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CD Overviewsby Deborah Thurlow |
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Works for flute
and piano of Louis Moyse Flutist and flute enthusiasts who want to expand their repertoire and listening pleasure should get this CD. The performances of flutist Karen Kevra and pianist Paul Orgel are highly polished. The composer, Louis Moyse, a world-class flutist and pianist now in his 90's, is the teacher, mentor, collaborator and friend to Karen Kevra. |
Love Letters David Shostac offers a nice program of flute works. The only contemporary composer featured in this CD is Martin Scot Kosins. His works Love Letters and Winter Moods for unaccompanied flute add a bit of contrast among the traditional works on this CD. David Shostac gives the listener a solid and musical performance. |
ATACAMA Composer Nancy Galbraith's
collection of five works are works of artistry. Wind Symphony No.1
performed by the Carneigie Mellon Wind Ensemble and Piano Sonata
No. 1 performed by Patricia Prattis Jennings, pianist with the Pittsburgh
Symphony, are worth checking out. Nancy Galbraith's musical palate is
rich with excellent melodic lines and rhythmic energy… very impressive.
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El Tiempo Artistic Director Alejandro Escuer, Music Director Jose Arean, and Onix feature contemporary works of Latin composers Arturo Marquez (Alamos, Sonara), Armando Luna (Chihuahua, Mexico), Federico Ibarra (Mexico City) and Miguel Del Aguila (Uraguay). A very exciting, colorful, musical and rhythmic listening experience. |
Clang An ecletic, wild and choatic CD with purpose. Strangely enough, it has a cohesiveness that makes the balance of the program work. It stretches the listener's ear--especially with quarter tones. The final mixing of this CD started on September 10, 2001. Track 8, Clang 2, is dedicated to all whose lives changed on September 11, 2001. www.zeggz.com |
Music from SEAMUS
vol. 11 The works selected for this CD are on the edge. Electro-Acoustic music is the frontier in music composition--its possibilities are infinite. Of the eight composers represented in this collection, Colby Leider, Paul Oehlers, Hideko Kawamoto and Eric Chaosalow got my attention. This recording offers a lot for the listening palate. |
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Art Songs 1 This independent release is a beautiful collection of art songs written in the traditional melodic style. The songs are set to texts by William Blake, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath and others. The recording quality is a little uneven. |
Reversing Fields These works by Romanian composer Violeta Dinescu are written for unaccompanied clarinet, saxophone and viola, clarinet and viola, and a trio for violin, cello and piano. Her music is very dramatic and expressive. The instrumentalist play very well executing Dinescu's demanding musical lines which are acrobatic in nature with melodic leaps that take the instruments to the extremes of range and dynamics. |
Landschaften I highly recommend this recording of contemporary works written for zither. One of the works on this recording, I may note, is written by Violeta Dinescu. The other composers are Fredrik Schwenk, Walter Zimmermann and Peter Kiesewetter. Georg Glasl is a master on this instrument. He teaches zither at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, Germany. |
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Of Mere Being Eleanor Cory shows tremendous versatility and thoughtfulness in scoring her chamber works. All the musical lines and timbres are what they should be. The title work, Of Mere Being, for chorus and brass quintet is especially my favorite. This recording of her works represents a wonderful composer. |
John Cage C.F. Peters found a box containing works composed by John Cage between 1942 and 1950 which either he had postponed publishing or had forgotten about altogether. This CD includes collaborations with Cunningham, Calder, and Duchamp along with One2 composed in 1989. This great collection of works is brilliantly interpreted and flawless, capturing Cage's childlike innocence along with the wisdom of a Zen Master. www.mode.com |
Columba aspexit Named after the chant by Hildegard von Bingen, Columba aspexit is an eclectic collect-ion of works by a fine composer with a great skill. Cox's interesting and complex lines sometimes get lost in an unfortunate imbalance of the dynamics. This is crucial for her style, especially Into the Wild, a bold and colorful work for the violin, soprano sax, mallet-kat, electronic drums, electric guitar and electronic keyboard. www.composersrecordings.com |
