Epinions Recent Reviews for jlaurson

Perhaps the single best Lied-CD?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:45:44 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Three very different approaches to the Lied from very different singers came out in the last months: all-Schumann discs with baritones Christian Gerhaher (RCA) and Matthias Goerne (Decca) as well as the concept album Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden with...

Gently Wins the Race: Egarr's Brandenburg Concertos

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:36:55 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - In Egarr's recording I particularly love the silken airiness of the Second Concerto's Allegro and the--musicologically incorrect--use of theorbo basso continuo throughout the Adagio ma non tanto of the Sixth Concerto. To quote Egarr, who readily admits...

Shostakovich like Bach

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:33:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Shostakovich's genius can be difficult to unlock for those who have trouble overcoming his acerbic compositional style. Here's the chance though, as no one (apart from Max Reger, perhaps) has so ably paid tribute to Master Bach as the troubled Russian...

Hear Simone Dinnerstein for Philip Lasser, not for "Ludwig van"

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:23:00 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - With Simone Dinnerstein's new release on Telarc, the slick attempt to spice up every last bit of her bio includes even the CD's title: "Simone Dinnerstein, THE BERLIN CONCERT". There are a few pianists who have had a "The Berlin Concert". (Evgeni...

Mandatory Mozart

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:03:23 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Mozart (or Haydn) must not be given up to period specialists. Symphony orchestras more and more tend toward a niche program of exclusively romantic and post-romantic repertoire: from Beethoven to Sibelius and everything in between, with extra stops at...

Wild-eyed & Relentless: Barbirolli's Mahler Sixth

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 10:47:23 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - The Sixth Symphony is Mahler’s most classical, if only in structure. That’s an important qualification, because although cast in the sonata-form of the classical symphony (replete with repeats, Allegro first movement, inner movements...

Goldberg Variations, Pregnant with Meaning

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:38:29 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Simone Dinnerstein is in the newspapers for her just released recording of the Goldberg Variations. Anne Midgette writes in the New York Times (”How Do You Move a Career Into High Gear? By Breaking the Rules”) about Mrs. Dinnerstein’s unusual...

Among the finest "London" Symphonies, just more of it.

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:42:28 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Neither Vernon Handley nor Richard Hickox have ever achieved the fame of their compatriot conductor colleagues Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington, Sir John Elliot...

British Nietzsche

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 22:07:17 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - With Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox, two of the finest British musicians have died this year. Both were known - and will be remembered - for their contributions to English music which, even if this comes at the expense of their achievements in other...

Splendid Arnold Sampler

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 22:00:49 GMT

Excellent "Elgar" Third

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 21:58:47 GMT

Modern English Christmas Music at its Best

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 21:36:08 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Since my friend and former colleague Bob McQuiston has already put it more eloquently (making this review all the more helpful to you, the actual reader) than I could on "Classical Lost & Found" (www.clofo.com), I resort to quoting him at...

Happily Harmless and Harmonic

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 07:21:34 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Here a sampler of Carson P. Cooman’s music: Unashamedly pleasant and presumably without pretensions of greatness, Naxos 8.559329 includes the 25 year old composers’ Second and Third Symphonies, a chamber Piano Concerto, and a Sonata for...

Seven Last Words

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:35:38 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Heinrich
Schütz (1585-1672), Charles Gounod (1818-1893), César Franck (1822-1890), Théodore
Dubois (1837-1924),...

Somewhat Mozartian Symphonies

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:27:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Not behind every unknown composer rediscovered waits a hitherto hidden genius, a forgotten Mozart, or semi-Beethoven that fell between the cracks of music history. And despite so many delights that I have chanced upon, occasionally there is a sense of...

Crazy Cello

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:12:29 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Marc Minkowski is not a conductor known for conventionalism, whether it be his interpretations or the repertoire itself. While he made a name for himself with French Baroque as the founder of Les Musiciens du Louvre, he has since shown his...

I Haven't Enough of BWV 82

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:34:46 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - There are so many Bach Cantatas (about - and at least - 250, though counting is difficult since many are lost, others incomplete, yet others apocrypha, or variations of existing cantatas) that even among devoted Bach-lovers there are not all that many...

For Bach Suites on DVD, this a Winner

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:34:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - This Unitel/Deutsche Grammophon DVD contains
Misha
Maisky's first recording of the Suites (1994), less wild or “romantic” than his 2000
remake – though still with occasionally...

Marian Feast Cantatas from Koopman

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:37:19 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - The disc with Canatas for Marian Feasts contains “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” BWV 1, “Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin” BWV 125, and “Komm, du süße Todesstunde” BWV 161. Soprano Deborah York (1), altos Bogna Bartosz (125) and...

Minimal Bach for a Maximum of Delight

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:26:58 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - On Chaconne, Chandos’ early music label, the Purcell Quartet released their second disc of Bach cantatas - the second volume of Cantatas from Bach’s Weimar cycle which includes “Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen” BWV 12, “Gleichwie der...

Wedding Cantatas with Koopman

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:06:45 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - A much better example of the great virtues of the Koopman Cantata Cycle (formerly Erato, now Challenge Classics) [than the Coffee-
and Peasant-Cantata...

Koopman's Kaffee Kantate

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:59:18 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Imbuing the text of Bach’s secular cantatas with character can create many a delight that further distinguishes them from the sacred cantatas’ more somber tone. The disadvantage of successfully groaning lines like “…er brummt ja wie ein...

The Red Violin Concerto

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:37:36 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - I don’t particularly adore Joshua Bell’s sweet, emotionally equivocal violin playing, nor was I entirely enamored by John Corigliano’s “Red Violin” Concerto when I attended the concert at which this performance was taped...

Korngold's Work of Wonder

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:23:16 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - “Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s three act opera Das Wunder der Heliane is arguably the composer’s greatest work.”This is the opening line of Brendan G. Carroll’s extensive and helpful liner notes to the only recording of this opera – just re-released on...

Weirdness Rewarded

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:19:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author jlaurson - Given my choices you might think that there were no fine opera recordings released of music composed before to the 20th century. There were: René Jacob’s Don Giovanni, the CPO recording of Lully’s Thésée, or Handel’s Floriodante (Archiv) might all have...