Archive for Review – Page 33
Strauss Lands on Fanfare Want List
Fanfare Magazine critics are submitting their annual “Want Lists” and critic Raymond Tuttle puts our Pittsburgh Symphony Strauss release at the top: “These Want Lists are difficult for me, because, Lord knows, I want everything… My philosophy is that basic repertoire will seldom make my Want List because, in this age of redundancy, priority should be given to that which is new or at least unfamiliar. Having written that, I start with an exception. Strauss’s…
MusicWeb International “Digs In” to Dances for Piano and Orchestra
MusicWeb International‘s Brian Reinhart “digs in” to Joel Fan and the Northwest Sinfonietta’s Dances for Piano and Orchestra recording: “For piano lovers, this CD is like an ice cream sundae, with hot fudge drizzle, Spanish peanuts, a ribbon of cream, and a booze-soaked cherry on top. It’s pure pleasure, first note to last, with a generous heaping of sugar … There’s even a Wedding Cake. … Pianist Joel Fan, who presumably herded this programme together,…
Classical Candor Reviews Joel Fan: Dances For Piano and Orchestra
The new Joel Fan and Northwest Sinfonietta release, Dances for Piano and Orchestra, gets a rave from Classical Candor critic John J. Puccio: “The soloist captures [Fantaisie-Ballet‘s] light, elegant moments nicely and then fills it out with a grand and exciting virtuosity… Fan again demonstrates his dexterity in playing with seemingly ten fingers on each hand. Yet [Vals Capricho] is also a surprisingly delicate piece of music, with a wonderfully lilting rhythm that Fan and…
Audiophile Audition Gives Organ Polychrome Five Stars
Audiophile Audition calls Organ Polychrome “a colorful and sonically-impressive” recording in a new five-star review: “[Jan Kraybill’s] playing is expressive in the quieter portions and pulls out all the stops when hitting some of the big orchestral-imitation passages in these colorful pieces. Using the ProLogic IIx height setting on my mutichannel decoder produced an excellent soundfield with the disc, and my Oppo deck includes HDCD decoding, which is subtle but does make a slight improvement…
Kansas City Star gives Organ Polychrome a Rave
“Reference Recordings brings the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts’ organ right into your living room with its new release, Organ Polychrome. And with extraordinary organist Jan Kraybill at the keyboard, Organ Polychrome is, indeed, a multi-colored showstopper. … There’s never a sense of sameness as you listen to the CD. It’s the sort of recording you’ll want to listen to over and over. I know I did. Kraybill, one of Kansas City’s most respected…
Pre-Release review — Joel Fan: Dances for Piano and Orchestra
Joel Fan’s latest recording, Dances for Piano and Orchestra, gets pre-release praise from Fanfare Magazine’s Peter Burwasser: “…what a brilliant presentation we have here: Music that cannot help but delight, delivered with the utmost elegance by soloist and orchestra alike… Anyone familiar with Joel Fan’s previous Reference Recordings outings will expect to hear an ease of execution and an especially crisp and lucid sense for texture. That he delivers. What is remarkable about this collection…
CultureSpot LA Reviews Miraculous Metamorphoses
New review from Culture Spot LA’s Henry Schlinger for the Kansas City Symphony’s Miraculous Metamorphoses recording: “A recent CD on Reference Recordings featuring the Kansas City Symphony (KCS) conducted by Music Director Michael Stern shows they may be vying for a place among the best American orchestras. … Reference Recordings prides itself on producing high-quality live-performance experiences, and this disc is no exception. As with their other recordings, the music on this HDCD jumps out…
Classical Candor Reviews Organ Polychrome
A grand John J. Puccio review for the premiere solo recording for the new Julia Irene Kauffman Casavant Organ performed by Jan Kraybill: “Can you really think of anyone you’d rather have make an organ record than Reference Recordings? Well, anyone you’d rather have making any recording than Reference Recordings. For over thirty years they’ve been producing some of the best audiophile recordings around, and their current release, Organ Polychrome: The French School, with organist…
SA-CD.net Reviews Miraculous Metamorphoses SACD
Graham Williams reviews the new Miraculous Metamorphoses SACD featuring the Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern: “The 5.1 multi-channel SACD is sonically streets ahead of the CD/HDCD version of these performances issued some months ago. The listener is placed some way back in the hall but the sound has a wide spread between the speakers with a convincing depth and a pleasing ambience, most apparent in the quieter sections of these scores. …the visceral impact…
ClassicalNet Reviews Andrés Segovia Archive: French Composers
Brian Wigman reviews the second release in Roberto Moronn Pérez’s Andrés Segovia Archive recordings: “…these pieces will undoubtedly enhance the solo guitar repertoire, a facet of music that has gotten enormous attention and contributions over the last few decades. The works within the Segovia Archive are predictably well-crafted and worth hearing. … I raved about Roberto Moronn Pérez before, and I’ll do it again. This is truly an ambitious and difficult project, but the guitarist…
Dual Reviews from Positive Feedback Online
Karl Lozier has a couple of features for Reference Recordings releases in the latest Positive Feedback Online: Traveling Sonata “These attractive classical selections are quite varied…The two performers decided on specific selections here ranging from the soothing and mellow music of Faure and Satie to the more exciting “Bolero” and “Carmen ” and to the modern music of Dyens and Duplessy. … Many of the selections are mellow and relaxing as well as simply interesting.…
Guitar Foundation of America’s SoundBoard Magazine with high praise for Roberto Moronn’s André Segovia Archive recordings: “Playing with an assured technique, Perez is very enjoyable – at times, I thought I might be hearing the maestro himself. He has really done his homework: phrasing, contrast, spaciousness, occasional understatement and the sense of hearing a story are all reminiscent of Segovia’s style. This is not to say that this artist has given up his own voice…
Enjoy The Music enjoys the new Pittsburgh Symphony Dvořák & Janáček
Enjoy The Music‘s Joe Milicia reviews the new Pittsburgh Symphony Dvořák & Janáček SACD and gives it a 5/5 rating for Performance and Recording Quality! “It would be great to have more program notes like the one in Reference Recordings’ new Pittsburgh Symphony release, with the conductor commenting in detail on his own interpretation of the music. … On a first hearing I found the performance overall to be consistently interesting but a bit studied—”carefully”…
ArkivMusic Customer Calls New Pittsburgh Symphony SACD a “Must Hear”
Manfred HoneckCredit: Felix Broede ArkivMusic.com and its customers are excited about the new Pittsburgh Symphony Dvořák & Janáček SACD! Not only is it a “Recommended“ recording, and an Arkiv “Drilldown” #1 SACD recording, it’s also got listeners singing its praises: “…a remarkable melding of artistic vision from conductor Manfred Honeck and virtuoso execution from the Pittsburgh musicians. Honeck deftly brings out Dvorak’s uniquely Czech character from the score, highlighting key passages with flexible dynamics, tempi,…
The Arts Desk Says Dvořák & Janáček is “Beyond Criticism”
The Arts Desk‘s Graham Rickson has a new rave for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s latest FRESH! From Reference Recordings SACD: “Dvořák’s…Eighth [symphony] is the most radical, and Manfred Honeck’s remarkable performance highlights its originality in some style. …[Honeck] justifies every interpretive decision in his sleeve notes, and the musical results are pretty special. … What follows is electrifying – an exuberant adrenalin rush… Reach the close, and you’ll hopefully be awestruck. Cheap…