Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony Orchestra :: Cerminaro Plays Mozart, Four Horn Concertos

And Now for Something Completely Different

Joseph Ryan | Islamabad, Pakistan | 12/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a deceptively brilliant recording.



John Cerminaro's French horn playing starts with an extra-broad tone concept and injects color and style to create the ne plus ultra of bravura horn sound, a sound Cerminaro uses to knock the spots off the page in music of the last hundred years. The question is, however, what about light, classical music? How do you tackle Mozart with this tone concept?



Cerminaro chooses discretion. Seemingly playing at a whisper for a far-away microphone, he gives few hints of the industrial-strength horn playing that underlies the performances. For those listeners who know his other recordings and are getting the giggles waiting for the explosion, it never comes -- the music is treated with restraint to the end.



At the same time, the imperturbable solidity of the tone production in all ranges and the complete absence of technical strain make these performances almost unique in a genre where a little showing off is usually expected.



For those who don't know his other work, however, Cerminaro does open the door a crack early in the disk. The fourth concerto's first movement (the first track of the disk) contains a cadenza that closes with a Whoa, daddy! What was that? upward scale that lets budding apprentices know not to start playing around with broomsticks.



Overall, it's something you won't hear anywhere else: the aural equivalent of a quiet Sunday afternoon spin in a Saturn C-5 booster. Give it a try!

"

John Cerminaro: The American Dennis Brain

Joseph Ryan | 04/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mr. Cerminaro's Mozart concertos with the Seattle Symphony are the most elegant and refined version since Dennis Brain's album with Karajan and the Philharmonia. Everything is masterfully subtle and understated, yet entirely virtuosic. His sound is the large American type, but never forced; his phrasing, perfection, with never a hint of the vulgarity we so often hear these days in lesser recordings. We simply had no idea America had produced a solo artist of this caliber. Bravo Yanks!"