Archive for ClassicalEar
ClassicalEar on Adam Schoenberg’s Orchestral Music: Superb
Order Now “Schoenberg’s painterly soundscapes fall very easily on the ear… Best in my view are the Picture Studies, especially the Stravinskyan ferocity of ‘Kandinsky’ and ‘Miró’, which is bouncy and percussive, with telling use of an E-flat clarinet. The closing piece, ‘Pigeons in Flight’ after a photograph by Francis Blake recalls, like certain other works on the disc, the gently pulsing, harmonically pleasing delirium of Reich, though Schoenberg’s style more approximates the composing manners…
Wine Dark Sea on Classical Ear!
“Seventy minutes of wind-band music includes the album’s title piece, Wine Dark Sea by John Mackey…attractive, whimsical, soulful, filmic.… Dan Welcher’s Spumante…is an ebullient starter with enticing colours and a ready wit. J’ai été au bal finds Donald Grantham exploring Cajun music, the dance music delightfully lopsided and friendly, a tuba and a euphonium are given a jazzy workout before the brass contingent beefs things up and the music becomes fantastical. The Concerto for Clarinet…
Moszkowski Scores Four/Five from ClassicalEar
“Martin West and his excellent San Francisco Ballet Orchestra[‘s]… affable and lively performances, always well played, fall very happily on the ear, and the sound is superb. … the programme is well worth hearing, especially the polonaise-style Torch Dance, Habanera, Six Airs de Ballet and the Gondoliera, all of which are here given their world première recordings. And what to expect, musically? Think of the lighter side of Elgar and that will give you some…
ClassicalEar Reviews Dawn To Dust
ClassicalEar‘s Colin Anderson gives a four-star rating to the Utah Symphony’s new Dawn To Dust recording: “One thing is certain, that the Utah Symphony and music director Thierry Fischer are going places. This superbly recorded anthology reports a top-drawer orchestra. Augusta Read Thomas’s EOS (Goddess of the Dawn) pulsates with life and suggestion, orchestrated with colour, a gleaming score conveying very likeable music to the ears.… Much is promised at the beginning [of Andrew Norman’s…
ClassicalEar Gives Four Stars to Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner
The ClassicalEar iPhone Review App has a new review for Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner recording: “Manfred Honeck distils a truly awesome hush and mystery at the outset of this bracingly alive and exceedingly stimulating account of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony (‘The Romantic’), the stunningly eloquent horn solo serving notice that his superb Pittsburgh band can boast players of the highest international calibre. What follows is a reading rich in arresting drama, recreative spark,…
ClassicalEar Reviews Miraculous Metamorphoses
The ClassicalEar iPhone Review App has a new review for The Kansas City Symphony’s Miraculous Metamorphoses! “Mouth-watering and terrific music in good performances…The Kansas City Symphony plays with excellence and dedication, and Michael Stern solicits well-judged pacing and detailing…Worth considering” Read the full review on the ClassicalEar App Order Today!
Classical Ear Reviews Elgar/Vaughan William SACD
The Classical Ear iPhone Review App has a new review for our Kansas City Symphony Elgar and Vaughan Williams SACD! “The Wasps makes a dashing curtain-raiser – and what a treat to hear the other irresistible numbers in Vaughan Williams’s inimitably titled ‘Aristophanic Suite’. Stern also masterminds a commendably sensitive, scrupulously prepared traversal of Elgar’s vernally fresh masterpiece… the engineering, which is of simply splendiferous, demonstration-worthy realism… Recommended if…you feel like giving your hi-fi components…
ClassicalEar Gives Five Stars to Strauss
The ClassicalEar iPhone Review App has a new five-star review for our Pittsburgh Symphony Strauss SACD! “This is quite a disc. Manfred Honeck’s live performances from June 2012 bring so much to admire, not least a thrilling electricity, heaps of chutzpah, revelatory detail and sparky temperament… just sit back and marvel at the PSO’s breathtaking sheen, swaggering virtuosity and remarkable composure (fabulous horns throughout). … In short, an exceptionally stimulating and hugely charismatic Strauss anthology.…