Best Gift Shopping > Music > Solo Instrumental
|
|
Best Gift Shopping > Music > Solo Instrumental
|
|
December, Piano Solos: 20th Anniversary Edition(more) »rank: 163by: George Winston
Our review: essential recording:December holds the distinction of single-handedly putting Windham Hill on the map and being the new age album most likely to find its way into music collections of all ilk. In spite of being relentlessly overplayed during the holidays, the solo piano recording has aged quite well. Winston shapes holiday war-horses and original compositions into a captivating contemporary statement. His spare, understated style captures the feel of the dark season, employing ample resonance to evoke a reflective spaciousness. The album's straightforward simplicity conveys both the celebration and quietude that characterize the best of the Yuletide spirit. --Richard Price Amazon.com:A quintessential example ... Detail |
Italia(more) »rank: 311by: Chris Botti
Our review: essential recording:December holds the distinction of single-handedly putting Windham Hill on the map and being the new age album most likely to find its way into music collections of all ilk. In spite of being relentlessly overplayed during the holidays, the solo piano recording has aged quite well. Winston shapes holiday war-horses and original compositions into a captivating contemporary statement. His spare, understated style captures the feel of the dark season, employing ample resonance to evoke a reflective spaciousness. The album's straightforward simplicity conveys both the celebration and quietude that characterize the best of the Yuletide spirit. --Richard Price Amazon.com:A quintessential example ... Detail |
||
Autumn (Windham Hill 20th Anniversary Edition)(more) »rank: 1237by: George Winston
Our review: essential recording:The precursor to 1982's commercial breakthrough, December, George Winston's 1980 Windham Hill debut boasts all the lyrical power and poignancy of its follow-up. A simple, clear recording for solo piano, Autumn finds Winston developing simple melodic motifs with studied left-hand underpinning, on hypnotic pieces like 'Woods,' which moves from a brisk rhythmic figure to rubato minor-key runs. Leaving pauses and breaths in all the right places, Winston suggests the play of color and light, the comfortable melancholy, and the encroaching slow-down that characterizes the fall season. Full of memorable themes, sure pacing, and whiffs of classical grandeur, Autumn is a timeless ... Detail |
A Windham Hill Christmas(more) »rank: 1596by: Various Artists
Our review: :The songs are familiar carols, but A Windham Hill Christmas retains the Windham Hill Winter Solstice series tradition of unusual arrangements and performances that evoke the mood of the season, especially if your take on that mood is a Northeast, snow-covered landscape, like that depicted on the Hallmark card-like cover. The usual bevy of Windham Hill sampler artists are all here, but it's some of the secondary cast that give the most innovative performances. Tracy Silverman & Thea Suits reinvent 'Silent Night.' With his pizzicato-delay violin, Silverman lays down a 6/8 rhythm while abstracting the familiar hymn across his bowed violin and Suits's ... Detail |
||
Peace(more) »rank: 1463by: Jim Brickman
Our review:Album Description:2003 Christmas album featuring a mix of traditional and contemporary holiday songs, with guests such as The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Anne Cochran, Kristy Starling & Collin Raye. Includes the bonus track 'Peace (Where The Heart Is)'. BMG. :Peace, Jim Brickman’s second collection of holiday-themed music, is largely a mirror image of his first (The Gift, released in 1997). Both feature a mix of solo piano works, augmented piano selections (involving oboe, strings, synthesizers, a pop-jazz ensemble, or some combination thereof) and glossy, radio-ready pop vocal productions. To some ears, the polished sheen of the vocal tracks (four are included) may infringe ... Detail |
Northern Lights(more) »rank: 1788from: Denon Records
Our review:Album Description:2003 Christmas album featuring a mix of traditional and contemporary holiday songs, with guests such as The Blind Boys Of Alabama, Anne Cochran, Kristy Starling & Collin Raye. Includes the bonus track 'Peace (Where The Heart Is)'. BMG. :Peace, Jim Brickman’s second collection of holiday-themed music, is largely a mirror image of his first (The Gift, released in 1997). Both feature a mix of solo piano works, augmented piano selections (involving oboe, strings, synthesizers, a pop-jazz ensemble, or some combination thereof) and glossy, radio-ready pop vocal productions. To some ears, the polished sheen of the vocal tracks (four are included) may infringe ... Detail |
||
Thanksgiving: A Windham Hill Collection(more) »rank: 6405by: Various Artists
Our review: :Thanksgiving generally is a pleasant and likeable affair. Its features include a charming, gently propulsive take on the traditional piece 'Allelujah' by Celtic harpist Lisa Lynne; a delicate rendering of 'Amazing Grace' by John Doan on a 20-string harp guitar; and a church-ready version of 'We Gather Together' by a trio of Paul McCandless (oboe), Philip Aaberg (piano), and Michael Manring (bass). A midalbum three-song stretch, though--from the heavy stringing (cello, violin, guitar) of William Coulter and Barry Phillips to R. Carlos Nakai's flute soliloquy to a saxophone meditation by Paul Winter--lingers overly long in a melancholy state. Later, a thoughtful harmonica outing ... Detail |
A Winter's Solstice II(more) »rank: 1380by: Various Artists
Our review: :The Winter Solstice series from Windham Hill is an appealing souvenir from the label's early days, when guitarist Will Ackerman still served as its chief guiding light and fount of original thought. For years Ackerman shunned the overt commercial trappings of traditional Christmas recordings and instead offered odes to a broader season that, like his artists' music, is compatible with periods of sustained, hushed contemplation. Winter Solstice II, released in 1988, mixes original and traditional compositions (none that specifically brings Christmas to mind) and is adorned with classical overtones from front to back, conveying the high-minded earthiness associated with the label's then all-acoustic ... Detail |
||
Windham Hill Holiday Guitar Collection(more) »rank: 2481by: Various Artists
Our review: :The Winter Solstice series from Windham Hill is an appealing souvenir from the label's early days, when guitarist Will Ackerman still served as its chief guiding light and fount of original thought. For years Ackerman shunned the overt commercial trappings of traditional Christmas recordings and instead offered odes to a broader season that, like his artists' music, is compatible with periods of sustained, hushed contemplation. Winter Solstice II, released in 1988, mixes original and traditional compositions (none that specifically brings Christmas to mind) and is adorned with classical overtones from front to back, conveying the high-minded earthiness associated with the label's then all-acoustic ... Detail |
A Winter's Solstice: Silver Anniversary Edition(more) »rank: 2053by: Various Artists
Our review: :Since the Windham Hill imprint's Winter Solstice series was born in 1985, the concept has gone through some changes, bottoming out with 1999's abysmally kitschy Winter Solstice on Ice. With this Silver Anniversary Edition, Dawn Atkinson, who produced the first Winter Solstice disc, has gone back to her original concept of nontraditional seasonal music and novel arrangements of Christmas classics. She's also brought in some old standbys, soliciting works from Paul McCandless, Barbara Higbie, Will Ackerman, Philip Aaberg, and Liz Story. Much of this new Winter Solstice turns on classical themes. Ex-Kronos Quartet cellist Joan Jeanrenaud teams with guitarist Steve Erquiaga on an ... Detail |