Archive for Review – Page 13
Gramophone Magazine Reviews Kansas City’s Holst: The Planets
Gramophone Magazine started the New Year with a January 2020 review for the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool in the Sounds of America section: “The Kansas City Symphony seize the day, and night, on their new recording under music director Michael Stern. Some performances of The Planets focus more on the score’s colourful surfaces than on its dramatic mysteries and jubilance but Stern’s concept pays close attention to every alluring…
Announcing Eleven 2020 GRAMMY® Nominations!
Reference Recordings is excited to announce eleven nominations across eight categories for the 2020 GRAMMY® Awards! The Orchestral Organ 2020 GRAMMY® Award Nominee: Best Immersive Audio Album Keith O. Johnson, immersive audio engineer; Keith O. Johnson, immersive audio mastering engineer; Marina A. Ledin & Victor Ledin, immersive audio producers (Jan Kraybill) Best Classical Instrumental Solo Jan Kraybill Producer of the Year, Classical Marina A. Ledin, Victor Ledin Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 2020 GRAMMY® Award Nominee:…
Five Star Audiophile Audition Review for Kansas City’s Holst!
Audiophile Audition gives five stars to Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool! “The soundstage is magnificent—very wide, and perhaps the deepest recording I have ever heard.… I felt as though I was really hearing the orchestra in its natural estate, and when the oboe solos, it sounds as if it is more distant in the ensemble. Time and time again, the distance factor figured into the listening experience in…
Four Stars for the Richmond Symphony’s Mason Bates and Vaughan Williams Recording
Audiophile Audition critic Steven Ritter gives a Four-Star Review to the Richmond Symphony and Chorus and Steven Smith’s Mason Bates: Children of Adam; Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem recording: “Bates shows a fine grasp of the orchestral idiom, and even more importantly, the choral, with an integrated and highly individual sound that transfers from text to text in a seamlessly smooth manner. Hearing this makes me want to hear more from this young composer, who…
MusicWeb International Recommends Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner Symphony No. 9
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck received a “Recommended” distinction from Nick Barnard of MusicWeb International for their Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording: “Honeck has restored the Pittsburgh Orchestra to its position as one of America’s very finest ensembles and, alongside the state of the art engineering from Reference, he is creating a library of recordings that will stand the test of the ages. This new recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No.9 is just such a triumph. This…
Textura Reviews the Dallas Winds Asphalt Cocktail
Textura Magazine has a review for the Dallas Winds and Jerry Junkin’s Asphalt Cocktail: The Music of John Mackey recording: “the Dallas Winds and conductor Jerry Junkin present a compelling argument on the composer’s behalf… the release features music of dramatic contrast, from blustery to hushed. Whereas one piece might threaten to bury you under an avalanche of horns, the next stirs you with a poignant melody. … the featured soloist, Christopher Martin, the Principal…
Classical Candor Reviews Kansas City’s Holst: The Planets SACD
Classical Candor‘s John J. Puccio reviews The Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s new Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool on SACD: “You can be sure with Keith Johnson’s Reference Recordings, for example, that an orchestra sounds the way a real orchestra would sound in a real concert hall. That’s certainly the case with this recording of the Kansas City Symphony, under the direction of its longtime Music Director Michael Stern, and made in Helzberg…
Five Stars For The Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff from The Absolute Sound
The Absolute Sound Magazine’s Andrew Quint gives a Five-Star Music & Sonics rating for The Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording: “It was my privilege to attend a day-long recording session for this Rachmaninoff program at Mechanics Hall in Worchester, Massachusetts. (See “Magic at Mechanics” in Issue 279.) Given the artists, repertoire, venue, and production team, I expected a good result. But I couldn’t have predicted what Reference has delivered with the final product. … The…
Arizona Daily Star Features Christmas With True Concord!
The Arizona Daily Star published a feature for True Concord Voices and Orchestra’s Christmas With True Concord recording! “True Concord knows how to do Christmas. With lush exquisite voices and sublime soulfully American interpretations, they take you beyond the cliche of “Jingle Bells” and “O Holy Night” to a singular somberly opening Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “Away in a Manger.” The women’s voices, sans vibrato, deliciously replicate the sound of a children’s choir as the…
The Choral Stream Reviews Christmas With True Concord!
The Choral Stream‘s Brian Newhouse took a pre-release listen to Eric Holtan and True Concord Voices & Orchestra’s Christmas With True Concord: Carols in the American Voice: “They sure named the choir right. If you’ve never heard of them, and you celebrate Christmas, treat yourself. “Christmas with True Concord: Carols in the American Voice” spotlights an ensemble with a remarkable blend across all its voices. True concord indeed. Hold-your-breath moments? Several. The luminous solo soprano…
More MusicWeb Praise for Honeck and Pittsburgh’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
Critic Michael Cookson adds a second MusicWeb International review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording: “Honeck’s Pittsburgh forces are in commendable form here and this unquestionably joins my favourite recordings. This is a live performance in the Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh and on this hybrid SACD, played on my standard unit, the renowned Soundmirror team has provided first class sound providing clarity, detail and satisfying balance. … Honeck has written…
Gramophone Reviews the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff
Gramophone Magazine features the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording in the Awards Issue: “The Hermitage Piano Trio prove another strong contender within a catalogue of riches. The ensemble brings a darker, more brooding vantage point to the 19-year-old composer’s one-movement G minor Trio, tastefully stretching out phrases…while favouring relatively massive sonorities. … Thoroughly detailed annotations and ravishingly balanced surround-sound engineering lend further distinction to this release.” —Jed Distler, Gramophone See the full review on Gramophone.co.uk
Straight Tens for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9!
Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording received a 10 rating for both Artistic and Sound Quality from ClassicsToday: “This is an amazing performance, captured in terrific sound. … Honeck’s aided by typically exceptional brass playing, with horns, trumpets, and trombones well differentiated in timbre, their musical lines clear in even the densest tuttis. The strings, too, make gorgeous sounds in the first movement’s second-subject “song period,” and throughout the Adagio. In…
The Strad Reviews The Hermitage Piano Trio’s Outstanding Rachmaninoff Recording
The Strad Magazine reviews the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording in the October 2019 issue: “Striking the right balance between interpretative nobility and expressive candour is particularly challenging in music of such claustrophobic intensity, yet the Hermitage Piano Trio – pianist Ilya Kazantsev, violinist Misha Keylin and cellist Sergey Antonov – proves fully equal to the task, ensuring that no emotional stone is left unturned without resorting to mere hysteria. … Exemplary annotations from Victor…
Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony Meet High Expectations in Bruckner Symphony No. 9
Fanfare Magazine’s Gavin Dixon reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording: “Manfred Honeck’s impressive discography with the Pittsburgh Symphony raises high expectations for this new Bruckner Nine, and it doesn’t disappoint. Honeck has a knack for reinventing core Romantic repertoire, but without moving outside of established performing traditions. … The orchestra deserves equal praise for their performance here. The distinctively American brass sound works wonders in Bruckner, but the…