Search - Alison Stephens (Mandolin), Sue Mossop (Mandolin), Richard Burnett (Fortepiano) :: Music for Mandolin: Works by Emmanuelle Barbella / Ludwig van Beethoven / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Johann Nepomuk Hummel / Raffaele Calace

Fantastic

12/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD really motivated me to play classical music on my mandolin. When it was first released, I wrote to Alison Stephens. She was quite kind enough to respond, explaining in detail about her background, the strings, the picks and the mandolins that she and Sue Mossop used for the recordings. The mandolin performances alone are some of the best I've heard (and I know a lot of mandolinists), and the instruments themselves are turn of the century masterpieces by Pecararo and Embergher. The distinctive sound of the "bowl back" mandolin is accurately reproduced. If you want to hear truly fine classical mandolin performances and the textures of finely crafted mandolins, you want this CD! This is one my top 10 favorite CDs. The Barbella duet is delightful and the Calace is very expressive in their hands. I knew that Beethoven wrote some pieces for the mandolin, but had no idea that Mozart, too, wrote for this instrument. Great stuff!"