The Journal of Singing‘s latest issue features a wonderful new review for Mark Abel’s “Trois Femmes” from the album, Spectrum: “Mark Abel, whose works frequently have been reviewed in this column, is a gifted and fascinating composer… The texts are effective and insightful, drawing the listener into the intriguing life stories of three women, icons…
The Crossover Media Podcast hosted Mark Abel and Hila Plitmann to discuss Spectrum! Listen now on Spotify or on your favorite podcast app: See the full writeup of the Podcast on Crossover Media’s blog on Medium.
The March/April 2023 issue of Fanfare Magazine features a warm recommendation for Spectrum: Music by Mark Abel: “[Mark Abel’s] music is tonal, although at times it stretches tonal boundaries, and he has a genuine melodic gift that serves him well. … [The Book of Esther]… is scored for soprano (Esther) and mezzo-soprano (Vashti, the queen…
The December 2022–January 2023 issue of The Whole Note features a wonderful review for our Mark Abel: Spectrum release: “Not only do we meet Isabel Bayrakdarian, a haunting soprano singing emotionally in praise of three women artists we might never have known if Abel had not set their lives to song, but we find ourselves…
“Mark Abel continues to demonstrate his versatility in the works on the newest Delos release of his music, ‘Spectrum’, a generous two-disc helping of song-cycles, chamber pieces and excerpts from an opera still roaming around the California-based composer’s fertile brain. As the previous recordings revealed, Abel writes in a poetic tonal style, at times reminiscent…
Grego Applegate Edwards’ Classical-Modern Music Review has a great recommendation for Mark Abel: Spectrum recording: “Listening to this set numerous times reveals a composer of lyrical gifts, a crafter of vibrant melodic-harmonic landscapes of a ravishing sort, perhaps in the footsteps but not the actual shoes of a Samuel Barber (the Knoxville and such). There…
Ron Schepper offers an in-depth review of Mark Abel’s new album, Spectrum, in Textura Magazine: “While appreciation for Mark Abel’s music is undeniably enhanced by familiarity with releases such as The Cave of Wondrous Voice (2020), Time and Distance (2018), and Home is a Harbor (2016), it’s not required when the double-CD set Spectrum, the sixth album on Delos by the American…
Mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur perform excerpts from Mark Abel’s song cycle “1966,” a composition on Abel’s Delos album Spectrum: 1966 1966 was written for Kindra Scharich and her close colleague Jeffrey LaDeur. The cycle evokes the long-ago year when I turned 18 – a magic and unsettling time filled with life-altering events.…
Composer Mark Abel discusses the lives and careers of Anne Wiazemsky, Pina Pellicer, and Larisa Shepitko – the three subjects of his song cycle, “Trois Femmes du Cinema”. The cycle appears on Abel’s Delos album Spectrum! The work is sung by soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, accompanied by pianist Carol Rosenberger. Anne Wiazemsky Pina Pellicer Larisa Shepitko
Colin Clarke reviews Jonah Kim and Robert Koenig’s Approaching Autumn release featuring Grieg, Kodály, and Mark Abel in Fanfare Magazine: “This disc, titled Approaching Autumn, is a real statement from the heart for Korean-born cellist Jonah Kim… his aim is to find “common areas” between people(s) and to learn “what we all actually care about.”…
Mark Abel shares this photo of a pin given to him by Ali Olshan’s mother, who is Ukrainian. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both Mark and Carol Rosenberger have been thinking of the “Great Gate of Kyiv” movement from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and were reminded of pianist John Browning’s remarkable Delos recording, which…
Jonah Kim’s new Approaching Autumn release with pianist Robert Koenig and featuring a world premiere from Mark Abel landed a wonderful feature in The Whole Note‘s December 2021 Editor’s Corner: “Kim’s…performance is outstanding – big, brash and gritty as called for in the outer movements; sensitive and lyrical in the Adagio (con gran espressione) – and his…
The January 2022 issue of The Strad features a review of Jonah Kim and Robert Koenig’s “triumphant performance” on Approaching Autumn! “A clear, blooming sound graces the opening of the Kodály Solo Sonata, with a defined rhythmic definition charging the invention. There’s no doubt that this monumental work is the standout performance here, as Jonah…
The December 2021 issue of Gramophone reviews Jonah Kim and Robert Koenig’s Approaching Autumn recording: “Jonah Kim has taken Approaching Autumn, the title of Mark Abel’s new work for cello and piano, as the title of this recital album as a whole. I hadn’t necessarily thought of the Grieg and Kodály sonatas as being especially autumnal…
The International Clarinet Association’s May 2021 Reviews feature a wonderful breakdown of Mark Abel’s The Cave of Wondrous Voice featuring David Shifrin, Fred Sherry, Hila Plitmann, Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker, Dominic Cheli, Carol Rosenberger, and Sarah Beck: “The first work on the album, Intuition’s Dance, is performed by clarinetist, David Shifrin and pianist, Carol Rosenberger. This spirited piece…
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