MUSIClassical ALLEGRO
Topic: NEW CDs
This is an expertly played, beautifully recorded take on Gershwin standards. One way to look at the panoply of recordings of the "Piano Concerto in F" and "Rhapsody in Blue" is to consider the respective weight of the classical and jazz/pop aspects of Gershwin's language in each one. This disc, perhaps surprisingly in view of the jazz background of Rochester Philharmonic conductor Jeff Tyzik, doesn't play up the jazziness of Gershwin. Listen to the finale of the piano concerto: it is brisk and sharp but not brassy. California pianist Jon Nakamatsu elaborates the work in ways related to Romantic pianism rather than to jazz, most noticeably with a good deal of tempo rubato. Given that these performances stress Gershwin's symphonic aspect (which was how 1920s audiences encountered these pieces, the rediscovery of the small-orchestra versions of the "Rhapsody in Blue" coming only much later), the listener will find them among the very best available in that style. These readings are detailed and subtle -- not words always used in connection with Gershwin, but this recording finds those qualities in his music. New York Times
Mr. Nakamatsu’s relaxed virtuosity in the concerto and the rhapsody is in contrast to the usual "wired" approach to these pieces. He lingers and ruminates where others press on. Bernard Holland
Dallas Morning News [Grade: A-] Right away, you'll notice the rhythmic snap and crackle.... This [performance] is competitive with the best. Scott Cantrell
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F; Rhapsody in Blue; Cuban Overture [Hybrid SACD]
The leading orchestra in the ancient city of Jerusalem is living what may be its final days. A year short of its 70th anniversary, the Jerusalem Symphony ...
Erik Schumann, a rising 25-year-old violinist from Germany, had been expecting a career landmark. He was scheduled to make his Philadelphia Orchestra debut playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto at the second concert of the Orchestra's first residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. Schumann's visa application was one of many caught in the notorious processing backlog at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; by Saturday (July 7), one day before the concert and the last possible day he could depart, he had not received his visa to perform in the U.S. 
Régine Crespin (23 February 1927, Marseille – 5 July 2007, Paris)
German city of Eisenach is now launching a campaign to publicise its association with the most famous of all baroque musicians...JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH... after decades during which the composer was hijacked by various ideologies, including nazism and communism. It rankles with the Eisenachers that his name is so little associated with the place. "You hear the name Salzburg, and you immediately think of Mozart," said the museum's marketing manager Silvia Hochkirch. "My life's aim is to ensure that Eisenach is one day similarly connected in minds across the world with Bach." 
The famed tenor's work on the recording of classical religious music should be finished by the end of August or September, his London-based manager, Terri Robson, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. => Read more! 
Details about the 2007 Karl Haas Prize for Music Education awarded to
Beverly Sills, the Brooklyn-born opera diva who was a global icon of can-do American culture with her dazzling voice, bubbly personality and management moxie in the arts world, died Monday [2 JUL 2007] of cancer, her manager said. She was 78. It had been revealed just last month that Sills was gravely ill with inoperable lung cancer. Born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, the coloratura soprano made her opera debut in 1947 in Philadelphia in a bit role in "Carmen." She became a star with the smaller New York City Opera, where she first performed in 1955 in Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Die Fledermaus." She was acclaimed for performances in such operas as Douglas Moore's "The Ballad of Baby Doe," Massenet's "Manon" and Handel's "Giulio Cesare." She didn't appear at the Met until 1975, shortly before her retirement from singing, which made it surprising when the Met asked her to sit on its board in 2002. 
Pianist MATTHEW KENNEDY found his calling sharing music with world... Film honors Jubilee Singers director.
From birth, pianist Jonathan Biss lived in a world of music. His mother, the Romanian-born Miriam Fried, is a globe-trotting violinist who also performs and records with the Mendelssohn String Quartet. His father, violinist Paul Biss, teaches at Indiana University's prestigious School of Music in Bloomington, where Jonathan spent his childhood. Furthermore, his grandmother, the acclaimed Raya Garbousova, earned the highest praise from legendary cellist-conductor Pablo Casals, who called her the "finest cellist" he had ever heard. Samuel Barber wrote his cello concerto for her, and she performed its world premiere in 1946. 