John J. Puccio comes away impressed by Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording in his Classical Candor review:
“Maestro Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony play the [Barber] in a fairly straightforward manner, without undue flourish yet with delicate nuance. They handle the mood swings in the music with subtlety and grace, producing if not the most striking account of the piece ever recorded certainly one of the most enjoyable. … The [Sibelius] remains colorful, lyrical, almost magical throughout, and the performance provides much pleasure. … Stern appears to go for a beauty in the [Scriabin] work beyond its mysticism, making it all the more enchanting, even beguiling for the listener. … This is a classic Reference Recordings production, meaning it sounds the way Reference Recordings discs have sounded since their founding back in 1976 and the way we’ve always loved them. The sound is dynamic, dimensional, wide ranging, and real. That last is particularly important. … the current disc displays wide frequency and dynamic ranges, a solid impact, and a realistic orchestral depth and width. It comes about as close as one can get to sitting in a concert hall at a moderate distance from the ensemble. It’s quite impressive.”
—John J. Puccio, Classical Candor