Brahms; Schubert: Works for Clarinet and Piano

Advantages: Excellent physcological study of character.
Disadvantages: Grim, brutal, shocking scenes of a sexual nature.

...the piano with excellence is evident, and although she trains them to this stage of perfection, she becomes jealous of their hard earned achievement when they have reached their pinnacle. Erica is highly strung and sexually charged, and she is also a bitter and vindictive individual. One day she meets a promising young male pianist at a recital, by the name of Walter (Magimel Kramer). Walter is a handsome,arrogant, and self confident young man, and there is an instantaneous strong mutual bond, a meeting of minds, and a deep physical attraction, and she sees something in him that she seems to have been searching for. They talk and discover they both share the love of the works of Schumann and Schubert. This is a further attraction for Erica, and an unhealthy obsession towards him begins to take shape in her mind. ~ Erica teaches... Read review

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Advantages: cheap
Disadvantages: low quality, split easily

...Rico clarinet reeds were the first ones I was introduced to when I started to play clarinet. These a re natural reeds and tend to vary in quality. I started with a very soft one (they range form 1 to 5) and progressed through to a three. I have never got any further. Reeds can be expensive and beginning and less practised clarinet players tend to go through quite a lot of them. I have found a few split reeds and ones that were so thin that they were almost like paper at their tips among the reeds in a box of Rico standard ones. Rico reeds are cheap but they are also low quality. The Rico reeds tend to take time to break in and once they are suitably moist and playing well, they tend to split and have to be replaced. The Vandoren reeds are more expensive and they last longer but they tend to be a little bit harder than the Rico... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent selection and performance of piano works by Frank Bridge
Disadvantages: A few pieces are not very interesting

...Frank Bridge was an early twentieth century English composer. His works are not widely known, but are played increasingly, and more recordings are becoming available. Some of his later works, such as his piano sonata, were influenced by Scriabin. This CD is the second of three, and covers a wide range of styles, but mostly in his earlier style. Most of the pieces on this CD are fairly easy to listen to, and can be enjoyed by the majority of classical music lovers. The opening piece, Etude Rhapsodique, is an etude appropriately played by Jacobs, in the grand manner (of Liszt and other nineteenth century virtuosi), full of late nineteenth century panache, but with Bridge's own distinctive voice. The second piece, Berceuse, is played beautifully, a gentle piece as the name would suggest (a lullaby) but again with Bridge's own... Read review

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