Justin Dello Joio has a dream team of marquee talent for his latest release: Pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Christopher O'Riley; cellist Carter Brey; the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert; the American Brass Quintet. The excellent organist Colin Fowler might not be quite as familiar a name to the average classical music listener but I know Colin well, for he’s Mark Morris’s music director...
These great musicians surely show up for Dello Joio because Dello Joio is in conversation with music for music’s sake. It all sounds, it’s hard but not too hard, it lays right, the emotions are clear, the harmonies are crystalline, the counterpoint is correct, the influences are the best influences. A lot of classical music written these days aims for something it can never be, but Dello Joio is perched dead center, doing exactly what is supposed to be done.
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