JOHN BELL YOUNG plays MAHLER: ADAGIETTO

FOR MY FRIEND, CORNELIA NETTER (1934-2011) IN MEMORIAM. John Bell Young plays his piano transcription of Mahler's Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony. Copyright 1989, John Bell Young. All rights reserved. ASCAP www.johnbellyoung.com.

Photos credit: Gordon Richardson. With permission of the photographer. www.capetownskies.com/sunbeams.htm

Thanks to Mike Connolly for assembling this lovely montage.

"In this brave new world of pianistic obligatory democracy made of verifiably good (if not great) and accomplished (if not perfect) players, JOHN BELL YOUNG stands out as one of the unsung heroes of the end of this epoch. He is at once a pianist endowed with the rare gift of musical story-telling, a charmer with a rare understanding of the beauty and power of harmony, and a performer full of savoir-faire, genuine temperament and true love for his instrument"

Michel Block
Pianist, recording artist EMI, ProPiano Records

"Let me say at once that I find your playing extremely accomplished and sensitive ... superb playing... Altogether, I think it is a wonderful achievement that you have recorded these works."

-Sir Charles Mackerras

"I still find this disc [Prisms] the most satisfying and artistic piano recital ever recorded."

-Hugh Downs, ABC-News "20/20"

"John Bell Young is an American pianist who has established himself as a Scriabinist of international repute. His recital disc features striking readings of sonatas 5 and 7, plus a number of shorter works (Americus 1013). His reading of 7 is memorable; he plays it significantly more slowly than most, and it works; he obtains a ritual atmosphere entirely in keeping with the sonata's "White Mass" appellation. Sonata 5 is paced beautifully, and Young makes more of its contrasts than do many pianists; the slow passages are particularly ruminative. Throughout this disc you hear a musician who has reflected deeply on this music and has strong and original ideas about how it should be performed. Young's disc also contains some non-Scriabin works, including his own lovely transcription of Mahler's Adagietto from Symphony 5, played with melting pathos."

David McIntire,
cited from "Classical Music: Third Ear -- The Essential Listening Companion" (Backbeat Books)

"John Bell Young is a tough critic. Writing for Opera News and American Record Guide, he is quick to deflate performers, even very skilled ones, who simply go through the motions, who fail to search within themselves for a personal understanding of the music. The classical music world is full of such indifferent musicians and their cynical promoters, he often says, and to hell with the lot of them. But Young is a performer himself, a competition-winning pianist with a number of recordings to his credit ...So how will he fare when we apply his own lofty standards to his work? Just fine, as it turns out. Young's playing here is thoughtful and sensitive, especially in the works of his favorite composer and musical inspiration, Alexander Scriabin....Another treat comes with Young's own transcription of the haunting Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5, a gorgeous, sumptuous melody Mahler supposedly wrote with future wife Alma Schindler in mind...to Young's credit he makes the experience work with the piano. Grade: A"

--David Ballingrud, The St. Petersburg Times

"Most riveting ...is Young's performance of his Mahler transcription. To keep this ravishingly beautiful work cooking with the same intensity and drive as the original orchestration is a tribute to a most insightful pianist...performed with great keyboard savvy."

Jim Edwards, Clavier

Category:

Music

Tags:

• mahler
• adagietto
• fifth
• symphony
• piano
• john
• bell
• young
• transcription

[bearmanmr]

u just made me cry