Archive for Review
Five Star Audiophile Audition Review for Kansas City’s Holst!
Audiophile Audition gives five stars to Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony’s Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool! “The soundstage is magnificent—very wide, and perhaps the deepest recording I have ever heard.… I felt as though I was really hearing the orchestra in its natural estate, and when the oboe solos, it sounds as if it is more distant in the ensemble. Time and time again, the distance factor figured into the listening experience in…
Textura Reviews the Dallas Winds Asphalt Cocktail
Textura Magazine has a review for the Dallas Winds and Jerry Junkin’s Asphalt Cocktail: The Music of John Mackey recording: “the Dallas Winds and conductor Jerry Junkin present a compelling argument on the composer’s behalf… the release features music of dramatic contrast, from blustery to hushed. Whereas one piece might threaten to bury you under an avalanche of horns, the next stirs you with a poignant melody. … the featured soloist, Christopher Martin, the Principal…
Classical Candor Reviews Kansas City’s Holst: The Planets SACD
Classical Candor‘s John J. Puccio reviews The Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s new Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool on SACD: “You can be sure with Keith Johnson’s Reference Recordings, for example, that an orchestra sounds the way a real orchestra would sound in a real concert hall. That’s certainly the case with this recording of the Kansas City Symphony, under the direction of its longtime Music Director Michael Stern, and made in Helzberg…
The Choral Stream Reviews Christmas With True Concord!
The Choral Stream‘s Brian Newhouse took a pre-release listen to Eric Holtan and True Concord Voices & Orchestra’s Christmas With True Concord: Carols in the American Voice: “They sure named the choir right. If you’ve never heard of them, and you celebrate Christmas, treat yourself. “Christmas with True Concord: Carols in the American Voice” spotlights an ensemble with a remarkable blend across all its voices. True concord indeed. Hold-your-breath moments? Several. The luminous solo soprano…
Textura Reviews Richmond Symphony’s Bates and Vaughan Williams Recording
Textura Magazine has a new review for the Richmond Symphony and Chorus and Steven Smith’s Mason Bates: Children of Adam; Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem recording: “This hour-long presentation of choral works by Mason Bates (b. 1977) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) works to both composers’ advantage, the former benefiting from the relative familiarity of the Vaughan Williams work and the latter invigorated by its pairing with the later creation; the listener benefits, too, of…
Straight Tens for Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9!
Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording received a 10 rating for both Artistic and Sound Quality from ClassicsToday: “This is an amazing performance, captured in terrific sound. … Honeck’s aided by typically exceptional brass playing, with horns, trumpets, and trombones well differentiated in timbre, their musical lines clear in even the densest tuttis. The strings, too, make gorgeous sounds in the first movement’s second-subject “song period,” and throughout the Adagio. In…
Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony Meet High Expectations in Bruckner Symphony No. 9
Fanfare Magazine’s Gavin Dixon reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording: “Manfred Honeck’s impressive discography with the Pittsburgh Symphony raises high expectations for this new Bruckner Nine, and it doesn’t disappoint. Honeck has a knack for reinventing core Romantic repertoire, but without moving outside of established performing traditions. … The orchestra deserves equal praise for their performance here. The distinctively American brass sound works wonders in Bruckner, but the…
InfoDad Review for Richmond Symphony’s Mason Bates and Vaughan Williams Recording
The InfoDad team gives their highest rating to the Richmond Symphony and Richmond Symphony Chorus’s Bates: Children of Adam; Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem recording in a new review: “The elegant orchestration and skillful use of voices make [Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem] a very moving work when it is well performed, as it is on a new Reference Recordings disc featuring the Richmond Symphony Chorus and Richmond Symphony conducted by Steven Smith. Soloists Michelle Areyzaga…
MundoClasico Reviews Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner Symphony No. 9
The Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording gets a review in MundoClasico: “Furthermore, the Pittsburgh Symphony surrenders itself without compromise. Although this recording is not as widely broadcast as one would desire, it is, in my opinion, an interpretation that must be taken very seriously by anyone worthy of being a Brucknerite. And it is, of course–until now, and as far as I know– Honeck’s best discographic work in Pittsburgh.” —Alfredo López-Vivié…
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on PSO’s Bruckner Symphony No. 9 : “a masterpiece”
Jeremy Reynolds reviews Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s new Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “To get right to it, it’s a masterpiece. Music director Manfred Honeck and the orchestra recorded the symphony last year during three live concerts — reviewed here — and again partnered with recording engineers from Soundmirror of Boston. Bruckner’s ninth is a beast. Even in its unfinished, three-movement state, the symphony runs just over an hour. The…
I Care If You Listen Reviews Nadia Shpachenko’s The Poetry Of Places
Anne Goldberg-Baldwin reviews Nadia Shpachenko‘s The Poetry of Places on I Care If You Listen: “An album of solo and duo piano, electronics, and percussion, The Poetry of Places is a superb assemblage of works by various composers. Each piece, inspired by a particular building, weaves together a collage of place and time, and Shpachenko’s evocative interpretations bring insight to the composers’ visions… One of the highlights of The Poetry of Places is Hannah Lash’s Give me your Songs, a multifaceted…
Textura Reviews Jan Kraybill’s The Orchestral Organ
Textura Magazine reviews Jan Kraybill’s The Orchestral Organ recording in their July 2019 issue: “On The Orchestral Organ, Dr. Jan Kraybill performs organ transcriptions of material by Sibelius, Holst, Wagner, Verdi, Barber, and others, and while many of the works are familiar, they assume vivid new life when presented in this organ-only context. … Representative of the album are the treatments of Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Sibelius’s Finlandia; being so well-known, they offer case studies for how effectively…
Five Stars for Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff from HRAudio!
HRAudio gives a 5-star rating to the performances and a 4.5-star rating to the sonics on the Hermitage Piano Trio‘s new Rachmaninoff recording: “ I put this new release in my player with much anticipation. The first thing that struck me was that it produced a sound reminding me of my old LPs before they got scratched and grey. A natural, non-glaring…sound. … Of course, sound is one thing, musical content quite another. But both should go…
Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff is “Truly Splendid”
MusicWeb International’s Jim Westhead offers a thorough review of the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording: “The Hermitage trio plays…beautifully, aided by the mellifluous recording. … Reference Recordings have long been renowned for their recorded sound quality – I have several of their CDs and can testify to their fidelity. Here, on this SACD, which I have listened to in stereo via an SACD player, the recording is truly splendid, with all three members of the…
InfoDad Reviews the “Splendid” Hermitage Piano Trio Rachmaninoff Recording
The InfoDad blog gives a top-rating to the Hermitage Piano Trio’s new Rachmaninoff recording: “The two [piano] trios receive absolutely splendid readings, filled with warmth and passion and presented in exceptionally full and elegant sound, on a new Reference Recordings SACD featuring the Hermitage Piano Trio. … the group’s impassioned, deeply involving beauty of phrasing and cooperation is worthy of trios that have been around far longer. … [Trio élégiaque No. 2 ] is a brooding,…