Archive for Stylus Phantasticus
Stylus Phantasticus Gets A MusicWeb International Recommendation
Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks’ Stylus Phantasticus gets a rave review and recommendation from MusicWeb International‘s Johan van Veen: “Over the years I have heard many recordings of this kind of repertoire, and it never fails to make a strong impression. The instrumental music of the 17th century is quite exciting stuff. However, its effect largely depends on the performance. If the contrasts within pieces are flattened out or the dynamic differences are equalized, the…
American Record Guide Rave for Stylus Phantasticus
Tekla Cunnigham and Pacific MusicWorks get a rave review for their Stylus Phantasticus album in the January/February 2022 issue of American Record Guide: “Rarely have I heard a collection of 17th Century music as enjoyable as this one, and this is clearly thanks to the remarkable musicians Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks. Pacific MusicWorks is William Skeen, cello; Stephen Stubbs, baroque guitar and chitarrone; Maxine Eilander, baroque harp; and Henry Lebedinsky, organ and harpsichord. They…
The Absolute Sound on Stylus Phantasticus
Andrew Quint includes Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks’ Stylus Phantasticus in his December 2021 reviews roundup in The Absolute Sound magazine giving it a four-star rating for music and sonics: “The performances have a refreshing spontaneity and often a dance-like sensibility. Although all the selections share a common style, Stubbs helps assure that things remain interesting for close to 75 minutes by varying the makeup of the accompanying forces. … the production team, led by…
Four Stars from AllMusic for Stylus Phantasticus
Wonderful four-star review for Pacific MusicWorks and Tekla Cunningham’s Stylus Phantasticus recording in AllMusic: “The composers range from fairly obscure (Giovanni de Macque) to all-but-unknown, even for people who have studied the early Baroque. Cunningham is a lively and virtuosic player who captures the daring mood and the spirit of experimentation in this radical group of works, and, as concertmaster of Pacific MusicWorks, she is able to surround herself with a continuo group quite attuned to what she…
Classical Candor Review for Stylus Phantasticus
John J. Puccio reviews Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks’ Stylus Phantasticus recording on Classical Candor: “the compositions follow a pattern of earliest to later music, with the earlier ones a bit less ornate. The Carlo Farina sonata, for instance, is almost sedate in its execution. Its subtitle, “detta la Desperata,” translates as “called the despairing,” an emotional piece if rather despondent in tone. MusicWorks provide it with an appropriately passionate melancholy. The harp and harpsichord…
Early Music America Has a Rave for Stylus Phantasticus!
Early Music America has a new rave review for Pacific MusicWorks and Tekla Cunningham’s Stylus Phantasticus album: “There’s a passage in Johann Heinrich Schmelzer’s Violin Sonata No. 4, the central work in his Sonatae unarum fidium, that both meets and defies expectations. The violin melody hovers over soft organ chords, knotting itself in quick mordents before rushing downwards in a wild frenzy. Yet there is always a sense of songlike expressivity, the musical line present even in…
Stylus Phantasticus Reviewed in Audiophile Audition
Tekla Cunningham and Pacific MusicWorks’ Stylus Phantasticus recording gets a wonderful new review in Audiophile Audition from critic Fritz Balwit: “The ensemble features both baroque guitar and chitarrone of the leader Stephen Stubbs and the rare and remarkable baroque harp of Maxine Eilander. Both together and separately these delicate instruments are very nicely captured. More than anything else on this recording they bathe the ear in a new sonority within the baroque style. Those instruments blend…