The Absolute Sound‘s Arthur Lintgen gives a 5-star Sonic Rating to the GRAMMY® Award-nominated Dallas Winds and Jerry Junkin recording John Williams At The Movies: “give this spectacular recording a serious audition. The principal reason for the recording’s success is that Williams composed so effectively for brass and percussion. …all of the arrangements are spectacular, including the lengthy excerpts from Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and E.T. Much of the album’s success is also due to the…
John J. Puccio calls Quartet San Francisco’s A QSF Journey recording one of his favorite albums of 2018 in a new review on his Classical Candor blog: “It’s always good news when Reference Recordings releases a new album. It’s doubly good news when their chief engineer, Keith O. Johnson, does the recording. It’s triply good news when they make it a studio production. And it’s quadruply good news when the studio they make it in…
The Morton Report Columnist Bill Bentley has a new review for 2019 Blues Music Award nominee Fiona Boyes’ Voodoo In The Shadows recording in his December 2018 “Bentley’s Bandstand” column: “Australian musician Fiona Boyes has dedicated her life to the music, and that intensity can be heard in everything she sings and plays. Her guitar work puts her in the top class for modern blues people, especially the way the sound seems to sing coming…
Blues Music Magazine reviews Fiona Boyes’ Voodoo In The Shadows Recording in their January 2019 issue: “Fiona Boyes has made her mark in the blues world… Case in point: her latest release, which stresses her spiritual connection with the blues music and traditions of Mississippi and Louisiana. … The set commences splendidly with “Call Their Name,” a take-off on Blind Willie Johnson’s “The Soul Of A Man.” The rhythm section takes a subtle back seat as Boyes displays her…
The February 2019 issue of Downbeat Magazine has a great Blues section feature on Fiona Boyes and her Voodoo In The Shadows recording: “Riding a successful career since the 1990s, Australian Fiona Boyes sustains the vitality of her love of the music found in America’s Deep South on [Voodoo In The Shadows]…Boyes’ blues composing has a revealing immediacy, as with ‘Tell Your Story Walking’ and ‘I Ain’t Fooling,’ both scrupulous in conveying the understated ebullience…
The 2019 Australian Blues Music Awards finalists were announced by the Australian Blues Music Festival, and Fiona Boyes and her Voodoo In The Shadows recording were nominated in four categories: Album of the Year Song of the Year – “Call Their Name” Artist of the Year Duo or Group of the Year – Fiona Boyes Band See the full list of nominees and awards categories on the Australian Blues Music Festival Facebook Page, and keep…
Fiona Boyes is putting together the stories behind the songs from her new Voodoo in the Shadows recording. Here she gives the back-story to “Little Things”: “In the midst of the busy holiday season, remember – sometimes it’s the ‘Little Things’ that count! Here’s instalment #5 of the ‘Voodoo in the Shadows – About the songs’ series, each giving a little glimpse into the stories behind the songs on the new album. ‘Little Things’ is one for the…
MusicWeb International has published a second review of the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s GRAMMY-nominated Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 recording: “In this Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh recording, it’s evident that Manfred Honeck entirely acknowledges that this progressive score is music of extensive concentration, intensity and, as the designation might suggest, heroic power. Bold and focused, naturally flowing and stimulating with an undertow of mystery in the Allegro, this performance from the Pittsburgh…
December 11, 2018, 8pm (EST), PBS broadcasts the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Tree of Life: A Concert for Peace and Unity featuring renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman. The concert was in remembrance of the city’s Tree of Life Synagogue tragedy. Learn more about the broadcast and local station information at pbs.org Watch the PBS Preview
Reference Recordings is excited to announce five GRAMMY® Nominations for the 2019 GRAMMY® Awards! John Williams At The Movies Best Engineered, Classical & Best Classical Compendium John Williams is a game changer. Early in his career he crossed the lines between music that was “art” and music that was “commercial,” and never looked back. He is one of the best known, most awarded and most successful composers in US history, and his name is inextricably…
After coming in at #4 on the Living Blues October Charts, Fiona Boyes’ Voodoo in the Shadows was up to #3 for November! The album also received a review in the December 2018 Living Blues Magazine: “Guitarist and singer-songwriter Fiona Boyes draws musical inspiration from a variety of influences, displaying a prowess unbound by style or genre. … With excellent musicianship and a spirited atmosphere throughout, Fiona Boyes’ Voodoo in the Shadows casts a seductive…
Textura features Quartet San Francisco‘s A QSF Journey recording in their November 2018 reviews: “…many of this eclectic recording’s pieces eschew conventional classical style for others, specifically tango, bluegrass, and folk music from around the world. Such choices lend the recording a highly personalized quality that, paired with the excellence of the quartet’s playing, makes the hour spent in this group’s company time well spent. … the album upholds the group’s crossover reputation in its set-list,…
Fiona Boyes joined the “Music on the Couch” program to talk about her Voodoo In The Shadows release – listen here (she joins at 1:31:00): Voodoo In The Shadows Fiona Boyes is Australia’s most successful and celebrated international Blues artist. Her previous Reference Recordings release, Professin’ The Blues, received the 2017 Acoustic Album of the Year award from Blues Blast Magazine. The Blues Foundation in Memphis has honored her with 6 Blues Music Award nominations,…
“Dynamic. That’s the best word to describe Manfred Honeck’s performance of the Beethoven Third. It’s dynamic in terms of Honeck’s interpretation and in terms of Soundmirror/Reference Recordings’ sonics. Of course, if “dynamic” is not the first thing you want from a Beethoven symphony, you might not appreciate Honeck’s way with it. But there is no questioning the excitement the recording generates. … The first movement Allegro con brio contains the usual complement of rhythms and harmonies we expect of…
The Dallas Winds and Jerry Junkin‘s new John Williams At The Movies recording receives high marks (4 Stars for Music, 5 Stars for Sonics) in the December 2018 issue of The Absolute Sound: “The principal reason for the recording’s success is that Williams composed so effectively for brass and percussion. The sonority here is frequently different from the original orchestrations, but in most cases it works very well. … all of the arrangements are spectacular,…