Category: reviews

“Spalding fits the ‘inimitable’ label that Parnassus’s collection of violinist can claim as a given, and these mostly unpublished recordings (around 1950) are both songful and fresh. … the performances by Spalding and Dohnányi make this well-transferred disc indispensable for all lovers of quality chamber of music memorably performed.”
– Gramophone, August 2025

Spalding and Dohnányi in Concert

Bach: Sonata No. 3 in E major, BWV1016 • Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 • Dohnányi: Violin Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 21
Albert Spalding, Ernő Dohnányi

Schubert: Grand Duo for Violin and Piano in A Major, D574 • Ravel: Vocalise-étude en forme de habanera
Albert Spalding, Anthony Kooiker

Recorded ca. 1950
Produced by Leslie Gerber
Restored and mastered by Gene Gaudette, Urlicht AudioVisual
Parnassus PACL96096

We’re very happy about the press reception to Parnassus’s latest release. CD available from Presto, Amazon, and EuropaDisc – download available from Presto!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️”Hungarian born cellist János Starker was still a child when he started studying at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he knew Bartók and Kodály. Starker became a great evangelist for Kodály’s major cello works, making two recordings of the Duo for Violin and Ccello, and here’s a third, live in Sofia in 1986 with violinist Elmira Darvarova, who writes about performing with Starker just days before she escaped the scrutiny of Bulgarian security and absconded to the west (becoming the Met Opera’s first female concertmaster).
“It’s a potent partnership, alongside Starker’s 1950 recording of Kodály’s Solo Sonata, newly remastered with immersive immediacy.”
– BBC Music Magazine, August 2025

Available for download and streaming on Qobuz and Presto.
Streaming on Apple Music Classical, Spotify, and Tidal.
CD available from ArkivMusic, ImportCDs, and Amazon,

“Hot new cool jazz release. The Urlicht AudioVisual label has just released a new album by Sophie Duner and Steve Beck featuring Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Tierkreis and Francis Schwartz’s The Neon Pterodactyl. Stunning recordings that are anything but conventional.”

– LMNOP/dONW7/babysue (from their always entertaining new release roundup)

Links for streaming, download, and purchase here.

“Dunér beguiles and draws everyone in.”
– Simon Jenner, Fringe Review.
Read the full review here.

“The centre-piece of the evening was a terrific performance of Tierkreis, Stockhausen’s extraordinary rendering of the signs of the Zodiac into musical emblems, written originally for six percussionists and musical boxes. Dunér and Powell’s exposition was an edge-of-the-seat experience, the singer’s obvious facility with the weird contents of the piece fully on show. She had learnt it with the composer and so has lived a long with time with its Babel-inspired collection of polyglot vocalises. There are other versions of the piece floating in cyberspace but Dunér and Powell make a creditable case for theirs to be canonical.”
– Christopher Woodley, Bachtrack. Read the full review here.

Sophie’s studio recording of Tierkreis is available on CD from Deep Discount and ImportCDs, for download from Qobuz and Presto, and streaming on all major platforms.

From the May/June issue of Fanfare:

This is an outstanding release. It couples a fine audio restoration by Gene Gaudette of János Starker’s recording of Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, originally made in 1950 for the Period label, with a first release of a 1986 live performance featuring Starker and violinist Elmira Darvarova of the same composer’s Duo for Violin and Cello. … Starker’s mastery of the Solo Cello Sonata is well known. … The music just pours out of him as if it were embedded in his DNA. … What makes Starker’s performance unique is the way he melds those disparate elements into a unified whole. Impressive as it is as a technical display, it is the music’s organic structure that holds onto our attention throughout its almost half-hour length, and the relentless energy of Starker’s playing. … When he returned in 1986, he pressured authorities to allow [Darvarova] to play the Duo with him, which they ultimately did after considerable resistance, but they gave her a very hard time about it. The emotion behind that experience was poured into the performance in a way that is crystal clear to any listener. Darvarova, who was the first female concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera (and still the only one), is a stunning match for Starker not only technically but in the raw power that both produce. The stereo sound is excellent, creating the feeling of sitting in a reasonably center seat of a chamber music hall. This is a thrilling recording, one that I can recommend without reservation.
– Henry Fogel, Fanfare

This is Want List material. Right from the start, the intensity, excitement, and passion of the performances rocketed through my speakers and immediately hit escape velocity. I was enthralled by the music and the music-making for the duration of the disc. … Darvarova and Starker are simply magnificent in the Duo. … Perhaps it was the raw, emotional response to her then-imminent escape from tyranny and persecution, but the violinist penetrates to the very core of this music. As with the Duo, Starker made several recordings of the Op. 8. This one is a practically immaculate restoration of his early recording made in 1950, and issued on LP on the Period label. … Credit for that sterling restoration and elimination of most extraneous noises goes to the engineer, who happens also to be the producer of this recording, Gene Gaudette. Bravo! … As noted at the outset, this disc will assuredly make my Want List this year. Urgently recommended.
– Keith R. Fisher, Fanfare

On any list of great cellists of the 20th century, János Starker is sure to be at or very near the top of it. … That said—and even though half of the album at hand is devoted to Starker alone, playing the Solo Cello Sonata—in no small way, it’s violinist Elmira Darvarova who takes center stage in this production. … I can say that this is the finest performance of the Duo I have heard and am personally familiar with. … For the perfect mix of ingredients and blend of spices, it’s Starker and Darvarova’s Kodály Duo you want.
– Jerry Dubins, Fanfare

The real gem on the present disc is the first release of a 1986 live performance from Sofia of the Duo, featuring a partnership with the violinist Elmira Darvarova. Darvarova, who is perhaps best known as the first (and only) female concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, proves a fully equal partner. This is one of those special live performances that we are lucky to have preserved on disc. It abounds with fire and intensity, the two soloists playing off one another as though they had been working together for years, even though this one of their first collaborations! … [T]he present disc should not be missed by anyone interested in great string playing.
– Michael Vaillancourt, Fanfare

It is wonderful to hear János Staker in this repertoire. These are recordings made in 1986 (the live Duo) and 1950 (New York City for the Sonata, which was first released on Period Records SPL-510). Gene Gaudette is both producer and remastering engineer for the present incarnation, and what a fine job he does. … Darvarova and Starker are at their finest in the Adagio, with Darvarova’s passion in overdrive. When the two instruments meet on a unison line, the effect is magical, and so, so powerful; and both control their instruments to the nth degree in the quieter late stages. The high violin melodies of the finale’s opening Maestoso e largamente, ma non troppo lento are spellbinding. Just that little bit of edge adds to their power, while the warmth lower down on Darvarova’s violin retains that tensile strength. Her exactitude of delivery in firmly articulated passages is similarly impressive. … Of all the performances I heard, it is the 1950 Starker op. 8 that seems to hold the best balance of grit and virtuosity. Hence the present Urlicht release holds huge documentary value. The Duo is a significant member of that piece’s discography, and now I would not be without Starker’s op. 8.
– Colin Clarke, Fanfare

Henry Fogel also interviews Elmira Darvarova (it follows his review), and we wholeheartedly encourage you to give it a read!

Available for download and streaming on Qobuz and Presto.
Streaming on Apple Music Classical, Spotify, and Tidal.
CD available from ArkivMusic, ImportCDs, and Amazon,

Two reviews in one issue of America’s premier audiophile magazine!

Michael Rabin on The Bell Telephone Hour – The Complete Broadcasts, Volume 2
Remastered by Urlicht AudioVisual
Parnassus PACD96093~94
“If you have a sweet tooth for violin bon-bons, the Parnassus confectionary has quite the selection for you. … These mono performances have been restored quite well… I, for one, will always welcome more Rabin.”
– Stephen Estep, The Absolute Sound, April 2025

Ethan Iverson: Playfair Sonatas
Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5960
“Ethan Iverson, [The Bad Plus’s] co-founder and original pianist, has an academic musical background and has infused his career with a desire to blur esthetic bound-aries. Iverson, who has since left the band (which is now a quartet), conceived of the Playfair Sonatas (named for the patron of this project, the impresario Piers Playfair) as a pandemic project. … The overall vibe of the six sonatas is pleasantly low key… displaying a good deal of TBP’s trademark whimsy, quirky rhythms, and jaunty melodies.”
– Peter Burmister, The Absolute Sound, April 2025

“Each soloist was asked follow the score but to play the piece bringing as much personal style as they wish, stretching the boundaries between classical and jazz styles. This is Iverson’s principle aim, to create new and exciting music at the boundaries between the two styles.. … The result is a wonderful CD featuring six sonatas each for a different instrument and, of course, six different soloists. Iverson composed all pieces and plays piano on all but one of the tracks.”
— Ken Talbot, MusicWeb International (full review here)

“To my delighted ear, his opening movement’s pianism works as a burr under the saddle of the high-riding, mellifluous riffs in the clarinet. I’ve been singing some of the motifs ever since.”
— Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times (full review here)

“[Roz Chast’s d]elightful art, informative booklet, and rewarding music that brings a dash of jazz seasoning to chamber music make Playfair Sonatas an irresistible release for music lovers of the jazz and classical persuasions alike.”
— Karl Nehring, Classical Candor (full review here)

“Playfair Sonatas is emotionally rich and direct, saturated in whimsy and melody. (Perhaps due to the blend of playfulness and melancholy, perhaps due to the anthology-like nature of these six musical short stories, or perhaps due to the album artwork from New Yorker veteran Roz Chast, the album bears a strange spiritual resemblance to Wes Anderson’s terrific movie The French Dispatch.)”
— Josh Hurst, The Hurst Review (full review here)

“The album cover makes you think this will be a playful album. And I suppose on some levels it is. But it’s also a solidly written, produced and performed addition to the contemporary classical music canon – one filled with plenty of references to legendary jazz musicians…Playfair Sonatas is an album I will return to over and over again.”
— Craig L. Byrd, Cultural Attaché (full review here)

“Ethan Iverson is one of the foremost jazz pianists of his generation….Technically Acceptable and Playfair Sonatas are significant recordings in Iverson’s catalog, the former demonstrating his finesse as a writer of jazz originals and the latter combining a cornucopia of traditions into eminently successful notated works. One hopes that both approaches remain part of his prolific creativity. Two favorite recordings from 2024.”
— Christian Carey, Sequenza 21 (full review here)

“Iverson’s activities have long straddled the divide between the classical and jazz worlds, and he’s clearly at home in both types of music…these are pieces that gleefully go their own ways.”
— Jonathan Blumhofer, The Arts Fuse (full review here)

“Since leaving The Bad Plus, pianist and composer Ethan Iverson has produced a wide ranging, creative and eclectic catalogue. His latest release has him in the classical world of sonatas…the music is delivered with respect, wonder and serenity. The Good Plus.”
João Marcos Coelho, Cultura Brasil (full review here)

A full list of streaming/download/CD purchase links can be found here.

Christian Carey deems Playfair Sonatas – and Ethan’s Technically Acceptable on Blue Note – two of his favorite releases if 2024. Read his review at Sequenza21 here.

The New York Times‘ Seth Colter Walls can’t stop thinking about Playfair Sonatas. Read his review (along with coverage of notable concert appearnces by Davoné Tines and Lise Davidsen) here.