"These are highly polished and enjoyable performances by Music's
Re-creation. Warmly recommended." (C.P.E. Bach Chamber Sonatas)
-- Gramophone
"The playing is delightfully expressive, fully encompassing the switchback
moods of Lawes - mostly cavalier, even droll, then suddenly poignant and
passionate. The players are beautifully balanced, the violin never shrill,
the viol clear and articulate. I recommend it highly, and sceptics should
listen to the great D Major suite which ends the disc. It is brilliantly
played, and I defy anyone not to be moved by it."
-- Early Music Review
"Excellent recordings of music by Marais and Telemann by the
West-Coast-based Music's Re-creation."
-- Goldberg Magazine
"10 Best CD's of The Year...the group called Music's Re-creation is
delectable. The quality of this Meridian recording is startlingly good:
everything in balance, not a bar without character."
-- HI FI Choice
"I have one more rare treat for you. A charmer...the recording has a
clarity and intimacy which fits nicely just behind your loudspeakers and
lets you forget them."
-- Gramophone
"They bring to their work an accomplished sense of style and freshness of
approach which does justice to this extremely attractive music. The
performances are exemplary in quality. A welcome recording."
-- Classic CD
"These are indeed fine performances, executed to the highest level of
technical skill and excellently balanced...The recording, too, has
exceptional immediacy. This is a highly accomplished achievement that makes
a significant addition to the William Lawes discography."
-- Goldberg Magazine
"The musicians of the American ensemble Music's Re-creation are
successfully convincing in bringing out the disjunctive and dramatic as
well the lyrical side of this music."
-- Concerto (Germany)
"The baroque instruments create a perfect atmosphere...this release is one
of the most attractive I've heard in some time."
-- New Hi-Fi Sound
"The instrumental players are gentle-toned and sensitively responsive. The
recording is direct and fresh in quality."
-- HI-FI News and Record Review
"A sensitive performance which discovers many nuances in the composer's
most beguiling expressive manner. Altogether an attractive programme,
pleasantly recorded."
-- Gramophone
"Friday's performance by the American baroque ensemble Music's Re-creation
was riveting...A group of genuine artists, they gave a brilliant
performance."
-- Gazeta Krakowska, Krakow, Poland
"The performances are stylish...extremely well played." Early Music
"...their recital was an unqualified success; deft ornamentation, careful
dotting, phrasing as it should be with everything generally spic and span.
It is good to see that Music's Re-creation will be returning."
-- The Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland
"The concert was most enjoyable, as much for its variety as for the musical
quality...deliciously played!"
-- The Birmingham Post, England
"Lovers of French baroque will find much to enjoy in this recording.
Rameau's Premiere Suite, Pieces de Clavecin en Concert is given
particularly fine treatment. We liked especially the ravishing flute solo
in La Livri."
-- The English Harpsichord and Fortepiano Magazine
"...a faultless ensemble. Delicate, brilliant, with such a range of
dynamics and controlled phrasing that the affects of the 18th century take
life beyond the reach of modern instruments."
-- The British Flute Society Journal
"The players point the grace and elegance of the music to perfection as
well as the more meaty aspects of the (Leclair) piece; an immediate
replaying of the cassette was demanded and things were just as good the
second time! Style and finesse (and skill) they have in plenty, and it is
at the service of the music throughout. The playing is really first rate."
-- Midlands Early Music Forum, England
"For those who prefer a musically bracing start to their Sunday morning,
this concert at the Guildhall given by Music's Re-creation was just the
thing. I do not use the term virtuoso lightly, for these performances of
16th and 17th-century music were characterized by a real sense of style and
assurance."
-- Yorkshire Evening Press, England
"Music performed by skilled musicians who love their work for those who
love to listen. The effect was pure delight."
-- Stratford-upon-Avon Herald, England
"Early music played on authentic instruments can sound like museum pieces,
but not this time; it was full of life and thoroughly enjoyable. This was
a truly memorable concert. Perfection indeed!"
-- West Somerset Press, England
"An exquisite program of Baroque dance."
-- The New York Times
"The performances are intelligent and spirited, with fine balancing and
tonal blending of the instruments. Good sound."
-- American Record Guide
"Expertly and idiomatically played...expressively nuanced. Technically
near flaw-less, all the playing has real character, and if I cite only the
little group of Musettes that conclude the G-Major Suite it is only because
their charming rusticity is utterly irresistible in the hands of Music's
Re-creation. I can't imagine more persuasive advocates than Marais has
here, for this is one of the best Centaur discs I've heard. Strongly
recommended."
-- Fanfare
"The musicians were vigorous, enthusiastic, suave, and skillful. The
rhythmic flexibility of the playing, free without being mannered, gave a
wonderful vividness and spontaneity to the music. The use of
embellishments was varied, inventive, and stylistically flawless. The
musicians' technical mastery was impressive: an excellent harpsichordist,
zestful and subtle string playing, and truly brilliant performances by
flautist Carslake."
-- San Diego Reader
"This group's characteristically light, nimble sound made the Couperin
almost vaporous, alternating between serious songful movements and ethereal
agile dances, in which the four players maneuvered graceful articulations
at breakneck tempos."
-- East Bay Express, Berkeley, CA
"The chamber accompaniment (to Telemann's Harmonischer Gottes-Dienst) by
Music's Re-creation is lovely. John Dornenburg's viola da gamba soars
alongside the two singers."
-- CD Review
"The most notable aspect of Music's Re-creation is their command of the
special rhetorical language of baroque music. The short, highly
articulated phrase structures, with the commensurate dynamic swells and
releases, are not mere stylistic mannerisms but an essential part of this
language. After hearing a considerable amount of 18th-century music this
season that has completely lacked these qualities, the pleasure that
Music's Recreation gave this listener was all the greater."
-- The Seattle Weekly
"...the original instruments ensemble, which rather grandly calls itself
Music's Re-creation, is splendid...Recommended."
-- Fanfare
"The players displayed a delightfully easy mastery of their instruments."
-- The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
"Critic's Choice: the group invests these works with a relaxed rhythmic
freedom as well as dramatic intensity. Beautifully matching their tones
with Julianne Baird's clear soprano voice, the musicians emphasize sensuous
flourishes and rapid articulations."
-- East Bay Express, Berkeley
"...a stunning achievement, a blending of stylistic awareness of the
highest order with performance expertise of astonishing facility. (Music's
Re-creation's Monteverdi Vespers) was a performance no less excellent or
significant than the best of what Lorin Maazel has done with the Pittsburgh
Symphony."
-- The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Monteverdi's Vespers at Heinz Chapel was one of the most revealing
performances of anything I've ever seen...its performance here is sure to
be remembered with the highest esteem in the history of music in
Pittsburgh."
-- WQED-FM Arts Magazine, Pittsburgh
"The quartet showed clarity of line, snappy ensemble work, excellent pitch,
and a kind of cogency of sound one rarely finds with many ensembles
venturing forth into the field of playing 17th and 18th-century chamber
music on baroque instruments. I would like to see this group return
soon...a joy to hear."
-- The Blade, Toledo
"...bursting with creative energy and expressive force."
-- Grand Rapids Press
"This was a striking performance of a most curious, enchanting piece."
-- La Jolla Light
"They played with joyful pleasure, displaying sensitivity and easy mastery
of their period instruments...an impeccable program, intertwining the solo
vocals and duets with delightful instrumental passages."
-- The Monterey Herald