Archive for American Record Guide
American Record Guide Rave for Stylus Phantasticus
Tekla Cunnigham and Pacific MusicWorks get a rave review for their Stylus Phantasticus album in the January/February 2022 issue of American Record Guide: “Rarely have I heard a collection of 17th Century music as enjoyable as this one, and this is clearly thanks to the remarkable musicians Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks. Pacific MusicWorks is William Skeen, cello; Stephen Stubbs, baroque guitar and chitarrone; Maxine Eilander, baroque harp; and Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord. They…
American Record Guide Review for Beethoven Symphony No. 9
American Record Guide‘s Gil French has a thorough review of his multiple listens through Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Symphony No. 9 recording: “the riches, most superbly tuned strings basses I have heard since Joseph Guastafeste led the Chicago Symphony’s string bass section (1961-2011) and better recorded as well! When the entire orchestra joins in [in the Finale], their phrasing reflects the words mentally engrained in anyone familiar with the text. Continue…
American Record Guide Reviews Blessed Art Thou Among Women
American Record Guide reviews the PaTRAM Institute’s recording of Blessed Art Thou Among Women in the September/October 2020 Issue: “Depsite the common ethnicity and theme, the music covers so much ground chronologically and stylistically that the program stays interesting. … Rachmaninoff’s ‘Theotokos Ever-Vigilant’ sings out with the lush, spiritually-charged harmonies we know from his Vespers. There’s also a delicate embrace of the Sacred Feminine in ‘All of Creation Rejoices’ by Nikolai Mihailovich Danilin… I don’t…
American Record Guide Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony’s Tchaikovsky & Leshnoff
American Record Guide critic Roger Hecht reviews the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s recording of Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 and Leshnoff: Double Concerto: “Manfred Honeck seems to have a clear, thought out concept of this work. Every phrase, measure, balance, dynamic nuance, coloring, etc. sounds conceived in advance. … The result is a conception executed to the last 16th note by well trained players. … this is an effective and interesting performance, carried off with…
American Record Guide Reviews Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff
American Record Guide Editor Donald Vroon reviewed the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording in the Fall 2019 issue. It was also one of his recordings of the year! “I have recordings of the Rachmaninoff Trio 1 that range from 12 to 16 minutes. … Our three Russians who call themselves the Hermitage Trio… take 14-1/2 minutes, and they sound Russian and romantic; they have ardor, but they are not pushy about it. This is the…
American Record Guide Reviews Kansas City Symphony’s New Holst Recording
The Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool gets a great review in the March/April 2020 issue of American Record Guide: “This wonderful recording sounds better and better the more you increase the volume; and somehow, that glorious sound includes both great detail and great space. We seem to be hovering just above music director Michael Stern, so individual instruments are heard vividly, and yet we never seem too close.…
A QSF Journey In American Record Guide
The January/February 2019 issue of American Record Guide features a review of Quartet San Francisco’s A QSF Journey recording: “The arrangements…by first violinist Jeremy Cohen…[range] From the delightfully optimistic Fiesta that reminds me of Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer’s Goat Rodeo Sessions album to the morose Tango Carnevale, to Rhapsody in Bluegrass, this album keeps pleasantly surprising us with each song. … This group deserves commendation for bridging the gap between classical and popular music…
American Record Guide Reviews Teach Me Thy Statutes
American Record Guide reviewed the PaTRAM Institute’s Teach Me Thy Statutes recording in their November/December 2018 issue: “the PaTRAM ensemble has lived up to every element of its creed. And they’ve done so in service to the music of Pavel Chesnokov, one of the most revered of all Mother Russia’s choral composers. … It’s a lovely sound that fits these sacred works perfectly. Chesnokov is one of those composers who can have his singers plumbing…
American Record Guide Reviews Shostakovich and Barber
The January/February 2018 issue of American Record Guide features a new review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio for Strings recording: “Manfred Honeck has…drawn on Shostakovich’s life and experiences for his interpretation fo the Fifth. Honeck does not ‘rewrite’ the piece, but he does adapt interpretive points to what he believes the muic is saying or depicting. The result is one of the more interesting performances of the…
American Record Guide Praises ¡Viva Segovia!
“Roberto Moronn Pérez continues his exploration of the Segovia Archive—pieces written for the Maestro but which he never performed. …I have to give the nod to Pérez, especially in the three strongest works, the Scott Sonatina, Berkeley’s Four Pieces, and Desderi’s cheerful neoclassical sonata. …[the music] is simply a joy to hear, and Pérez sounds like it’s also a joy to perform. All this program is a pleasure…You won’t regret purchasing…” —Ken Keaton, American Record…
Don’t be without Pittsburgh Symphony’s Rosenkavalier Suite
Order Now “The Pittsburgh Symphony is one of America’s more Germanic orchestras and is well suited to Strauss. The brass are terrific, and the strings play with a powerful Teutonic sound. Reference Recordings is known as an audiophile label, and it earns that distinction here, particularly in Elektra, whose extreme demands it meets especially well. Even opera purists should enjoy this program. Honeck’s booklet notes include detailed time indiciations of what is going on in…
Pittsburgh Symphony Tchaikovsky an American Record Guide Best of 2016
American Record Guide critics have listed their “Critics Choice” recordings for 2016, and editor Donald Vroon has nominated the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6. “Here is a symphony that has been recorded a great deal. Even conductors who don’t like Tchaikovsky have recorded it, probably because of the challenges it presents. So naturally there have been a great many routine performances under conductors who have no real feeling for it. Manfred…
American Record Guide Reviews Florentine Opera Company’s Wuthering Heights
The Florentine Opera Company’s Carlisle Floyd: Wuthering Heights receives a new review in the November/December 2016 issue of American Record Guide: “…there is a lot of interesting music, enough to make this an enjoyable theatrical experience…The performance is quite good. George Jarman and Kelly Markgraf make a very good Cathy and Heathcliff, Jarman with her clear, secure soprano and Markgraf with his rich, wide-ranging baritone. … The veteran Suzanne Mentzer makes a wonderful Nelly, and…
Pittsburgh Symphony Brings American Record Guide to Tears
American Record Guide critic Donald Vroon is moved by the latest Pittsburgh Symphony recording of Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6: “Here is a symphony that has been recorded a great deal. Even conductors who don’t like Tchaikovsky have recorded it, probably because of the challenges it presents. So naturally there have been a great many routine performances under conductors who have no real feeling for it. Manfred Honeck is not among them. I don’t know him…
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…