Victor Carr Jr

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Stewart Goodyear's Trendy Tchaikovsky & Grieg Piano Concertos

1 week ago | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz |Victor Carr Jr

Listening to these performances by Stewart Goodyear, the word that kept coming to mind was “impressive”. And Goodyear does indeed impress with his bullseye accuracy, rapid fingerwork, and an overriding sense of confidence borne from the mastery of his instrument. As with many of his generation, Goodyear tends to play very fast–especially in the Tchaikovsky, where his rapid-fire Finale, first-movement cadenza, and the Andantino semplice’s central section certainly make their mark.
Stravinksy: Rite of Spring; Firebird/MTT

Nov 3, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz |Victor Carr Jr

This is one of the best recordings yet to come from the Michael Tilson Thomas/San Francisco Symphony partnership. Tilson Thomas has long established his credentials as an excellent Stravinsky conductor, most recently in his fine RCA album of the composer’s later works entitled Stravinsky in America. Now with his own orchestra (which plays fabulously throughout), he undertakes the ever-popular Firebird and Rite of Spring ballets, and brings them off stunningly.
Gershwin: Rhapsody, Piano concerto from MTT

Nov 3, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz |Victor Carr Jr

Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. This is not a fancy, high-gloss “e-zine,” but rather a simple, straightforward newsletter-style section of our website designed for ease of reading and packing the maximum amount of useful information into each issue.
Segerstam’s Bewildering Brahms

Oct 19, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz |Victor Carr Jr

Even if someone thought pairing Brahms’ echt-romantic Symphony No. 2 with Leif Segerstam’s quasi-modernist Symphony No. 289 would make a fetching CD, it’s hard to believe they actually listened to the Brahms performance, which is dispiritingly slow and depressingly long. Yes, Giulini’s Los Angeles recording sports a similar first movement timing (around 22 minutes, with both conductors observing the exposition repeat), but there’s far more energy, variety, and passion in Giulini’s performance.
Shostakovich Chamber Symphony

Sep 22, 2024 | classicstoday.com | David Hurwitz |Victor Carr Jr

Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. This is not a fancy, high-gloss “e-zine,” but rather a simple, straightforward newsletter-style section of our website designed for ease of reading and packing the maximum amount of useful information into each issue.
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1-15; Jazz Suites, etc from Jansons

Sep 22, 2024 | classicstoday.com | David Hurwitz |Victor Carr Jr

Mariss Jansons’ EMI Shostakovich symphony cycle took nearly two decades to complete, yet it was mere weeks after the release of the final installment (Symphonies 3 & 14) that this new boxed set appeared, providing an opportunity for collectors to get all 15 symphonies at a bargain price. But don’t let the packaging’s diminutive dimensions fool you: there’s nothing small-scaled about the music making.
Bernard Herrmann's Snows And 5 Fingers

Jun 30, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Victor Carr Jr

Marco Polo’s classic film score series (now on Naxos) has two of Bernard Herrmann’s finer pre-Hitchcock efforts. Both scores are from 1952 and are among the first projects Herrmann completed after moving from New York to Los Angeles and signing with 20th Century Fox. The films were box-office as well as artistic triumphs for Fox–and for Herrmann.
Foss: Powerful Piano Concertos from Nakamatsu

Jun 2, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Victor Carr Jr

Lukas Foss composed his first piano concerto originally for clarinet while studying with Hindemith at Tanglewood and at Yale. The work was rewritten for piano four years later in 1943. Though the first movement delights with its Prokofiev-style neo-classicism, Hindemith’s influence is unmistakable in the slow movement’s beautifully angular harmonies.
Foss: Griffelkin

Jun 2, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Victor Carr Jr

Lukas Foss composed Griffelkin for the NBC television network, which broadcast the opera on November 6, 1955. Although Griffelkin is based on a children’s fable, Foss wanted it to appeal to listeners ages “8 to 80”, so he wrote in a very accessible though not simplistic musical style–and the story has enough of a mature subtext to interest adults as well as children (as all good “children’s” music must).
Muti's Feel-Good Bruckner Ninth

Jan 28, 2024 | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |Victor Carr Jr

Riccardo Muti prioritizes beauty of sound over all else in this performance, with the result that you pay far more attention to the orchestral playing than to Bruckner’s music. Muti lavishes special care on the woodwinds, revealing much inner detail not usually heard (which is quite welcome). And he does give Bruckner’s huge pauses their full due, heightening the dramatic effect.