… This type of transcription is known as “harmonie music” and is scored for pairs of oboes, clarinets, French horns and bassoons, and a double bass to add a little string flavor…
… Ewazen is writing some of the finest symphonic band music around today, and this concerto is a real tour de force. The wonderful cadenza in the finale brought a big smile to my face…
… What a treasure trove for the wind band enthusiast! Sinfonia di Soffiatori No. 3 and Sinfonia di Soffiatori, Opus 203 (soffiatori are wind instruments), are substantial and engaging works, extremely tonal, and well worthy of discovery by any wind band…
… Naxos have pulled off a fantastic record which music connoisseurs will find hard to sniff at…
… The atmospheric chanting of ‘Verbum Caro’ introduces us to the tonal landscape of the piece and the choir demonstrating an impressive clarity in their singing of the awkward melodic intervals…
… wonderful full range of sounds, from intimate piano passages to joyous proclamations of praise with the bass and soprano voices particularly impressive…
There may never have been quite as spontaneous and free-flowing a composer as Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s finest gift to musical humanity…
… the most famous of the set, its hauntingly beautiful soprano vocalise in the first movement giving way to a Martelo dance of the finale, all accompanied by an orchestra of 8 cellos…
… make a wonderful introduction to the world of Villa-Lobos, in their melodic beauty, quirkiness, rich harmonies, and inventive orchestration…
… Listening to Haydn’s 52 surviving piano sonatas one apprehends his slow and steady development as a composer…
… Even their authenticity is open to speculation without a sure means of stylistic comparison with compositions definitely written during the period…
… The sound of these discs is uniformly excellent with the Naxos engineers providing a rich, full tone to the piano. They avoid the dryness and close-miking that often accompanies piano recordings…
… I had not heard of Mario Pilati until I found the new Naxos disc of his orchestral music. He was 35 when he died in 1938, by which time his music was heard across Europe…
Three of his 10 Concertos show a romantic composer who wrote light tuneful music, but looked forward to the fireworks which were to come from Paganini…
… these Naxos discs, an exciting Sibelius programme from Pietari Inkinen and the New Zealand Orchestra, with a wild Night Ride and Sunrise, and some short orchestral pieces whose titles may not be familiar, but whose music certainly is…
… Those who heard the Mozart did better on the test than those who hadn’t. The “effect” was apparently temporary but never mind. Eventually, parents were playing Mozart for their tots in an effort to turn them into geniuses…
These often include programmatic pieces (”The Flight of the Bumblebee,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Danse Macabre,” “Carnival of the Animals”) that tell stories through music. Naxos offers a fine series of recordings called “Listen, Learn and Grow” that includes many such pieces…
… These Naxos discs feature the same music that novice listeners have always enjoyed, music that, in former times, was the staple of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, or that served as soundtracks for Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry…
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