Author Archive for Reference Recordings – Page 9
Classical Candor Review for Stylus Phantasticus
John J. Puccio reviews Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks’ Stylus Phantasticus recording on Classical Candor: “the compositions follow a pattern of earliest to later music, with the earlier ones a bit less ornate. The Carlo Farina sonata, for instance, is almost sedate in its execution. Its subtitle, “detta la Desperata,” translates as “called the despairing,” an emotional piece if rather despondent in tone. MusicWorks provide it with an appropriately passionate melancholy. The harp and harpsichord…
Audiophile Audition Gives Five Stars to Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony’s Brahms & MacMillan Album!
Audiophile Audition critic Steven Ritter gives a five-star review to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Brahms: Symphony No. 4; MacMillan: Larghetto for Orchestra recording: “Certainly, the last movement of the Fourth Symphony is the orchestral pinnacle of the age in relation to the variation form. … It is this last movement to which the entire symphony is directed, and its success depends on how well the previous movements are balanced. … Many conductors…
Remembering Carlisle Floyd
We were saddened to hear of the death of Carlisle Floyd, considered the “Father of American Opera”, yesterday, September 30, 2021 at the age of 95. Reference Recordings was proud to have released recordings of two of his operas, “Wuthering Heights” and “Prince of Players”. “Prince of Players” garnered his first ever GRAMMY® nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. In the liner notes of Prince of Players, Floyd wrote, “having this outstanding performance recorded for…
Early Music America Has a Rave for Stylus Phantasticus!
Early Music America has a new rave review for Pacific MusicWorks and Tekla Cunningham’s Stylus Phantasticus album: “There’s a passage in Johann Heinrich Schmelzer’s Violin Sonata No. 4, the central work in his Sonatae unarum fidium, that both meets and defies expectations. The violin melody hovers over soft organ chords, knotting itself in quick mordents before rushing downwards in a wild frenzy. Yet there is always a sense of songlike expressivity, the musical line present even in…
A Stereophile Rave for One Movement Symphonies
Stereophile Magazine critic Stephen Francis Vasta gives Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony a four-and-a-half star rating and the sonics a five-star rating in his review for their new One Movement Symphonies recording: “These three symphonies, all dating from the first half of the 20th century, comprise so apt a program that I’m surprised no one did it before. … The program demands front-line virtuoso playing, and the Kansas City Symphony proves up to…
Stylus Phantasticus Reviewed in Audiophile Audition
Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks’ Stylus Phantasticus recording gets a wonderful new review in Audiophile Audition from critic Fritz Balwit: “The ensemble features both baroque guitar and chitarrone of the leader Stephen Stubbs and the rare and remarkable baroque harp of Maxine Eilander. Both together and separately these delicate instruments are very nicely captured. More than anything else on this recording they bathe the ear in a new sonority within the baroque style. Those instruments blend…
Concerto Net Gives 4 Stars to One Movement Symphonies
Concerto Net gives a four-star review to the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s One Movement Symphonies recording: “Each of these stylistically different composers solves the challenges this form would inherently present, and each proves it to be a liberating and artistically durable form for their eras.… Conductor Michael Stern’s exquisite pacing in this performance points up the specificness of Barber’s command of the concept… Barber’s oceanic strings and coloratura brass find the composer at…
Five Stars for One Movement Symphonies from BBC Music Magazine
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording gets a Five Star review from BBC Music Magazine: “this orchestra offers here a classy standard of playing, plus the conductor-and-orchestra chemistry that’s needed to generate musical results as memorable as these, and in three very different works. … The Kansas players respond superbly to [Samuel Barber’s] virtuoso drive and momentum, with a burnished fullness of tone which also brings out the best qualities…
The Arts Fuse Wants a Sequel to One Movement Symphonies
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s new One Movement Symphonies album left The Arts Fuse’s Jonathan Blumhofer asking for a sequel, or even a whole series: “Michael Stern’s new recording with the Kansas City Symphony (KCS) celebrates a subgenre one probably doesn’t think about all that much: the single-movement symphony. Given the rewards of this album, which showcases symphonic works by Samuel Barber, Jean Sibelius, and Alexander Scriabin, perhaps one should. … Stern and his forces…
All Music Reviews José Serebrier’s Last Tango Before Sunrise
James Manheim gives a 4.5 Star Rating to José Serebrier’s Last Tango Before Sunrise recording on AllMusic.com: “The works on the album stretch from [1957] all the way up to 2018 for the titular Last Tango Before Sunrise, but there is general stylistic consistency among them, although the sense of tonality varies. All are infused with Latin American rhythms, either the tango, as characteristic of Serebrier’s native Uruguay as it is of Argentina, or from Afro-Brazilian…
Classical Candor Review for One Movement Symphonies
John J. Puccio comes away impressed by Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording in his Classical Candor review: “Maestro Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony play the [Barber] in a fairly straightforward manner, without undue flourish yet with delicate nuance. They handle the mood swings in the music with subtlety and grace, producing if not the most striking account of the piece ever recorded certainly one of the most…
Four Stars for One Movement Symphonies from AllMusic Guide
AllMusic Guide’s James Manheim gives a Four-Star Rating to Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording: “the engineering here, from Kansas City’s Helzberg Hall, is more than enough reason to check out this recording. Stern chooses three works that, in addition to fulfilling the condition of the One Movement Symphonies title, have seriously complex textures that challenge an engineer to the maximum. Even listeners quite familiar with the Sibelius Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105,…
Fiona Boyes and Blues In My Heart Nominated for Blues Blast Music Awards!
In June 2021, a group of Blues music industry professionals including music critics, journalists, festival promoters, music venue managers, producers, musicians and other Blues music industry professionals nominated the best in Blues music in twelve categories. We are excited to share that Fiona Boyes was nominated for Female Artist of the Year and her Blues In My Heart album was nominated for the Historical/Vintage Recording of the year! Fan voting for the award is open…
Textura Reviews One Movement Symphonies
Textura Magazine reviews the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s recording of Barber, Sibelius, and Scriabin One Movement Symphonies: “While each piece satisfies for different reasons, the fact that each can be experienced as a singular statement without pause is an appealing quality common to all. That they’re all performed by the Kansas City Symphony under the expert guidance of conductor Michael Stern also does much to recommend the release, as does its acoustically resonant…
Leshnoff Symphony No. 3 is “Beautiful and Inspiring”
Ralph Graves reviews Michael Stern, Joyce Yang, Stephen Powell, and the Kansas City Symphony’s recording of Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3; Piano Concerto for WTJU FM: “Written for the centennial of Armistice Day, Leshnoff gives voice to those who fought. He sets excerpts from letters written to loved ones at home. They don’t talk about the glory of battle but share quiet, intimate moments in simple yet beautifully poetic language. … It’s a beautiful work, beautifully…