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…
Rafael de Acha’s Music Notes site reviews the PaTRAM Institute’s Blessed Art Thou Among Women recording: “Works by Rachmaninoff along compositions by Gretchaninoff, Tcherepnin, and several other musical artists that lived and worked in the past two or more centuries enrich the CD Blessed Art Thou Among Women, a wonderfully varied collection of devotional texts in praise of the Virgin Mary set to choral music and superbly sung by the PaTRAM Institute Singers, led by Peter…
Rafael de Acha adds the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 and Jonathan Leshnoff Double Concerto recording to his short list of Best of 2020: “Commissioned and premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Manfred Honeck, the ensemble’s superb Music Director, Jonathan Leshnoff’s beautiful Double Concerto for Clarinet and Bassoon affords PSO principals Michael Rusinek (clarinet) and Nancy Goeres (bassoon) the opportunity to shine as soloists in this gorgeous 20-minute-long, three-movement composition. Leshnoff’s music is unabashedly accessible. From the onset…