Customer Reviews

Merry: A Holiday Journey

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

 

 

I have ALWAYS admired Nadja, as a violin student, and a musician.

I always looked for a christmas album that was different, and extremely enjoyable at the same time, and now I have found it!

I love it so much! :)

The tracks on this CD are varied and lovely . . broad range of different styles and types of music and they really showcase Nadja's range and amazing skill as a violinist. Most enjoyable CD.

Virtuoso performances of Christmas selections by Nadja and Friends. Beautiful!

I loved this CD. I am a long time fan of NSS and I enjoyed all the vocal and instrumental perfomances, both as a classical musician, and as a Christmas music enthusiast. The arrangements and orchestration were imaginative and unique. Nadja's beautiful, strong tone is unmatched, and it's fun the way she seemingly casually and effortlessly throws in virtuosic improv-like elements. This was a thoughtfully and creatively developed album with superb performances all around, in a variety of styles. Very enjoyable! I wanted to listen it to again and again immediately upon the 1st listening.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg has always been one of my favorite violinists and favorite musicians. I've heard her in at least 6 live concerts and they were all fantastic - she has a lot to offer the world of music.

However, this disc is extremely annoying. Now, Nadja has always had tons of musical spunk, and she has made it work well interpretively for big concertos and sonatas and other showpieces. But it simply does not work here. "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with tons of glissandi and other various centuries-old carols with 'nouveau' jazz effects just isn't appealing. The vocal soloists on a couple of the tracks are pretty bad too. Anyhow, I highly recommend Nadja's other recordings. Not this one, though. I am pretty sure she did this disc for the purpose of holiday party music. But there are tons of other better Xmas party music discs out there by big artists.

I loved Nadia's playing in other performances, but her violin sounded shrill and the jazzed up or nouveau renditions of Christmas songs did not work. "Merry" was very disappointing, and went into the trash the same afternoon.