A considerable talent misused
595409
The writer has such talent for making everything truly convincing, that I was very disappointed to realise, as I read, that this was really fiction. Too many inconsistencies and oddities. Kokopelli in Manitoba? boy, he's a long way from home! I've travelled in the South-West and known Navajo people, and Lakotas in South Dakota, and I've lived in Canada, though not Manitoba, and the points made by those who describe that western province are very convincing. No way do Andrews' descriptions ring true.

The clincher was where at the end Andrews is strictly enjoined not to tell anyone of her experiences: she asks "what should I do" and is told "Write a book!" I think Andrews is almost slapping the more gullible readers upside the head!

And it's sad, because on its own terms, it does in some ways convey a quite meaningful view of the world, and encourages us to be open to the deeper meanings and the spiritual connections and resonances of the natural world.  So I wish it were a real account, but as it isn't, I have to feel that such transformations of reality must do more harm than good. What happened to a medieval Christian when it was proved that the famous saint's relic everyone had revered was the bone of a dog's hind leg? Didn't it hurt the faith that had sustained him, and damage the good that was in that faith? Other reviewers have mentioned more accurate, reality-based reports of the shaman's world: I'll have to follow some of those up.
74764
Very clever,  very witty, very intelligent... but a  bit too much for me.  A showman, a narcissit, with too many  qualities.  His knowledge of science and mathematics, didn't  impressed me:  those topics are commonplace and  superficial. A good  entertainer, but  frivolous.
1453895
The bass soloist is misidentified for this performance. While the label and booklet give the name of Gottlob Frick, the bass in the recording is undoubtedly Kurt Boehme. If this mistake originated with the BBC that would not surprise me, but I would have thought the folks at Testament, having issued so much 50's Wagner, would have caught the error.

Otherwise this is a hot performance, with considerably more electricity than the EMI studio version with Klemperer that followed.
4281643
She makes that song. She feels the music much like a sculptor adds life to his or her own works...her passion in music is over the top!
740565
I could go on, but J.S.M. pretty much articulated my reaction to this recording more brilliantly than I would have managed. Ms. de la Salle exhibits flashes of inspiration and brilliance; her tone is mostly lovely, her technique is impressive. But her quirky Chopinesque Mozart, though seductive in places, was hard for me to swallow. Further, I found her Prokofiev toccata to be a bit mechanical and heavy-handed - I prefer the fleeter treatments by Argerich and by Francois.
3594199
Singers voices are as subject to the ravages of time as everyone, and Ms. Franklin is no exception.  What smart singers do is to adjust accordingly, whether it be in selecting keys, songs, producers, or even retiring.  Franklin's pipes are still mighty but significantly diminished, and the disappointment here is that she is relying on electronic wizardry to add what used to be genuine heft.  She is doing the exact wrong thing, straining her voice, making nonsensical vocal swoops that used to be easy, pretending it is 1968 or something.

Franklin is game, and still an artist, and a really strong producer could really bring that more mature artistry out, but she has reached a point of divadom that she does what she likes and most fear to challenge her.  This was her most highly anticipated album in many years, showing she still has a market out there.  But in the end, it is not just disappointing - every artist has a right to make an off album now and then - but dispiriting.
4237343
First of all, I am rather disgusted with the extremities of reviews of Miss Church's CD. It is true that those who are writing spiteful reviews come across as nothing but jealous, but those who rave for the most part have an obvious lack of vocal training or knowledge of good critical assessment.  Simply being a "music lover" doesn't mean a thing when it comes to assessing an artists overall skill, because the way a voice sounds is unimportant compared to the technique that gives that voice its foundation. C.C. has a very lovely sound that falters on few occasions. However, it worries me that she has such a mature sound at her age because it is physically impossible for her rich vibrato to be natural, as her vocal instrument is still very immature. And when the voice is forced to have a certain type of sound that has not yet naturally occured (esp. when vibrato is purposely created),damage IS occuring the whole time, although you may not feel or hear the damage for a few years. YOu cannot compare other child musician prodigies of instruments like the cello or piano to one of the voice because those are not instruments that must mature over a period of many (about 15-25) years starting at puberty (which would render Church's voice about 2 years old, at most).  Undoubtedly, C.C. is ahead of most other singers of her age in stage presence, talent, and vocal control.  However it is that present Control that could give this singer a very short-lived career, a fact that I hope she becomes aware of before her voice is permantely damaged. If you buy this CD, which is certainly pleasant to listen to, it should be simply for entertainment and not as any kind of model or example of good, healthy vocal technique.
4589948
I agree with Stanley Nemeth's review - the hyperactive stage business becomes exhausting. As other reviewers have noted this actually spoils what I suspect could have been vocally a near perfect performance.  In the opera house the effect was not nearly so irritating -I saw the 2010  Covent Garden version-as it is on DVD, where the closeups intensify the clowning.
But the main problem I think was that Dessay's characterisation of Marie, dramatically effective though it was,  came at the expense of her vocal technique.  Screaming and squawking may have been in character as conceived by Pelly, but I don't think it has any place in bel canto.  Tragic opera can accommodate a few sobs by the dying, and laughs which are cascading arpeggios are standard in comic opera- though not in the score- but actually distorting the music is over the top.  We had to wait almost halfway through the opera to hear some beautiful phrasing from Dessay, and a much richer tone in 'Il faut partir' though even there her pianissimi were sometimes inaudible. Florez was his usual confident self,  and Campanella's direction elegant.
It's a great pity that Pelly couldn't allow Dessay some vocal respite, or let Donizetti's score speak for itself.
4483172
It is sad when there is so much to like about a recording, yet there are very obvious errors that were not caught during the recording process that ultimately ruin the recording.  This is the case with this CD.

Apparently, new performing materials were created for the Piazzolla "Tres Movimientos" for this recording.  The most obvious problem:  the copyist forgot to transpose the part for the clarinetists (which is a transposing instrument).  By doing so, the clarinetists (through no fault of their own) are playing the whole piece and whole step too low!  Unisons between the clarinets, oboes and flutes are no longer unisons.  It is shocking that the conductor (or the recording engineer) didn't catch this!  It ruins the entire recording of this piece.  There are other copying errors that result in the recording of other occasional wrong notes.  Also, there are many cuts in the music.  Did the conductor decide that the piece was too repetitive and just make large cuts?  In any event, it robs the CD buyer of hearing the complete piece.  (A complete recording of this piece by another orchestra is nearly 5 minutes longer.)  While it is commendable for the Santa Barbara Symphony to tackle the recording of this rare piece, they should have been a lot more careful.  Thank goodness there is at least one other better recording of this piece (and another one planned by the Nashville Symphony to be released by 2011).

The other works on the CD fare better, and the Santa Barbara Symphony plays very well (and the recorded sound is excellent).
3868687
I believe the preceding review of what is a truly fine CD is misleading enough that I need to respond to it. I was interested in getting another Fischer-Disekau interpretation of Mahler's early songs, to add to an earlier recording he had made with Leonard Bernstein in the Bernstein Century series on Sony. That unfavorable review might have fooled me, but its claims were solidly refuted when I listened to the brief Amazon online excerpts.

To suggest that Barenboim played badly, as if he were not even sober, is an ignorant and irresponsible statement. Although there are a very few places where you can hear Barenboim make a mistake, they are minor note flubs and hardly noticeable. Frankly, I'm glad to hear them and to know that this is a real performance by real, fallible performers and not an over-edited and thus artificially perfect recording.

There are two things to keep in mind when hearing a pianist play Mahler songs, and perhaps this is where the previous reviewer was confused. First, this is repertoire where a solitary pianist with merely ten fingers is playing a keyboard reduction of an orchestral score, and it's often extremely awkward under the hands. In addition, especially in the Wunderhorn songs, as frequently happens in the symphonies, Mahler is sometimes after an unusual or even grotesque effect, and this may sound like the pianist is banging or playing badly.

I find Barenboim's playing on this CD to be sensitive and technically secure. Listen to his subtle rhythmic flexibility and finely calibrated dynamic differentiations in "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen," and you can hear that he's completely in control of the piano part, hardly drunk or stoned. Not even a little tipsy...

As for Fischer-Dieskau, he was 52 when he made this recording, ten years after the Bernstein recording. (EMI's CD cover is rather misleading, as it contains a photo of a very young F.D. A more accurate photo of the two performers is in the inside cover.) His sound is a bit thinner on top and he strains sometimes, more noticeably in the Wunderhorn cycle than elsewhere. But, as with many singers, what he has lost in pure beauty of sound and ease of technique is balanced by his greater maturity as a singer and as a human being.

It's instructive to compare this recording of "Ich bin der Welt" with the earlier Bernstein version. Typically, Lenny gives a rendition that's highly dramatic and very slow (nearly a minute longer than the Barenboim version). Although both always bring tears to my eyes, I find myself more moved by the understated Barenboim interpretation than by Lenny's equally beautiful but more overtly dramatic one.

In summary, this is a sensitive and artistic performance by these two great musicians, and one that you can buy without being worried about its quality. This is a beautiful performance, and I'm glad I didn't miss it.
225853
The grade school teacher who kindly says of her  charge, "she is so talented" is not doing anybody any good. This is a very well written introduction to the powerful research started by Anders Ericsson in the acquisition of expertise. Psychology professors have spent a lot of time studying proplemed people, but this is the psychology of top performers. The good news is it is not talent - it's something called deliberative practice (which the author here calls the maybe better sounding purposeful practice). The bad news is that is takes ten years of such practice to get really really good. So it can be done, but there are no magic short cuts.

This is familiar turf to readers of&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Talent-Is-Overrated-What-Really-Separates-World-Class-Performers-from-Everybody-Else/dp/1591842247/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Talent-Code-Greatness-Isn-t-Born-It-s-Grown-Here-s-How/dp/055380684X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How.</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Outliers-The-Story-of-Success/dp/0316017930/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Outliers: The Story of Success</a>, or&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Cambridge-Handbook-of-Expertise-and-Expert-Performance-Cambridge-Handbooks-in-Psychology/dp/0521600812/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology)</a>&nbsp;- but to folks new to the idea this is a great introduction to some very important ideas. The style is smooth, and the story is personal as the author actually experienced what it takes to perform at elite Olympian levels. It is well referenced for folks who want to read further and covers some interesting applications such as the failure of Enron and the success of black athletes. However the book doesn't move the subject much further forward, and does kind of run out of steam towards the end.

If you haven't read the books I listed, then this is a must buy, as this knowledge will truly change your understanding of humans get good.  If you have these books, well, it adds color but will not seem so mind-blowing.
2537552
Moby is a talented guy, so let's get that out of the way.  But his talent is in the area of music composition.  Someone somewhere heard him sing and encouraged the poor man, and now we have this, a dismal disaster from a pampered misguided sould who's otherwise brilliant.  The man can't sing, and if his fans care about him at all they should tell him to shut up and instead put his fingers to the keyboard and do what he does best: compose music and sample other people's voices.
3829286
Trovatore is among my favorite operas, which I get to listen with passionate expectations. This opera is a masterpiece of dramatic situations. To achieve a supreme effect, there is need of four voices of absolute strength; capable of bel canto, soft tones; dramatic accents and brilliant top notes, supported by a score conducted at an urgent pace.
Alas! This Trovatore performed by Di Stefano/Callas/Barbieri/Panerai/VON KARAJAN failed to rise to the occasion. The reasons are the wrong choice of Di Stefano and Panerai to interpret their roles vocally and dramatically, except for the divina Callas and partly imposing Barbieri. Add to these Von Karajan's mixed reading of the score, relaxed tempi and tame climactic moments, proving his poor affinity with the operas of Verdi.
With a warm and Mediterranean musical instinct, Di Stefano was Callas' great partner at La Scala. His fame rivaled those of Del Monaco and Corelli in all major theatre and concert halls of the world. He had begun singing in the late forties with naturalness, simplicity, good taste and discipline as shown in The Pearl Fishers.  Sadly, within 10 short years, he changed technique for the worse in Tosca and Gioconda. He abused his voice with widely opened notes, neglecting the dimensions of voice and emission. The penalty was very harsh when the voice disappeared prematurely.  A listener elsewhere referred to his voice deterioration as "frightening" and you may notice it on this CD as Di Stefano sang Manrico in 1956. Impure bel canto in the troubadour song, poor mezza voce in "Non son tuo figlio", shouts in the famous "Pira", short breath and no squillo in "All'armi". The famous fiery aria was no showpiece at the end of Act III and broke the performance success in half.
Panerai was a baritone specialising in Mozart and Rossini with an intelligent use of attentive, discreet and varied modulations. Later, he took on more engaging roles as the Count in Trovatore or Sir Richard in Puritani. On the CD under review, he did not possess the dramatic accent and exasperated jealousy of the Count. Therefore, he was not a cautious choice to sing the Count.
I recently reviewed a fresh release in early 2001 of Trovatore with four great singers Lauri Volpi/Mancini/Pirazzini/Tagliabue/PREVITALI. Vocally and artistically, it is a stupendous and passionate studio recording made in Rome, February 1951. Buy it, because you will not find a better Trovatore in circulation at present.
3604944
For my money, the star of this performance is Ramon Vargas. He can act with the kind of restraint Hamlet rightly recommends for all times to any players, and he is in glorious voice throughout. Angela Gheorghiu possesses an indisputably gorgeous voice, and her employment of middle and high registers here is beyond criticism. She seems, though, to have developed a mannerism, a gummy holding on to vowels in the final syllables of low notes at the end of phrases which are unnecessarily ugly rather than dramatic. Also, she tends to annoyingly overact. Her Mimi has more characterization than most, it's true, and her aggressiveness in going after her chubby Rodolfo, rather than portraying the usual passive-aggressive consumptive heroine is not the problem. What is problematic is her combining of disparates. At her entrance, she's already half dead. After a sip of wine, she's Sieglinde stumbled into Paris.  The conception, along with the silent-movie emoting, is sadly contradictory. She deserved a better stage director.

The conducting of this performance seems to my ears excessively slow, with the consequence that famous moments lack any memorableness. Like a bandmaster, the conductor bows to his singers rather than to Puccini's genius.

The rest of the cast is adequate, but hardly representative of the Met casting from strength. All in all, a good performance, but hardly a great or memorable one.
4820527
The world lost a great natural talent last month.
1065878
In THE ART OF YOUTH, author Nicholas Delbanco examines the lives of three talented artists -  writer Stephen Crane, painter Dora Carrington, and musician George Gershwin - all who died by the age of 38. He also includes an autobiographical chapter about himself, apparently considering himself to have been a child prodigy as well, but this chapter does not seem to belong to the book, since he is not as noteworthy as these three artists, and he clearly did not die young.

I was not very familiar with Stephen Crane, but previously knew about Carrington from watching the film Carrington starring Emma Thompson. I had long appreciated Gershwin's music - and been intrigued by him also because we share the same birthday and a similar ancestry. Having personally experienced the peak of my own creative success when I was a teenager, I was hoping that the author Delbanco would have insights to share about early but truncated creativity. However, he only pointed out half a dozen of the obvious characteristics that these three artists had in common such as creative energy, ambition, early support, and a self-absorption combined with an outward focus.

Stephen Crane started writing poetry at the age of four, and published his second and most famous novel, Red Badge of Courage, when he was only 23. He wrote ceaselessly but did not take care of himself physically, suffered from a GI disease and died of a brain tumor when he was only 28.

Dora Carrington was a portrait and landscape painter. While DelBanco focuses on the creative outpouring of Crane and Gershwin, he appears to assume that since Carrington was female, that her relationships should be the focus rather than her creative work. Indeed, her love affairs and friendships are intriguing and unusual - especially her lifelong platonic love affair with her live-in companion, homosexual Lytton Strachey. But DelBanco could have shown Carrington the same respect he showed the two men by fully acquainting the reader with her work. Although I've watched the film about her and read this brief biography, I still know little about approach to painting or her specific works of art.

George Gershwin was born to a poor Russian Jewish family, originally named Gershowitz. His father's unstable work history led the family to be constantly moving, but his parent encouraged the musical talents of their children. From an early age, Gershwin was obsessed with music - hearing, playing, performing, composing. At the age of 23, he composed Rhapsody in Blue, followed by American in Paris and Porgy and Bess. Gershwin enjoyed immense popularity. When he died of a brain tumor at the age of 38, there was a national outpouring of grief and many memorial concerts.

Although I was pleased to learn about these three artists, I found the author's approach to them dry and tedious. Delbanco takes a distancing, external perspective on these three artists, presenting facts about their lives, but not providing any sense of their inner selves or revealing enough about their personalities to bring them to life on the page. The book is short but because it is not at all emotionally engaging or intellectually stimulating, it did not hold my interest. I rate it three stars.
1889010
Look, I'm in love with Sutton Foster. I flew across the country in excitement just to see her on Broadway in the most ridiculous Shrek costume. She's a triple threat. But the phrase triple threat implies a generalist - sought after for musical theatre. She's a great dancer, a terrific stage actress, and she has an awesome personality. but her weakness of the three is singing.

As a pure vocalist, jazz and musical theatre, I think this album is not very good. On stage or in recording, Sutton's singing is prone to the nasal twine that has plagued the industry of late.

The the band is also bland. At least it's not auto-tuned to death.

She obviously was born with a great voice, but a vocal style takes many years, if not decades, to establish. And people say that a woman's vocal abilities peak typically in their late 30s. I hope this is only a start of an amazing career in singing for her. This album proves that she is willing to let loose and experiment to find her style. I look forward to see her mature as a vocalist. Let this be the beginning chapter.