Bob Neill, Author at Positive Feedback

Notes of an Amateur - Second Quarter 2022

Bob Neill — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 21:10:19 +0000

Bach. St. John Passion. Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists. John Eliot Gardiner, Deutsche Gramophone 486 1822. 2 CDs, 1 Blue Ray DVD. Is John Eliot Gardiner’s Bach definitive or 'just' English? Fair question. For me, his take on Bach in the cantatas and masses is the standard. Watching the DVD and listening to the CD’s... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: First Quarter, 2022

Bob Neill — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 19:07:20 +0000

George Walker, Five Piano Sonatas, (1953 - 2003) Steven Beck, piano. Bridge Records 9554. It's a bit early in the year to pronounce a Record of the Year, and perhaps I'm making the call based partly on guilt for my ignorance: why have I not heard of this extraordinary composer? His music is a brilliant... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Fourth Quarter, 2021

Bob Neill — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 16:48:25 +0000

Sofia Gubaidulina, Three Orchestral Works. Vadim Repin, violin. Gewandhaus Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, conductor, DGG 486-1457. Andris Nelsons and ninety-one year old Russian modernist composer Sofia Gubaidulina go back a long way and they are paired here as they are frequently. She is a major voice in the contemporary music world without whom it is hard... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Third Quarter, 2021

Bob Neill — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 21:32:10 +0000

Per Norgaard, Paul Ruders. Works for Solo Cello. Wilhelmina Smith. Ondine ODE 1381-2 With much contemporary music composed in the high modernist idiom, we pretty much have to follow the composers to see where they go. Guidelines are hard to find. Is it an interesting place? Does the music speak to us? Can we infer... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Second Quarter, 2021

Bob Neill — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:29:52 +0000

Bach Sonatas and Partitas, Augustin Hadelich, violin. Warner Classics, 0190295048747. 2 CDs. A musician alone with his violin. No audience in sight. Or in mind. Some will consider these performances self-indulgent, a young maverick who hasn't earned the right to take this music to himself. Not me. I have enjoyed Hadelich's Ligetti (live), Adès, Sibelius,... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: First Quarter, 2021

Bob Neill — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 15:52:56 +0000

Complete Peter Serkin. Sony 19439713872. 30 CD's. If Serkin is one of your very favorite pianists, as he is one of mine, then this is a treasure trove for you. Thirty CDs for under $100. Includes both solo recordings and work with TASHI. Steal of the year. \ Joseph Haydn, String Quartets, Op. 76, 4-6. Chiaroscuro... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Jennifer's Koh's Bach; Gardiner's Handel; Vaughn Williams and Gerald Finzi

Bob Neill — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:15:59 +0000

As I get older, as I said a year or so ago when I started getting older, I find myself less inclined to talk, more inclined to drop a few notes and then just point. These are three recent recordings I feel compelled to point at. Jennifer Koh, Bach & Beyond, Part 3. Bach, Harbison,... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Gardiner's Monteverdi Choir; Christian Wolff; Péteris Vasks

Bob Neill — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 22:54:15 +0000

…all descriptions of music are quite worthless & rather unpleasant; they are apt to be hysterical & to say things the people will be ashamed of having said afterwards. V. Woolf, Diary. Vigilate. English Polyphony in Dangerous Times. Monterverdi Choir, John Elliot Gardiner. Soli Deo Gloria SDG 720. It isn't often we get to... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Bach Cello Suites by Weilerstein; Haydn by the Chiaroscuro Quartet; New England Piano Trios. Telemann’s Solo Violin Suites by Hadlich, Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto by Ibragimova

Bob Neill — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 18:49:12 +0000

…all descriptions of music are quite worthless & rather unpleasant; they are apt to be hysterical & to say things the people will be ashamed of having said afterwards. V. Woolf, Diary. Bach Cello Suites, Alisa Weilerstein, Pentatone PTC 5186 751. I am a big first impression guy. I never leave it at that,... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Music@Menlo, Haydn Concertos, Vivaldi Cello Concertos, Adès (2), Debussy/Rameau, Paul Desmond

Bob Neill — Tue, 26 May 2020 17:22:24 +0000

Music@Menlo Live, 2019 (available at https://musicatmenlo.org/live/) Year in, year out the Music@Menlo music education program issues its Music@Menlo Live series of recordings with music performed by the program's instructors. The cast has changed since the series began in 2002, though a few of the originals are still in evidence: program directors pianist Wu Han and... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Monteverdi, Bach, Henze, and Richard Strauss

Bob Neill — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 15:59:30 +0000

Monteverdi, L'incoronazione di Poppea. Les Ars Florissants, Willam Christie. Harmonia Mundi 8902622.24 3 CD's, 1 DVD. This new release of Monteverdi's last opera, considered by students of the composer's work to be his best, is an extraordinary musical enterprise, especially if you take into consideration Jan Lauwers' somewhat off the wall stage production provided on... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Cellist Hee-Young Lim Plays French Concertos; a Brilliant New Brahms's Violin Concerto Performance by Augustin Hadelich; Podger does Bach’s Cello Suites on Violin; Wilhelmina Smith plays Salonen’s and Saariaho’s Solo Cello Works; Christian Wolff's Orchestra Pieces.

Bob Neill — Thu, 23 May 2019 00:02:38 +0000

I apologize for the long time between review articles and for the briefness of these: As I pass age 80, I am becoming more modest about the worth of what I have to say and am also beginning to play the age card. Hee-Young Lim, cello; London Symphony Orchestra. French Cello Concertos of Saint-Saëns, Milhaud,... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Saariaho, Dusapin, Sierra, Finckel and Wu Han

Bob Neill — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 23:52:08 +0000

Saariaho and Koh. Jennifer Koh, violin. Nicolas Hodges, piano. Hsin-Yun Huang, viola. Wilhelmena Smith, cello. Anssi Kaarttunen, cello, Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, Conner Gray Covington, conductor. Çedille CDR 90000183. There is some contemporary music we listen to because we just want to know what's going on. This is not the same as keeping up with fashion,... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Pärt, Beethoven, Henze, and Blue Violet Duo

Bob Neill — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 19:07:29 +0000

Arvo Pärt. Mullova - Järvi. Onyx 4201. Darf ich..., Fratres, Passacaglia, Tabula rosa, I Ludus, II Silentium, Spiegel im Speigel] I have never been drawn to the extremely popular and to be fair much admired Estonian contemporary composer, Arvo Pärt. I have found his music an example of the dictum that less may be less. It... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Vivaldi, Bach, Ferneyhough, Auerbach, and Vasks

Bob Neill — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 15:18:20 +0000

Vivaldi, Sonatas for Cello and Basso Continuo, Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello. Harmonia Mundi. It has been quite a while since we've had recordings of this seldom heard, truly engaging music. Christophe Coin did it well in 1989 for L'oiseau Lyre, Susan Sheppard did it fine that same year with L'école d'Orphee for CRD; and then there... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Mozart, Adès, Ustvolskaya, Scelsi, and 20th Century English Violin Sonatas.

Bob Neill — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 19:25:03 +0000

Mozart, Violin Sonatas, Nos. 5, 6, 7, 28, 35; Variations in G minor; Sonata in B flat Major, 570. Alina Ibragimova, violin. Cédric Tieberghien, piano. Hyperion CDA 68175. (2 CDS for price of one). Alina Ibragimova plays Mozart as if he is at the center of her repertoire. He suits her refined tone and willingness... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Brooklyn Rider Play the String Quartets of Philip Glass; Elias Quartet Play Beethoven.

Bob Neill — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 16:41:22 +0000

Brooklyn Rider plays Philip Glass; String Quartets Nos. 1-5. 2 CDs. Orange Mountain 0074. I didn't get the string quartets of Philip Glass at all until I began to hear them as informed by dance—all kinds of dance. The opening work on the album, Suite from Bent (1997), adapted for string quartet by the Brooklyn... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Podger, Wuorinen, and the Dover Quartet.

Bob Neill — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 21:06:18 +0000

Grandissimi Gravita. Violin Sonatas by Vivaldi, Tartini, Veracini, Pisendel. Rachel Podger, violin; Brecon Baroque. Channel Classics SACD. CCSSA 39217. Snow showers! On November 13. In Western Massachusetts! And unexpectedly this album of baroque violin sonatas sounds warm and comforting that last week seemed a bit indifferent. I've learned not to underestimate the role meteorological (and... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Goerne Sings Bach; Two New Penderecki Releases

Bob Neill — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:47:37 +0000

Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantatas for Bass. Matthias Goerne, baritone. Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Gottfried von de Goltz. Harmonia Mundi HMM 902323. If dark power is what you want in Bach's cantatas for bass—and you surely should—then Matthias Goerne is the answer to your prayers. Eloquent darkness is not always what we get from true basses, but... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Ibragimova's Mozart, Haimovitz Plays Philip Glass, David Matthews' Piano Trios, McGill/McHale Trio.

Bob Neill — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 16:07:53 +0000

Mozart Violin Sonatas, Nos 3, 8, 20, 25, 26, 30. Alina Ibragimova, violin and Cédric Tibeghien, piano. Hyperion CDA 68164. (2 CD's.) What always strikes us about Ibragimova's and Tiberghien's Mozart is that every sonata feels freshly addressed. Each work is allowed to have its own musical life and identity. I discovered this with their... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Osorio Plays Brahms and Schubert; Bostridge's Schubert; Bartok Quartets by the Heath Quartet; Gardiner's St. Matthew Passion; Leonard Bernstein's Solo Piano Music

Bob Neill — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 22:27:58 +0000

Jorge Federico Osorio, Final Thoughts. Last Piano Works of Schubert and Brahms. Çedille CDR 90000171. I grew up on the music of the late nineteenth century—Brahms was the center of my initial musical universe, the symphonies in particular. As is often the case if you 'grow up' on a particular style and composer (unless you... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Goerne Sings Schumann, Pacifica Quartet Play Brahms & Schumann, Samuel Adler's Quartets.

Bob Neill — Tue, 09 May 2017 19:10:31 +0000

Einsam Keit. Schumann Lieder. Mathias Goerne, baritone, Markus Hinterhäuser, piano. Harmonia Mundi HMM 902243. Coming to Matthias Goerne without expectations, which I'll concede is almost impossible, we are struck by the unique combination of weight and lyricism in his voice. Paralleled by the same quality in the piano. The perfect baritone can do this but... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Elgar, Mozart, and Bach.

Bob Neill — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 22:36:10 +0000

Elgar, Symphony No. 2. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Onyx 4165. Elgar, Elgar, Elgar. What do American music lovers make of Elgar? Probably what the English make of Samuel Barber and of Copland's ballets. Each of our cultures has its romanticism and it is generally in our romanticisms that our cultures make their most characteristic, not... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Music@Menlo 2016; Bartok's Music for Solo Piano; Scottish Piano Trios.

Bob Neill — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 17:12:04 +0000

Music@Menlo 'Live,' 2016 "Russian Reflections" . (8 discs), available separately or as a box set. www. musicatmenlo.org. If you share Music@Menlo's enthusiasm for nineteenth century music, this latest edition of their annual set of (summer 2016) festival recordings will please you. It features a large group of minor and minor major Russian composers (plus Tchaikovsky... Read More »

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Notes of an Amateur: Mischa Zupko, Giaches De Wert, Schnittke, and Petrenko's Tchaikovsky

Bob Neill — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 22:53:43 +0000

Eclipse: Chamber Music of Mischa Zupko. Wendy Warner, cello. Sang Me Lee, violin. Mischa Zupko, piano. Cedille CDR 90000168. Calling someone a "Chicago composer" as Cedille Records often does is probably not doing him a favor. It suggests limitations, local heroes. The fact is, in the case of Mischa Zupko (and cellist Wendy Warner who... Read More »

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