Jonathan Blumhofer
Augustin Hadelich has the feeling of this music – its bittersweet melodic phrases, dancing riffs, and restrained passion – well in hand.
This recording presents one of the most lucid and well-programmed portraits of John Adams to emerge, well, in a long while.
Soviet Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian, at his best, was compelling. Granted, he wasn’t working at this level in every piece. But most of his bigger works are better than not.
For Derek Bermel fans, Intonations is a must. For new music enthusiasts and the otherwise curious – ditto.
At its best, Steve Reich’s Conversations is illuminating and engaging, an honest discussion of the creative process by one of the major composers of our times.
Nico Muhly’s writing in Stranger is of a type of post-Minimalism: often pulsing (or undulating) and rhythmically driven, though anything but harmonically simplistic.
A serving of the essence of the music of John Corigliano: a blend of old and new, radical and traditional that has made him such a singular force in American music over the last fifty-plus years.
Symphonic music wasn’t composer Florence Price’s strong suit. Rather, she was much more at home working in smaller forms or for her own instrument.
We’ve got ourselves another winner in this ongoing Pittsburgh/Beethoven series. Warmly recommended.
This is the definitive recording of William Bolcom’s rags, complete or excerpted: a triumph for the pianist and the composer – as well as a grandly spirited, accessible, inventive journey for any who care to join them on it.
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