News
The American Record Guide, founded in 1935, is
the oldest classical music review magazine in America. The magazine covers important concerts,
orchestras, and musicians on the American scene. About eighty freelance staff writers and music
critics contribute to over 500 reviews in every issue.
Reviews from the May/June and July/August, 2008 issues praise our classical music accomplishments
at Florida Atlantic University, Hoot/Wisdom Recordings.
CLOCKS: Piano Quintets of the Americas
Beach: Piano Quintet
Aguila: Clocks; Charango Capriccioso
Heather Coltman, piano; Cuarteto Latinoamericano; Felicity Coltman, piano; Ian Maksin, cello
Hoot Wisdom 43578—60 minutes
“Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet is a rapturous work, and Heather Coltman is just the
pianist for it.”
“...Coltman spurs them on with excellent forward flow and plenty of sensitivity.”
–American Record Guide
FIVES FOR FIVE: Florida Woodwind Quintet
Arthur Weisberg, bassoon; Florida Woodwind Quintet; Heather Coltman, piano; Diane Kennedy Weisberg, viola; John Weisberg, oboe; Florida Woodwind Quintet
Hoot Wisdom 43760—77 minutes
“Knowledgeable woodwind players will recognize Arthur Weisberg as one of the pre-eminent American bassoonist and teachers of the century.”
“Weisberg’s works occupy the unsure tonal netherworld of postmodernism, but his explorations of color, timbre, and harmony are interesting. He contrasts atmospheric moments with rhythmically active counterpoint and has good instinct for when to get a piece moving again.”
–American Record Guide
DREAM CHASERS: North American Nightscapes
Heather Coltman, piano
Hoot Wisdom 20040—48 minutes
“This seductive record is an example of the inventive ways people are finding to keep classical music alive in challenging times.”
“Heather Coltman plays with the soft touch needed for repertory, but her sonority has plenty of heft in the bigger passages. The recording allows Coltman’s most subtle overtones and nuances come to through intimately.”
–American Record Guide
RUSSIAN TREASURES: Irena Kofman & André De Groote, duo pianists
Hoot Wisdom 43627—65
“Most of this music is not well represented on CD, and some is also pretty difficult to obtain scores for. Kofman and De Groote are fully up to the technical and interpretive demands, and the recorded sound ranks with the best of the big name labels.”
“Kofman and De Groote get more true music out of this little piece than I am used to. ‘Nuanced’ is not a term I would associate with the work, but their performance is–and it works quite well”
“If you can’t get enough Russian piano music and are looking for some mainstream, romantic–style music that is seldom heard, track down a copy of this.”
–American Record Guide