Search - Amy Beach, Ambache Chamber Ensemble, The Ambache :: Amy Beach : Piano Quintet ETC

Slightly weird and wonderful

07/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My tiny exposure to Amy Beach was through one of her songs..."Ah, Love but a day". That song always struck me as good/strange and arresting ...I never tired of its piquant and odd melodic line. I went hunting for more of Amy Beach. These chamber offerings have that same tangy-tasty, even exotic, quality. My interest is always held -- I will be acquiring more of this interesting composer."

Amy Beach...not just a "novelty" composer but the real thing

Neal Schultz | Orange County, CA | 03/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The famous American composer George Chadwick is said to have commented in a letter to Amy Beach nee Mrs. H.H.A. Beach that after hearing her Gaelic Symphony that it was so good that she was now considered "one of the boys." While some might feel rankled by this Victorian-echoing insult I think it is important for the listener today to ignore the politics (or lack) of "women" composers then etc. and instead focus on the meaning of Chadwick's statement. He meant, I think, that her music wasn't good in spite of being a woman, but rather her music was wonderful, regardless, if she were a woman. An important distinction to be sure.



I discovered Amy Beach some years ago by accident and have always appreciated her conflation of compositional strength, inventiveness, harmonic tenderness and ultimately her "American" spirit. Perhaps as a guide to the uninformed listener of Amy Beach (and the need to create some kind of consumer-aiding simile) I would like to propose a question: What if Johannes Brahms were born in America and s/he were a woman?



This recording is well-played and balanced. Recommended."