Hi-Fi News and Record Review

Hi-Fi News & Record Review has been a trusted source of expert reviews since its debut in June 1956, which was two years prior to the advent of commercial stereo sound. This publication is dedicated to deepening our appreciation for music by exploring the finest audio equipment available for avid listeners. Each edition of Hi-Fi News features comprehensive reviews of premium audio gear, covering everything from top-tier vinyl players to classic vintage equipment that shaped the audio landscape. It's a must-read for anyone passionate about music.

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Hi-Res Downloads, April 2025

1 week ago | hifinews.com | Andrew Everard

Tord Gustavsen TrioSeeing (88.2kHz/24-bit, WAV)www.ecmrecords.com; ECM 2020Read down the tracklist of this set by pianist Gustavsen, long-term partner in jazz Jarle Vespestad and bassist Steinar Raknes (who last worked with the duo on 2022’s Opening), and you’ll expect a reflective, hymn-like feel. After all, there’s ‘Jesus, Make Me Still’, ‘The Old Church’, ‘Beneath Your Wisdom’ or ‘Nearer My God, To Thee’.
Classical, April 2025

1 week ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Thomas Kaufmann, Camerata Bern‘Exile’ – Panufnik, Schnittke, Wyschnegradsky, Ysaÿe, etc. Alpha ALPHA1110 (downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)Concept albums from PK and her Swiss partners never make for a comfortable listen. Schnittke’s First Cello Sonata, in neo-Baroque dress, trades in Mahlerian violence but keeps heavy irony at bay – unlike the Schubert dances used for one of the interludes.
Audiophile: Digital, April 2025

1 week ago | hifinews.com | Ken Kessler

John CaleShip Of Fools – The Island AlbumsEsoteric ECLEC32881 (three discs)Easily the most talented musician from what I consider an overrated band – Velvet Underground – Cale has delivered around 25 solo albums, of which this box set contains three of the best. Following two each for Columbia and Reprise, his trio of releases for Island – Fear (1974), Slow Dazzle and Helen Of Troy (both 1975) – were issued in just over a year, attesting to insane productivity that didn’t sacrifice quality.
Audiophile: Vinyl, April 2025

1 week ago | hifinews.com | Ken Kessler

Patrick LeonardIt All Comes Down To MoodRuudy 6 Recordings (n/a cat. no.; two discs, 180g vinyl)This stunner features immaculate pressings with lacquers cut at Bernie Grundman’s by Chris Bellman, while the mastering was one of the last tasks to be undertaken by the legendary Bob Ludwig before retiring in 2023. The sound quality? Casino Royale level.
Classical, October 2024

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Vrána, Janácek Phil Ostrava/HronKaprálová: Military Sinfonietta, Piano Concerto, Suita RusticaCPO 555568-2 (two discs; downloads to 96kHz/24-bit resolution)Kaprálová is a voice worth investigating amid the clamour of pre-WW2 music, despite her early death from typhoid fever, in 1940. Her forms are taut, her harmony spicily Bartókian, not obviously indebted to her teacher Martinů.
Luigi Nono Venetian radical

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Luigi Nono Venetian radicalPeter Quantrill | Apr 26, 2025 | First Published: Oct 1, 2024 Classical heroes, Communist ideology, the lapping waves of a lagoon... Peter Quantrill explores the disparate origins of Nono’s sound-world though a rich recorded legacyPolitically charged modernism must be the least fashionable, most lazily derided category of music in the present day. This is a curious state of affairs. In the field of art, such idealism is everywhere – it’s almost obligatory.
Audiophile: Digital, October 2024

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Ken Kessler

Various ArtistsAudiophile Masters Vols IX and XOctave Records OCT-0050/OCT-0051There’s plenty here for those who want to learn how PS Audio’s Octave Music division is contributing to the ‘audiophile albums’ canon. Though not as themed as the Art Of HiFi titles on this page, these come across a bit less like label samplers from the Octave catalogue than most general compilations.
Smetana Má vlast

2 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Smetana Má vlastPeter Quantrill | Apr 25, 2025 | First Published: Nov 1, 2024 There's more to this hymn to Czech nationhood than the familiar strains of Vltava, says Peter Quantrill, as he explores the history of the complete orchestral cycle on recordSmetana grew up speaking German and Czech, though one of these languages came more naturally to him than the other. His father recorded the news of his son's birth (in March 1824) in Czech, but named him Friedrich.
Classical, March 2025

3 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Gilchrist, Neary, ColemanChamber/vocal music by Pamela HarrisonResonus RES10351 (downloads to 192kHz/24-bit resolution)Born two years after Britten, in 1915, Pamela Harrison lived until 1990. Sample the magical web of strings to open her cycle of Herrick settings, The Kindling Of The Day, and the comparison should make sense. There are tints of VW’s modal harmony in her Octetto Pastorale but you might just as quickly hear neoclassical Stravinsky.
Charles Ives American visionary

4 weeks ago | hifinews.com | Peter Quantrill

Charles Ives American visionaryPeter Quantrill | Apr 17, 2025 | First Published: Mar 1, 2025 Modernist, patriot, man of faith, insurance broker: a new box illuminates one of classical music’s most singular voices, and his recording legacy, explored by Peter Quantrill It did not take Schoenberg long, after emigrating to the US in 1933, to size up the local scene. ‘There is a great Man living in this Country – a composer. He has solved the problem how to preserve one’s self and to learn.