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Our Review

In many ways, formal renderings of classic Christmas carols are the most pleasing to my ear, expressing joy and triumph difficult to capture with most popular forms. Julianne Markavitch is able to imbue Noel, her Christmas offering, with this formal quality while somehow still giving these arrangements an almost improvisational feel.

In truth, Julianne Markavitch plays classical piano with an enthusiastic vitality that's contagious. Moody and restive, her fingers range wide, seemingly extemporaneously, taking familiar melodies and recharacterizing them with her clever riffs. But no matter how many notes she plays, each is softly articulate and fully formed.

I particularly liked her Angels We Have Heard on High. Mixing major and minor keys for emotional impact speaks both to the joy and the pathos that was the birth of the Christ child. As with several other selections, she imbeds a powerful yet introspective contemporary theme into the traditional melody. Nice.

Expressive, but not at all intemperate, Noel is a delightful way to spend an hour.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2002)

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From the liner notes:

Classical pianist Julianne Markavitch lives in Chandler, Arizona, and performs throughout the Phoenix area. Her music is played throughout the U.S., and in Australia. Her latest CD release is a collection of Tarantellas, Italian folk dances for warding off the bite from a tarantula.

An independent artist, she has been active in the (successful) struggle to save Internet radio.

Julianne Markavitch

Noel

Artist link

Track List