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1984 BBC Young Musician of The Year Performs Crusell's Concerto in F Minor
The MHS Review 392 Vol. 11 No. 14 1987
David M. Greene

"...the point of this particular choice has more rationale than just the decided charm of the concerto. In 1984 thousands of Britishers were glued to their tellys for five weeks watching the BBC competition for Young Musician of the Year, and saw Miss Johnson win with this piece. "
A Compelling Reading: Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra
The MHS Review 376 Vol. 10, No. 16 • 1986
David M. Greene

Musicians of my acquaintance talked about Bartok, Stravinsky, and Schoenberg as though they were music's Holy Trinity. Today there are few musicians who deign to speak to me, but I somehow get the impression that, as an influence, Bartok has been removed from that lofty eminence.
A Delightful Group: American Piano Music by Bennett Lerner
The MHS Review 381 Vol. 11, NO. 3 • 1987
David M. Greene

Seeing the title of this record, I was a bit taken aback. I didn't know what to expect. One of those horsehairstuffed sonatas by MacDowell? Some of those ickey-poo salon pieces by Ethelbert Nevin? It was difficult to guess at anything much later. Who knows the piano works by Howard Hanson or Roger Sessions? The complete piano music by Leonard Bernstein and Irving Babbitt occupies an LP apiece, and Copland's just two. For a moment I wondered if anyone still writes piano music.
A Pretty Piece of Fluff: Dvorak's Piano Quintet
The MHS Review 376 Vol. 10, No. 16 • 1986
David M. Greene

Such information as one usually finds about the Quintet dwells on the fact that Simrock, Dvorak's publisher, without a by-your-leave, brought it out in 1888 as Op. 77, suggesting that it was a recent composition. It wasn't. Dvorak had written it 13 years earlier, when he was stripling of 34.
A Real Artist: Three Cheers for Pooh - Robert Tear, Philip Ledger
The MHS Review 356 Vol 9, No 14 1985
David M. Greene

Robert Tear is a real artist. He has developed a formidable technique, which he uses to add marvelously subtle coloring to what he sings, and he knows exactly what he is singing about and wants you to understand it (i.e. he sings with both clarity and intelligence).
A Real Russian Boris
The MHS Review 237 Vol. 3, No. 3 March 26, 1979
David W. Moore

Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov is arguably the greatest and without argument the most controversial of Russian operas. Mussorgsky made several major revisions of his score before it was accepted for its first performances. Then after his death Rimsky-Korsakov, in an attempt to salvage an opera he felt deserved a better reception than it had been given, made another wholesale revision and re-orchestration of his own.
A Remarkable Rebirth: The Recorder
The MHS Review 343 Vol. 9, No. 1 • 1985
David M. Greene

In former times, if one met a slightly rumpled person puffing on a pipe, he was sure to be a professor. Tobacco pipes having been downgraded by restaurateurs, airline stewardesses, and the Surgeon General, you are more likely to meet a professor tootling meditatively on a musical pipe.
A Stunning Interpretation: Scriabin and Prokofiev
The MHS Review 371 Vol. 10, No. 11 1986
Frank Retzel

There is an affecting and haunting charm to the piano music of Alexander Scriabin. Even in the briefest piece, there is an allurement drawing you into a maze which holds you long after the final cadence.