Archive for Review – Page 28
Dawn To Dust a “gratifying” recording
“Dawn to Dust shows the broad diversity among contemporary American composers and presents a wide range of styles and quality of work. And each is played with fervor and passion. Nico Muhly’s Control…is distinctively American and calls to mind Aaron Copland’s Western inspired works. Andrew Norman’s Switch… is a tour de force piece that puts the virtuosity of both the soloist and orchestra on full display. It’s a fabulously dynamic piece that takes the listener…
Dawn To Dust Impresses The Arts Fuse
“It’s no secret that 2016 has already been a strong year for albums featuring new and recent music… Now things get even better with the release of Dawn to Dust, a collection of three scores commissioned and performed by the Utah Symphony and its music director, Thierry Fischer. The highlight of the disc is the debut recording of Andrew Norman’s riotous Switch, a percussion concerto that’s played here with aplomb by Colin Curie. Over the…
Salt Lake Underground Says Dawn To Dust is for Everyone!
Salt Lake City Underground (SLUG) Magazine says it’s not just classical fans who will enjoy Utah Symphony’s new Dawn To Dust recording: “Thierry Fischer, music director of the Utah Symphony, has once again taken the symphony to new heights. Their latest album features music that goes in so many different directions that after the first listen, I understood why so many have an emotional reaction to classical music. Dawn to Dust is an epic, filled…
American Record Guide Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven!
“The music is always pressing forward, as on a life-or-death mission. It’s dramatic and exciting…this is Beethoven driven by a carefully thought-out, masterly vision that’s brilliantly executed. None of this would work very well if the Pittsburgh Symphony were not fully up to the task. I’d be hard-pressed to say you’ll hear more technical dexterity or intensity of execution in Vienna or Berlin or Amsterdam. … I like it very much. Honeck’s interpretation of the…
Utah Symphony Mahler “Another Stunner”
Audiophilia Magazine’s Anthony Kershaw hails the Utah Symphony’s Mahler recording as a “stunner”: “The orchestra sounds good in all departments, with some soloists highlighted to outstanding effect. … Fischer and his musicians are so musical in this potboiler of a symphony — together, they make the ‘Star Trek’ opening, the minor, inverted ‘Frère Jacques’ funeral tune and the klezmer music sound natural. Others make it sound like film music. … So, a fine execution of…
Kansas City Symphony Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 in The Audiophile Voice
George Graves features the Kansas City Symphony’s Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 recording in the Winter 2016 issue of The Audiophile Voice: “The imaging on this recording is first rate with an excellent feeling for the huge space in which the recording was made. Reverb times are long and give a luscious, rich texture to the sound. As is usual with Johnson’s work, image specificity is spot on. It is possible to pick out each individual…
Honeck and Pittsburgh’s Beethoven a Recording for the Ages
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s BEETHOVEN: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording receives perfect 10 ratings from ClassicsToday: “No matter how many billion recordings of this music we already have, a great performance offers its own justification, these are very great performances. … It’s not easy to offer interpretations of this music that sound new without turning capricious–that both respect the music and personalize it. Honeck and the orchestra manage to pull it off…
Far In The Heavens Will “Uplift the Soul”
Culture Spot LA reviews True Concord Voices & Orchestra’s GRAMMY-nominated album Far In The Heavens: Choral Music by Stephen Paulus: “If you like the requiems of Duruflé or John Rutter, you will like Paulus. He uses the orchestra to good effect punctuating the poems with bursts of horn or thunderous percussion and tympani when appropriate. … Most are a cappella and offer a chance to concentrate more on the angelic voices of the True Concord…
Stereo Times is Floored By Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven
Stereo Times critic Russell Lichter has been “floored” by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording: “Like all aficionados of my longevity, I have heard numerous versions of the Fifth over the years, but when I alighted on Carlos Kleiber’s performance on the Deutsche Grammophon label, a decade or two ago, I stopped looking. Kleiber in my opinion is one of the supreme conductors of the Twentieth…
American Record Guide Reviews Tempo Do Brasil
Marc Tempo do Brasil gets a recommendation from American Record Guide in their November/December 2015 issue: “These same musicians brought us a disc of the music of Radames Gnatalli… I was impressed by that performance, and I took as much delight in this collection of solos and duos by various Brazilian composers. …most of the music is new to me, or at least rarely recorded‚the guitar world tends to look to solo works rather than…
Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven “as an anti-depressant”
Graham Rickson reviews the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck Beethoven Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 recording for The Arts Desk: “These performances, though never sluggish, are huge. In the best possible way. Their grandeur is irresistible, reminding us just how rare large-scale, modern instrument performances are. We know that Beethoven preferred big orchestras. He’d presumably have loved this disc. … Glorious. As is this Seventh, the Vivace’s rhythms enunciated with impeccable clarity. ……
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven A MusicWeb Recording of the Month
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s new Beethoven: Symphony Nos. 5 & 7 gets a second (See the first) nomination for “Recording of the Month” from MusicWeb International! “Using a large orchestra one senses an elevated level of musical intelligence together with an unyielding structural coherence that produces impressively selected tempi, dynamic contrasts and moulding of phrase. These are mightily compelling performances, buoyantly rhythmic with plenty of thrust when required. Striking too is the penetrating…
The Arts Desk Reviews the Utah Symphony’s Mahler Symphony No. 1
The Arts Desk critic Graham Rickson has a new review of Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording: “Wonderfully played too, by an orchestra many won’t have heard of, under a conductor usually associated with French repertoire. Readers with long memories may remember a pioneering 1960s and 1970s Mahler cycle recorded by the Utah Symphony under Maurice Abravanel, frustratingly difficult to find now. Abravanel’s zeal compensated for the occasional lapses in…
Pittsburgh Symphony’s Beethoven Provides “Personality”
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says our new recording from the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck “provides personality, weight” to Beethoven’s Symphony Nos. 5 & 7: “The new recording of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7 by Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is exceptionally compelling, featuring true individuality, committed playing and demonstration-quality sound. …The recording of Beethoven’s Seventh retains the striking force of Honeck’s 2009 performances, including an excellent tempo relationship between the Presto Scherzo…
Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven An AllMusic Editor’s Choice!
AllMusic.com names the new Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck BEETHOVEN recording a November Editor’s Choice! “…this intriguing hybrid SACD from Reference Recordings is a real adventure. The excitement lies in Manfred Honeck’s clear-headed and musically sound interpretations and the astonishing performances by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which are not based on conventional practices but on careful study of the scores and original sketches, documentation from Beethoven’s time, and what has been concealed under layers of…