1 comments about Baroque Dreams for Flute.

1. This is excellent, four wonderful flute concertos from the likes of Vivaldi, Frederick the Great, Telemaann and C.P.E. Bach.

   Interesting to learn that Frederick the Great was such an avid flautist. His concerto here is full of movement and a feeling of tragedy, and is very intense.

   Telemann's concerto in E minor his my favorite off the recording. Interesting to learn that Telemann was famous for mixing styles, and here it is beautiful to listen. Begins with a French slow-fast movement, then in the finale brings forth an Oriental sound with bass tones and strange movements between melody and harmony. Fascinating and captivating piece.

   There supposedly is some controversy over the originality of the Bach piece, but whoever, this is still exquisite. The harp work is so well done, mixing around the flute.

   Best $... ever paid for a CD!

1 comments about The World's Most Beloved Melodies.

1. I am a physician, who in the process of making rounds on the Alzhemiers unit of a nursing home, was stopped in my tracks by the sound of beautiful music coming from the room of an elderly woman with a history of severe depression. Beethoven's Pathetique, in all is melancholic beauty saturated the room with meaning, very sensitively interpreted for strings which lent a gentleness to the work without sacrificing passion. She invited me to sit and listen, which I did. It made a wonderful beginning of my day. I plan to use this in my office in the expectation of similar calming effects on my patients. What a lucky find, and an absolute steal at this price.

No comments about Great Classical Marches.

No comments about Tchaikovsky.

5 comments about Virgil Fox Performs Bach, Franck, Dupre, Widor and other.

1. Virgil Fox was without question one of the greatest technical players of the century. Unfortunately, while demonstrating incredible ability, this recording - and Fox's myriad others - also demonstrate conclusively that he was a performer completely without taste or finesse. While I, as a musician, am admittedly awed by the tempo at which he is able to take the Widor, I am also, frankly, annoyed at the sounds he wrestles from the instrument - the organ seems to 'bark' at the listener, owing to the harshness of his attack and articulation. And the tempo even takes its toll on him in the final bars, as his playing takes on a definite "hang on for dear life" edge.
   The Dm Toccata and Fugue (BWV 565)sounds like a monstrous creation in the hands of a man who unashamedly classified J.S. Bach as a Romantic composer. Played by Fox, the contrapuntal majesty of the Fugue is transformed into nothing more than a technical etude for the organist, who seems bent on showing the world that he can play more notes than anyone else, and misses the point of the music completely in the process.
   The Franck "Piece Heroique" is poorly concieved, badly registered and unmusically played. Fox, once again, shows that he has no concept of phrasing and line, and seems to think it necessary to beat the music out of the instrument. The same goes for the Alain piece; in addition, Fox's generous liberties in tempo not only defy the composer's instruction of unbroken motion, but make the piece so tedious that it is nearly unlistenable.
   
   For good Bach interpretations, I recommend the recordings of E. Power Biggs, Helmut Walcha, Ton Koopman, and Marie-Claire Alain. Michael Murray's Bach is also good, if a bit heavy-handed and ponderous. If you can find Anton Heiller's recordings of Bach, they are absolutely definitive.
   For recordings of the French repertoire, Marie-Claire Alain is at the very top of the list. The old recordings of Marie-Madeline Durufle-Chevalier (widow of Maurice Durufle) are excellent, and Michael Murray, a student of the late Marcel Dupre, are also worth a listen. Dupre himself made a few recordings which are difficult to find but well worth the effort, as he was probably the greatest organist of the 20th century.
   
   Virgil Fox's recordings are worthwhile perhaps if one is a student of the instrument. Otherwise, look elsewhere for recordings that exhibit true musicianship. Fox proved again and again throughout his career that he was more interested in how fast his fingers and feet could move, than in what they had the potential to communicate.



2. will someone PLEASE explain to me how it is possible to make a recording of the Bach toccata and fugue in d minor and have the first two notes of one of the most famous openings of all time MISSING!!!!!!!!!!??????????
   
   THANK GOD THIS CD IS ONLY SIX BUCKS ON AMAZON.
   
   shame on whoever is responsible. they should have a disclaimer on the jacket.
   
   ps to all organ fans. beware of the latest scandel: a dvd supposedly of fox playing, which shows nothing but an inane kaleidoscope circle accompanied by photos of kids on rollercoasters and sheep safely grazing for the entire duration with fox nowhere to be found. there are two of these discs by a company called seemusicdvd. and you will have to fight with the record store owner of course when trying to return the open dvd. fortunately tower in nyc took mine back for credit. one thinks they're getting the light show PLUS fox as he had in some of his concerts, but there is no fox! and the one entitled Bach Gamut doesn't even attempt to give the slightest warning on the front of the box and only a vague bit of info on the back.



3. I'll be honest--I bought this disc to get a good recording of the Widor Toccata, and though it is better than the first recording I've heard, it does suffer a bit. The tempo is amazingly quick, and even though I've listened intently, I haven't heard many mistakes (like other reviewers have said--it goes by almost too quickly.) The recording as a whole comes off somewhat dry--the building an organ is in is a big part of how the instrument sounds. Still, other recordings have far too much echo to get a clear picture of what is heard--this may go too far in the other direction though--losing some of the resonance that a huge cathedral can give to the king of instruments. If this work is subpar for Fox, then I am eager to find a great recording from his prime years--unfortunately, much may be lost in the transfer of media given that many believe he was not in prime form when digital recording came to be.
   Those who are looking to hear technical brilliance, and who aren't steeped in the history of organ recordings will find this CD very enjoyable for the work and career it represents.



4. I just received the LaserLight recording compiling the two Crystal Clear direct to disc recordings of 1977 at the Garden Grove Community Church. I still have the LP's, in mint condition, since I recorded them on metal tape and never played the vinyl since, but, I retired my cassette deck several years ago. The CD is well balanced from bottom to top and the only flaw is the first two notes (A,G) are missing from track one. This combination of a very large five division organ and the genious of Virgil Fox and a fine master recording is difficult to beat. A definite lease breaker!



5. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Hall's review and comments that Mr. Fox was past his prime. The Bach pieces sustain your interest and Fox was the master of the French masterworks. The Jongen is great but so are the Vierne and the Dupre renderings.

5 comments about Pann: Piano Concerto & Dance Partita.

1. Hi everyone
   This CD of Carter's music is great.It gives you an insight into Carter's composition style.However,there is much more to him than this CD.Knowing Carter personally(as a friend and composer) and performing his music(I am piano major at the University of kansas),I have to say that his music goes much deeper than what can be heard on this CD.His music is "groovy" and classical,but above all it is american.His music is also very enjoyable to listen and his melodies stick in one's mind.
   On a personal note,I love playing his music and I would advise anyone to either buy his CD or to listen to his music LIVE.
   I am,myself,involved in performing his music and in about a month I will record his piece "Slalom" with the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble.I will perform more of his music later on.If you would like to know more about me performing Carter Pann's music,please feel free to visit my website at www.avgusteantonov.com
   
   Avguste Antonov
   Lawrence,kansas



2. The only reason that I
   bought this CD was because
   of the "Two Barcelona Portraits"
   which I really liked when I first
   listen here at amazon.com.
   Little did I knew that I in for
   something really good.Mr.Pann is
   a really good composer whose
   music WILL NOT put you to sleep.
   In his Piano Conecerto, he opens
   with "Pina Colada" a very popular
   sounding piece, and I think
   that it was inspired by a song
   of the same name. The following
   movements are nocturne, which is

   non-drowsy; a smokey-lounge piano
   solo "Your touch", which does
   its very best not to fall sleep,
   blues; which is in a short jazzy
   piece.The concerto concludes with a
   piece called "The Concert" which
   I find amazing, here is a symphony
   orchestra imitating a symphony orchestra,
   a bit hard to explain, but that's the
   easiest way for me to put it. There is
   the music of the movement, but at times
   we hear little also, "little tunes" in the
   stlyes of Mozart, Beethoven, and Gottschalk.
   The only direct quote of the movement is
   one from Tchaikovsky's scherzo from the second
   movement of the Pathetique symphony.
   In the Dance Partita, the composer pays
   his respect to the past, a set of dances
   with four ritornellos,(Like Mussorgsky's
   "Pictures at an Exhibition") in the
   Barque style, each four is taken care of
   differently."Deux Soujur" are again
   two pieces where the composer pays his respects
   to the past, this time to Satie and Debussy
   in particular. The two pieces are in the
   style of "Gymnopedie" as orchestrated
   by Claude Debussy.Fine recording,
   great music of the late 20th century,
   Great job Mr. Pann.....




3. A number of critics lately have batted around the idea of a "classical music crisis" in America. With the recent passings of such modern greats as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, many have been more than willing to perpetuate the myth that classical music's future is a dismal one. But I beg to differ. After hearing the first collection of the works of twenty-eight year old Carter Pann, I can't help but see the light at the end of the classical tunnel. His work, which primarily seems a mixture of John Cage's thumping dissonance, Charles Ives's robust textures, and Bernard Herrmann's dark romanticism; Pann's music stands as some the finest contempory work I've had the pleasure to hear. As part of Naxos' ambitious "American Classics" series, this collection also stands as one of that series' finest recordings so far. Among its most promising moments are those within the Dance Partita, which adds hints of the Baroque style to give it a surprisingly heated sound. However, the centerpiece of this CD, the Piano Concerto is what makes this CD. Blending latin and blues sounds into an ethereal and dissonant world, it is one the finest piano concertos to be written by anyone in decades. A budget priced CD, this a musical oil strike for connoisseurs of modern composition.



4. Carter Pann is a hugely talented 28-year-old composer, student of, among others, William Albright and William Bolcom at the University of Michigan. A CD of his music, conducted by José Serebrier and stupendously played by the Czech State Philharmonic, Brno, on Naxos 8.559043, has just been released. It includes: Piano Concerto (1996/7), Barry Snyder, piano; Deux séjours (1994;Dance Partita (1995), Barry Snyder, piano obbligato; Two Portraits of Barcelona (1994)

   The overall comment I would make about Pann's music is that he is a master orchestrator, a brilliant pasticheur, a sly practitioner of musical humor, and that he is capable of some of the most lusciously melodic and moving slow music.

   The piano concerto has five movements. The first, entitled Piña Colada (yes, inspired by that silly pop song of some years ago), is a loose-jointed Caribbean-influenced piece that reminds me a lot of Michael Torke in his slaphappy mode. The second, Nocturne, is quiet, slow, Debussyesque. The third, Your Touch, is for solo piano and sounds an awful lot like jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin's smoky classic 'Quiet Now.' This is a high recommendation; it's got a gorgeous tune and luscious harmonies. The fourth, Blues, sounds like updated jazzy Bernstein in its dislocated accents, stride bass, throwaway virtuosity. The fifth, Concert, is a hilarious knockoff of just about every classical concerto cliché and even quotes, almost note for note, a bridge passage from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, before exploding into one of those hilarious never-ending classical-era tonic-dominant endings. I found myself laughing out loud.

   Deux séjours (Two journeys) are evocations of two small towns - one in France, one in Italy - and are intentionally modeled on the orchestrations by Debussy of Satie's 'Gymnopédies'. Quiet gardens, civility, serenity, lovely melodies.

   Dance Partita is an eight-movement (actually four movements and four ritornellos) orchestral suite, with piano obbligato, based on baroque models. Stravinsky in his neoclassic music - think 'Jeux de cartes' or, better, 'Pulcinella' - comes to mind. Also Bolcom's 'Orphée-Sérénade' (an under-recognized masterpiece) is evoked. Brilliantly done. One's toe taps until tripped up by the irregular time signatures. Delicious.

   Two Portraits of Barcelona. The first, 'Antoni Gaudí's Cathedral' is a six minute tone-poem that builds from a mysterious opening, evoking the religious grandeur of the Cathedral, to a wicked Rouse-ian description of Gaudí's wild architecture. The second, 'The Bullfight', starts with mock-heroic Spanish bullfight music, complete with trumpet duo flourishes, and builds to a frenetic danza, ending the CD with high spirits and this listener with a desire for more. ¡Olé!

   Lest it sound like I think Pann has no 'sound' of his own, I want to emphasize that this man has the goods and is discovering a voice that I predict will be increasingly listened to.




5. The reactions of people who listen to Carter Pann's debut recording are likely to take the form of questions rather than comments: "Who's Carter Pann?" and "He's only twenty-eight?" and "Was that a snippet of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto I heard?" and "When is his *next* disc coming out?". Those tired of dutifully sitting through concerts that feature new music only to breathe a sigh of relief when it's time for Eine kleine Nachtmusik are in for a shock, a treat, and possibly a belly laugh or two.

   Though it's clear that Pann's music can only be the work of a very serious composer, it is also tremendously funny--and that's the "ha-ha" kind, not the strange kind. (Well, maybe a bit of the latter.) There's nothing harder to convey in music than genuine wit and humor, and it's a trait that Pann's work has in plenty. (And lest anyone dismiss the composer as merely a musical class clown, also be prepared to be moved by music of great tenderness, exquisite intimacy, and pure, elemental exuberance.) There's a real sorcery in the way the composer assembles, for example, melodramatic baroqueries, gestures straight from the classical piano concerto, almost embarrassingly straightforward (for music written on the cusp of the twenty-first century, that is) folk dances, and television-music cliches into a single work (the Dance Partita) that is so simply *right* in its pacing, balance, and the only thing that really matters, the impression it makes. If you chuckle as you listen to this disc, as I do, it will just as likely be a reaction to the music's sense of don't-look-back brashness as from its sly and ever-acute parodistic sense.

   The greatness of these pieces, especially the aforementioned Partita and the Piano Concerto, lies in the fact that given their wildly disparate elements, they should by all expectations be a chaotic, muddled mess. Instead, the confidence and mastery with which this cornucopia of contrasts and oppositions are bound together into an effective whole suggests the work of a striking and truly original compositional talent. With the world of new music flooded with works that range from mediocre to unremarkably competent, this is by no means an inconsiderable achievement.

   It's new, it's a knockout, and it's even on a budget label: Do yourself a favor and impress your friends by being able to say that you came to know Pann's music *before* he hit the big time. Move over, Elliott--new music has a new Carter.

1 comments about Masterpieces for Flute.

1. I was pleased with each track performance- the Yamaha artists prove that great flutists also happen to like Yamaha flutes.

   Alison Young is my favorite on this cd. It was a welcomed surprise and inspired me to get out and learn that piece.

   I have always been a big fan of promoting Yamaha flutes to my students and now I can also promote the artist series cds. Great buy.

1 comments about Famous Marches & Dances.

1. I'm not usually the type to listen to a collection of excerpts like this, and in fact, I don't really know how big a market there is for a CD full of famous marches. I wanted to demonstrate that the "March of Hours" came from an opera (I was going to write, a "famous" opera," but nowadays, no operas seem to be well known anymore) to some friends who only knew of the melody from the old "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda, Here I am at Camp Granada" joke. Better recordings of each of these marches can easily be found on CDs containing the complete original works that they are excerpted from, but I recommend this CD to band directors, and other music educators who need to pull a famous symphonic or opera march out for a class to hear, or for that peculiar demographic category who only wants to hear to an hour of marches.

2 comments about Adagio Music for A Romantic Evening.

1. I can't leave the previous review unanswered! I don't own this particular disk, but I own many of the disks from which excerpts were taken and compiled here.
   
   The Reverend criticized the disk based on his opinion of the Barber Adagio. I don't own that particular recording, but based on the Amazon excerpt, he's right. They don't sound that great. If you want a great Barber Adagio, string orchestra version, get Slatkin's EMI recording (not RCA, not Telarc).
   
   On to the others. You have the likes of Rosand and Cao on this disc. Both are performers not to sneeze at. The Rosand Mendelssohn violin concerto recording is a fine one. I wonder if Rosand has ever played a note out of tune in his life! His tone is wonderful, and is definitely old-school, which is very much a good thing. The Slatkin performance of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony is also very fine--apparently his set of the Rach symphonies were quite popular in Europe for a long time. The St. Louis strings were just coming into their own when this recording was made.
   
   There are several other recordings with Luxembourg under Froment. I won't kid you--the Luxembourg group is not world-class. HOWEVER, they ain't slouches either. Usually my criticism of those recordings has everything to do with the engineering, not the musicianship (although if you ever run across their Saint-Saens' 3rd Symphony, RUN in the other direction--the organ is pathetic!).
   
   For $4, you could a hell of a lot worse. I have. As for the intent of this disc, $4 is too little for the *overall* quality. A few dogs shouldn't upset you or your glass of spirits.



2. My major concern in purchasing this CD was the Barber "Adagio." I was quite disappointed with the performance of this piece by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Their interpretation was wooden at best. And the most fundamental technical skills of intonation and dynamic quality were sadly lacking. Music for a romantic evening? Hardly! I suggest saving your $3.57 and putting it towards a decent recording.

2 comments about Martin: Études No1-5; Polyptyque: 6 images de la Passion du Christ.

1. I am till waiting to receive this item, I don't give an opinion or a review
   maryvonne



2. This is a real bargain: highly polished performances of 3 beautiful works by a 20th century master, one of them a rarity. The Sonata da Chiesa, or church sonata, was composed in 1938 for viola d'amore and organ; Martin arranged the accompaniment for strings in 1952. The one-movement piece falls into 3 sections, 2 slow meditations framing a dance-like middle portion. It's a lovely work that deserves to be heard more often: this is the 1st recording I've run across (you'll find the version for flute and organ on Bis CD-71, a collection of Martin's chamber music), and it's a beautiful one. The Etudes for String Orchestra (1955-56) give players a chance to show their virtuosity (a bit like Britten's "Frank Bridge" Variations): a dotted-rhythm Overture precedes the 4 "studies," respectively for "linked gestures,""pizzicato,""expression & sostenuto" and "fugal style." There have been wittier performances than this -- the syncopations in the "pizzicato" study are a bit "straight" -- but this is a rhythmically alert, suavely played version. Polyptyque -- the title is spelled wrong throughout -- dates from 1973 and was composed for violinist Yehudi Menuhin & conductor Edmond de Stoutz & his Zurich Chamber Orchestra. It's one of Martin's most profound works, & it receives a very fine performance here (de Stoutz's 1992 version (Gallo CD-713), with Zbigniew Czapczynski the outstanding soloist, remains my top pick). Only negative: the sound in the Etudes & Polyptyque, though admirably clear, is a bit dry, with traces of "glassiness," especially in the upper strings; the Sonata da Chiesa is more warmly recorded. Finally, the English-language notes make a number of errors in translating the German originals; more seriously, Martin's own thoughts on Polyptyque are translated from the German notes, not the original French, and the French notes here are a back-translation of the German! Still, this is a genuine bargain.