Anne Akiko Meyers

An interesting and enjoyable program by an exciting new composer. Anyone interested in approachable modern music should try this one.

My daughter plays violin and we absolutely loved this CD. Ordered it after hearing one of the pieces on XM Classics and had to purchase the CD.
Jennifer Higdon is amazing!

I bought this CD primarily to hear the wonderfully talented violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, and her playing certainly is as great as ever. I was pleasantly suprised at how easy the rest of this CD is to listen to. Jennifer Higdon is truly one of our great treasures and her performance here is to be commended. Bravo!

Jennifer Higdon is emerging as one of America's greatest living composers. Her music has the distinction of being at once complex, sophisticated but readily accessible emotionally. Her compositional techniques are eclectic, tonally familiar and can reach to levels of high lyricism to fiery bartokian savagery. These string quartets are worthy extensions leading from Debussy to Bartok. The music is technically very demanding but this performance is fantastic, bright, fresh and spontaneous even upon frequent listening. With its unselfconscious style, there is something uniquely fresh and American sounding to Higdon's music. This album should be a treat for any lover of 21st century contemporary music.

I am not an expert in classical music, but have always loved the string instruments. I bought this CD for relaxation (as the title implies) and to help me focus on writing a thesis. I was torn between this CD and the Cello for Relaxation. I am pleased with my choice. My favorites are track #2 and #10 (listen to the samples through Amazon) - I usually play these two on repeat. My least favorite is track #7 because it sounds like a piano dominated movie soundtrack.
Although I wish I could have exchanged some of the tracks for others, I think this CD was worth the money and is a nice mix for those of us who don't know specific composers by name or who want a good sampling.

The selection of music was a good mix and pleasant in listening to them.

The choice of orchestras and conductors are also very well selected offering very good variety in the similar music mood.

My two long time favourites "Meditation" and "Salut d'amour" were very well played in the right tempo and instrumental arrangement.

The recording quality is good offering both clarity and defination in the recording.

To me, it is an extraordinary combination demonstarting the old world beauty and timeless artistry of the violin.

It will take you back to everything good remembered, and forward to everything good ahead of us.

I had hopes for this recording after reading an interview with Anne Akiko Meyers, the violinist and dedicatee of "Angel Fire". She is a superb and sensitive artist whose work I admire.

The recording is very disappointing. Modernist composers often disappoint me. I'm not in love with dissonance. I'm not open to aural assaults. I was unable to listen all the way through to any of the compositions on the CD.

It's unclear to me if there was truly any intent to these compositions beyond the "because I can" reasoning that appears to dominate all segments of art. I'm being generous by giving the recording two stars.

Joseph Schwantner is one of the greatest American composers of our time, having written much accessible modern music in his career, ranging from the Sharon Isbin-commissioned guitar concerto "From Afar" to "New Morning For The World" for speaker and orchestra. Four of his compositions, one of which touches on the memory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, are featured on this new Hyperion recording by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and various soloists, with the orchestra's music director Andrew Litton leading the proceedings.

The opening work, "A Sudden Rainbow", composed in 1986 and thus the earliest work on the recording, is almost a concerto for orchestra, putting special emphasis on the percussion section, as well as parts for celesta and amplified piano. "Angelfire", composed in 2001, is a mini-concerto for amplified violin and orchestra and is dedicated to violinist Anne Akiko-Meyers, whose performance of it here is extremely commendable. "Beyond Autumn" is a work for horn and orchestra, and is brilliantly rendered by the DSO's principal horn player Gregory Hustis.

The final work, and really the piece-de-resistance, is "September Canticle", a work Schwantner composed in 2002 as a meditation of sorts on the subject of the horrible terrorist attacks, and a requiem for the three thousand-plus who lost their lives on that fateful late summer morning in American history. The work, which is described by the composer as a "fantasy" for organ, brass, percussion, amplified piano, and strings, is an immense memoriam for the dead and the survivors, with organist James Diaz superlative in his concerto-like role.

All four works are bought together under Litton's solid direction, and the Dallas Symphony shows why it is one of our nation's greatest orchestras, particularly when it comes to performing the music of our native soil and of our times. This is a recording of contemporary classical music that is more than worth the price of the CD. It may yet turn out to be an essential classical recording of our era.

A fabulous album - artistry at the highest level. Very sensitive, nuanced, and impassionate performance by the musicians.

This is the way the violin is supposed to be played,Soft melodic and whimsical, quite a difference in the pieces presented here.this is a RCA red label so you may have to go through hell to get it,,,but I assure you ...you will arrive in VIOLIN HEAVEN

I love every track on this cd. Leontyne Price does the best Dido's lament I've ever heard! The selected pieces are wonderful. This is a great introduction to Classical Music. It also works for Classical Music lovers.

Unlike most Cd's this one focuses on variety and classics rather than one specific composer or emotion. It includes a Requiem Mass, ment for a funeral, and Canon in D, one of the most celebrated joyous pieces in history. 2 opposite worlds, on one great cd!

I noted there was no review of this CD on your site. Since it is one of those musical collections I find myself listening to regularly and enjoying each and every track...I felt it was only fair to suggest that those who haven't tried it prior to now - do so. I'm not an educated music critic...but find this CD to be beautiful and uplifting.

This CD contains some of the greatest music that is both ecstatic (such as Isold's Libiestod), and tranquil, such as Mahler's Symphony #5, and Barber's Adagio. Most of the works are from the truly great performers (such as the Mozart piece.) However, the Libiestod, while good, comes nowhere near the ecstacy other singers have displayed such as Jessye Norman and Brigit Nilsson. Still, for the low price of the CD, this suffices.