Reviews

The London Philharmonic
Celebrates American Composers

"I didn't review the London Philharmonic collection of American works on Leonarda, but it is so enjoyable that I cannot avoid acknowledging it. Donald Erb's contrabassoon concerto is a gas; Marga Richter's and Erik Lundborg's tone poems about Vermont's winter landscape and the American West, respectively, are vital portrayals; and Irwin Bazelon's strings-only Eighth Symphony is a major score." Stephen Ellis' "Want List, 1991" Fanfare. "This is a fine, varied collection of works by American composers who are scantily represented on compact discs." James H. North, Fanfare.

Erb: "Fantastic, wild, exciting Contrabassoon Concerto, performed with stunning virtuosity by Gregg Henegar." Ron Klimco, The Double Reed. Richter: "Teeming with instrumental color and rhythmic life." Lawrence Johnson, Musical America. Lundborg: "A work of sweeping, driving grandeur." Charles Ward, The Houston Chronicle. Bazelon: "The nervous energy imbuing his music is produced by a rhythmic style of a breadth and sophistication that calls to mind great masters of rhythmic freedom in the 20th century, such as Bartok and Varese." David Cox, The Musical Times (London).