Archive for Review
American Record Guide Reviews Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff
American Record Guide Editor Donald Vroon reviewed the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff recording in the Fall 2019 issue. It was also one of his recordings of the year! “I have recordings of the Rachmaninoff Trio 1 that range from 12 to 16 minutes. … Our three Russians who call themselves the Hermitage Trio… take 14-1/2 minutes, and they sound Russian and romantic; they have ardor, but they are not pushy about it. This is the…
American Record Guide Reviews Kansas City Symphony’s New Holst Recording
The Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool gets a great review in the March/April 2020 issue of American Record Guide: “This wonderful recording sounds better and better the more you increase the volume; and somehow, that glorious sound includes both great detail and great space. We seem to be hovering just above music director Michael Stern, so individual instruments are heard vividly, and yet we never seem too close.…
The Arts Desk Reviews Hermitage Piano Trio’s Rachmaninoff
The Arts Desk‘s Graham Rickson reviews the Hermitage Piano Trio’s GRAMMY®-nominated Rachmaninoff album: “This performance, from three Russian musicians, oozes soul. Cellist Sergey Antonov has a gloriously dark tone, and he’s well matched with violinist Misha Keylin. And what a beautifully balanced recording too, pianist Ilya Kazantsev’s Steinway captured with startling fidelity. This never once sounds like a contractual meeting between three starry soloists; it’s clear that these musicians have lived with this music for…
Gramophone Magazine Reviews Utah Symphony’s Prokofiev
Gramophone Magazine’s Mark Pullinger reviews Thierry Fischer and the Utah Symphony’s Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky – Lieutenant Kijé Suite in their February 2020 issue: “Thierry Fischer pairs two contrasting Prokofiev film scores in this Utah Symphony release: the gritty, rarely heard cantata Alexander Nevsky and the quirky, satirical Lieutenant Kijé. The latter is… guaranteed to raise a smile. … Nevsky is given a sober reading here, the University of Utah A Cappella Choir and University of…
Pittsburgh’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 an Audiophile Sound Album of the Month
Italian magazine, Audiophile Sound, has named the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Manfred Honeck’s Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 recording their December 2019 album of the month! “Over the last decade Manfred Honeck has moulded the Pittsburgh Symphony into a world-class band and on this album they give a compelling account of Bruckner’s greatest symphony using the Nowak edition. … The magnificent recording also allows one to hear how Honeck delineates instrumental lines and builds massive, structured…
The Arts Desk Reviews Holst: The Planets
The Arts Desk’s Graham Rickson reviews Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s recording of Holst: The Planets; The Perfect Fool: “Michael Stern’s Kansas City Symphony version is a blast… An audiophile’s delight as well as a musical treat, Stern gets pretty much everything right. You’ll hear things in this recording that you’ll struggle to discern on starrier versions, the marvel being that nothing feels forced or artificially spotlit. There’s a sepulchral brass chorale a few…
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…