Archive for Uncategorized – Page 31
Baltimore City Paper Names Dvořák & Janáček The Top 2014 Release!
Baltimore City Paper has released their Top 10 Classical Albums of 2014 list, and The Pittsburgh Symphony’s Dvořák & Janáček SACD is #1! Their List: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, “Dvorák: Symphony No. 8 – Janácek: Jenufa Suite” (Reference Recordings) Seattle Symphony Orchestra, “John Luther Adams: Become Ocean” (Cantaloupe) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, “City Noir” (Nonesuch) Anonymous 4, “David Lang: love fail” (Cantaloupe) Boston Modern Orchestra Project, “Elena Ruehr: O’Keeffe Images” (BMOP/sound) Rushes Ensemble, “Michael Gordon: Rushes”…
RR Artist Manfred Honeck to Conduct at Vatican
PITTSBURGH—For the first time, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck has been invited by Pope Francis to conduct music during the Papal Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24. Honeck will lead the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Et Incarnatus Est from Mozart’s Mass in C minor, a piece that was specifically requested by Pope Francis and about which he said, “It lifts you to God.” Tens of thousands…
Holiday Sale!
It’s Time for the Annual Reference Recordings Holiday Sale! STARTING NOW! Until NOON on Monday, January 5, 2015 — Order 2 items or more and receive a 20% discount on EVERYTHING in our catalog (except already discounted sets) THE MORE YOU ORDER – THE MORE YOU SAVE!
Fanfare Critics Want More Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Fanfare Magazine critics can’t get enough of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Raymond Tuttle wasn’t the only critic with a Pittsburgh Live! release on their year-end “Want List”: “Under music director Manfred Honeck, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is increasingly recognized as an ensemble to reckon with. It’s our good fortune that an audiophile label, San Francisco’s Reference Recordings has, so far, released two SACDs from the PSO. (The other is a Richard Strauss program.) The audio…
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…
There’s A Time Artists Nominated for Blues Music Awards
The 36th Annual Blues Music Awards nominations have been announced, and both Doug MacLeod and Jimi Bott have made the list! The Blues Foundation is pleased to announce the nominations for its annual Blues Music Awards, which the international organization will present at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday, May 7, 2015. The Blues Music Awards are universally recognized as the highest accolade afforded blues music performers. The annual Blues Music…
Organ Polychrome and Miraculous Metamorphoses Named Best of 2014
Kansas City critic, Don Clark, released a “Bakers Dozen” of “Best Recordings of 2014” on Pictures on Silence, and featured two of our Kansas City-based recordings: Organ Polychrome “A hallmark of a great concert hall is a great organ. Not used every day, but when a work requires an organ it is nice to have one around. The Casavant here is a fine “symphonic” organ and blends well with the orchestra. As a solo it…
Portraits of Colorado Trailer
New trailer for the upcoming Portraits of Colorado documentary featuring Charles Denler and the Colorado Symphony: Charles Denler’s Portraits of Colorado An American Symphony No. 1 and Six Variations for violin and piano The Colorado Symphony and Chorus Scott O’Neil, conductor World Premiere Recording! Order Today! “PORTRAITS OF COLORADO, An American Symphony No.1” is the first in a series of symphonies composed by Charles Denler. Inspired by a sunrise over the Rocky Mountains, and the…
Dvořák & Janáček Nominated for 2015 GRAMMY Award!
Extra! Extra! 2015 GRAMMY Awards Best Orchestral Performance Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck — Dvořák & Janáček! See the list of Nominees at www.grammy.com! Dvořák • Janáček Manfred Honeck Pittsburgh Symphony OrchestraFR-710 SACD Antonin Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 Leoš Janáček Symphonic Suite from “Jenůfa”(Conceptualized by Manfred Honeck, realized by Tomáš Ille) Thrilling Live Performances From The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, In Brilliant Audiophile Sound! This release is the second in the…
Dvořák & Janáček SACD Gets Fanfare Review
Fanfare Magazine says Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Dvořák & Janáček SACD joins highest ranks: “What lifts this reading high enough to join the excellent ones one might name from the past (Walter, Kubelík, Kertész, Szell, Giulini, Tennstedt—the list is long) is that Honeck follows through with musical gestures that match all the points he makes in his notes. … Care is lavished on the details of a score that, frankly, is thrice-familiar…
Strauss a MusicWeb International 2014 Record of the Year
MusicWeb International has released their critics nominations for Record of the Year and of the 141 nominations, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Strauss was one of only eight recordings that received two nominations from critics! “…there is excitement, drama and romance aplenty served in top notch sound. For me this recording joins the best.” —Ian Lace “When the horns cut loose in Don Juan, halfway through and near the end, it feels like you’ve been strapped…
Classical Music Sentinel Gives Organ Polychrome a Rave!
Fantastic new review for Jan … Organ Polychrome recording in the Classical Music Sentinel: “In this day and age of bits and bytes, midi files, miniaturization, computerization, digital sound creation and manipulation, and everything synthetic and disposable, it certainly is comforting to know that magnificent pipe organs like this Casavant Frères Opus 3875, 2011 located in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri, are still being built. … if you have…
Doug MacLeod Named Top International Artist
The Blues Matters Magazine has released its 2014 Writer’s Poll, and Doug MacLeod came in as their #3 International Solo Artist! Congratulations to Doug!
Robert Moore “Outta My Soul” Concert Photos
Some photos from the sold out/standing room only Bijou Cafe performance of Robert Moore’s new “Outta My Soul” recording in Portland on Friday night! Post by Reference Recordings.
Weekend News Bits — Joel Fan, Robert Moore, Nadia Shpachenko
Kick off your weekend with these news bits from our recent releases: Joel Fan: Dances For Piano and Orchestra WFMT’s Lisa Flynn Features Dances for Piano And Orchestra: By far the most familiar genre of music for piano and orchestra is the piano concerto. What the seven works gathered on this new CD demonstrate is that the formal concerto is by no means the only way of treating the instrumental combination. Joel Fan, recognized for…