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Efficient and sensitive

A Philip Amalong piano recital, reviewed by
PATRIC STANDFORD


Eroica    JDT3119

Storia - Philip Amalong, piano. © Eroica Classical Recordings

As recorded piano recitals go, Philip Amalong on the Eroica label provides a highly commendable and attractive hour of listening that should meet with justifiable approval as a demonstration of an efficient and sensitive performance of a popular and accessible recital repertoire.

Beginning with the B-flat minor Prelude and Fugue from Book 1 and the two Brahms Ballades Op 10, he then gives a stirring performance of the exhilarating 1st Sonata by Alberto Ginastera, a work that pianists enjoy, demanding just the sort of rhythmic precision and buoyancy required by a work heavily coloured by Argentinian folklore [listen -- track 8, 0:00-0:59].

Amalong then stays in the early twentieth century with Prokofiev (one of the ten Romeo and Juliet pieces), Granados (The Maiden and the Nightingale) and an enthusiastically nostalgic but uninspiring Rondo Capriccioso by Father Angelo della Picca, Emeritus Professor of Music and Theology at the College of Mount St Joseph [listen -- track 11, 0:00-0:50].

Amalong was born in Philadelphia and, with the aid of a Van Cliburn scholarship, went to study at Cincinnati, since when he has made his mark as both soloist and a versatile accompanist. But the musical world may well demand far more than this repertoire and enterprise for wider success.

Copyright © 26 May 2004 Patric Standford, Wakefield UK

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Philip Amalong - Storia

JDT3119 DDD Enhanced CD Stereo NEW RELEASE 54'02" 2003 Eroica Classical Recordings

Philip Amalong, piano

J S Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B flat minor BWV 867 from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I; Brahms: Ballades Op 10; Alberto Ginastera: Sonata No 1 Op 22 (1952); Prokofiev: Romeo Bids Juliet Farewell (Ten Pieces for Piano from Romeo and Juliet Op 75); Granados: Quejas ó La Maja y el Ruiseñor (Laments or The Maiden and The Nightingale) from Goyescas; Angelo A Della Picca: Rondo Capriccioso

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular series of shorter CD reviews