Search - Tchaikovsky, Norman, Perlman :: Gala

Not much of a gala

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/17/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The playing and especially the recorded sound are slapdash. Perlamn, Norman, and Yo-Yo Ma dutifully play their cameo roles, but the usually wonderful Temirkanov is off form, and with the shrill, unplesantly piercing sonics, his orchestra is no pleasure to hear, either. I don't know who this collection is aimed at, since anyone who wants the rarely heard Tchaikovsky songs done by Jessye Norman would be way past wanting another 1812 Overture."

There are much better options

J. Myers | Washington, DC | 04/23/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The centerpiece of this album -- the 1812 -- is shamelessly amateurish. Obviously recorded outdoors, it is played for effect rather than for musicality. The recording is third-rate, as is much of the playing: the trumpets are especially sloppy, with lots of intonation problems; the timpanist is a head-banger, trying to out-do the cannons; the conducting is a mystery. A lot of the tempi are to the extreme... for what effect... to be different? Different is clearly not always better. Don't be fooled by the marquee of players. The "goods" are gone missing."