Artist description On this MP3.com site, pianist JOHN BELL YOUNG plays works of Chopin. He will also upload regularly recordings of his colleagues that he finds exceptional.

Music Style Classical

Similar Artists N/A

Artist History JOHN BELL YOUNG, whose recordings of the music of Scriabin, Nietzsche and others on the Newport Classics, Sony and Americus labels have earned international critical acclaim, is an authority on Scriabin. He has performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Russia, including appearances at the Scriabin Museum, the Glinka Capella and the Riga Philharmonic. Winner of the 1985 Chopin Foundation Council prize, his master classes and lectures have taken him to Brown University, the Juilliard School, and the Leningrad and Boston Conservatories. He is also critic for the American Record Guide, Opera News, the St Petersburg Times, Clavier, and Classical DisCDiges

Instruments Piano

Albums Recordings for Americus; Newport Classics; Sony Classical

Press Reviews "The valiant John Bell Young cultivates a suaveness of pedaling...He has at his command a touch vibrantly sensual, even seductive."Pascal Brissaud, Le Monde de la Musique"John Bell Young's new CD, Prisms, treats its listeners to ten pieces by the idiosyncratic Scriabin , as well as several new works. The Two Poemes Op. 32 and the Sonata # 5 especially showcase Scriabin and Young at their best.. The close miked Steinway captures the music with exciting clarity. Most riveting ?is Young's performance of his Mahler transcription. To keep this ravishingly beautiful work cooking with the same intensity and drive as the original orchestration is a tribute to a most insightful pianist. This CD has truly lived up to its name, offering a recital filled with colorful works performed with great keyboard savvy. Jim Edwards, ClavierFebruary 2000"I was most impressed by John Bell Young's performance of Scriabin's 5th Sonata. He demonstrated great power, imagination and a rhythm full of life, all the elements indispensable for an interpreter of my father's music." Marina Scriabine, Paris 1983 "Suave...engaging...winningly boisterous, with some bold piano strokes that are undeniably dramatic"Joshua Kosman, The San Francisco Chronicle"Two fine CDs from Newport Classic should introduce the music of Nietzsche to a wider audience. In Piano Music of Friedrich Nietzsche, Young is again the pianist, joined...by the excellent lyric tenor, John Aler for 16 songs. Charming...genuinely affecting. "Elliot Ravetz, Time"When I listen to Nietzsche's own modest compositions, so redolent of early romanticism, I am influenced by his philosophy to hear something else coming to an end: the assumption that a common language of tone and idea exists. We are Nietzsche's heirs... [John Bell Young] serves this music with taste."Edward Rothstein, The New York Times"Young's performances of Scriabin are that rare combination of spontaneity and discipline, intelligence and Dionysian abandon."Faubion Bowers, author of Scriabin: A Biography of the Russian Compose"The audience enthusiastically greeted the young American's performance, so full of energy, radiance and good will... The performance was not only brilliant, but amazing"Boris Mazo, Chaspik, St.Petersburg, Russia "A pianist with a strong personality, Young has a brilliantly gigantic tone and rhythmic drive?.The Scriabin pieces were extremely well-done, full of motoric vitality and romantic flavor. He has obviously taken their measure, musically and mystically."Robert Newall, Maine Times"A very convincing interpreter?truly a wonderful performance!" Maria Girardi, Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana"John Bell Young's playing is first-rate."David Ballingrud, The St. Petersburg Times (Florida)"A?performer in the grand old Russian romantic tradition, ?{Young] is also a pianist of considerable substance, ?he created an almost orchestral effect in Liszt's dazzling Ballade in B minor. His Scriabin selection included a remarkable performance of the Nocturne for the Left Hand in which he created a surprising level of volume and fluency with half the usual allotment of fingers. Then there was a spellbinding exotic Poeme, Op. 32 no. 1."John Fleming, The St. Petersburg Times, "In this brave new world of pianistic obligatory democracy made of verifiably good (if not great) and accomplished (if not perfect) players, John Bell Young stands out as one of the heroes of the end of this epoch. He is a pianist endowed with the rare gift of musical story-telling, a charmer with a rare understanding of the beauty and power of harmony and a performer full of savoir-faire, genuine temperament and rue love of his instrument."-Michel BlockPianist, recording artist EMI, ProPianoLaureate, Chopin International Piano CompetitionProfessor of Piano, Indiana University"John Bell Young is a tough critic. Writing for Opera News and American Record Guide, he is quick to deflate performers, even very skilled ones, who simply go through the motions , who fail to search within themselves for a personal understanding of the music. The classical music world is full of such indifferent musicians and their cynical promoters, he often says, and to hell with the lot of them. But Young is a performer himself, a competition-winning pianist with a number of recordings to his credit and this new one, Prisms, just released. So how will he fare when we apply his own lofty standards to his work? Just fine, as it turns out. Young's playing here is thoughtful and sensitive, especially in the works of his favorite composer and musical inspiration, Alexander Scriabin?.Another treat comes with Young's own transcription of the haunting Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony No. 5, a gorgeous, sumptuous melody Mahler supposedly wrote with future wife Alma Schindler in mind. The piece really needs the sustained tones of strings to be at its best, but to Young's credit he makes the experience work with the piano. Young has long sought out the musical efforts of people better known for other work, most notably 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Young argues such compositions have value as a means to better understand the links between the classic arts. We'll concede the point, but still encourage the listener to move on to the Scriabin, the Mahler and a surprise -- the very appealing works of contemporary pianist Michel Block. Grade: A -David Ballingrud, The St. Petersburg Times, Florida October 15, 1999 "John Bell Young was the prominent soloist?[He] first played the Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony no 5. This he did with elegant and relaxed skillfulness and with a feel for the work's symphonic stanzas. That it was also his own transcription was an achievement all by itself. It seems only natural, in light of Mr.Young's longtime devotion and study of Russian culture, that his Scriabin interpretations were so illuminating and idiomatic. Mr. Young opened the second half of the concert with a magnificent performance of Liebestod by Wagner, transcribed for piano solo by Franz Liszt?.He offered a brilliant performance of Chopin's Barcarolle. And for the encore, who could resist Mr. Young in another work of Scriabin?"Lennart Wikstrom; Bohuslåningen Gerlesborg, Sweden June 1

Location Spring Hill, Florida - USA

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