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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Daniel JEISLER (1877-1959) Introduction, chorale and variations for organ (1918) Erik Mohlin (organ) Cello Sonata No.1 (1921) Kerstin Elmqvist-Gornall (cello) and Kent Sjöberg (piano) Five Songs; Under rönn och syren (1912) Par ce soir pluvieux (1921) Les Barques Rafales d’automne L’Ile de la mort Kristina Furbacken (soprano) and Kent Sjöberg (piano) Adagio for string orchestra Franska radions kammarorkester/Pierre Capdevielle Recorded 1992 in Göteborg (Organ Introduction) Paris (Sonata and Songs) and from a 1957 ORTF radio broadcast (Adagio) PROPRIUS PRCD 9111 [66.08]

Born in 1877 in Klockrike, Daniel Jeisler’s studies took him to Stockholm, where he excelled on piano and organ but it was in Paris that he spent the majority of his life. There he met Saint-Saëns amongst others, cultivating friendships and accompanying such artists as Ninon Vallin, Pablo Casals and Jacques Thibaud. He was organist at the Swedish Church in Paris for over forty years, inaugurating concerts and composing; four symphonies, sonatas for cello (his wife was a well-known cellist) and other chamber works as well as a large number of songs and organ music. His Introduction, chorale and variations for organ dates from the last year of the First World War. It’s an attractive work written securely in the French style with an Andante section of powerful and gathering eloquence and intensity. There are times though when, for all its security of technique and musicianship, it does rather tread water. Given his knowledge of the cello his idiomatic writing for it is only to be expected and the 1921 First Cello Sonata, a big work in four movements, is attractively wide-ranging in its freedom. The first movement has an impressionistic burnish though it lacks a certain concision of utterance, whilst the quick second movement is a playful one and adopts a Ravelian cast in its mediation of the past with the present. The old world baroquerie that Jeisler introduces co-exists with scampering writing and amusing pizzicato episodes. Maybe the players could have taken it quicker for optimum effect – it’s marked Molto Vivace. Jeisler has a long-breathed Adagio but it’s not really distinctive enough thematically and I preferred the Finale, which opens musingly before developing some animated and Brahmsian strength with nicely lyric edge. The Five Songs vary from light, then-contemporary folk style to the use of subtle barquetta rhythm. The most impressive, harmonically, is Rafales d’automne, which would be more than worth hearing in a recital set in its historical and geographical context. Finally the Adagio for string orchestra, taken from a radio broadcast, which is rather Mahlerian (No.5) though it develops some sinewy and agitated writing along the way. Performances are very sympathetic. There are times when cellist Kerstin Elmqvist-Gornall is too backwardly balanced in the Sonata but it matters very little since the playing is enthusiastic. Soprano Kristina Furbacken has a light attractive voice and does well by the songs. Notes are in French and Swedish. Jonathan Woolf 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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