Word: pianos
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Sony has released a new recording in its "Artist Laureate" series, this time featuring its premier chamber group--the quartet composed of violinist Isaac Stern, violist Jaime Laredo, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emmanuel Ax. This recording contrasts the piano quartets of Beethoven and Schumann, embracing both the Classical and Romantic periods in music...
...must admit to a certain bias coming to this recording, considering that I intensely disliked an earlier reading of the Brahms Piano Quartets by this same group. In particular, Isaac Stern is showing his age. As a violinist already infamous for his questionable intonation and tone quality, he dooms the ensemble even before recording began...
...rich and globular tone, but more often than not in this recording it acts as an obscuring miasmic veil, rather than a complement to the strings. He has an extremely heavy left hand and a matching right foot on the sustaining pedal. His efforts are more appropriate for piano concerti than for these subtly textured chamber works...
...Piano" has the quality of a comet bursting forth in a year in which cinematic greatness has been rare. It showcases a sensual and poetic sensibility which has for the most part been absent in the history of film. In order to do this, the movie takes many risks, and brings them off spectacularly. Jane Campion has fashioned a masterpiece, one woman's private symphony. Let yourself be seduced by the wondrous music of the peerless "Piano...
...Thru and Thru" don't quite live up to his success with the recent insta-classic "Eileen," though. "Mean Disposition" brings back Mick the way he is remembered; you can practically hear him strutting. There's no acoustic guitar or accordion nonsense on this track, just guitar, bass, piano and drums pushed along by the blaring voice we all know and love...