CD/DVD/Book Archives

CD Reviews
DVD Reviews
Book Reviews

CD Reviews:

EG Completely at Home in the Stream: Salmon is a Jumpin' 1/5/11
KEM Loving Tributes to a Master Teacher 1/5/11
MJW Murray Perahia Revisits Brahms 12/21/10
MJW A Salute to American Composer & Choral Director William Ferris 12/21/10
MJW The Raleigh Ringers New CD of A Wintry Mix 11/23/10
MJW Sonatas for Cello & Piano by Miaskovsky & Rachmaninoff - and More 11/4/10
MJW Nikolaus Harnoncourt Provides a Fascinating New/Old "Anniversary" Look at Gershwin's Porgy and Bess 10/27/10
SRow Lightning Strikes Twice: ECU Chamber Singers’ Splendid New CD 10/24&29/10
WTW Ivan Ilić Performs Debussy's Preludes 10/8/10
MJW Oppens & Lowenthal Play Great French Music 10/4/10
MJW Music of Arvo Pärt 10/3/10
MJW Christopher Houlihan: Joys, Mournings, and Battles 9/21/10
RAC Carlos Pérez:Música de Julio Sagreras 9/21/10
MJW Soul Food: Bach's Cello Suites, in Two New Recordings, with a Comparative Discography and Extended Remarks (Brian Manker & Zuill Bailey) 9/17/10
WTW Music of Stephen Jaffe 8/12/10
MJW Dez Cordas: Dances, Songs, Inventions 7/26/10
RAC Matt Palmer: Un tiempo fue Italica famosoa 7/26/10
MJW Paul Desenne: Jaguar Songs (Nancy Green, cello) 7/22/10
MJW The Beethoven Project Trio Performs Early Works by the Master 7/11/10
MJW Roots: My Life, My Song: Jessye Norman 6/29/10
MJW Two Roads to Exile: Adolf Busch & Walter Braunfels 6/14/10
MJW Cavatine Duo: The Balkan Project 6/1/10
MJW Loveliest Immanuel: Moravian Sacred Solos (Sharla Nafziger, soprano, & Bach Festival Chamber Orchestra of Winter Park, FL, John V. Sinclair, conductor) 5/11/10
MJW David Ripley and Chad R. Bowles: Enoch Arden by Richard Strauss 5/1/10
KM Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin: In My Own Voice 4/10/10
RCD Simon Keenlyside / Malcolm Martineau: Songs by Schubert, Wolf, Fauré and Ravel 4/5/10
JNB Susan Fancher: In Two Worlds 3/18/10
MJW Biber: Mensa Sonora & Batallia 3/11/10
WTW Carolina Baroque: Sacred Bach Cantatas 3/8/10
KM Greg McCallum: Voyage à Paris 1/14/10
JNB Primavera: Music for Bassoon and Piano by Bassoonists, (Michael Burns, bassoon, with Ināra Zandmane, piano) 1/1/10
KM J. Mark Scearce: The 99 Beautiful Names of God, (John Cheek, piano) 12/18/09
KM Dmitri Shostakovich: 24 Preludes & Fugues, Op. 87 (Jenny Lin, piano) 12/8/09
SHDick Breakaway: Gregg Gelb Jazz Quartet 11/26/09
JR Quartet San Francisco: QSF Plays Brubeck 11/13/09
WTW Mozart: Sonatas for Piano & Violin, K.301, K.306, K.376, and K. 526 (Dmitry Sithovetsky, violin, & Konstantin Lifschitz, piano) 10/6/09
WTW Mozart: Sonatas for Piano & Violin, K.304, K. 305, K.380, and K.454 (Dmitry Sitkovetsky, violin, & Antonio Pappano, piano) 8/14/09
WTW EastWind Trio d'Anches Looks East: Reed Trios of Eastern Europe 7/6/09
KM Tina Chancey: The Versatile Viol, Scottish and Irish Music 5/18/09
KM Boismortier: Trio Sonatas (Le Triomphe de L’Amour) 5/12/09
RAC Guitar Music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco 4/20/09
JNB Carolina Brass and Their Favorite Things 4/10/09
WTW Carolina Baroque Issues a CD of Whole Cantatas by J.S. Bach 2/12/09
MAF Dan Locklair: Symphony of Seasons 1/9/08
MAF Gregory Maytan and Nicole Lee: Scandinavia 12/31/08
KM Nathan Daughtrey: The Yuletide Marimba (with Wiley Arnold Sykes, djembe and dumbek, Andrew Dancy, bells and marimba, & Michael Lasley and Sara Wood, marimbas) 11/24/08
WTW Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Chamber Music (Kelly Burke, clarinet, & John Fadial, violin, with UNCG colleagues) 9/21/08
KM Songs By Zemlinsky: Hermine Haselböck, mezzo-soprano, & Florian Henschel, piano 9/2/08
Paul Orgel (CVNewEng): Ivan Ilic Records Debussy Préludes 9/1/08
KM Shostakovich: Piano Works Performed by Melvin Chen 7/21/08
KM Richard Festinger: Chamber Works (New Millennium Ensemble) 6/15/08
KM Rodney Waschka II: Music For Strings 5/26/08
SRow Greater Love — The English Choral and Organ Tradition (ECU Chamber Singers, Daniel Bara, director, with Janette Fishell, organ) 4/7/08
JR Guitar Music of Chile. Jose Antonio Escobar, guitar. 3/1/08
JR Igor Stavinsky: A Portrait - His Works - His Life. Various works and artists. 3/1/08
AJ Kalevi Aho: Concertos for Tuba & Bassoon (Øystein Baadsvik, tuba; Norrköping Symphony, Mats Rondin, conductor; & Lewis Lipnick, contrabassoon; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrew Litton, conductor) 2/25/08
WGC Meira Warshauer: Streams in the Desert (Stephanie Gregory, soprano, Michael Hendrick, tenor, Carol Potter, narrator, Jennifer Hines, mezzo-soprano, Slovak Philharmonic Chorus & Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kirk Trevor, conductor) 2/2/08
MJW Spanish Love Songs. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano; Joseph Kaiser, tenor; Steven Blier & Michael Barrett, piano. 11/10/07
JWL The Abegg Trio's Grand & Glorious Beethoven CDs 8/15/07
JWL Fantasies for Fortepiano. Monica Jakuc, fortepiano 7/11/07
MJW Chopin: Complete Préludes. Hsia-Jung Chang (Pleyel Piano) 6/12/07
MJW Blüthner Records and Pianos: CDs by Elena Bezprozvannykh, Artur Pizarro, Alexander Paley, William Corbett-Jones, & Petronel Malan, plus a sampler 4/23/07
MJW Incantations & Inspirations, Duo d'amore: Geoffrey Burgess, Baroque oboe and oboe d'amore, and Elaine Funaro, harpsichord. 4/23/07
MJW In Memoriam Lorraine Hunt Lieberson: Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs 1/31/07
KH Naxos' Milken Archive: 50 CDs... & more in the pipeline: an overview of a magnificently audacious series of recordings of American Jewish music 1/23/07
JWL CDs for Giving or Getting this Holiday Season (Elmer Gibson, piano. Jazz Ornaments; Elmer Gibson, piano. The Reach of Memory; Anita Burroughs-Price, harp, with Brian Reagin, violin, Bonnie Thron, cello, and Donna Jolly, organ. Healing Touch; Kate Steinbeck, flute, & Byron Hedgepeth, percussion. Light in the Corner; Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, Eric Stark, Artistic Director. From East to West: A Festival of Carols; Triangle Brass Band, Michael J. Votta, Director. March Madness: Marches from around the World; Dave Brubeck: [26] Nocturnes. John Salmon, piano; Ben Johnston: String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4 & 9. Kepler Quartet) 12/18/06
MJW Pietro Domenico Paradisi (Paradies): Sonate de Gravicembalo (Elaine Funaro, harpsichord) 12/12/06
JM Peter Kairoff, piano: American Reverie: Piano Music of Horatio Parker. 11/7/06
WTW William McClelland: The Revenge of Hamish and Other Choral Works (William Appling Singers & Orchestra conducted by William Appling). 9/8/06
MJW Music of Peter Lieberson (Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, mezzo-soprano,& Peter Serkin, piano; Michaela Fukacova, cello, Odense SO, Justin Brown, cond.; & William Purvis, horn, Odense SO, Donald Palma, cond.) 7/30/06
MJW Music's Golden Age: Bach, Handel & Mozart (Carolina Baroque) 6/19/06
MJW Gounod: Faust (1911-12) 6/5/06
WTW A Celebration of Bach and Handel — A 4-CD Festival from Carolina Baroque 4/28/06
MJW Talent Hidden in Small, Unexpected Places: Music of Yelena Eckemoff, composer/pianist 3/23/06
KH Handbells – Just for the Fun of It! (The Raleigh Ringers) 12/17/05
KH American Music from Saint Thomas (by Dan Locklair, Walter Piston, & Randall Thompson) 12/17/05
MJW Andrew Violette: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 12/17/05
DA Virgil Fox Legacy Series, Vol. 1: The Girard College Recordings 11/29/05
MJW Vittorio Giannini: Psalm 130; John Carbon: "Endangered Species"; & William Thomas McKinley: Passacaglia 10/4/05
MJW Andrew Violette: "The Death of the Hired Man" 4/23/05
WTW Dan Locklair: Chamber Music & More 4/7/05
MJW Richard Reid Plays Chopin & Rachmaninov 3/29/05
MJW Richard Rendleman, Jr.: Poems of Margaret Proctor Wood (Kay Lowe with Scott Tilley, piano, & with Moravian PO, Scott Tilley, conductor) 2/23/05
MJW The Modern Cello (I Musici de Montréal) 2/12/05
MJW Arthur Honegger: Symphony No 2 & other works (I Musici de Montréal) 2/12/05
RAC Raleigh Flute Choir — Air Angels on High 1/6/05
MJW Pater Noster: Settings of the Lord's Prayer, Choir of the Abbey School 8/19/04
MJW Grand Larsen-y : Vocal Music of Libby Larsen (Terry Rhodes, soprano, Ellen Williams, mezzo-soprano, Benton Hess, piano, Steven Reis, cello, & the Raleigh Ringers) 8/13/04
KH My Spirit Sang All Day, Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham 6/22/04
JR Schubert: Piano Sonata in A, D.959, & Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D.821. Wu Han, piano, & David Finckel, cello 6/7/04
MJW Stephen Jaffe: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: Gregory Fulkerson, violin, Odense Symphony Orchestra 6/2/04
JWL Frank Wallace: Woman of the Water (Nancy Knowles & Frank Wallace) 3/21/04
JWL Rodney Waschka II: Saint Ambrose (Steve Duke) 3/14/04
JWL A Tribute to Robert Shaw: Carols, Hymns, Spirituals, and Choruses arranged by or associated with Robert Shaw, Choral Society of Durham 12/18/03
WTW Middle Voices: Chamber Music for Clarinet and Viola. Kelly Burke, clarinet, & Scott Rawls, viola, with Mark Moliterno, baritone, & Arthur Tollefson & Melissa Rose, pianos 11/12/03
MJW George Crumb 70th Birthday Album: Star-Child, Mundus Canis (Susan Narucki, soprano, & others, incl. George Crumb) 9/11/03
MJW Mario Davidovsky: Flashbacks , Festino, Romancero (Susan Narucki, Speculum Musicae, & others) 9/11/03
MJW Mario Davidovsky: Shulamit's Dream (Susan Narucki, Riverside Symphony, & others) 9/11/03
WTW In Celebration: Gerhardt Zimmermann and the North Carolina Symphony, 1982-2003 8/13/03
MJW Piano Sonatas 1 & 7, Andrew Violette, composer and pianist 8/1/03
RAC Early Romantic Music for Two Guitars (Pasquale Rucco & Douglas James) 7/31/03
MJW Ellen Mandel: a wind has blown the rain away (e.e. cummings Songs) 6/20/03
MJW A sampler from Brite Records (Music by Ellen Mandel) 1/16/03
R.E.B. Reviews (Beecham, Walter, & other reissues produced by John Wilson) May 2003
MJW Phillip Rhodes: With a Mountain View (Music with Appalachian Roots), Veblen String Quartet 1/17/03
MJW Carolina Baroque, Bach & Handel: Baroque Masters 1/14/03
WTW Bach: Music to Challenge the Intellect and Touch the Heart, Carolina Baroque 1/9/03
WTW Shirl Jae Atwell: Lucy (Ballet), Movements Four South, & String Orchestra Pieces, Greensboro Symphony Orchestra 1/9/03
JWL Scenes from Fairyland: Music of Robert & Clara Schumann, Jonathan Bagg, viola, with Jane Hawkins, piano, & Donald L. Oehler, clarinet 1/5/03
JWL So Great a Joy: Music by Andrew Carter & others (Janeanne Houston) 12/21/02
JWL Living Mysteries: Music by Dan Locklair & others (Janeanne Houston) 12/21/02
JWL What Sweeter Music, Bel Canto Company 12/21/02
JWL A Wreath of Carols: Bel Canto Company 12/21/02
JWL Leesville Road High School Symphonic Band, Vol. II 12/18/02
WTW Chamber Music by Lawrence Dillon: Furies and Muses (1997); Devotion (1996); & Jests and Tenderness (1998) (Jeff Keesecker, bassoon, & the Cassatt String Quartet; Ransom Wilson, flute, with members of the Borromeo String Quartet; & The Mendelssohn String Quartet) 11/15/02
MJW Evening in the Country: Folk Influence in the Music of Béla Bartók, Elon University (Victoria Fischer, piano) 11/4/02
WTW Sonatas by Brahms and Prokofiev, Berl Senofsky, violin, and Gary Graffman, piano 9/17/02
MJW Dan Locklair: Orchestral Music, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra 8/12/02
JR Possession: Lily Afshar, guitar 8/1/02
MJW Return: Art Songs From Carolina, Marilyn Taylor, soprano, & Robert Brewer, piano 7/22/02
MJW Mystic Chords of Genocide: Music of the Holocaust (Susan Eischeid, oboe, Lyle Indergaard, piano, Martha Malone, soprano, & David Lee Johnson,baritone) 7/15/02
MJW Beethoven: String Quartets, Op. 95 "Serioso," and Op. 59, No. 3 "3rd Razumofsky," Borromeo String Quartet 7/8/02
MJW Bach: Goldberg Variations, S.988, Marie Nazar, piano 6/21/02
WTW East West Encounter, Music by Chen, Louie, Beethoven, Liszt, Franck, & Chopin, Susan Chan, piano 5/29/02
JWL Viva Voce! - Two Mini-Operas by Handel, Carolina Baroque 5/28/02
JWL Bach: Keyboard Concerti Nos. 1-7, S.1052-58, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (Murray Perahia) 4/18/02
JWL Arthur Loesser in Recital 4/8/02
EK Music for a Sunday Afternoon, Recitals from the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta: William J. Weisser, Organ 4/5/02
JK J. S. Bach: The Sonatas for Flute and Fortepiano, & The Partita for Solo Flute: Susan Rotholz, Flute 4/3/02
JK Cantatas and Concertos of Bach, Carolina Baroque February 2002
JWL Orff: Carmina Burana (Choral Society of Durham) 1/13/02
WTW Franck: Symphony in D Minor; & Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande: Incidental Music, Greensboro Symphony Orchestra 12/21/01
JWL A Very Classical Christmas, The Sonos Handbell Ensemble 12/20/01
JWL Reflections: Reflective Piano Music from the Classical Repertoire, Greg McCallum, piano 12/15/01
JWL "A Classical Christmas," Capital Area Chorale 12/15/01
JWL Mappamundi: World Music Our Way 12/14/01
EK Gilbert & Sullivan: The Real McCoy, The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company Fall 2001
JWL Songs and Dances: Selma Gokcen, cello 10/25/01
JWL Instruments of Praise: Triangle Brass Band 10/25/01
JWL Chopin: Variations on "Là ci darem la mano," Frederick Moyer, piano 10/25/01
JWL Schubert: Winterreise, D.911, Lotte Lehmann, soprano, & Paul Ulanowsky, piano 10/25/01
JWL Vorísek: Symphony in D; Mass in B-Flat, Czech National SO 10/25/01
JK Overture to Orpheus, Music Written for the Women Who Gave Wing to the Muse, Elaine Funaro, harpsichord 9/10/01

DVD Reviews:

KH Bach & Friends ... Lot's of 'em(with Bobby McFerrin, Philip Glass, Béla Fleck, Hilary Hahn, the Emerson String Quartet, Edgar Meyer, Manuel Barrueco, Chris Thile, Jake Shimabukuto, the Swingle Singers, John Bayless, Peter Schickele, Richard Stoltzman, Zuill Bailey, Sid Meier, João Carlos Martins, Felix Hell, Mike Hawley, Uri Caine, Tim Page, Charles J. Limb, M.D., Hilda Huang, Anatoly Larkin, John Q. Walker, Harlan Brothers, Andrew Talle, & Christoph Wolff) 2/22/10
PDW Ringing Up: Music of Three Worlds: Sonos Handbell Ensemble 2/8/10
KH Richard Wagner: Parsifal (Baden-Baden Festspiel) 10/11/05
JK Giacomo Puccini: Turandot, Salzburg Festival 2002 11/4/03
JK Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata, Orchestra and Chorus of Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, Placido Domingo, conductor 2/27/03
JWL One Winter Evening at Meymandi : 2001 Christmas Concert, The Raleigh Ringers 12/22/02
JK Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird & Les Noces, The Royal Ballet 12/4/02
EK Giuseppe Verdi: Il trovatore, The Royal Opera 12/4/02
MJW My Cinema for the Ears (A Film by Uli Aumüller) 5/17/02
JWL Delius, Song of Summer, Ken Russell, director/producer 11/01/01