Five-Star Review for Mandarano CD
String Cosmology—a new CD from the Sinfonietta of Riverdale featuring MYS Artistic Director and Conductor Mark Mandarano—received a Five-Star review in the May 2023 issue of Fanfare Magazine.
The album is available from Albany Records, iTunes, YouTube, and Spotify.
“Under Mandarano’s direction the Sinfonietta of Riverdale plays with a high degree of technical proficiency, with exact ensemble, incisiveness, energy, and spirit."
“This CD offers a diverse and entertaining program of works for string orchestra in excellent performances. [Especially] the Husa, Stucky, and Coleridge-Taylor selections, all of which are worth hearing. An unequivocal recommendation.”
“…Abundant energy in the outer movements [of the Husa] and gripping intensity in the middle one …vigorous and thrusting, replete with slashing attacks and frenetic activity. The second… after a brooding opening rises gradually in intensity to a climax that Mandarano aptly characterizes as ‘shattering’ and ‘desperate.’ The dance-like Finale lightens the mood with a lively, prancing rhythm.”
“The Mandarano recording is at the top [of comparable recordings of the Elgar]…Mandarano’s account excels in transparency, detail, and incisiveness…liveliness and verve…with its singing line and unimpeded forward movement.”
