Customer Reviews

Caroline Goulding

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amended review, the old one being one year old. And so much can happen in one year! Especially if you are young and phenomenally gifted. As Casals once said, these are the years when most "enfants prodige" are lost for ever. Well, I am glad to tell you that Caroline is better than ever, and that her career is progressing beyond expectations. As I said earlier, she is not a "musical athlete" as many of her peers, but the risks of adolescence spare no one!
I heard her again in a practice room, and her virtuosity, in my opinion still unchallenged, is now enriched by heightened musical awareness and maturity!
Read below for the old comments.
I first heard Caroline play Vivaldi's seasons with Apollo's Fire in Cleveland. I could not see well being squished behind a column: when I enthusiastically approached the soloist to congratulate her, I was shocked to see a SMALL GIRL and not a 30+ violin master! Vivaldi is tricky and deceivingly simple, his Seasons can be nauseating after having heard so many performances and recordings: she played with an elegance and personality well beyond her diminutive figure (she was 14!). After our first encounter, my wife and I heard her many times, even in practice rooms. Now to this recording: I immediately treasured this first publicly published CD. It's a great collection and it leaves you begging for more! Caroline, we need you to refresh this sometime stifling field; we need your accurate intonation, your masterful stage presence and your enthusiasm.
If you like classical music, buy this CD and look online for a live performance. If you like circus sensations, seeks elsewhere, the world is full of violin Olympics. Mrs. Goulding is not an "enfant prodige", she is a very important personality that will broadly resonate in our musical future.
, again,

It sets my teeth right on edge to hear a musician being described as a "teenage prodigy." How many times has the classical music world billed a young instrumentalist as the Next Big Thing, only to watch him or her fade into obscurity after one album? It's a label as detrimental to the performer as it is annoying to the consumer.

And yet, on the evidence of this CD, I can only conclude that Caroline Goulding might in fact be classical music's Next Big Thing. I'm not sure "prodigy" is the right word for her: Although her technique is incredible - gutsy and attention-grabbing while also being refined and precise - this CD is truly compelling for the way she applies that technique in the service of a formidable musical intelligence. On a program featuring composers as varied as Kreisler, Vieuxtemps and Corigliano, Goulding manages to craft unique and immediately identifiable sound-worlds for each piece, truly making them sound like they were written by discrete composers and not just plucked as a unit from some advanced music book. It's a talent that some players work all their lives and fail to develop: Musically, she "gets it." The result is a debut recording that speaks to the heart as well as the head.

And what a journey it is - this CD comprises a wide-ranging display of composers and compositional styles, and they all get played to the hilt. This is the only recording of Paul Schoenfield's Four Souvenirs I've ever heard, and how lucky he is to get such committed advocacy for his music. No performance on this album is less than excellent, but highlights for me were a smoking-hot rendition of the aforementioned Vieuxtemps' "Yankee Doodle Variations" and an elegiac, deeply felt "Hector the Hero" - probably the most diametrically opposed pieces on the album in terms of mood, and a good indicator of the seeming effortlessness with which Caroline Goulding can span the musical spectrum.

I will be watching Ms. Goulding's career unfold with great interest. A lot will hinge on her next album and whether it maintains her musical integrity and consumers' interest. From what I've heard here, though, I'm not worried.

Incredible. Miss Goulding plays with an individuality well beyond her years...her technique is beyond pyrotechnics---it's the vehicle for an incredibly expressive musicality. Her programming skips the all-too-common prodigy programming of the same-old/same-old virtuosic showpieces and/or major concertos. Here is a violinist who doesn't need her youthful looks and young age (16) to sell her CDs...she's a musical triumph and I hope this is the first of many more wonderful discs. This disc will be both exciting to listen to and inspiring to any violinist (and I mean---ANY---violinist). Thank you!

She is one of the most talented people I have ever met. Even those who do not know much about music (including myself) can see how extraordinary she truly is. I encourage you all to watch as she grows into one of the most notable violinists of our time.

I'm listening to this disc now - for the 5th time. Completely enthralling from the first note to the last. Nuanced and amazing expression, solid technique, strong and contagious rhythms, and a beauty of tone that makes it sound like she's singing. I dare to say that it surpasses the other five new CDs I bought at the same time (Ibramigova, Benedetti, Hahn, and two from Fischer.) I know... different music, different styles. But what a fresh new approach! And we get to listen to some American music for a change. Caroline, keep them coming. We can't get tired of listening to playing of such awesome quality.

After experiencing her performance, I can say that this was a very high fidelity, crisp clear recording. Only thing missing was the video.

This recording perfectly captures Ms. Goulding's incredible range, technique and expressiveness. Her playing has a depth, energy and color that is reminiscent of Jascha Heifetz and even, at times, has a hint of Dick Kesner. Still, Ms. Goulding's style is unique and this recording is vital to anyone who is interested in being "in" at the beginning of an extraordinary artist's recording career. In short, it is a great "stepping out" recording in which her ability to perform within a number of musical contexts is captured with skill and authority by her audio production team, Thomas C. Moore and Robert Friedrich. Now that we know she can transition effortlessly from Vieuxtemps to Gershwin to traditional Cape Breton Island fiddling, it will be interesting to see if the next recording presents a focused exploration of a particular composer or style. (This is not a criticism; it is so easy to get completely drawn into each selection on the CD that it just seems to end way too soon.)