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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George ENESCU (1881-1955) Suites for solo piano: No. 1 in G minor Dans le style ancien Op. 3 (1897) [19.40]; No. 2 in D major Op. 10 (1901) [22.21]; No. 3 Pièces Impromptues Op. 18 (1913-16) [36.54] Luiza Borac (piano) rec. 23-30 March 2003, Stadttheater Lindau, Bodensee. DDD AVIE AV0013 [79.06]

It reflects well on Borac and Avie that such an ideal and unhackneyed programme as this should have been chosen. The music is unfamiliar, the timing is ample and the liner notes are models of freshness and span. Both the indefatigable Martin Anderson and the thoughtful and virtuosic Luiza Borac contribute articles. The four movement First Suite, the work of a fifteen year old composer, is thoroughly well defined by neo-baroque and neo-classical criteria. The first three movements are decided Bachian with trills and badinage as well as Olympian atmosphere. Ms Borac rescues the music from any heaviness. The final movement is closer to Hummel or early Beethoven (last movement of the First Piano Concerto). The adagio is the most refreshingly impressive movement (tr. 3). The Second Suite breaks from the bondage of the past and from neos and retros of any sort. The first movement's romantically majestic chiming makes way for the arpeggiated lyric dreamland of the Sarabande and the humid phantasmal meander of the Pavane. The Bourrée is like much of the rest of this attractive suite - a fusion of Debussy, Warlock and Poulenc. The Third Suite is in seven movements. It is contemporary with the Great War - the twelve months before the start and two years into hostilities. The style is yet more swirlingly impressionistic (tr.13), scathingly fantastic (tr.12), discordantly exuberant (tr. 15) and poised than in the Second Suite. Carillon Nocturne with its grotesqueries, Chinoiserie and atonality leans in and out of Schoenberg's Hanging Gardens and Cyril Scott's Lotusland. This movement shows Mlle Borac at her most impressive with her powers of concentration unwavering. It rounds out the disc in an enigmatic mist: elusive and sphinx-like. Rob Barnett see also review by Kevin Sutton 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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