Press
Quotes
"…Exceedingly beautiful. Smith gets some of the loveliest sounds I have ever heard from a Matthias Dammann guitar.” — Al Kunze, Soundboard Magazine
“Immediately the player establishes herself as exceedingly good with lots of emotional tones and a wonderful technique.” — Chris Dumigan, Classical Guitar Magazine
“I don’t know what she’s doing -- but I know it’s deep.” — Comedian Sinbad
“This is one hell of a guitarist - and more importantly a top-class musician."
— Frank Wallace, Festival 21 Blog
"All is so tender, passionate, elegant, powerful, intelligent … perfect.”
— Frank Wallace, Festival 21 Blog
“Several of these works are also at times bold and technically challenging, offering Smith an opportunity to display her incredible versatility as a guitarist. Throughout these passages, the rich and oftentimes thundering tones Smith can produce are truly breathtaking.” — Timothy Smith, Minor 7th Online Magazine
"Smith reaches a dramatic climax rarely attained by other guitarists.”
— Timothy Smith, Minor 7th Online Magazine
Reviews
Soundboard, Vol. XXXV No. 3
by Al Kunze
…Tracy Anne Smith’s Lilac.Star.Bird is a much better recording, indeed a fine one. Apart from a Barrios Vals and Rodrigo’s Invocación y Danza, it is filled with less-played but fine and substantial works. At almost ten minutes’ length, Arabesque en forme de caprice sur le tombeau de Tárrega is a rather long work for Francis Kleynjans. I love many of his short pieces, and it is nice to know he can sustain inspiration over a somewhat longer structure. Smith plays the piece well, as indeed she does all the works on the disc. Two particular treats were the title track Lilac.Star.Bird by Ying-Chen Kao and a Suite by Jacques Hétu. The former is a piece developed by the performer and composer together, suggested by the famous Walt Whitman poem “When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloomed.” It is in three movements, the first two rather delicate and melodically abstract, the last, “Bird,” more athletic. The movement “Star (transparent star, wandering light)” is sparse in texture, but exceedingly beautiful. Smith gets some of the loveliest sounds I have ever heard from a Matthias Dammann guitar. The Hétu Suite, Op. 41, is a substantial work, which I am happy to come to know. I have not heard the Naxos recording by Jérôme Ducharme, but Smith does what sounds like an exemplary performance. Often meditative in tone, the Suite becomes dramatic in the “Ballade” and “Final.”
All of the other works are fine, although I would have liked a more propulsive transition between the movements of the Rodrigo. The Django Reinhardt Nuages, in an arrangement by Dyens, does not capture the wonderful rhythmic feel of Reinhardt’s performances, too often seeming to be stuck in a relentless swing-eighth-note shoehorn. The disc is well produced with exemplary liner notes by Jonathan Leathwood and exquisite sound from the team of Norbert Kraft and Bonnie Silver (the Naxos guitar magicians). Kraft was one of Smith’s teachers, and it must be a source of pride to produce such a fine album with a former student. [Note to anyone from Naxos: You really should send us your discs to review!]
Minor 7 Online Magazine
September/October 2009
www.minor7th.com
by Timothy Smith
Tracy Anne Smith, "Lilac.Star.Bird," 2009
For her debut release Tracy Anne Smith has assembled a uniquely beautiful set of compositions, which have served to set this particular disc apart from almost any other I have heard to date. At the core of this recording is the work to which the CD owes its name, "Lilac.Star.Bird", which was composed for Smith by composer Ying-Chen Kao in 2007. It is an evocative and surreal soundscape, drawing influence from a poem by famed American writer and poet, Walt Whitman. Each movement is meant to evoke a lilac, star, or bird, and they go beyond mere imitations of their titles, rather serving as prolonged meditations on each topic. It appears that this concept is what influenced Smith to select the other works for the disc. Almost all of them feature serene meditative elements that perfectly compliment Kao's work, most notably the works by Kleynjans, Bogdanovic, Hétu, and Rodrigo, which all feature soothing, dreamlike passages.
Several of these works are also at times bold and technically challenging, offering Smith an opportunity to display her incredible versatility as a guitarist. Throughout these passages, the rich and oftentimes thundering tones Smith can produce are truly breathtaking. Perhaps nowhere on the disc is this more apparent than during the second movement of Rodrigo's "Invocatión y Danza" when Smith reaches a dramatic climax rarely attained by other guitarists. This introduction to Tracy Anne Smith is an absolute success, thanks in large part to her thoughtful selection of works and her masterful playing.
Festival 21 Blog
April 14, 2010
by Frank Wallace
Lilac.Star.Bird is gorgeous, passionate.
Tracy Anne Smith is half of the ChromaDuo who will play at Festival 21 on April 10 at 4pm. They are fabulous, but I had not heard Tracy alone ‘til this moment. I wrote Tracy after about 15 minutes into her fabulous CD - this is one hell of a guitarist - and more importantly a top-class musician.
“Dear Tracy - I’m sitting here doing event info on Facebook - listening to your CD (finally) and you take my breath away! Usually I don’t listen at the computer because it just goes by and I couldn’t even tell you what happened. But your version of Mysterious Habitats made me stop in my tracks - the sound is great, the playing magnificent. I generally can’t stand hearing Barrios, and even that gave me a thrill. All is so tender, passionate, elegant, powerful, intelligent … perfect. Congratulations!
Now in Lilac.Star.Bird — gorgeous!!”
Classical Guitar Magazine
August 2010
by Chris Dumigan
First impressions? A very attractive cardboard sleeve with an eye-catching front picture and a general overall look that puts some company-produced CDs to shame.
The opening Kleynjans is one of his best pieces and very substantial at a little under 10 minutes. It’s a shame it isn’t seen or heard of more often. Immediately the player establishes herself as exceedingly good with lots of emotional tones and a wonderful technique. The Barrios starts slower than I have heard it before but that all goes by the board as soon as she starts on the main theme. Lots of creamy tones and effortless fingerwork. The Bogdanovic is a strange work that I don’t really ‘get’. The way the bass part keeps going round and round itself, even continuing when the key structure changes, only makes me wonder what the title and the piece is really all about. Nicely played though.
The title of the CD comes from the three-movement work of Ying-Chen Kao (born 1981). The style of the music is one of almost beautiful sounding dissonance. Its high roving melodies reminded me of the Hans Werner Henze Three Fragments in style a little. This is no doubt a major work that demands attention. The Rodrigo is very fine; the Hétu is a five-movement suite that succeeds in the same way as the Kao work; its expressivity whilst on its almost atonal journey makes for very attractive listening and is far better than a lot of other ‘modern’ pieces.
As for the final Dyens-arranged Reinhardt, anyone who can play his very fine music gets my vote every time. This is a wonderful looking and sounding CD that deserves every success. Well done!