Archive for Textura
Textura Reviews Frankenstein
Textura Magazine reviews the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra’s recording of Lowell Liebermann: Frankenstein: “San Francisco Ballet Orchestra does a splendid job of rendering Liebermann’s score. As a live recording of the ballet production, stage noises, including the dancers’ steps, and a cough or two are sometimes audible, but they merely add to the live character of the event. … Liebermann’s score…memorably shifts between lyricism and anguish as the story alternates between scenes of the family and…
Textura Reviews One Movement Symphonies
Textura Magazine reviews the Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern’s recording of Barber, Sibelius, and Scriabin One Movement Symphonies: “While each piece satisfies for different reasons, the fact that each can be experienced as a singular statement without pause is an appealing quality common to all. That they’re all performed by the Kansas City Symphony under the expert guidance of conductor Michael Stern also does much to recommend the release, as does its acoustically resonant…
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…
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…
Textura Sees Nadia Shpachenko Recordings as Trilogy
Textura Magazine’s new review of Nadia Shpachenko’s The Poetry of Places places it in context with her previous FRESH! From Reference Recordings releases: “The Poetry of Places could easily pass for the final part of a trilogy, so complementary is it to Nadia Shpachenko’s previous Reference Recordings releases, Woman at the New Piano (2014) and Quotations & Homages (2018). In all three cases, the intrepid pianist tackles challenging new works by a host of innovative composers, and while the…
Textura Reviews Teach Me Thy Statutes
Canada’s Textura magazine has a new review for PaTRAM’s Teach Me Thy Statutes recording: “The rich sonorities generated by the male voices makes for a stirring and oft-haunting result, and even a listener coming to the Russian monastic style of singing for the first time will in all likelihood be captivated by this collection of Orthodox sacred music. … Though the singers assembled for the recording came from three ensembles, a marked unity of purpose…
Textura Finds Joy in Quotations and Homages
Textura Magazine published a rave new review for Nadia Shpachenko’s Quotations and Homages recording: “Rare, not to mention refreshing, is the classical recording that balances seriousness with humour. Certainly one composer who embodies the principle is Tom Flaherty, whose two pieces bookend the release. Their origins bespeak a scholarly mind at work, but as homages they’re delightfully irreverent, flamboyant even… As irreverent as it might be to root a composition in material by The Velvet…
Textura Reviews Utah Symphony’s Mahler Symphony No. 8
Canada’s Textura magazine reviews the Thierry Fischer, Utah Symphony, and Mormon Tabernacle Choir recording of Mahler: Symphony No. 8: “How valuable is this recording? Great indeed, considering how modest in number are those available of the eighth and relatedly how rarely it’s performed. In both cases, the reasons have nothing to do with the work’s artistic merit, which is substantial; it’s simply that performances, whether it be for a live presentation or for a recording,…
Textura Raves for Schoenberg’s Orchestral Music
Order Now Textura Magazine offers high praise for composer Adam Schoenberg and the Kansas City Symphony’s recording of his orchestral music: “There’s something distinctly American about Adam Schoenberg’s music, and it’s not just because one of the pieces on this recording bears the title American Symphony. Largely tonal, melodically rich, and rhythmically robust… If any composer looms large as a point of reference, it’s Aaron Copland, though there are moments when one might be reminded…
Textura Magazine Reviews Woman At The New Piano
Textura Magazine reviews the new Nadia Shpachenko release, Woman at the New Piano in their February issue: “An exceptional recording of newly composed piano works… Shpachenko is that special musician who possesses the ability to execute technically challenging contemporary works but also bring out the emotional dimension of the material. … Given the involvement of multiple composers, Woman At The New Piano is naturally diverse, yet it’s cohesive, too. Though dramatic stylistic contrasts between works…