Archive for Review – Page 2
Spanish Impressions Makes a Fanfare Want List!
Colin Clarke is already adding The Hermitage Piano Trio’s Spanish Impressions release to his 2024 Fanfare Want List! “There are revelations galore from this trio of musicians who, although none of them are actually from Spain, are all fascinated by the region and its music. That enthusiasm permeates this fascinating disc.… The Trois Pièces orginales dans le genre espagnol (1886) is a masterpiece. This is Arbós’ op. 1, and what a way to get going. The three…
BBC Music Magazine Names José Serebrier and Orchestra Brno’s Janáček Sinfonietta A Best of All Time
The September issue of BBC Music Magazine features a fantastic look at Janáček’s Sinfonietta from Terry Williams and includes a list of his Best Recording of the work for the “Building A Library” series, in it is Reference Recordings’ very own recording from José Serebrier and the Czech State Philharmonic, Brno. This is actually the second work from this recording to land on BBC Music Magazine’s “Build A Library” series as the album was also…
Five Stars for the Hermitage Piano Trio in Stereophile
Jason Victor Serious gives a Five Star Sonic Rating to Hermitage Piano Trio’s Spanish Impressions in the November issue of Stereophile: “Here’s a real treat: piano trios by four outstanding Spanish composers—Enrique Fernández Arbós, Joaquín Turina, Gaspar Cassadó, and Mariano Perelló. … Expertly recorded at Skywalker Sound by the family team of Sean Martin and Keith O. Johnson, the hi-rez recording stands out for its excellent dynamics, natural colors, and big, realistically spaced images that…
Gramophone Reviews Spanish Impressions
The Hermitage Piano Trio’s Spanish Impressions gets a marvelous review in the Gramophone Magazine Awards Issue: How savvy to begin a programme of Spanish piano trio works with Enrique Arbós’s Three Pieces, Op 1, particularly with its boisterous opening Bolero. The Hermitage Piano Trio give their all, serving up liberal doses of idiomatic rubato and heel-kicking accents. …Note, too, cellist Sergey Antonov’s almost viola-like sonority above the staff and the utter evenness of his tone…
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 & Schulhoff: Five Pieces a MusicWeb International Recording of the Month!
MusicWeb International has named Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces their September Recording of the Month! “The first thing to strike the listener is the width of the dynamic range; no compression here. Honeck in his notes makes much of Tchaikovsky’s markings from ppp to fff; particularly helpful is the combination of bar numbers (for those with scores) and timings (for the casual listener) marking where Honeck wishes to…
BBC Recording of the Month: “Pittsburgh Electrifies in Tchaikovsky’s Fifth”
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces is the BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month! “Honeck’s overriding objective has been to revivify a work that in lesser hands can easily lose its freshness and originality. To achieve this, he has followed Tchaikovsky’s carefully delineated performance instructions to the letter, investing every musical phrase with a wealth of insight, detail and colour. From the outset, Honeck’s infinitely…
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces is a Gramophone Recording of the Month
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces is a Gramophone Recording of the Month and Editor’s Choice feature! “Manfred Honeck has been Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony since 2008, during which time they have released many discs together on Reference Recordings, including several that have earned recognition as Editor’s Choice: Dvořák, Mahler and ‘Promethean’ Beethoven (as described by Richard Osborne, 12/15) among others.… And now they…
Fanfare Declares Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 “Not To Be Missed”
Fanfare Magazine’s Henry Fogel names Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 and Schulhoff: Five Pieces a “Not To Be Missed” recording: “this has to be ranked in the upper echelon of the [Tchaikovsky Fifth] discography… [In the Schulhoff] Honeck …[and] Thomas Ille… have done a superb job in creating a version that deserves a place in the orchestral repertoire.… This is a hugely successful recording.” —Henry Fogel, Fanfare See the full review…
International Piano Reviews The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos
The June 2023 issue of International Piano has a rave review for Garrick Ohlsson, Sir Donald Runnicles, and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra’s recording of The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos: “Garrick Ohlsson’s view of the canon reaffirms this authority as a discerning Beethovenian with noble things to impart. … The freshness of these performances, from the 2022 Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming, lies in their open-faced honesty. Gleamingly, they promise us the certainty…
Garrick Ohlsson and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra’s Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos a Gramophone Editor’s Choice
The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos recordings from Garrick Ohlsson, Sir Donald Runnicles and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra are a July 2023 Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice! “whenever [Sir Donald Runnicles] and [Garrick] Ohlsson collaborate, time is never spent in conversation beforehand about tempos, phrasing or other details. They simply begin making music together and thus, in an exercise of intuitive symbiosis, arrive at their joint interpretation. The result, as heard here, is a spacious,…
The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos Reviewed in Audiophilia
Anthony Kershaw offers an in-depth review of Garrick Ohlsson, Sir Donald Runnicles, and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra’s recordings of The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos in the Audiophilia Magazine: “I’m not sure whose idea it was to record this repertoire, but one of the US’s most interesting pianists with a fine conductor and a superb orchestra made up of top professional players from the US and further afield in an idyllic summer setting, sounds…
HRAudio Gives Four and Half Stars to The Complete Beethoven Concertos
Adrian Quanjer gives Four and half stars for performance and sonics to Garrick Ohlsson, Sir Donald Runnicles, and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra’s recording of The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos: “Long-standing giants like Sir David Runnicles and Garrick Ohlsson, don’t have to prove anything anymore. Their extensive and rewarding international careers say it all. No longer dependent on the moods of critics, they can be themselves and, as we may assume, support wholeheartedly the…
Colin Anderson Reviews The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos
Classical Source editor Colin Anderson has published a rave review on his Colin’s Column site in his “Outstanding” Category for the Garrick Ohlsson, Sir Donald Runnicles, and Grand Teton Music Festival’s Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos recording: “I started at the very end, with Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture, to get a feel for recorded sound and the orchestral playing: both excellent, Sir Donald setting a dignified opening against a bustling allegro, an appreciable entrée to Garrick Ohlsson and the five Piano…
Fanfare’s Colin Clarke Adds Bach Aria Soloists to his 2023 Want List
Colin Clarke has added Bach Aria Soloist’s Le Dolce Sirene album to his 2023 Fanfare Magazine “Want List”: “this is a well-considered mix… It is worth taking the pieces in running order as one gets an idea of the variety of sound on offer. After that chamber Messiah, an organ sonata movement by Mendelssohn is heard in a grand performance by Elisa Williams Bickers, but one that retains miraculous clarity. Then it’s back to Handel for…