Reviews

Sunbursts
Solo piano works by 7 American women

CD and Performance: "If you like memorable melodies, accessible harmonies with a touch of hot dissonance, this CD is for you. Almost all neo-romantic in scope, the pieces complement each other while retaining their own flavors and style...Nanette Kaplan Solomon presents each piece with nuance and indefatigable attention to detail coupled with a bravura technique that leaves the listener breathless...The recorded sound is very good, and the piano has a clear and warm sound...Highly recommended." Women of Note Quarterly. "Nanette Solomon performs with the bravura, the lush tone, the variety of colors and the musical understanding the works demand." Judith Radell, IAWM Journal (International Alliance for Women in Music).

Ruth Schonthal: "A highly communicative and expressive voice writing exquisite music." The New Haven Register. "The ear is titillated with gorgeous melodies, slightly askew harmonies, and the mind is challenged to recognize the composers [to whom 'homage' is paid]... A delightful piece, and a great opener for this CD." Women of Note Quarterly. "Schonthal writes preludes that are concise, effective and, occasionally, startling." IAWM Journal.

[Sheila]"Silver speaks a musical language of her own, one rich in sonority, lyrical intensity and poetic feeling." The Chicago Tribune. "A haunting piece, Fantasy Quasi Theme and Variation encourages many hearings." Women of Note Quarterly. "lush and lyrical Fantasy" IAWM Journal.

Diane Thome: "Opening with a Brahmsian theme, the variations pay tribute to the various styles of Haydn, Schumann, Debussy, Carter, and Copland. Thome etches tender, fiery, and brilliant variations, while the finale is filled with drama and flourish. This is a piece that audiences will embrace." Women of Note Quarterly. "Thome's quotations are cleverly integrated into the variations, so that the recognizable phrases of Copland and Carter are woven into the larger tapestry of Thome's design." IAWM Journal.

Stefania de Kenessey: "[There] are two gorgeous melodies, completely satisfying and completely memorable; I had them both in my head for days after." The New Music Connoisseur. "Stefania de Kenessey's Sunburst, the title piece of the CD, is a pianistic, glamorous work." IAWM Journal.

Vivian Adelberg Rudow: "[The first piece of the set] is a programmatic and impressionistic piece that soars on gossamer wings of lightness and illumination. A captivating piece on the first hearing, it is carefully structured, and the atmospheric and melodic changes complement each other. Calm and reflective, [the second] creates a different mood, one of acceptance and finality. [There are] beautiful melodies reminiscent of Brahms with the lush fullness of post-romantic symphonists." Women of Note Quarterly. "Writing in a style that draws on Impressionist and Romantic traditions, [Rudow] considers herself a 'sound portrait painter'." IAWM Journal.

Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee: "The first of Three Preludes, Op. 68, (1994), abounds in fourths, either linearly or stacked into harmonies. Motives alternate between stark and lyrical forging a rich harmonic tapestry. More gentle in nature, the second Prelude is calm in mood with searching and restless chord progressions. Returning to the gregarious mood of the first Prelude, the last Prelude is compelling with its ostinatos, arpeggios, and well- placed dissonances." Women of Note Quarterly. "Hers is a compositional style in which neoclassicism and new romanticism meet, along with an ethnic flavor [Armenian]." Piano & Keyboard. "Rahbee's preludes employ a quartile harmonic language and are written in a powerful style reminiscent of Prokofiev." IAWM Journal.

Emma Lou Diemer: "She utilizes the entire range of the keyboard, introduces spicy rhythmic ostinatos and motives, incorporates unusual technical twists, and merges all these elements into a wholly satisfying musical unit." Women of Note Quarterly. "Emma Lou Diemer's Fantasy is a free, Romantic work from a composer whose piano music is often characterized by a driving rhythms and the structured development of tiny motives … this is perhaps her most pianistic work." IAWM Journal.