Archive for Review – Page 26
Midwest Record Reveals A Fiona Boyes Secret
Order Now “With her latest release we can now let the cat out of the bag. Fiona is Boyes middle name, her first name is The Great.… Boyes is sounding like she’s on the run from Piedmont and the delta with hell hounds on her tail and they think she’s a steak. With an audio team that puts her front and center in your face… using her amazing command of all the authentic, traditional moves,…
Classical Candor Reviews Moszkowski: From Foreign Lands
“Most of this material is lightweight, to be sure, yet it’s also most delightful in the capable hands of West and his players. The opening “Torch Dance” has a rousing spirit. The six movements of “From Foreign Lands” are colorful and characterful, each exemplifying a different country. They reminded me of things by maybe Glazunov, Gounod, or Rimsky-Korsakov. In their time (the late nineteenth century), the “Foreign Lands” suite was apparently quite famous, although today…
Fiona Boyes “Professin’ the Blues” is a “Gem”
Order Now “Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist Fiona Boyes is an earthy force of nature. Her gravelly vocal timbre is straight out of the red dirt of the Outback. No swishy Blues affectation, here. You’ll be getting as honest a voice as you’ve heard in a long time. ‘So bloody refreshing’, as the Aussies might say. … It seems to be a project that each Reference stakeholder got behind. It’s a gem, musically and technically. … Boyes has…
San Francisco Ballet Orchestra’s Moszkowski Gets Four Stars From Audiophile Audition
“These are memorable and melodious orchestral compositions which, especially in their full orchestra versions, seem much more than mere salon pieces from the 19th century. The opening Torch Dance is based on a tradition at some German weddings in a certain area of a dance with torches featured. The From Foreign Lands is a nearly half-hour suite which has been a San Francisco Ballet performance. This ballet orchestra is one of the leading ones in…
Fanfare Strongly Recommends Wuthering Heights
Fanfare Magazine’s James Altena sees Carlisle Floyd as a leading voice of American Opera and welcomes Wuthering Heights into his collection: “Here is a composer who writes in an accessible but never simplistic or retrograde tonal vocabulary; has a sound grasp of what makes operas work dramatically in terms of subject matter, plotting, and pacing; and crafts compelling music that vividly illustrates his texts (Floyd writes his own librettos) while yet placing them in expressive,…
BBC Music Magazine Gives Wuthering Heights Four Stars
The Florentine Opera Company and Milwaukee Symphony’s new recording of Carlisle Floyd’s Wuthering Heights gets four stars from BBC Music Magazine in their October 2016 Issue: “In this studio recording following a concert performance by Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, Kelly Markgraf and Georgia Jarman make a powerful impression as the ill-fated couple, and Chad Shelton’s incisive Hindley and Heather Buck’s sweet Isabella also stand out amidst a strong cast. … Under opera specialist Joseph Mechavich,…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven in ClassicalNet
Brian Wigman reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 for ClassicalNet: “On a completely subjective note, few releases on the market excite me as much as those from Reference Recordings. Long-known for superlative sound quality and intelligent repertoire selection, they have recently focused on getting the very best from American orchestras. Pittsburgh and Kansas City are similar musically to their baseball counterparts in that they are respected but…
Audiophilia Highly Reccomends Moszkowski From Foreign Lands
“First off, Moszkowski’s music is delightful. Expertly composed and beautifully arranged for full symphony orchestra. If you like orchestral music with both froth and depth, then this CD’s repertoire is for you. … Percussion is highlighted throughout the CD and the section is spectacularly recorded by Reference. Sure, the loud is good, but the micro dynamics of the cymbals, castanets and bass drum are just brilliant. … As a first class ballet orchestra, the players…
ClassicsToday Celebrates Pittsburgh’s Tchaikovsky and Dvořák Pairing
“You would expect Honeck to respond to the passion and intensity of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and so he does. The wild first movement development and exciting scherzo handily capture the music’s dynamism, and the playing is, as usual, terrific. What lingers in the mind most, though, is Honeck’s ability to project the despairing finale in a single arch from start to finish. There’s something about his phrasing that captures the music’s flow with special conviction;…
You’ll Want Moszkowski In Your Collection
“Fairly unknown, except by the most advanced classical listener, this CD has turned out for me to be a real treat. Included in the release are 4 works that are making their premiere release on recording media. Anyone who is familiar with Reference Recordings knows that the recording in 24-Bit is a step above in quality and finer equipment will capture all of the clarity and transparency that are a trademark of Prof. Johnson and…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 is “Completely Satisfying”
“I have effusively praised the previous efforts of Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Soundmirror recording team, and this is yet another winner.…this one rises to the top in recording quality, and the performance is outstanding. … it’s appropriately dramatic and completely satisfying—and the accompanying Rusalka Fantasy, by Dvorák, is a delight.” —Kalman Rubinson, Stereophile See the full review on Stereophile.com Reference Recordings Amazon iTunes Native DSD Arkiv Music
More MusicWeb International Praise for Wine Dark Sea
“The University of Texas Wind Ensemble is one of the finest in the country, and its frequent appearances on disc have been cause for celebration…for fans of new music…this has a lot of appeal. I’m especially fond of Frank Ticheli’s clarinet concerto, which is brilliantly crafted. But the symphony reveals new strength over repeated listens, too. As mentioned, Keith Johnson’s recorded sound is exemplary, but turn up the volume to fully realize this disc’s potential.”…
Wuthering Heights is Audiophile Audition’s Multichannel Disc of the Month
Audiophile Audition names the Florentine Opera Company’s Wuthering Heights recording their Multichannel Disc of the Month in a five-star review: “Floyd, now 90 and still writing operas (!), served as artistic advisor for this Florentine Opera premiere recording, made in January 2015 at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, in Brookfield, Wisconsin. It is superb in every way, from Reference’s magnificent sonic capture to the excellence of all members of the cast. Florentine…
Dawn To Dust is a Sonic Spectacular!
“Prediction: The visionary new music, system-testing percussion, and virtual rainbow of colors that distinguish Dawn to Dust, the latest hybrid SACD in Reference Recordings’ Fresh! series, guarantee that it will become a hit among music-loving audiophiles who dare play tracks beyond 3 minutes in length. The inventive genius that courses through the recording’s three compositions—Control (Five Landscapes for Orchestra) by Nico Muhly, 34; Switch by Andrew Norman, 37; and Eos (Goddess of the Dawn), a…
MusicWeb International Rave for Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights!
MusicWeb International offers an in-depth rave review for the Florentine Opera Company’s recording of Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights: “Floyd’s opera is both spectral and emotionally intense; there’s nothing of the musical about it. The writing has about it a florid brilliance entirely in keeping with the themes of love in vain, betrayal and striving for the unattainable. It is by no means a chamber opera and the emotions are played out on a grand scale…