Album thrives with instrumental covers

By DAN JULIAN The State News

Released on a Lansing-based record label, each song on “The Entertainers” is masterfully done and shows off the precision talent of Russian natives cello player Viktor Uzur and violinist Andrej Kurti. Uzur is working on his doctorate in music performance at MSU, while Kurti is working on a doctorate in violin performance from the University of Georgia.
Those who assume this record is a collection of classical music pieces are in for a big surprise. This isn't the everyday music many expect to hear from a cello player and violinist. More >>>>

The French Album

In a recent review, I took a well-known and fine flutist, Jeffrey Khaner, to task for the inappropriateness of his self-made transcriptions of Brahms’s clarinet sonatas, noting that there were many original compositions for flute he could have chosen to play instead. Here, with Blue Griffin’s new release, “The French Album,” come both vindication of my criticism and the perfect antidote. In its playing, its recording, and most of all its music, this is an enchanting disc. More >>>>

Music for Cello and Piano

The news here is not the meal itself-a selection from three of the basic food groups that has been served up on disc many times before, though perhaps not in this exact combination-but its preparation and presentation. Heretofore, I had not heard of Blue Griffin Recording, a Lansing, Michigan-based company, or of either of these artists, Armenian born cellist Suren Bagratuni, and Swiss-born pianist Adrian Oetiker. Bagratuni won the Silver Medal at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory. He has since appeared with major orchestras and in recital on five continents. Oetiker is also a prize-winner, having won the ARD International Piano Competition in Munich in 1995. He, too, has performed widely throughout Europe and the US. More >>>>