Customer Reviews

Solstice

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For some reason, solo piano Christmas CDs have always been one of the things that I love about the Christmas season, and this is definately one of my favorites. Each of the pieces is superb, though "Good King Wencelas" stands out. The arrangement and performance are beautiful, and it's been a regular on my "most played during the season" list since I got it. I can't think of any one track that better captures the feel of Christmas than this.

I love piano music, and this is the ultimate. It's something that you can listen to not just at Christmastime. And "Improvisation on a Theme adapted from Pachelbel's Canon in D Major" is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It's quite a long song and it just carries you away.

My favorite track is the 4th song, Improvisation on a Theme. Honestly, how many 12-minute long songs are out there that you can actually sit through without getting bored? This is one of them, although I seriously doubt that the song was actually improvised on a spot (it's too well conceived, structured, and crafted). It's a much better effort than Cristofori's Dream, the track that made David Lanz (and Narada label) famous initially. There are a lot of lame new-age CDs out there that tried to capitalize on its early success, but this is definitely not one of them.

I think buried in all the commercialism and over-stimulation that the Christmas season is a wish for some time for reflection on the year that just flashed by. This album serves as a small refuge from all the hype that is today's Christmas.

I've had this album as a holiday season mainstay since I discovered it shortly after it's release. It is moving, thoughtful compositions full of nuance and so well composed I have yet to tire of it--17 years later. Mostly I play it during the holidays and it has aged along with me.

Each year, it recalls more memories for me. While all the tracks are unique improvisations of well known themes, it is the the last track, the long track, that is my personal favorite. I would take it into the afterlife if I could.

I bought this tape back in the eighties after I heard it playing in a music store in a mall. Jones' rendition of "Good King Wenceslas" was so hauntingly beautiful that I had to stop and ask for the name of the tape. Lanz's "What Child is This?" and "Improvisation on a Theme (Pachelbel's Canon) are relaxing while Jones' "Carol of the Bells" is so-so. Almost 20 years later, I still enjoy listening to this tape and would love to get it on CD, if or whenever it becomes available again.

I close my eyes and get lost in David Lanz's Improvisations on a Theme (adapted from Pachelbel's Canon in D major) Guaranteed to sweep you away.....

This CD is just superb, especially the 3rd song, 'What Child is this ?'. Anyone would fall in love with Piano music after listening to these scores. Jones are especially good and deserves a major award on this. Only for tranquil people though, this is not pop music.

When once on vinyl twenty minutes was deemed optimal recording length per side, the two numbers Michael Jones and David Lanz each provided for Narada's LP "Winter Solstice" came close enough to filling an album that few begrudged the space remaining, and fewer still the quality of their pristine offering.

Following conversion to air-borne formats such as MP3, one may supplement the retitled "Solstice" with Jones' subsequently recorded "Unto Us a Boy is Born" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem/The Holly and the Ivy" from Best of Narada Christmas. Lanz' "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Angels We Have Heard on High" may also be pulled from the same collection.

This is my third time purchasing this album (it keeps getting away from me). I like Pachelbel's Canon. The music and the quality, lifts my body (all 200 pounds). It is a wonderful piece of music (even in it's original form). David Lanz adds to the music so it doesn't end quite so soon (as we wish would happen to all our favorites). He has moments where he plays a run of chords on the keys which touches my heart, then he goes right back into the original sound. For this alone, I would keep this piece on hand. He also has a spectacular ending. I listen to it for hours at a time. He plays piano like a drummer's interlude that is exciting to everyone in hearing distance.

'What Child is This' and 'Good King Wenceslas' (Michael Jones) are played so beautifully, that they have an angelic quality. I've never heard them played so nicely.

This recording is very short. For reasons I won't go into here I needed an audiotape. Only 2 tunes on each side. All four are Christmas carols. Disappointing.