Selected
Reviews and Critical Comments
While
editorial about the subjective art of music often reveal more
about the writer than the subject at hand, a few notable excerpts
from reviews and editorials over the years are reproduced here.
Individuals and committees often look to reviews as a determining
factor in their choice of artist.
CONCERT
REVIEWS
"Organist
greeted with standing ovations" (headline)
"A broad Benny Hill smile suffused Hohman's round face after
each tour de force at the console. He raises his fists high above
his head like a victorious athlete as his feet fly across the
pedal board. His patter between pieces is laced with good humor
and broad jokes. Yet solid musicianship is at the core of the
merry man. His Bach "Toccata in F Major" was clean
and lucid, a stunning performance of a magnificent piece, and
he followed it with a thoughtful transcription of the Andante
movement fro Mendelssohn's "Italian Symphony."
... but the first of three standing ovations recalled him to
the stage to play Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries,"
and to top it, a meticulously correct and utterly thrilling "Toccata
from the Widor Fifth," sending the crowd home on a verse
of "Auld Lang Syne."
- Portland Press Herald, (Nick Humez), August 31,
1994,
writing about "Friends of the Kotzschmar Organ" Concert.
"The
large audience arrived in a party mood...and greeted Frederick
Hohman with prolonged applause. The organist served as his own
master of ceremonies, introducing each selection with an impeccable
comic flair that Groucho Marx might have envied. The program,
designed to show the literature most at home on his instrument,
included transcriptions by Edwin H. Lemare, E. T. Chipp, and
Mr. Hohman, as well as original works by Alfred Hollins, Felix
Borowski, and Powell Weaver. The playing throughout was brilliant,
the registrations appropriately kaleidoscopic, and the artist's
command of the idiom complete."
- The American Organist (Fred Haley) writing
about 1995 Kansas City
Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists
"It
is easy to see how this performer could win national competitions,
He is a frist-rank organist. ..The performance was appropriately
full of fantasy in performing style as well as form. ...This
young man is musical down to his very toes. His performance was
full of personality and gusto, definitely not your run-of-the-mill
organ recital."
- Raleigh News and Observer
"Hohman
played with authority from the very start... His manual dexterity
is
ndeniable, and his pedal technique the best you'll ever hear."
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch
RECORDING REVIEWS
"The best CD of an American organ I've heard so far"- The Absolute Sound (Lemare Affair, Pro Organo CD 7007) Michael
Fox
"...charmed
and beguiled for over seventy generous minutes by incredibly
virtuosic readings...literal transcriptions of the complete works!...first-rate..."
- The Laser Disc Gazette (The Nutcracker, Pro Organo
CD 7012) Rad Bennett
"This
disc proves once more not only the validity of symphonic organ
repertoire as legitimate concert fare, but also that Frederick
Hohman reigns as one of the symphonic organ's strongest exponents....
passionate, heart-filled... spine-tingling."
- The Diapason (Lemare Affair II, Pro Organo CD
7018) Bernard Durman
"This
is music so beautifully played, one cannot help but sit back
and bask in it.
...Dr. Hohman's control, fine sense of tempi, and his "clean"
playing,
the work takes on a new luster...
- The Diapason (A Couple of French Fifths, Pro Organo CD 7021)
William Brame
