“The vocal works of San Francisco-based Gordon Getty have been the major part of his compositional ouevre as well as previous recordings. So it is a change of pace here to focus strictly on the instrumental music of this composer who proclaims himself ‘two-thirds 19th century.’ He writes in an essentially conservative style while observing: ‘there’s still a great deal to be said in C Major’… The opening overture is from probably his best-known work, his opera on Shakespeare’s fat and funny character Falstaff. It is filled with good humor, but ends with a baleful sound representing Prince Hal’s banishment of Falstaff. The eleven short sections of the Ancestor Suite are from a Getty ballet which was premiered in Moscow in 2009 and is based on the 1839 Poe short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Some of the movements sound perfectly tuneful and upbeat, while others have a subtle macabre edge to them as befits the stimulus for the ballet.… The usual excellent hi-res surround quality provided by PentaTone makes it easy for those of us not heavily into vocal music to get a taste of the instrumental compositional style of Gordon Getty.”

John Sunier,
Audiophile Audition, June 2011