My experiences with Vox (and its sister/subsidiary Turnabout) have been overwhelmingly positive, if you can get past the occasional noisy surface. Terrific old performances and recordings.
I have a few, including one or two box sets (Vox Boxes, they called them ). My favorite individual one (on Turnabout, I think) may be the famous Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances by Johanos and the Dallas. Analogue Productions thought highly enough of it to have reissued it themselves several years back.
A fascinating combination of spoken word and music reprising short passages from various of Shakespeare’s plays in a contemporary musical language. Excellently performed and recorded with just two violins and voice. Full review to come.
Producer and label owner Robert Hunka says, “The idea for the album came to me on July 18, 2024, during György Kurtág’s master class at the BMC. Kurtág was analyzing and teaching Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2 to the Kelemen Quartet, and as he did so, he demonstrated details of the piece for them on an upright piano. Immediately after the master class ended, I called László Borbély to ask if he would be interested in recording an album of Bartók string quartets arranged for solo piano. And he said yes.”
So they contacted two composers about the project who agreed to create the transcriptions and scheduled the recording. It is an intriguing listening opportunity to hear these works in such a different context, and opening such different understandings of these works.
Julius Eastman’sStay On It brought me to this, as well as a local classical DJ who also happens to be a fan. Work a very nice collection of 20th Century minimalist compositions, including Eastman - Stay On It, Cornelius Cardew - Red Flag Prelude, Frederic Rzewski - The Price of Oil.
). My favorite individual one (on Turnabout, I think) may be the famous Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances by Johanos and the Dallas. Analogue Productions thought highly enough of it to have reissued it themselves several years back.
