Customer Reviews

West of the Sun: Music of the Americas

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I actually saw this artist live in Chicago and was really taken back. I would definitely recommend this album.

This is a must have for anyone who loves music, especially piano. Transcendent, exciting, totally enjoyable. I listen to it everyday. Joel Fan's playing is amazing. He's fluid and supple and wonderfully expressive. It's the best album I've bought this year. The pieces are new and fresh and different but also accessible. I highly, highly recommend West of the Sun.

A dazzling album. I bought `West of the Sun' after seeing the pianist perform in NY last year at a thrilling concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fan is as superb with the classics (i.e. Beethoven, Liszt) as he is with lesser-known 20th century composers. In this album, he concentrates more on the latter, especially on Latin American composers, to his credit. The Nazareth, Piazzolla and the Ginastera are marvelous, with jazzy rhythms and rich, multi-layered textures, and they provide a lighter, breezy counterpoint to a truly bravura performance of the Barber sonata. The entire album is a powerful and exuberant paean to the music of the Americas, and a joyous addition to today's sometimes pallid contemporary classical music scene.

A rare thing: a classical pianist who makes the music so alive you could dance to it!
He's an amazing player--energetic, larger than life, and also emotionally at one with the pieces. If you can see him in concert, go.

I saw Joel Fan at his recent New York solo recital where he launched West of the Sun. He is a thrilling and moving performer and this feeling comes through on the album as well. My favorites on this album are the Piazzolla Flora's Game Prelude which is just plain gorgeous, and the Bolcom Nine New Bagatelles, which are really cool and unique. I also highly recommend the the Ginastera and Barber sonatas for serious piano-philes. This album is always fresh sounding. I definitely recommend it for anyone who loves the piano!

I am indebted to this recording for introducing me to these splendid "Nine New Bagatelles." As far as I know this is the first and only recording of the 2006 piece yet produced. In fact, I liked the piece so much I decided to buy the music and learn it (I am a pianist). Getting into the score made me love the piece even more, but unfortunately revealed two surprising discrepancies of tempo.

Without consulting Mr. Fan, I cannot say why he chooses to depart from the score as he does; but the following differences should be noted. The tempo of No. 4 ("...Lord Lovell's trunk...") is FAR slower than (approximately twice as slow as) the indicated tempo of 69=dotted quarter. (The moving notes in this recording are 16ths.) Conversely, the tempo of No. 6 ("...take no prisoners...") is MUCH faster than the indicated tempo, and truthfully, it's not a very clean take of this bagatelle. I respectfully ask: Why not take the time to show the music and get more of the notes in the process?

This all being said, Mr. Fan offers many sensitive and beautiful moments, even if there are certain inaccuracies. Buy this recording simply to acquaint yourself with Bolcom's "Nine New Bagatelles." These are exceptionally beautiful and well-wrought pieces which I hope will enter the performing repertory.