Reviews
“The elegiac mood heightened by a live performance of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and conducted with dramatic precision by Salvatore Di Vittorio, a native of Palermo, Italy, clothed in finest conductor garb.”
Godfrey Deeny, Fashion Network, Paris
“The young players of the Chamber Orchestra of New York then come into their own with some fine solo playing, particularly from the flute, as Pike pirouettes lissomly around them (the recording is clear and well balanced).”
Tim Homfray, Strad Magazine, London
“I am delighted to have another splendid version of this long-awaited tone poem [The Solent]. The playing [on the CD] is excellent and reflects a great sympathy towards English music by this orchestra from New York.”
John France, Music-Web International, London
“The natural beauty of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams finds a magnificent support in the Chamber Orchestra of New York, a formation of a very high level that in a few years will be on top, like the violin Lark that rises on this very disc.”
Forum Clasico, Madrid
“Here one can get a sense of these chamber pieces within a specific understanding of the Neo-Baroque style of this composer by committed orchestra and by a conductor intimately connected to the editions used here, Salvatore Di Vittorio.”
Steven A. Kennedy, Cinemusical
“Respighi left [this] his first of four works for violin and orchestra, unfinished in 1903. …Completed by Salvatore di Vittorio, the [Violin Concerto in A Major] is an attractive work that grows on repeated hearing.”
The Strad, London
“Thanks to the enthusiasm of Salvatore Di Vittorio and the Chamber Orchestra of New York we now have an early Respighi Violin Concerto, completed by the conductor, with a selection of other orchestral works.”
New Zealand Herald
“This great concerto is quite colorful, and played here with much passion by the Chamber Orchestra of New York. Di Vittorio has done a great job!
Pizzicato Magazine, Luxembourg
Qubuz Magazine, Paris
Geoffrey Norris, The DailyTelegraph, London
Gavin Engelbrecht, The Northern Echo, London
Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone Magazine, London
“Salvatore di Vittorio [and the orchestra] serve up a program of (mostly) rare delights by Ralph Vaughan Williams that we ought to hear more often. Violinist Jennifer Pike is keenly aware of her instrument’s vital role in introducing and linking each theme [of The Lark Ascending] with delicate soliloquies. Her long fade-out at the very end is simply superb.”
Audio Club of Atlanta
David Hurwitz, Classics Today, New Hampshire
“This performance [of The Lark Ascending] is most attractive. Salvatore Di Vittorio [captures] the quintessential Englishness from his young orchestra.”
David’s Review Corner
Robert Johnson, Radio New Zealand
“One of the year’s most pleasant surprises. Di Vittorio makes no bones about his commitment to the music of Respighi or the marked influence of that figure on his outlook as a composer. (His own Third Symphony is called “Temples of Sicily,” a subtitle that would have appealed greatly to his famous predecessor.) These are vibrant performances of some of Respighi?s most attractive music. The early Serenata for Small Orchestra (1904) imitates the sound of Renaissance guitar in a four-minute work of much persuasive charm. Suite in G major for Organ and Strings (1905) pays eloquent homage to Respighi?s predecessors, particularly Bach, Corelli, and Frescobaldi, as the organ, played with power and probity by Kyler Brown, interacts with the string orchestra to create an abundance of deeply moving harmonies and textures.”
Phil Muse, Audio Video Club of Atlanta
Remy Franck, Pizzicato Magazine, Luxenbourg (Translation: Meike Dittman)