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Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn

2020 54,928 reviews and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here You can also use this FreeFind              International mailing

Searching Musicweb Monthly index Recordings of the Year Label index Masterwork index Series index Search engines Review Archive Classical Downloads Jazz Concerts Nostalgia Books Film music Resources Composer pages Tony Duggan's Mahler survey National Discographies Mark Morris's Guide to Twentieth Century Composers Ralph Moore's Surveys Online books Piano Trio Survey Cello Concerto Project Pot Pourri - Early MusicWeb Gerard Hoffnung Arthur Butterworth's columns Philip Scowcroft's British light music collection Interviews Programme notes MusicWeb Listening Studio Other material Articles Seen & Heard Jazz reviews Message Board Announcements About Musicweb About Musicweb Contact Musicweb Contributors What they say about us Visitor stats Site Map

Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn

http://www.eroica.com/amalong-music.html Contact the pianist at: pianist@music.org

Philip Amalong, piano Johann Sebastian BACH (1685 - 1750) Das Wohltemperierte Klavier book I: Prelude and Fugue in Bb [6.15] Johannes BRAHMS (1832 -1897) Ballades, Op. 10 (1854): #1 in d, "Edward" [4.06]; #2 in D [6.22] Alberto Ginastera (1916 - 1983) Piano Sonata #1, Op. 22 (1952) [15.04] Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891 - 1953) Ten piano pieces from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75 (1935): Romeo bids Juliet farewell [7.48] Enrique GRANADOS (1867 - 1916) Quejas ó La Maja y el Ruiseñor [6.48] Fr. Angelo A. DELLA PICCA (b.1923) Rondo Capriccioso (on a theme by Mascagni) (?) [7.39] Philip Amalong, piano Two pages of notes in English. Photograph of the performer. "Enhanced CD" (See Review) material by TVAcom, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Recording dates and locations not given. EROICA JDT 3119 [54.02]

This is a recital of very sombre and reflective music, joined with the mystical exoticism of the Ginastera. Generally people who don’t care for classical music will call up "depressing" pieces like this to make their case. In other words, pianist Amalong is refusing to cater to any "crossover" sentiments. This is serious classical music for people who love classical music and no apologies expected. Pianist Amalong is a virtuoso of the first order and plays and achieves a distinctively intense, reflective mood which perhaps reaches its most intense in the adagio molto appassionato of the Ginastera Sonata. The following Ruvido ed ostinato is the most boisterous piece on the disk, and even more derivative of the Prokofiev Seventh Sonata than the first movement allegro marcato was. "Enhanced CD" format loads FlashMedia 6 (25 MB+ free hard disk space required) on your computer and offers access to a panel of information for each selection, more extensive than that printed on the paper folder in the jewel case. If you have no computer, the CD will play in the normal manner in your CD player. If you have autorun disabled on your computer (as I do), you need to run "Storia.exe" from Explorer or the Windows Run panel; and from within this program you may select and run the music tracks. I recommend that you either listen to the disk all the way through in the conventional manner, or run Storia.exe and pick one piece at a time to listen to while reading the notes on the computer screen. If you navigate within the program while music is playing the music will stop. There is no mention in the notes of Apple computer compatibility and I have no way of testing that. The music on this disk is generally quite well known with the exception of the last piece, written by a Catholic priest friend of the performer. The work is generally effective, but in this company sounds somewhat facile and is an unfortunate choice for the last work on the disk. This one work by a priest points up the religious variety among the composers on the disk with music by the Protestant Bach, militant Atheist Prokofiev and the gently Agnostic Brahms alongside the presumably Catholic Ginastera and Granados. Comparing these performances with others, one notes that the others generally play more incisively and with more drama, whereas Armalong is unrelievedly introverted. Even during vigorous allegro passages, there is a sense that he is pulling his punches—or, to put it another way, he brings no sense of flamboyance, brilliance, or showmanship to his interpretation. Paul Shoemaker   Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat   New Releases All Naxos reviews All Chandos reviews All Hyperion reviews All Foghorn reviews All Troubadisc reviews all Bridge reviews all cpo reviews Click to see New Releases Get 10% off using code musicweb10 All Divine Art reviews All Eloquence reviews All Lyrita Reviews   Obtain 10% discount Recordings of the Month April2022 Chopin Bruce Liu Ingeneri Volume 2 Mondonville - Titon et L'Aurore Telemann - French Cantatas 1   March 2022 Brahms Symphony 4 MacMillan Larghetto for Orchestra Bruch Violin Concertos Debussy Preludes Book 2 Jan-Peter de GRAAFF Cello Concertos La Nuit étoilé Berlioz. Holmes

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