Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (50th Anniversary Edition) - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Elisabeth Klein was an icon in the world of contemporary music. She worked with all the leading composers and did an amazing job for the young and coming composers, not least from the Scandinavian countries. Danacord had the luck to a selection of her finest recordings on LP and it is now out in new digital transfers. Here is a chance to listen to an extraordinary female pianist who interpreted the often most dense and difficult piano pieces with ease and with elegance. Not to be missed! Elisabeth Klein was born in Trencín (now Slovakia) and grew up in Budapest, Hungary from the age of 3. At an early age, she showed interest and talent for the piano. She studied at the Franz Liszt Academy already as a young girl, continuing after high school, graduating from the Academy in 1934, where-after she studied privately with Béla Bartók 1934-1936. She formed a duo with the violinist László Halmos. The political turmoil in the thirties made many musicians, not least Jews, leave Budapest. She came to Denmark without clear plans, however, to stay, but at the outbreak of the Second World War she managed to stay. Elisabeth Klein worked for many years with the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, later she taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, Norway. After her retirement from the Academy in 1981, she continued giving seminars and lecture-recitals at the Academy for many years.

The third and last of the Flamin' Groovies late-'70s albums for Sire, Jumpin' in the Night storms out of the gate with the title song, a top-shelf rocker that brings the muscle of the Flamingo-era lineup of the Groovies to the more style-conscious British Invasion sonics of Cyril Jordan's version. Though Jumpin' in the Night never rocks that hard or that well again, it does sound decidedly tighter and tougher than 1978's Flamin' Groovies Now, and guitarist Mike Wilhelm, a new addition to the Now lineup, is much better integrated into their wall of guitars, with the Groovies sounding more solid than they did a year before. But while Jumpin' in the Night finds the Flamin' Groovies sounding better than ever, the material unfortunately let's them down. It's no wonder why the Flamin' Groovies loved the Byrds - both were American bands who fell in love with the sounds of British rock and crafted their own variation on the style - but three Byrds covers on this album is about two too many (especially given how clunky David Wright's drumming sounds on Inch5DInch), and though having the Groovies tackle InchAbsolutely Sweet MarieInch and InchPlease Please MeInch sounds good on paper, the audible results are a bit underwhelming. (On the other hand, their cover of InchWerewolves of LondonInch is better than anyone had a right to expect.) The production and engineering by Roger Bechirian is crisp and flattering to the guitars, but lacks the resonance of Dave Edmunds' more layered approach on Shake Some Action and Now. A great band, the Flamin' Groovies often seemed to have a hard time reconciling their best qualities with the record-making process, and Jumpin' in the Night is probably the best example of this dilemma, though it has more than enough worthwhile moments to compensate.

The edition brings together Berliner Philharmoniker recordings from the last ten years. It includes the nine completed symphonies and the Adagio of the Tenth, whose performance under the direction of Claudio Abbado on the 100th anniversary of Mahler's death is one of the highlights. In addition to chief conductor Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Sir Simon Rattle, the edition features other outstanding Mahler interpreters closely associated with the orchestra Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.