press
www.musicweb-international.com
October 2007
"[Wolpe's] Ten Early Songs are given fine performances by Tony
Arnold and Jacob Greenberg."
Diverdi.com (Spain)
Spring 2007
"The interpretation of Tony Arnold (Ten Early Songs)...with the
valuable collaboration of pianist Jacob Greenberg...prompts a
vigorous recommendation of this disc of a composer who, paraphrasing
the end of the song 'Epitaph' (1938), 'never sang in vain,' no matter
how often he was tried to be silenced."
New York Concert Review
Summer 2006
"I was stunned by the voluptuous beauty of [Schoenberg's]
'Erwartung' and 'Nicht Doch.' In most of these songs the musical
interest lay in the rich piano part, expressively played by Jacob
Greenberg."
Chicago Tribune
December 19, 2005
"Knussen's violin-and-piano piece draws on rhapsodic
double-stops and guitarlike brushings of the fiddle
strings…David Bowlin and Jacob Greenberg ably
dispatched [the piece]."
Buffalo News
September 8, 2005
"With easy grace, Jacob Greenberg played Janacek's 'In
the Mists,' four gentle pieces full of achingly nostalgic, Old World
melodies."
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
February 25, 2005
James Primosch: Holy the Firm
“Soprano Tony Arnold drew the listeners into the score’s rapturous
atmosphere with singing of tonal beauty and dramatic truth. Pianist
Jacob Greenberg played his collaborative role with clarity.”
Buffalo News
January 28, 2005
"Jacob Greenberg and Stephen Manes are gifted pianists
whose individual recitals are always worth attending. So when word
went out that they were teaming up for a concert of music for two
pianos, it was reason for the area's keyboard fans to celebrate…
the evening featured a particularly arresting performance of
Messiaen's 'Visions de l'Amen.'"
Buffalo News
December 1, 2004
"Tuesday night found Jacob Greenberg walking onto the
Lippes Hall concert stage, sitting at the piano bench,
and unleashing his fingers in the service of Ludwig
van Beethoven and Charles Ives. It quickly became
apparent from the opening measure of Beethoven's
"Variations in F major" that this concert would be a
showcase where the composer's art and the performer's
art joined together as one…the Beethoven pieces
bracketed the Ives scores, embracing 20th-century
experiments with 19th-century explorations…the
Beethoven emphasized Greenberg's wonderful blend of
subtlety and speed, and the "Emerson" of the Ives
sonata was about power as a torrent of notes flew from
the keyboard in angular discord before finally gliding
into an almost funereal mode. The Ives songs
presented in the recital were quirky in their own
right…it was here that Greenberg revealed his not
inconsiderable talents as an accompanist, subtlely
gliding and coaching the singers along the musical
path…Beethoven's great "Eroica Variations" closed
out the evening in spectacular fashion, and it became
apparent that no encore was needed. Everything was
perfect as it was."
Buffalo News
September 11, 2004
"Tony Arnold is an amazing singer, and pianist Jacob Greenberg
is an outstanding accompanist. Together, they have the ability to plunge
a receptive listener into the depths of their programs through a combination
of stunning power and beguiling subtlety.
"To say that their take on Les Nuits d’Été was
revelatory would be to damn with faint praise. Greenberg’s pianism
was sensitive without being cloying, flowing behind Arnold’s special
artistry and melding with it to create a superlative whole. It was one of the
finest performances of this work that this listener has ever heard."
La Folia Online Music Review
May 2004
The Music of Elliott Carter,
Vol. 5 (Bridge 9128)
"The grandest offfering, Of Challenge and of Love, receives a carefully
thought-out interpretation from soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg.
This song cycle demands repeated listening to savor Carter's sensitive word
painting."
Buffalo News
October 31, 2003
"Soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg are adventurous, fearless and very adept... the presence of violinist Movses Pogossian added to the evening's electricity. Really, the room was alive.
"The accompaniments [to Schoenberg's "The Book of the Hanging
Gardens"] are harrowing, but Greenberg played them with confidence and
sensitivity. He and Arnold['s] sense of timing was excellent…their teamwork
shone in the Messiaen songs…Greenberg tossed off the capricious, dancing
piano parts [in "Epouvante"] as if they were nothing."
NOTE:
this was one of the Buffalo News's "top
ten classical moments of 2003."
Classical Music Web
August 3, 2003
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 5 (Bridge 9128)
"Soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg are vital and powerful
interpreters."
Guardian Unlimited
July 18, 2003
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 5 (Bridge 9128)
"In the song cycle
Of Challenge and of Love, on the poetry of John Hollander, the soprano Tony
Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg relish the detail that Carter lavishes
on his settings, each one absorbingly articulate and bracingly affirmative."
