04/29/08
DIVERSIONS/Divine Art
CATALINA BUTCARU/Recital: Now that we’ve digested Gabriela Montero’s Sheryl Crow make over, how about we turn our sights to a new, young pianist that has the young Carla Bruni look down pat? An engaging piano player from Romania, Butcaru steps up with a stellar solo work out on some daunting pieces. The Berg sonata almost sounds like something he hadn’t finished composing but Butcaru brings an energy to it that makes it sound difficult to bring off. Her feel for Ravel and Schumann are right in the pocket and this nakedly alone work gives her ample chance to really strut her stuff and leave a first class impression. These are clearly ten new fingers to keep a close watch on.
24127
PS CLASSICS
MAUREEN McGOVERN/Long and Winding Road: If McGovern made this record 35 years ago after she made the leap from struggling folk singer to Oscar singing glamour puss, it would have been roundly slagged as some out of touch dreck. Now that Gen Y has had it with boomers giving mucho play to classic songs by Gershwin, Fields, Porter, Warren and the rest that have been beaten into submission by the recent crop of jazz flavored divas, Gen Y is ready to give some recognition to great songs they grew up on–or that their parents were playing all the time. Tipping the cap to Beatles (of course), Webb, Nyro, Mitchell and all the others that really did write the soundtrack to the story of their lives (at least when Beck and Cobain weren’t), this is the gateway drug of an album to turn heads and ears onto the great standard songs and writers of the rest of the 20th century. McGovern had these songs in her DNA and made some chancy choices rather than safe ones that play well. Perhaps positioning herself as the grande dame of song of the millennium, this set works well beyond the cabaret range. Well done.
Volume 31/Number 180
April 29, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record