Archive for Kansas City Symphony
Gramophone Praises Kansas City Symphony’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations recording receives a strong recommendation from Gramophone Magazine in the August 2024 issue: “Listening to these polished performances, I marvel that the Kansas City Symphony was founded as recently as 1981. Kudos, then, to Michael Stern, who’s stepping down as music director after 19 seasons, for helping to make the KCS a worthwhile destination on the musical map. Indeed, given Reference Recording’s crystalline sound (courtesy…
David Hurwitz Reviews Kansas City Symphony’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations
Thank you to ClassicsToday.com’s David Hurwitz for this wonderful recommendation of the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s Brahms Reimagined Orchestrations recording!
Concerto Net Gives 4 Stars to One Movement Symphonies
Concerto Net gives a four-star review to the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s One Movement Symphonies recording: “Each of these stylistically different composers solves the challenges this form would inherently present, and each proves it to be a liberating and artistically durable form for their eras.… Conductor Michael Stern’s exquisite pacing in this performance points up the specificness of Barber’s command of the concept… Barber’s oceanic strings and coloratura brass find the composer at…
Five Stars for One Movement Symphonies from BBC Music Magazine
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording gets a Five Star review from BBC Music Magazine: “this orchestra offers here a classy standard of playing, plus the conductor-and-orchestra chemistry that’s needed to generate musical results as memorable as these, and in three very different works. … The Kansas players respond superbly to [Samuel Barber’s] virtuoso drive and momentum, with a burnished fullness of tone which also brings out the best qualities…
The Arts Fuse Wants a Sequel to One Movement Symphonies
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s new One Movement Symphonies album left The Arts Fuse’s Jonathan Blumhofer asking for a sequel, or even a whole series: “Michael Stern’s new recording with the Kansas City Symphony (KCS) celebrates a subgenre one probably doesn’t think about all that much: the single-movement symphony. Given the rewards of this album, which showcases symphonic works by Samuel Barber, Jean Sibelius, and Alexander Scriabin, perhaps one should. … Stern and his forces…
Four Stars for One Movement Symphonies from AllMusic Guide
AllMusic Guide’s James Manheim gives a Four-Star Rating to Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording: “the engineering here, from Kansas City’s Helzberg Hall, is more than enough reason to check out this recording. Stern chooses three works that, in addition to fulfilling the condition of the One Movement Symphonies title, have seriously complex textures that challenge an engineer to the maximum. Even listeners quite familiar with the Sibelius Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105,…
Textura Reviews One Movement Symphonies
Textura Magazine reviews the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s recording of Barber, Sibelius, and Scriabin One Movement Symphonies: “While each piece satisfies for different reasons, the fact that each can be experienced as a singular statement without pause is an appealing quality common to all. That they’re all performed by the Kansas City Symphony under the expert guidance of conductor Michael Stern also does much to recommend the release, as does its acoustically resonant…
Leshnoff Symphony No. 3 is “Beautiful and Inspiring”
Ralph Graves reviews Michael Stern, Joyce Yang, Stephen Powell, and the Kansas City Symphony’s recording of Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3; Piano Concerto for WTJU FM: “Written for the centennial of Armistice Day, Leshnoff gives voice to those who fought. He sets excerpts from letters written to loved ones at home. They don’t talk about the glory of battle but share quiet, intimate moments in simple yet beautifully poetic language. … It’s a beautiful work, beautifully…
The Arts Desk Reviews “One Movement Symphonies”
Graham Rickson reviews The Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s recording of Barber, Sibelius, and Scriabin One Movement Symphonies on The Arts Desk: “[Barber’s Symphony No. 1 is] played brilliantly here, Michael Stern’s Kansas City Symphony having exactly the right tonal blend for this music. Brass have ample weight, and the strings sing. Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy receives a similarly ripe performance. … This Sibelius 7 is excellent. Stern’s transitions are seamless, and the trombone theme’s third…
MusicWeb International Praises One Movement Symphonies
MusicWeb International critic Dan Morgan reviews the new Kansas City Symphony and the Michael Stern recording, One Movement Symphonies: “From the outset, it’s clear Stern has the measure of the [Barber First Symphony], its dramatic arch cannily constructed, its final destination never in doubt. As for the KCS, they respond with real warmth and commitment, their playing as poised and polished as anything you might hear in Boston, Chicago, or even Detroit. Predictably, the recording…
All About the Arts Reviews One Movement Symphonies
Rafael de Acha reviews Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording for All About the Arts: “Leading the peerless musicians of the Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern delivers an extraordinary reading of Barber’s work. … [Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7] is brief and unflagging in its tensile intensity, ever underpinned by inspired, disciplined playing from the members of the Kansas City Symphony, with Michael Stern at its helm. … Again, [in Scriabin’s…
Art Music Lounge Review for One Movement Symphonies
Lynn René Bayley reviews Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s One Movement Symphonies recording on her Art Music Lounge blog: “This is exactly the kind of imaginative programming that I long to see on most symphonic CD releases… superb control of orchestral balance and textures, good phrasing… a good, solid, professional performance. … I heard many interesting details in the music that escape many a recording by more famous conductors. … an interesting album,…
MusicWeb International Offers a Third Rave for Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 3 & Piano Concerto
Following a Recording of the Month distinction and a fantastic new interview, Michael Wilkinson joins the chorus of MusicWeb International critics in praising Jonathan Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3; Piano Concerto recording with the Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Joyce Yang, and Stephen Powell: “When first heard, Leshnoff provides music overwhelmingly tonal, rich in melody, with a confident momentum. It is exciting in both variety of timbres and in its immediacy. Repeated hearings reveal new depths…
Kansas City Symphony’s Leshnoff Album is a MusicWeb International Recording of the Month!
MusicWeb International names the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Jonathan Leshnoff: Piano Concerto; Symphony No. 3 with Joyce Yang and Stephen Powell a February 2021 Recording of the Month! “Both are world-premiere recordings, the symphony set down a week after its premiere performance in 2016, while the Concerto was recorded live at its premiere in November 2019, and both are treated to excellent orchestral playing, as well as superb sonics from Reference Recordings –…
MusicWeb International Review for Kansas City Symphony’s Leshnoff Premiere Recordings
MusicWeb International reviews the Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Stephen Powell, and Joyce Yang’s world premiere recordings of Jonathan Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3 and Piano Concerto: “This is an excellent concerto. It’s thoroughly entertaining, though in saying that I don’t want to give the impression that the music is in any way superficial. Such is not the case; the work is inventive and very accessible and in the second movement depths of feeling are plumbed.…