Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony – Sullivan, Sibelius: Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2008) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony – Sullivan, Sibelius: Shakespeare’s The Tempest (2008)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:43 minutes | 1,18 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reference Recordings

“I doubt there’s an orchestra in America that has grown this much this fast. They sounded terrific.” —Paul Horsley, Kansas City Star

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Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern – Adam Schoenberg: American Symphony, Finding Rothko, Picture Studies (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/176,4kHz]

Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern – Adam Schoenberg: American Symphony, Finding Rothko, Picture Studies (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:04:57 minutes | 1,80 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reference Recordings

One of the top 10 most performed living classical composers in the United States, Adam Schoenberg was commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony to write the American Symphony and Picture Studies featured here, a collaboration with conductor Michael Stern that Schoenberg calls “extraordinary.” The performances were brilliantly captured by the Grammy-winning team of engineer Keith O. Johnson and producer David Frost.

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Kansas City Symphony & Michael Stern – Barber, Sibelius & Scriabin: One Movement Symphonies (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/176,4kHz]

Kansas City Symphony & Michael Stern – Barber, Sibelius & Scriabin: One Movement Symphonies (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:02:32 minutes | 1,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reference Recordings

Reference Recordings proudly presents a unique album of one movement symphonies composed by Barber, Sibelius and Scriabin, in an outstanding interpretation from Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. The album was produced by David Frost and recorded by RR’s engineering team. Music Director Michael Stern is in his second decade with the Kansas City Symphony, hailed for its remarkable artistic ascent, original programming, organizational development and stability, as well as the extraordinary growth of its varied audiences since his tenure began. The Kansas City Symphony has a vision to transform hearts, minds and its community through the power of symphonic music.

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Kansas City Symphony & Michael Stern – Holst: The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125 & The Perfect Fool Suite, Op. 39, H. 150 (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/176,4kHz]

Kansas City Symphony & Michael Stern – Holst: The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125 & The Perfect Fool Suite, Op. 39, H. 150 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:01:22 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reference Recordings

Reference Recordings proudly presents Holst’s best known and beloved works in an outstanding interpretation from Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony. This release was recorded in the beautiful and acoustically acclaimed Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It was produced by David Frost, six-time winner of the Classical Producer of the Year GRAMMY® award. It was recorded by RR’s engineering team, comprised of GRAMMY® winning engineer and Technical Director Keith O. Johnson, and multi-GRAMMY® nominated engineer Sean Martin. This is the seventh in Reference Recordings’ series with Kansas City Symphony. Previous albums are “Shakespeare’s Tempest”; the Grammy® Award-winning “Britten’s Orchestra”; an Elgar/Vaughan Williams project; “Miraculous Metamorphoses”; an all-Saint-Saëns album featuring the magnificent Organ Symphony, and the music of contemporary American composer Adam Schoenberg (nominated for two Grammy® Awards).

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Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern – Britten’s Orchestra (2010) MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern – Britten’s Orchestra (2010)
SACD ISO: 3,33 GB (Stereo/MCH) | FLAC Stereo @ 24bit/88.2kHz: 984 MB | 3% Rec. Info
Label/Cat#: Reference Recordings # RR-120SACD | Country/Year: Europe 2003 | Artwork
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century, Contemporary

This “Prof. Johnson” Surround sound recording exceeded all my expectations! I never thought Prof. Johnson would buck the classical music recording industry standard of having the orchestra in front and only using the rear channels for ambient information. To my great and pleasant surprise, the orchestra surrounds the listener with the strings reaching around to the left side, the trumpets coming from the right rear and the snare drum from the left rear, etc. Also the center channel is well utilized, revealing the inner voices of the orchestra. One almost gets the sense of being in the middle of the orchestra facing the conductor but with the orchestra still correctly positioned with first violins being on the far left, string basses on the far right. For you bass lovers, the bass was deep, full, round and plump!! It was a fantastically thrilling experience, and so incredibly life like and with such a warm acoustic with great reverberation of the hall so well captured. The recording was made in the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence Missouri. Michael Stern and the Kansas City Orchestra have given us polished performances I found to be very well done with passion and verve. I feel with this recording, Michael Stern and the Kansas City Orchestra are now major player’s in the classical music world. Superb!! Highly recommended. FYI – This is a 5.1 channel Surround recording (Bass is incredible even without the LFE channel. I listened both with and without the LFE channel on.) sa-cd.net

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Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern – Elgar: Enigma Variations; Vaughan Williams: The Wasps; Greensleeves (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/176,4kHz]

Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern – Elgar: Enigma Variations; Vaughan Williams: The Wasps; Greensleeves (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/176,4 kHz | Time – 01:01:11 minutes | 1,57 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reference Recordings

The universe is not exactly desperate for more recordings of this repertoire, but this one, surprising as it might seem, is pretty excellent. Michael Stern and his Kansas City Symphony take to the music as if to the manner born. The Wasps, here given as the complete suite and not just the overture, is delightful. Perhaps the only slight miscalculation in the entire performance is the overly swift March Past of the Kitchen Utensils, which loses some of its comic swagger at Stern’s tempo. Otherwise the overture and (especially) the Ballet and Final Tableau offer pure enjoyment from start to finish. The Fantasia on Greensleeves, un-killable in just about any circumstances, sounds just fine as well.

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Eldar Nebolsin, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 – Concert Fantasia (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Eldar Nebolsin, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 – Concert Fantasia (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:12:15 minutes | 2,25 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © 2xHD – Naxos

Uzbekistan-born pianist Eldar Nebolsin takes centre stage on this Tchaikovsky programme featuring the Piano Concerto No. 2, performed here in the composer’s original version, full of life-enhancing character and emotion. Also included is Tchaikovsky’s rarely presented but beautiful Concert Fantasia; both works allowing unique interaction between soloist and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Stern.

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Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra – Britten’s Orchestra (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra - Britten's Orchestra (2009) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz] Download

Michael Stern, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra – Britten’s Orchestra (2009)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:00:32 minutes | 912 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Reference Recordings

One of the chief characteristics of Benjamin Britten’s music is his masterful and highly distinctive orchestration, and the works on this album are among his most prized for that hallmark of his originality: the Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, the Sinfonia da requiem, and the Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from the opera Peter Grimes. In tribute to Britten’s brilliant handling of the orchestra, Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony have recorded these works in 24-bit, high-definition sound, which provides remarkable details and ideal stereo separation of the instruments, but also puts the music in a rather dry and compressed-sounding ambience. A result of this kind of hyper-refined digital technology is that every note is heard quite clearly, but the space surrounding it feels airless, unless it is played at a fairly high volume; even then, only the bass drum and a few other percussion instruments show any signs of natural reverberation. Furthermore, there is a sustained though extremely soft background noise that is reminiscent of analog tape hiss, though it is not prominent or distracting. While the playing here is admirable for its pristine execution and energy, and Stern deserves kudos for drawing intensely musical performances out of what otherwise might have been a sterile showcase, the absence of lively acoustics makes this album a little hard to get used to, and perhaps only technophiles will rejoice in the sanitized reproduction.

Composer: Benjamin Britten
Conductor: Michael Stern
Orchestra/Ensemble: Kansas City Symphony Orchestra
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