Two Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer Mahler Symphony reviews on the family-focused website InfoDad: Mahler Symphony No. 8 “Because of the unique sonic quality of Mahler’s music, the exceptional importance of getting both the quiet passages and the huge, noisy and sometimes deliberately crude ones right, the recording quality of Mahler performances is exceptionally important, most definitely so in the case of his Eighth, the “Symphony of a Thousand,” which really does require something close…
Online magazine Smile Politely highlights the upcoming Utah Symphony tour on their way to next week’s Carnegie Hall Performance! “The Utah Symphony will perform a concert of varied works at the Foellinger Great Hall of Urbana’s Krannert Center on April 27. This is an orchestra from a seemingly small market that has earned a world-class pedigree through a legacy of fine recordings and superb playing. Current Music Director, Thierry Fischer, is touring his superb ensemble…
Audiophilia Magazine’s Anthony Kershaw hails the Utah Symphony’s Mahler recording as a “stunner”: “The orchestra sounds good in all departments, with some soloists highlighted to outstanding effect. … Fischer and his musicians are so musical in this potboiler of a symphony — together, they make the ‘Star Trek’ opening, the minor, inverted ‘Frère Jacques’ funeral tune and the klezmer music sound natural. Others make it sound like film music. … So, a fine execution of…
Dave Billinge has a new review for the Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan” recording on MusicWeb International: “It is tempting to dismiss yet another Mahler First entering a crowded market as simply not needed. In this case it would be a mistake because this does offer something special… these players respond with as rhythmically vital a performance as you could wish to hear. … I have one small but significant…
ClassicsToday editor David Hurwitz reviews the Utah Symphony’s new Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording: “Under Music Director Thierry Fischer, it’s clear that orchestral standards are considerably higher today … just as this SACD reflects improvements in engineering since the 1960s. Fischer leads a singularly appealing performance of this perennially fresh and engaging music. The first movement builds inexorably, the tempo accelerating steadily through the exciting final pages exactly as Mahler requests. Indeed, Fischer’s control of…
The Washington Post‘s tom Huizenga reviews the Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan” recording: “In Fischer’s hands, Mahler is well-balanced… the orchestra can be proud of this performance, with its brisk tempos and transparency in recorded sound. Winds are particularly expressive in the opening movement, where nature awakens in a haze of ethereal strings and chirps from oboes and clarinets before picking up the jaunty melody to one of Mahler’s own songs. … This…
The Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording gets a rave review from Graham Williams on Classical CD Choice: “Now, from the Reference Recordings Fresh! Label, we have a compelling new account of Mahler’s 1st Symphony recorded in state-of-the-art sound from this same orchestra under their current Music Director, the Swiss conductor Thierry Fischer.… The magical opening pages of the first movement are beautifully controlled with the off-stage trumpets suitably distanced yet absolutely audible. The…
The Arts Desk critic Graham Rickson has a new review of Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 recording: “Wonderfully played too, by an orchestra many won’t have heard of, under a conductor usually associated with French repertoire. Readers with long memories may remember a pioneering 1960s and 1970s Mahler cycle recorded by the Utah Symphony under Maurice Abravanel, frustratingly difficult to find now. Abravanel’s zeal compensated for the occasional lapses in…
Classical.net critic Brian Wigman calls the new Mahler Symphony No. 1 recording a “‘welcome back’ party” for the Utah Symphony: “…there is…much to admire. Whatever reservations I have with that Scherzo, the closing bars of it are thrilling. And the third movement strikes me as very well paced, with plenty of color and gorgeous woodwind solos. … And the Finale is marvelous…the climaxes are exciting as you could wish, with the final pages an absolute…
Utah Symphony’s Mahler Symphony No. 1 and True Concord Voices and Orchestra’s Far In the Heavens both get Gramophone Magazine features in the October 2015 issue! Far In The Heavens “… abundantly lyric, soothingly consonant works…True Concord’s…vocal blend gilds the unaccompanied works especially with a halo of resonance.” —Alexander Coghlan Order & Listen Now: ReferenceRecordings.comAmazonArkivMusicApple MusicSpotify Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “…the orchestra acquits itself with distinction. The opening dawn chorus is notable for its hushed…
John J. Puccio reviews the new Mahler Symphony No. 1 “Titan” recording from the Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer on his Classical Candor blog: “The sound is good…here [the miking] is not so close as it is in many other live recordings. The result is a fairly natural perspective… the sonics are round, warm, detailed, and natural, as though heard from a moderate distance instead of so close up.” Full Review Order & Listen Now:…
Far In The Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus World Premiere Recordings! Choral Music by beloved composer Stephen Paulus Far In The Heavens is comprised of recently composed and previously unrecorded works by Stephen Paulus, including two works that were commissioned and premiered by True Concord Voices & Orchestra: The Incomprehensible for their fifth anniversary season in 2009, and Prayers and Remembrances for the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 tragedy in 2011. GRAMMY®-award…
Audiophile Audition‘s Steven Ritter gives a four-star review to the Utah Symphony’s Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan” recording before its official release tomorrow (9/11/15): “This recording celebrates 75 years of superb orchestral work from the Utah Symphony and it is nice to see them back on record. It’s also nice to see an SACD from that bastion of audio excellence, Reference Recordings… Young conductor Thierry Fischer also proves himself a fine Mahlerian…this is a very…
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 The work recorded here is, of course, known everywhere as Mahler’s First Symphony. That is not, however, what Mahler thought he was writing at the time, and it took him several years to decide quite what he had wrought (and, in the process, to drop one of the movements). Was this a symphony, or did it belong rather to that alternative, more modern category, the symphonic poem? It was as an…
Celebrate #ThrowbackThursday with Varujan Kojian’s Utah Symphony recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique! Utah Symphony Recordings on RR Mahler: Symphony No. 1 “Titan” The Utah Symphony, celebrating its 75th anniversary in the 2015-season, is one of America’s major symphony orchestras and a leading cultural organization in the Intermountain West. It is recognized internationally for its distinctive performances, commitment to music education programs, and recording legacy. Reference Recordings is pleased to announce the release of this new…