Archive for Featured – Page 3
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…
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…
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…
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…
One Movement Symphonies Gets Five Stars from Audiophile Audition!
Gary Lemco gives a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review to Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording on Audiophile Audition: “The Kansas City Symphony brass prove especially resonant in their dark coloration… The Kansas City Symphony lushly blends the powerful [Barber] Finale, sustaining the Romantic ethos of the material, weaving all three tunes together and concluding with a jubilant, energetic thrust of youthful confidence. … The sense of improvisational freedom fused with a volcanic…
All About the Arts Reviews One Movement Symphonies
Rafael de Acha reviews Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording for All About the Arts: “Leading the peerless musicians of the Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern delivers an extraordinary reading of Barber’s work. … [Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7] is brief and unflagging in its tensile intensity, ever underpinned by inspired, disciplined playing from the members of the Kansas City Symphony, with Michael Stern at its helm. … Again, [in Scriabin’s…
Four Star Pizzicato Review for José Serebrier’s Last Tango Before Sunrise
Remy Franck gives four stars to the new release of José Serebrier: Last Tango Before Sunrise on Pizzicato Magazine: “The earliest work is the Piano Sonata of 1957, influenced by Latin American rhythms… and played powerfully and with verve by Nadia Shpachenko. The most recent piece is the title track Last Tango Before Sunrise from 2018, and just like the other dance movements on this CD, it offers inspiredly composed music with distinctive melodies and…
Audiophile Audition Gives Five Stars to Beethoven Symphony No. 9
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s recording of Beethoven Symphony No. 9 gets a five-star rave from Audiophile Audition: “This disc should come with a warning label. Why? Because it is easily the most intense Ninth I have ever heard. This is not a criticism, only a fact. … The wonderful last movement gives us a truly joyful and energetic flow of consolation and satisfaction, jam-packed with intensity and far, far away from the “joyful,…
BBC Music Magazine Gives Five Stars to Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven Symphony No. 9
The April issue of BBC Music Magazine features a Five-Star Review for the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s recording of Beethoven Symphony No. 9: “an impressive account of this huge work that seems bent on marking itself as the unassailable definition of ‘monumental’. In terms of sound and precision, the performance is meticulous, immaculate and even. That’s not to say that Honeck doesn’t occasionally play a little loose. … Honeck choreographs the gradual build of…
Kansas City Symphony’s Leshnoff Album is a MusicWeb International Recording of the Month!
MusicWeb International names the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Jonathan Leshnoff: Piano Concerto; Symphony No. 3 with Joyce Yang and Stephen Powell a February 2021 Recording of the Month! “Both are world-premiere recordings, the symphony set down a week after its premiere performance in 2016, while the Concerto was recorded live at its premiere in November 2019, and both are treated to excellent orchestral playing, as well as superb sonics from Reference Recordings –…
Manfred Honeck Discusses Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with The New York Times
Don’t miss this incredible look at Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Manfred Honeck and New York Times critic David Allen! See it on nytimes.com “Manfred Honeck is one of today’s leading Beethoven conductors. As music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he has created notably exciting recordings of the Third, Fifth and Seventh Symphonies. Now he and the orchestra, founded 125 years ago this month, are releasing their interpretation of the mighty Ninth. What makes Honeck’s approach so…
Atlanta Audio Society Reviews Kansas City Symphony’s Leshnoff Recording
Phil Muse reviews The Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Stephen Powell, and Joyce Yang’s recording of Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3; Piano Concerto in the Atlanta Audio Society‘s December Newsletter: “Once again, an exploration of the music of American composer Jonathan Leshnoff proves rewarding. … What makes this composer so distinguishable from his contemporaries is easy to divine: it is the concentrated emotion, the lyricism, cohesive construction, and economy of his music. In the last-cited, Leshnoff…