Customer Rating:  
Summary: Great Music Poorly Performed
Comment: When I saw this cd, I immediately bought it; my goal being to understand the Creston Sonata better, as well as listen to an actual classical baritone sax solo. However, when I started listening, I found myself doing double takes...could a professionally recorded player really be missing notes?? Turns out this was the case...what a shame...
This occurs on several tracks of the cd. Though the blips aren't by any means obtrusive, they're by no means hard to find...
His stylings are a little unorthodox for some of the pieces, but all-in-all not terrible. I will say that the way he and the pianist handle the last several bars of the 2nd movement of the Creston is one of the best I've heard...it's perhaps the only recording I've heard to make sense of it.
All in all, if you're looking for recordings of these pieces, I'd personally look elsewhere...but that's just me...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice Idea From Naxos, But..
Comment: For saxophonists, it's good to see a release like this of less frequently heard works. Well, most of the pieces at least; The Creston and Muczynski are stalwarts of the repertoire and have each been recorded many times.
Unfortunately, that's about all by way of positivity that this reviewer can manage. Particularly since I don't much enjoy most of that unfamiliar repertoire anyway! The Rorem's OK. The rest don't do it for me.
Mostly though, it's Alex Mitchell's playing that is the problem. It's just so sloppy! There really isn't very much to praise. His sound aint so nice, his articulation is, frankly, woeful, there are several places where fast passages are just kind of wiped over as if he's hoping nobody will notice that he didn't actually play many of the right notes; musically there is much lacking; even the sound of the recording isn't so great. It's all surprisingly very amateurish. I don't even know if, at a good college/university with a high standard of woodwind students, this performance would even go down particularly well. Certainly, parts of it wouldn't.
I may be being a little harsh here, but I'm sure saxophonists, at least, will be quite disappointed with this release.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best
Comment: I've been looking for a CD that perfectly interprets this kind of music. The muscianship displayed on this, by all involved, is stunning. I play it over and over.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice music . . . weak interpretation
Comment: Alex Mitchell made a wonderful selection of American music for saxophone, however I was less than moved by his interpretations. He exhibits weak and choppy phrasing (he takes such long and ill-timed breaths, and so often!). The technical execution is equally poor, with unclean attacks, weak articulation, and way too many flubbed notes (I'm surprised they kept these takes for the CD). All in all, his interpretations lack connection with the music. I hear the notes, but no passion whatsoever. He even lets the piano outshine him at times -- I don't know any saxophonists that would allow that!
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