Category Archives: CD Review

Simon Legault’s second CD Science Welded by Love reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

The way I hear it, Science Welded by Love is a duet between  guitarist Simon Legault, who wrote most of the tunes, and the tenor sax of Frank Lozano.  If this were classical music, the setlist suggests a time between Bach … Continue reading

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Gilad Hekselman, THIS JUST IN, reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

Gilad Hekselman, This Just In, Jazz Village (Harmonia Mundi). Gilad Hekselman, guitar, synth,glockenspiel, Joe Martin bass, Marcus Gilmore, drums saxophonist Mark Turner guest tenor sax. After three successful albums, This Just In is guitarist Hekselman’s fourth, and likely to go … Continue reading

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Poles Apart: New Recordings of Szymanowski, Zelenski and Zarzycki, reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

Exoticism –The Music of Karol Szymanowski. Jerzy Kaplanek, violin; Stéphan Sylvestre, piano. Marquis. First among Polish composers who lately are gaining the reknown their music deserves is Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937). Two questions. Why does he deserve to be better known? Why … Continue reading

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Centrediscs’ CD War of the Angels reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

Centrediscs’ CD War of the Angels presents orchestral music composed by T.Patrick Carrabré between 1996-2003, and performed by The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bramwell Tovey and Andrey Boreyko. Carrabré’s music, written in an accessible style, is vividly imaginative. Although … Continue reading

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The Oceanic Terrace of Philip Glass’s Cello Concerto No. 2. A review by Stanley Fefferman

Philip Glass. Cello Concerto No.2 “Naqoyqatsi”. Matt Haimowitz–Denis Russell Davies. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Orange Mountain Music. Philip Glass makes music that mostly sounds like Philip Glass. His motifs replicate identically, like stem cells that each possess within a tiny tendency … Continue reading

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Cécile McLorin Salvant. WOMAN CHILD, reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

Cécile McLorin Salvant. WOMAN CHILD. JustinTime. W What a voice! Range goes low and dusky to high, thin and sweet, all without effort and always trailing a tender vibrato. Her timbre goes from clear glass through whisper and down to … Continue reading

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James Ehnes and the Classical Blues Brothers: a CD review by Stanley Fefferman

James Ehnes. Britten and Shostakovich. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Kiril Karabits. ONYX. Distributed by Harmonia Mundi. From the moment they met in London, 1960, Britten and Shostakovich felt close as brothers. Musically, they occupied the same zone—where the borders of atonality … Continue reading

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Soundstream’s Piano Ecstasy: Hit and Myth, reviewed by Stanley Fefferman with photos by Eric Fefferman

April 26, 2013. Koerner Hall, Toronto. Piano Ecstasy is an exciting title. Soundstream’s Artistic Director, Lawrence Cherney, put together a program of compositions with back-stories that promise to match the title’s excitement. Sometimes they did. On the glittering stage of … Continue reading

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