening session, which will include both of the above Goldberg albums and the Rach album…
I’ve not heard this one either.
I’ll add it to the play queue for later…
I really love Ólafsson and will continue to follow his development and enjoy his playing, particularly of romantic works. But Bach’s keyboard oeuvre is T’s “long suit” (he is probably one of the foremost authorities in Northern Europe) and he has literally spent a lifetime studying works like the WTC and the Goldbergs. So when he critiques performances of these works it is like running an electron microscope over them, he sees deeper into them than I could ever conceive of, even having studied the scores and read countless books. I learn so much from every listening session with him, but unfortunately every insight just feeds my OCDs and I too become harder and harder to satisfy. I remember clearly how much I enjoyed that disc before T put it on the slab and dissected it!
Luckily he approves of Volodos (and Vondráček)! 
In my view, sometimes too much education (on any given subject) can detract from one’s enjoyment of the subject…
especially of music.
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Haha, I see your point. Even if I think better understanding generally facilitates greater enjoyment I agree that the curve may well not be linear and there may be some maximum beyond which additional insight becomes a burden and ultimately leads to decreasing enjoyment. Hmmmm, how to identify that point? 
But there is a redeeming aspect here. If we ignore the fixed costs i.e. the reproduction chain for a moment (excuse us dCS) and focus on the “consumables”, the price of a bad performance (CD or download) is about the same as that of a good one. The same is not true of wine, for instance, where an ever more educated palate leads one inexorably up a seemingly exponential (or even super-exponential) price curve.
In my experience it does, generally…
but there comes a point where I just want to enjoy the music, rather than overanalyse it…
That has been my experience…
Indeed…
That is also my experience!
I find that my enjoyment of music increases exponentially whilst accompanied by a decent glass (or two) of wine!
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Word! 
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https://open.qobuz.com/track/123053986
A french lady singing a belgian song in english…said like this, I guess no one is interested in listening to this…but…you might be surprised…and the recording is exceptional !!
If you go away…Ne me quittes pas…
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I love Brel’s original and also regularly look for nice covers of such great songs. Will check it out.
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Never really thought of myself as being into Country until I discovered Lyle Lovett. This is still probably my favourite although I Love Everybody and The Road to Ensenada run it pretty close.
Folks have speculated that the last track “She Makes Me Feel Good” is actually about his (then) wife-to-be Julia Roberts although the chronology casts some doubt on this. But it seems to fit perfectly so why let the truth get in the way of a good story? Lovett himself has refused to be drawn on the subject. In an interview in the New York Times which a tongue-in-cheek sub-editor titled “Not Necessarily About Julia” he said:
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When I was University, a friend bought multiple tickets for any gigs for which he thought he could sell to other students at a marked up price…
Whilst he had some success, he inevitably didn’t manage to sell all the tickets that he’d bought.
As a result, he’d ask me if I’d like to join him at the gigs, at no cost to me, other than buying him a few beers!
One of the most memorable gigs was ‘The River’.
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I’ve always liked George Benson but, until now, I hadn’t listened to this album.
I’m not sure how it passed me by, as it was released in 2011!
Anyway, it’s pleasing to my ears…
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Just wrapping up a loooong afternoon and evening of listening via my V1 Mitchco filter set. Wow. All I can say is wow. I think we’re 99% of the way there (full report in my New Kid thread when we land).
Among many of T’s various piano recordings (a few of which are available commercially):
I listened to some of my reference recordings:
The Rostropovich Ballet Suites disc has always been beautiful music but it has never been able to trick my brain into thinking I am actually sitting in the “vineyard” at the Philharmonie. Until this evening. I swear I could smell those seats!
Wow.
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