RECORDING OF THE MONTH     CHOPIN Waltzes and Impromptus Vladimir Feltsman £11 post free World-wide VIVALDI The four seasons London Mozart Players/Juritz £12 post free World-wide BEETHOVEN Symphonies 4 and 5 LSO/Yondani Butt £12 post free World-wide

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Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844-1937) Works for violin and piano Violin Sonata No. 1 Op. 50 (1881) [25.20] Violin Sonata No. 2 (1907 rev. 1937) [20.55] Romance for violin and piano (1889 rev. 1912) [4.22] Cavatine for violin and piano (1887) [7.12] Suite Florentine for violin and piano (1919) [12.09] Janet Packer (violin) Orin Grossman (piano) rec. 1992-94, Tsai Performance Center, Boston University, Boston, USA. DDD CENTAUR CRC 2475 [70.45]

This disc neatly complements the Naxos CD of the Piano Trio and Piano Quartet. How good it is to encounter Widor outside the organ loft! His First Sonata is a surprisingly classical piece with more intimations of Beethoven than of Franck. This is not startlingly original but certainly contains much satisfying writing. This at its freshest in the cheeky allegro vivace. Contrast this work with the similarly three movement Second Violin Sonata but at twenty minutes some five minutes shorter than the earlier piece. This sonata was written in 1907 but revised, to what extent we are not told, in 1937. While there are some Beethovenian tics and twitches, especially in the piano part, Widor here is much more the Franckian. The violin has that surging and searching line typical of works with indebtedness to the school of Franck. After a halting andante where I thought things began to shamble comes a finale that, after some flourishes from the Bach unaccompanied sonatas, gains an awkward emphatic confidence and brusque energy. John R Near's encyclopaedic liner note tells us that the manuscript of this work was sold for the profit of French orphans of the Great War and carries a sale date of Paris 10 February 1921. The Romance is a moony ‘song without words’, delectable in an undulating sense but warmed by salon sensibility; beautifully rounded and most touchingly played by both artists. The friction-less main theme of the rocking and searching Cavatine is romantically inclined and derives from the fifth movement of the 1886 Eighth Organ Symphony. Widor was to reuse it again in his 1911 Symphonie Antique for orchestra and chorus. Ms Packer manages the high fade-out of the work’s conclusion with wonderful sensitivity. The Suite Florentine is the latest work here. It is in four short movements of joviality, limelight and fragrance. Rather like the equivalent genre pieces by Frank Bridge these unassuming pieces are full of modest companionable charm and sprightly zest. Janet Packer's credentials are modern rather than high romantic - though she does that full credit here. She has, for example, commissioned and premiered works by Gardner Read, Vagn Holmboe and Andew Imbrie. She has also performed works by Vittorio Rieti and William Thomas McKinley. Through the Pro Violino Foundation she proselytises for modern violin music. Widor was no revolutionary and eventually stayed comfortably in the Franckiste camp. Rob Barnett Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

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