ClassicsOnline Home » AIKMAN, J.: Venice of the North Concerti - Violin Concerto, "Lines in Motion" / Ania's Song / Saxophone Concerto (Wetherbee, T. Sullivan, Lande) > Review List



AIKMAN, J.: Venice of the North Concerti - Violin Concerto, "Lines in Motion" / Ania's Song / Saxophone Concerto (Wetherbee, T. Sullivan, Lande)

Composer(s):Aikman, James
Artist(s)
Genre Classical Music
Category ConcertosOrchestral
Catalogue 8.559720
Label Naxos
Quality   320kbps
Album Price
 
MP3
USD 6.99
 

 


Award-winning composer James Aikman’s music is ‘accessible and inventive’ (Fanfare magazine), and these three works embrace a colorful tapestry of stylistic influences, including jazz and pop. The elegantly simple and subtle Ania’s Song is described by the composer as a ‘peaceful isle’ between the supple lines and intricate counterpoint of the Violin Concerto and the Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra with its translucent orchestration and echoes of Alban Berg. Leading American soloists join one of Russia’s finest orchestras for a recording with truly international appeal.


   




Review By Robert R. Reilly,Crisis Magazine,May 2012

Music like this is a nail in the heart of the avant-garde. The Concerto is followed up by an exquisite Pavane for String Orchestra, called Aina’s Song, and a Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra. This CD…is another winner in Naxos’ “American Classics” series, and is done to perfection by the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, under Vladimir Lande, with the excellent violinist Charles Weatherbee. © 2012 Crisis Magazine



Review By Byzantion ,MusicWeb International,January 2012

James Aikman’s works “embrace a colorful tapestry of stylistic influences, including jazz and pop”…the results are fat-free, tasty musical fare that will appeal to most palates. © 2012 MusicWeb International Read complete review



Review By Jerry Dubins,Fanfare,January 2012

Violin Concerto…a work of soaring lyricism, romantic beauty, and emotional urgency. Unquestionably, this is a major addition to the 20th-century violin concerto repertoire, and soloist Charles Weatherbee is simply fantastic.

Aikman’s Ania’s Song…begins slowly and softly, builds to a big climax, and then subsides…there’s almost a sense of transcendent peace and joy… What emotionally stirring and spiritually uplifting music this is!

In a score like Aikman’s alto saxophone concerto…Sullivan produces a smooth, evenly balanced tone and navigates the technical obstacles of the score with ease and poise.

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Review By Susan Isaacs Nisbett,AnnArbor.com,December 2011

His latest CD, for Naxos, is attracting brilliant reviews in the likes of “Fanfare” and “Gramophone,” which recently declared, “This could easily be a best-seller in the USA if there were some mechanism to make innovative American composers the talk of the town. © 2011 AnnArbor.com Read complete review



Review By Laurence Vittes ,Gramophone,December 2011

The soloists…are spectacular…Ania’s Song…makes an ideal interlude between two wonderful concertos.

To read the complete review, please visit Gramophone online.



Review By Infodad.com,November 2011

The three Aikman works here draw on multiple stylistic influences, with distinct jazz and pop-music elements and very different levels of expressiveness. The Violin Concerto is the most intricate of the pieces, retaining a strong flavor of improvisation even when thoroughly written-out…At the other emotional and structural end of things is the dissonant and rather harsh Saxophone Concerto, whose clarity of orchestration strongly contrasts with its generally acerbic tone and a sound recalling that of Alban Berg. …Ania’s Song…functions…as a respite for the ear…the orchestra here is Russian and the recording was made in St. Petersburg, yet nothing sounds exotic or as if it is played by musicians uncomfortable with Aikman’s American

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Review By Jay Harvey,The Indianapolis Star,October 2011

“Quasi una Fantasia,” is a brilliant piece of work—quite discursive but somehow coherent and a virtuoso exercise in orchestration. As for the finale, it has aspects of the gratuitous display of churning energy often found in the music of one of Aikman’s teachers, Donald Erb.  I enjoyed the occasional abrupt pauses, as if Aikman was conscious of needing to check the perpetual-motion tendency of this movement.

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