‘Three world-premiere recordings of large-scale pieces by Morton Gould are cause for celebration, and with this release we are close to having all of Gould’s orchestral pieces on either LP or CD… not the least here is Gould’s String Music, the work for which he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in music. The work is a five-movement suite reflecting, as Gould wrote in his program note to the score, the “man and musician we have all come to know for the intensity and emotion of his commitment to music and life, Mstislav Rostropovich”' anyway, what’s important is that the work is a lovely, intensely lyrical, and thematic work' Conductor David Alan Miller leads the Albany Symphony in totally sympathetic performances that I can’t imagine being bettered. [In the Piano Concerto] Randall Hodgkinson tosses off his solo lines with aplomb. Albany’s sound is complimentary to the music’s colours. This CD is a prime example of intelligent A&R planning.’
Fanfare
