TURNER: Karankawa; Introduction and
Main Event; Tuba Concerto; Low-Horn Concerto
Sinfonia Iuventus/ Dariusz Wisniewski
Albany 1141—60 minutes
Karankawa is a knockout….…Introduction and Main Event is a tour de force for four horns and orchestra, something like a modern Schumann Konzertstück…..The American Horn Quartet sounds as good as ever.....The Tuba Concerto is given a terrific performance. Excellent, inspired playing by Sinfonia Iuventus, a Polish youth orchestra populated (like our New World Symphony) by recent university and conservatory graduates.
FANFARE: James Reel
Karankawa…Introduction and Main Event……The performances are outstanding, full of conviction….Albany’s surround sonics are terrific…..In every way, this is a winning disc.
Audiophile Audition:
"Kerry Turner is a fortunate American composer to get this excellent hi-res surround disc with top-rate performances of his music. ...These four works are strongly melodious and highly individual, with some surprising and often haunting passages in them."
Publication: The Horn Call
Author: Basler, Paul
…The works presented on this CD have had few performances over the years and quite frankly, I cannot imagine why as they are simply put some of the finest works featuring brass instruments and the orchestra I have had the pleasure of hearing……Karankawa is a fantastic large-scale tone poem that had me coming back to listen to numerous times - actually, over 15 times! This is, simply put, one of the best orchestral tone poems I have ever heard. The Sinfonia Inventus and its conductor Dariusz Wisniewski play with accurate, youthful abandon. I can honestly say that this is the finest new CD of original compositions featuring the horn (and tuba) I have heard in many years.
Das Orchester:
Concertos for Four Horns
Werke von Robert Schumann, Georg Friedrich Händel, Georg Philipp Telemann und Josef Haydn
Interpret: American Horn Quartet, Sinfonia Varsovia, Ltg. Dariusz Wisniewski
Verlag/Label: Naxos 8.557747
Rubrik: CDs
erschienen in: das Orchester 12/2006, Seite 93
…Das Maßstäbe setzende Schumann-Konzert spielen die Amerikaner aus einem Guss und ebenso überzeugend wie einst Hermann Baumann und seine Mitstreiter, ja die Balance zwischen den vier Stimmen gelingt noch besser. Strahlende Töne im ewigen Schnee des Hornregisters, Schwindel erregende Akkordbrechungen, serviert mit der Präzision einer Nähmaschine – alles kein Problem für Kerry Turner, Charles Putnam, David Johnson und Geoffrey Winter. Auch die Sinfonia Varsovia spielt unter Leitung von Dariusz Wisˇniewski engagiert, sensibel und mit Feuer.
Johannes Killyen
ClassicalNet:
Robert Schumann: Konzertstück for Four Horns, Op. 86
George Frideric Handel: Concerto in F Major
Georg Philipp Telemann: Overture in F Major
Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony #31 in D "Horn Signal"
American Horn Quartet
Sinfonia Varsovia/Dariusz Wišniewski
Naxos 8.557747 DDD 75:40
The members of the American Horn Quartet (Kerry Turner, Charles Putnam, David Johnson, and Geoffrey Winter) have been playing together since 1982, and they make playing this famously recalcitrant instrument sound easy… easy, that is, without removing that delicious feeling of risk. This program is fine showcase for their talents, individually and together. The Sinfonia Varsovia is an expansion of the Polish Chamber Orchestra dating from 1984. On this CD, anyway, their playing is stylish. Modern instruments are used, but in a manner sympathetic to music-making during the 19th and 18th centuries. When an ensemble like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (for example) plays the Schumann Konzertstück, they really rip into. These Polish musicians are more modest, and frankly, more charming...Gerald Fenech
