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Lang Lang/Zubin Mehta/Vienna Philharmonic
"Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2"
Deutsche Grammophon

The 26-year-old Chinese piano virtuoso has been playing Chopin since he was five and these marvelous Chopin concertos have long been part of his repertoire, so it's no surprise that he knocks them out of the park. Subtleties abound. Lang Lang tempers Chopin's Romantic spirit with flawless classical technique, digging into the wilder and more impassioned passages with an improviser's doggedness. Much of the 20-minute opening Maestoso movement of Concerto No. 1 in E minor (which was actually written subsequent to the second concerto in F minor) is a series of piano fireworks that neither cloys nor ceases to amaze.


The Donkeys
"Living on the Other Side"
Dead Oceans

The laid-back country-rock of Neil Young, Poco, and the later Byrds resurfaces in the cozy harmonies and taciturn riffs of this young San Diego quartet. On their terrific second album, the Donkeys have rediscovered a nearly forgotten musical sweet spot that combines earnest craftsmanship with sly slacker wit. "My lady wears her curlers in the winter," observes whoever's singing "Dolphin Center," while "Nice Train" concerns drunken foolishness in Hipsterville. Honed in the group's local roadhouse, tracks like "Gone Gone Gone" and "Walk Through a Cloud" refine the album's overall see-ya-later theme to dusty perfection without a gram of pretension.