Best Chamber Music
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"2014 saw them release their sophomore album The Rosary, and for a few years, I thought that was all they were going to release...NOPE! This gave people about a month to pick up this Christmas album. We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It's said in the music business that you haven't made it until you put out a Christmas album. There are many Christmas albums that flood the market every year that completely miss the point of Christmas, so it was refreshing to see this holy album be released that focuses on the real reason for the season. However, I also loved that there were titles on this album that I was unfamiliar with, as it helped broaden my catalog of great Christmas songs. Listening to this album in my car has been a relaxing endeavor, as it has helped me focus on Jesus with my commute to and from work."
"Beautiful."
"We have played this CD every day, and are sad to have to put it away until next year."
"Fantastic."
"This is one of the most beautiful Christmas CDs that I have ever heard."
"Heard of this album on the radio."
"Great choice of songs for the album."
"This CD was given to two of my friends!"
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The new album, Last Leaf by the Danish String Quartet (ECM New series,) is the kind of music that beckons one to listen in wonder, like a child. Besides the odd moment of untraditional dissonance, there are times when the album invokes classical minimalism, inviting one to think of Terry Riley’s string quartets – in more reflective moments I hear snippets of Arvo Part at his most spare."
"Really pretty."
"Absolutely amazing album."
"Enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed Woodworks (their first CD)."
"I loved Wood Works by the Danish String Quartet, and this collection takes the work even farther in the use of folk songs as a genesis for the music created by this talented group."
"Because they’re from ECM also, the record jackets are clean and attractive, and the liner notes (for the classical albums only) are copious and extraordinarily helpful in understanding the background and musical affiliations of the composers (the Silvestrov and Weinberg albums) and three backgrounds of the songs selected and performed (Danish String Quartet album). I also purchased an album of vocalist-pianist Shirley Horn, recorded live in Vegas in 1988. I was especially interested to listen to this album because (1) Esther and I were fortunate to hear Shirley live once at Yoshi’s in Berkeley and (2) with Shirley dead, new opportunities to hear massage a song can only happen if someone lese taped her way back when. Sorensen, the first violinist, doubles on piano once, harmonium (in the first piece, a Lutheran hymn), and glockenspiel, and the cellist, Sjolin, on bass."
"I heard an article on NPR about this band they decided to look into it more."
"Some of the pieces are uplifting, some pensive, some will set your toe tapping, and some just reach into your soul the way that only truly special music by gifted musicians can do."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The enthusiasm of these exceptionally talented performers was abundantly clear when I saw them perform live, and this recording brings backs the excitement of that evening for me everty time I listen to it."
"Right up there with Appalachian Journey...Edger Myer is a genius."
"The CD / DVD Deluxe Edition provide music that is a toe-tapping delight."
"You need to get a spare copy for the car."
"I have been a big fan of Turtle Island String Quartet."
"The one problem is that the album is slightly frontloaded, with the energetic stuff within the first couple tracks, and then more emotive and slower pieces in the middle, sandwiched by a fun song or two at the end."
"This one is Fine; obviously NOT a cool!"
Best Duets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Norbert Kraft!!"
"I love this CD."
"Norbert Kraft has mastered the spanish guitar."
"You will love the selections on this CD."
"t service and music!"
"Norbert gives us a fine selection of favorites performed with consummate mastery of the instrument recorded here, in what must be close to acoustic heaven, the St. John Chrysostom Church, Newmarket, Canada."
"Let's face it: There are far more classical piano recordings available than guitar recordings."
Best Nonets
Best Octets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The audio quality is excellent."
"Just as his work is recognisable, well written, entertaining and frequently quite catchy melodically, it is also fair to say that once it has finished it is hard to remember anything memorable about it, unlike Mozart or Beethoven for example. Whereas Mozart and Beethoven could be described as the best of the top rank composers of their time, Krommer could reasonably be described as writing excellent second rank music, hence his obvious popularity. Although none of these three partitas, (three of the thirteen written in this form and sometimes described as mini-symphonies), is in the same class as Mozart's various wind serenades and divertimentos, they nevertheless are very enjoyable and entertaining in their own way and as described above. If you like Mozart's wind music it is likely that you will be enjoyably entertained by these examples by Krommer, but don't expect to remember so many of the themes when they are finished."
"The playing is warm and clear, with incredible candor.It is a record that you can play several times in an afternoon and still find pleasure in each one."
"While the tempo that Berkes selects here allows the tremendous virtousity of his musicians to be clear to all listeners, I pause to wonder whether the tempo is faithful to the traditional polacca dance tempo, and again wonder if a slower tempo would not yield more of the true DNA of the composition in terms of musical shaping of the line and over-all accents."
"This cd proves that a great cd doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg."
"This is a charming and welcome disc in my collection but to the ears of one lucky enough to grow up with the live sounds of the (Szell/Dohnanyi) Cleveland and the Solti-era Chicago orchestra the winds, pardon me, sound rather hard edged and unrefined, especially the "sour cream and capers" European oboes."
"The original review I sent contains a typographical error in the word "conditions.""
Best Quartets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Mozart For Your Mind. Very melodic and nice."
"Enjoy listening to this cd to help focus."
"I wasn't impressed with the quality of this CD."
"I put this on as background music as I'm working at my desk, baking, or puttering and I love it."
"Bought for my 2 month old for car rides and she loves it!"
"I can't honestly say it boosts my productivity or the quality of my output, but, unlike a lot of instrumental music, it doesn't put me to sleep either."
Best Quintets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The piece is turgid, with a largely homogenous texture and, what I'm coming to conclude is Chausson's fatal flaw as a composer, a complete lack of creativity in rhythmic and metric terms. I downgraded to 4-stars because of the Chausson's mediocrity and this sound engineering, but the Franck interpretation is excellent and makes me happy to own the disc for that reason alone. The Chilingirian version has more differentiated textures, which heightens my understanding of the work's structure and avoids the homogeneity of the Ludwig rendition, and the sound engineering is much, much better."
"I love César Franck."
"The Franck piano quintet is one of the best examples of late-19th century chamber music, along with the works of Fauré and Brahms."
"The Franck Piano Quintet is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, piano quintet I've ever heard. There aren't a ton of great piano quintets, but composers of the Romantic era seemed to make the greatest contributions to this sub-genre. The only other piano quintets I would put at or near the same level as Franck's entry would be those composed by Brahms, Dvorak and Faure (I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but those are the three other greats that immediately come to mind). While Chausson is also very romantic, like Franck, the music is more chromantic and tonally adventurous, which is to be expected considering that he was much younger than Franck, who was one of his teachers, and it was composed after Franck's death."
Best Septets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A great CD with some wonderful singers and great instrumentalists!"
"Despite being a big Stravisky fan I can't get too enthusiastic about this disc."
Best Sextets
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This 2006 recording by the Ying Quartet, an American ensemble, features Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky's three quartets as well as the sextet "Souvenir de Florence," the last of the music to be written. The Ying and the Borodin take similar approaches but I found the Borodin's version marginally better because the Ying don't quite have the emotional intensity or the textural variety lent the music by the Borodin Quartet."
"It was Quartet 3 of Tchaikovsky played by the Ying Quartet."
"Maybe it's my system but the violins sounded very harsh on this recording."
"I bought this CD after reading the stellar review it got in the Gramophone or Penguin Guide."
"Having just read the Tchaikovsky life story again I realized that I didnt have a recording of the String Quartets."
Best Trios
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"A great pipe organ, brass, & percussion CD! This CD is a must have for pipe organ CD collectors and./or Michael Murray fans!"
"The problem lies in the arrangements and the lack of stereo separation. that I'd learned to expect hearing these classics."
"The quality of this CD work is only matched by a handful of other brass & organ projects."
"This was a gift for my husband and he loves it."
"It is okey for me, the music is nice and well played, it has a traditional focus."
"I have been in church of the advent,"