Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: eclectic collection of chanber music
Comment: the ahn trio rocks! along with the brodsky quartet, the kronos and other contemporary chamber groups, they combine a modish look with formidable classical technique that they use to assail a variety of melodies. some of the melodies are created specifically for them---so these young ladies are doing very well for themselves.
and they serve the music so well. each piece requires a different approach--evazen's 'diamond world' is sweet and lovely with a contemporary pop feel, piazzolla's tangos are spiky and rhythmic, for example--and they get it.
as much of a treat as this cd is, the real treat would be hearing these women live. i'm sure they turn it!
Customer Rating: Summary: Ahnbelievable!
Comment: These sisters cook with classical ingredients and have found in Kenji Bunch a composer who understands their dynamic and presents them with material that encourages them to expand their considerable talents. There is an attitude here that came off as a bit unbridled on the first CD, TRIOS, and may have set them against the mainstream of classical interpreters. That's a very good thing indeed, for having broken that stranglehold on how things should be played, they have managed to add a bit of steam to the chamber room. Sure it has to do with fashion and sensuality, but it did back in the day, when Wolfgang, Ludwig and Robert and Clara were heating things up. It all got too mannered afterwards, so when artists like the Ahns, or Kennedy, or any other adventurous soul upends the conventions, it is easy to jump on the surface differences as a way of avoiding dealing with the substantive issues at hand.
To my ears, they provoke the listener in what seemed like too comfortable assumptions about Piazzola, infused interest and intrigue into Bernstein where little besides Broadway and Americana star excess existed before, and have taken a Pat Metheny/David Bowie piece and brought classical drama to a terrific composition. Both writers should be duly flattered and impressed by the interpretation. And as I mentioned, with Bunch, they have a writer best suited to their own dynamic.
I am sure it helps that a set of twins are playing with their sister. There is a telepathy here that indicates they know when they are going to leap off the conventional cliff, and so the others respond by catching them in mid air. This disc makes for seductive and exciting listening. Listening to the Bosendorfer ring off the sensuality of the cello and the passion of the violin and that unbridled element is a source of wonder and enchantment.
