Ponthus’s shaping of the rapid scales allows you not only to hear the notes but to grasp melodic signposts. Every short downward glissando has a different colour, while the staccato clusters emerge as stars in a sonic constellation, rather than random percussive hits… Ponthus truly inhabits this work, both pianistically and emotionall.
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Order & Chaos in Works by Stockhausen & Beethoven

November 2023, Cinemusical Blog
Ponthus’ performance is a stunning one with a sense of shape and inner understanding that comes forth in this recording… Bridge’s release is a stellar one with excellent notes and sound helping to fully support a performance that listeners will likely return to repeatedly.  It is a release not to be missed.
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If you were looking to hear hitherto uncharted piano music similar to Brahms or Schumann's, from an unjustly neglected composer, you can't do better than this. Thumbs-up to Lowell Liebermann and producer Sergei Kvitko at Blue Griffin for offering something new, different and yet traditional, for us to enjoy.
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Ian Hobson led the members of the Sinfonia da Camera in a well-focused, idiomatic reading of Strauss’ waltz-inflected score, and cohesion between singers and orchestra was firmly maintained throughout…Also, stepping out of his role as conductor, Hobson crossed the stage to the left side and gave an awesome performance of “Carnaval de Vienne,” by famous virtuoso Moritz Rosenthal (1862-1946). This is a potpourri of J. Strauss’ melodies, with a passing reference to “Fledermaus,” all ornamented so densely with runs and trills that only players of the highest level of skills can do it. Like Herrera’s topping bulls, Hobson slew the keyboard dragon.
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The warmth of the choir was complemented by the joy the musicians in the orchestra were clearly taking in all their important solos – perhaps the fact that each was an expert in playing Bach ‘the way Bach would have played it’ had doubled their pleasure in playing Bach the way Mendelssohn would have played it.
After a tremendous earthquake, (conductor Christopher) Jackson brought the Passion home with an ending so deeply satisfying that I knew if this were the only St. Matthew Passion we had, I would survive.
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"It's a great place for a concert series like this," says Artistic Director and composer Lowell Liebermann. "Certainly, the venue is terrific, they have that magnificent organ that has just been renovated. And they've just acquired an absolutely gorgeous Steinway concert grand piano. It's a big deal."
The organ is in equally good hands for its return. Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs will begin the series with a program of Bach, Mozart, and contemporary works. Jacobs has played churches and concert halls all over the world, and he says one of the joys of his job is that every stage and organ is different.
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Pianist/composer Michael Stephen Brown is slipping in a few of his own works in his Arizona Friends of Chamber Music recital on Wednesday, Nov. 8, including a piece he wrote for right hand only.
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Mr. Hobson proceeded to No. 3 making it sound easy overall. Despite rapid alternation of octaves and trills – requiring lumberjack and ballet dancer – Mr. Hobson was up to it all… it was an epic undertaking, amazingly handled – all “chased down” with Schumann’s diabolically difficult Toccata Op. 7 (1829-32).
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The players gamely tackled the drama of the outer movements, heightening dynamic contrasts in the ebullient first and bringing an undeniable swagger to the final Allegro con spirito. The inner movements benefited from a gentle touch and well-balanced textures.
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Australian Haydn Ensemble in Review

October 20, 2023 New York Concert Review
The AHE tore into the stormy first movement with a roiling intensity that caught my attention right away – this was passionate, emotionally powerful and impactful playing. The second movement had an austere quality played with simple sincerity, and the finale was dispatched with élan, complete with a surprise quiet ending that could have been written by Haydn. It was an impressive start to the evening.
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Bach’s Solo Organ Spectacular by Paul Jacobs

October 20, 2023 Wall Street Journal
Written for his eldest son, the composer’s ‘Six Trio Sonatas for Organ’ introduced a new musical form that required unprecedented levels of technique in a single musician.
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Set to an original sweeping score by Lowell Liebermann, and immersed within the striking stage design by world-renowned artist of premiere ballets and operas John Macfarlane, this must-see Chicago premiere is one of the most innovative works of dance today.
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Dance Review: FRANKENSTEIN (The Joffrey Ballet)

October 19, 2023 Stage and Cinema
Lowell Liebermann‘s scintillating score, played live by the Lyric Opera Orchestra tightly conducted by Scott Speck, and the impressive scenic and costume design by John Mcfarlane made for a most balanced show.
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18th Century Uncovered

October 16, 2023 Concertonet
Not false, though, was the Australian Haydn Ensemble joy and expertise. This is their first American presence. Let it not be the end. Haydn’s 100‑plus symphonies deserve more from this chamber‑sized radiant assemblage.
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Over the years there have been countless interpretations of “Frankenstein,” Mary Shelley’s extraordinary 1818 Gothic novel… But the Joffrey Ballet’s production of the story that opened Thursday evening on the stage of the Lyric Opera House — the work of the masterful British choreographer Liam Scarlett, set to a richly dramatic original score by Lowell Liebermann — might very well be its most stunning interpretation yet.
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The rich, atmospheric, almost cinematic score, with its evocative use of piano, celeste and vibraphone, was provided by American composer Lowell Liebermann
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Scarlett’s treatment of Lowell Liebermann’s lush original score has Assucena and Cuevas traversing the entire stage with apparent reckless abandon
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The Sounds of Central Asia

October 9, 2023 Concertonet
Yet it was the following Chamber Concerto for violin, piano and abbreviated orchestra which was absolutely mesmerizing…the awards had to go to the composer on piano. Mr. Liebermann has never appeared in Carnegie Hall as soloist which is a shame. Though his sensitivity, his balance, his tasteful yet rarely aggressive lines had the beauty of a Gothic edifice.
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An Epic and Empathetic Take on 'Frankenstein'

October 4, 2023 Newcity Stage
“Frankenstein” is set to an orchestral score commissioned from composer Lowell Liebermann…It’s such a beautiful score. The music follows the narrative beautifully.
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This expansive movement gave Jacobs the canvas on which to exploit the kaleidoscopic color palette of the mighty Bryan Concert Organ to the fullest. I heard sounds from the instrument that I never have before. This movement led without pause into the final “Toccata,” which brought the concerto to a rousing conclusion and the audience immediately to its feet.
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Mr. Hobson’s performances were assured and persuasive, as one has come to expect, from his many decades of performing and his wide-ranging discography.
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Featuring pianist and composer Michael Stephen Brown
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THE POWER OF JUXTAPOSITION

September 28, 2023 Infodad
What Ponthus does in pairing these pieces is enormously impressive, and his handling of the two large-scale works is thoughtful and technically first-rate… As knowing and intricate as Ponthus’ performances are, the CD as a whole is ultimately more satisfying intellectually than emotionally. It is, however, quite an experience.
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Chen’s perfectly calibrated touch and transitions created an immersive and seamless musical universe... With “Infinite Staircase,” Chen and Metropolis Ensemble have effectively commissioned a new catalog of solo piano repertoire that will echo long after the applause.
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The Ligeti concert, marking the composer’s centennial, was first and foremost an astounding performance by pianist Han Chen.
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His energy and stamina within each Étude and through the whole concert were extraordinary… Chen’s playing obliterated all secondary considerations and experiences though, and probably ruined the listener for any other experience of this music.
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It’s rare enough to catch a world premiere. It’s unheard of to catch 18 in one night.
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Let’s Talk Music podcast with Phil Gainsley: Episode 97 Paul Jacobs

September 14, 2023 Let’s Talk Music podcast
An extraordinarily expressive performer and an intensely intelligent musician, Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs is helping the “King of Instruments” retake its rightful place in classical music.  Charming to speak with and passionate about the instrument, this hour with Paul is sheer delight.
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For Ligeti’s centennial, the pianist Han Chen has commissioned a companion piece for each of the composer’s eighteen études, eruptive works thinly disguised as keyboard exercises. Here, Chen plays the new pieces, paired with the originals, for the first time.
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Liam Scarlett’s Frankenstein Sees Chicago Premiere

September 7, 2023 The Ballet Herald
The production’s heartbeat pulses to an original and sweeping score composed by Lowell Liebermann. This evocative music provides the emotional undercurrent that drives the story forward, ensuring that every moment on stage resonates with the audience.
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Lisztomania Enters the Twenty-first Century

September 4, 2023 The New Yorker
The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Études and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of the opera transcriptions.
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… playing by the full Sinfonia Varsovia is anything but excellent and likewise Ian Hobson’s choice of tempi, even in a completely unknown work, feels apt and intelligent
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Young artists excelled in all these concerts, not least the pianist Michael Stephen Brown, whose poised refinement made an early student piece by Smyth, her Sarabande in D minor, sound like a mature masterpiece.
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Featuring violist da gamba Andrew Arceci and the Beo String Quartet
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The Winchendon Music Festival, led by Founder and distinguished American musician Andrew Arceci, who performs on colascione, viola da gamba and double bass, returns this year for seven concerts from 16 to 27 August 2023.
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Excellently played work.
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Surrounded by sounds of the piano

July 31, 2023 News Gazette
With Hobson on the left-hand piano and Goila on the right, they gave a sparkling performance of Wolfgang Mozart’s 1781 Sonata for Two Piano, K. 448. This reading was all that one can treasure in a Mozart performance, graceful wit, fine melodies and a theatrical sense of drama.
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The Pittsburgh-based Beo String Quartet will release a new album, “triggerLand,” on May 25. Refusing to be pigeonholed into traditional, classical string music, the group has played contemporary, rock and experimental music in addition to having a solid classical repertoire.
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14 pianists let Rzewski shine in marathon tribute at Merkin

May 07, 2023, New York Classical Revie
Oppens’s eye for detail, vibrant touch, and quicksilver color changes showed why she is in a class by herself with this kind of repertoire.
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This exciting, magical and sublime concert changed my perception of live vs. recorded music; for the first time in my life music is feeling more human and inviting.
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All in all, it was a memorable concert and a privilege to attend, as those present were undoubtedly aware.
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Yet transforming madness into the most beatific music was a miracle which only Schumann could have produced. Ian Hobson has both the poetry and deft technique to make that dream an aural reality.
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KFFR Highlight: Beo String Quartet

April 21, 2023 KFFR Community Radio for the Fraser Valley
Winter Parks and Fraser Valley local radio station interviews Beo String Quartet.
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Beo String Quartet 131 (CD Review)

April 21, 2023 Classical Candor
131 is a nice-sounding recording of an interesting program of highly original and imaginative music
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The Beo String Quartet has a particularly fine sense of ensemble, with individual players’ sound coming to the fore as needed but with the passages for the complete group being the most impressive…it is certainly a very fine one on multiple levels.
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Barge Music Pianist U. Oppens

April 16, 2023 ConcertoNet
(Ursula Oppens) is a living, breathing, charming, iconoclastic musician. And audiences know that.
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Brilliant UNCSA Orchestra Concert Features World Premiere

March 25, 2023 North Carolina Classical Voice
A full house at the Stevens Center greeted the world premiere performance of Permutations, a concerto in one movement, composed by alumnus Robert Chumbley
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The Local Vibe interviews composer/pianist Robert Chumbley live on The Triad CW TV
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Charleston Ballet, string quartet to present 'Bold Moves'

March 1, 2023 Charleston Gazette-Mail
The Charleston Ballet and Beo String Quartet will present “Bold Moves,” the finale to the ballet’s 67th performance season
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When you attend a concert by Da Capo, you hear transcendent virtuosity, including stunning extended techniques, as we did on this occasion. You know that each time you hear a performance you are hearing the finest possible rendition—as if it were a ready-to-release CD.
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The final Novelette was given a masterly rendition, with all the color and contrast one could wish for. In the moment when the Stimme aus der Ferne (Voice from Afar) appears, which is actually a quote from one of Clara’s own works, we were given all the haunting poetry this music is capable of in the hands of a great pianist.
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Is there any sound Charles Neidich can not make on the clarinet? If so, I have yet to know about it.
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Beo means: to bless, make happy, gladden, and delight. Based on this one introductory hearing, I believe the Beo String Quartet is poised to do just that, to an ever widening circle of audiences...Bravo Beo, I hope to hear many more good things from and about you for years to come.
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Beo String Quartet makes an outstanding New York debut

February 1, 2023 New York Classical Review
The latest group to impress is the Beo String Quartet, which made its New York City debut Tuesday evening with a superb concert at the Morgan Library.
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As someone who uses words to describe music, I find myself at something of a loss how adequately to respond to Ian Hobson’s superb Schumann recital last night.
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All Schumann, all sonatas in Hobson’s energetic recital

December 17, 2022, New York Classical Review
For more than 50 years, the Da Capo Chamber Players have stood for excellence in performance, commissioning, Playing with insight and a digital prowess equal to the blizzards of notes Schumann flung across the page...
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Da Capo Chamber Players presents “Juxtapositions” in Review

December 14, 2022, New York Concert Review
For more than 50 years, the Da Capo Chamber Players have stood for excellence in performance, commissioning, and dissemination of contemporary chamber music. They show no signs of stopping any time soon.
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Da Capo Chamber Players mix it up with composers past and present

December 12, 2022, New York Classical Review
Renowned for penetrating and polished performances, Da Capo has been crucial in creating a body of contemporary American chamber music by commissioning over 100 new works. Through their performances, they have introduced this repertoire to audiences around the world.
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Spanish pianist displays impressive artistry at Zankel Hall

Ocotober 13, 2022 New York Classical Review
Martín García García is an astonishing pianist of great musicality and indomitable technique.
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Piano Cleveland presents Martín García García in Review

Ocotober 12, 2022 New York Concert Review
This young man already has so much, and he has time to gather his musical philosophies into a coherent whole, for it is clear he possesses them.
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The 25-year-old musician makes his debut at the great New York concert hall, where he has lived for three years, after winning important international competitions. Expressive, energetic and very physical before the keyboard, during the talk the guaje García is a whirlwind of smiles and ideas.
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Martín García García, from Gijón, makes his debut today at L'Auditori with the OBC and next week at Carnegie Hall
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Cassatt in the Basin returns

Ocotober 7, 2022 Odessa American
The musical education program is also known as Cassatt in the Basin which has brought the quartet to West Texas biannually for almost 20 years.
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A successful opening to the Sinfonia's season

October 2, 2022 News Gazette
The Sinfonia da Camera, conducted by Ian Hobson, played its first concert of the fall season on Sept. 17 in Foellinger Great Hall.
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Da Capo Chamber Ensemble’s 50th Season

August 22, 2022 Relevant Tones
Host Austin Williams talks with flutist Patricia Spencer and composer Bruce Adolphe about their incredible run and the featured music in their 50th season.
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“University of Illinois piano professor emeritus Ian Hobson, director of the Summer Piano Institute and Sinfonia da Camera, discussed both the institute and the concerts in the following interview” – Jim Meadows
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“One heard a real understanding of the idiom, and there were some very special moments …This is a pianist I would like to hear again!” – Donald Isler
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“Titled Youth Involvement in Classical Music, Da Capo's founding member flutist  Patricia Spencer spoke eloquently about the ensemble's ongoing effort to support young composers over the past five decades.”
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“Paul Jacobs, one of the finest organists and teachers of our day.” – Zachary Woolfe
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The two string-orchestra movements show considerably greater maturity of expression, being serious, dignified and mournful, if not quite tragic – Moszkowski wrote the music after the death of his mother, and it serves as an altogether fitting tribute to her. The majority of the material on this disc, though, falls squarely into the “lighter side” musical realm… There is certainly a case to be made for lighter music of this sort, and Hobson and this orchestra make it very well indeed...
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The Cassatt String Quartet has performed all over. The quartet has been invited to share its program at Texas A&M University and the Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas....
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Cassatt in the Basin is a music educational program that brings the Cassatt String Quartet to West Texas bi-annually to inspire and work intensively with students (from elementary to college) and help expand their horizons as well as develop people through music....
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This fantastic experience of musical beauty and stamina of grand magnitude took robust, able-bodied teamwork and fearless musicianship. It really proved that, yes, the Da Capo Chamber Players have fifty years of experience under their belts. And, clearly, they haven’t wasted a minute of it....
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The guitarist brings refinement to every turn of phrase, whether the music is marching, dancing or crying. Generations of guitarists will thank Starobin for bringing Matiegka’s pieces to light. This recording is a swansong to savour....
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We hope to see you in New York on Tuesday, June 7 at St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square for Part II of Franck's Organ Works, featuring his Six Pieces. Franz Liszt stated of these extraordinarily rich compositions: "These pieces have their place alongside the masterpieces of Bach." Secure your tickets here:
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Da Capo gave a terrific performance...as a whole the ensemble sounded expert in how they listened and worked with space....
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Da Capo Chamber Players 50th Anniversary: Bridging Cultures

April 5, 2022 New York Concert Review
Those who came were to be rewarded with excellent performances by first-rate musicians. I also commend Da Capo for providing detailed program notes and lyrics, along with biographical materials about the composers....
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David Starobin’s New Matiegka Guitar Sonatas CD In Review

April 5, 2022 Classical Music Sentinel
There is a self-effacing quality to his playing, whereby the music itself takes center stage. A character trait unfortunately in very short supply these day....
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First violinist Muneko Otani and second violinist Jennifer Leshnower have welcomed the arrival of violist Rosemary Nelis and cellist Gwen Krosnick to The Cassatt String Quartet....
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These are superb pieces that one rarely hears in concert to begin with, and even less frequently with this kind of clarity—the sense that the musician understands them and enables them to speak with such eloquence... [these were] deeply musical and satisfying performances....
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Hobson brought the whirl of personalities to energetic life....
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The most admirable thing about Mr. Hobson’s overall take on these works is the headlong plunge he takes, seems very Schumann-esque to me, though Schumann was also a hyper-refined poetic sensibility. Dear Mr. Hobson, please return soon and often, and show us these treasures in whatever venue is available.…
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