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

BUY NOW  Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Joseph Gabriel RHEINBERGER (1839-1901) Six Pieces for Violin and Organ Op.150 Suite for Violin and Organ Op.166 Line Most (violin) Marie Ziener (organ) Recorded in David’s Church, Copenhagen, June 2000 NAXOS 8.557383 [59.55]

There’s some overlap between Naxos and Capriccio when it comes to the attractive Op.166 Suite. This is a largely nostalgic and very romantic piece and the two teams take an almost identical view when it comes to tempi and timings. But the Capriccio pairing of Ernö Sebestyen and organist Andreas Juffinger is rather heavier and more Schumann-Brahmsian in inclination whilst the Naxos duo are generally lighter, wristier and tend to project the Suite’s more Mendelssohnian charms. There are advantages in both approaches; the Naxos’s organ registrations are more delicate and Line Most tends to inflect the violin line with more light and shade than does Sebestyen. I think it’s fair to say that the Naxos duo cleaves to the more feminine sound and Capriccio’s to the more masculine and heavily vibrated and richly pointed. At the same tempo, however, it does show how two relatively divergent approaches can be shown to work hand in glove with the music and not sound imposed on it. The Six Pieces for Violin and Organ are studies in up to date nostalgia, in that they fuse elements of baroque procedure and melody with more romantic characteristics. That said, listening blind, you’d swear that Tartini and Handel were mischievously at work in the Overture, complete with some fluttering passages for organ and the gently indulged fugal section. The Pastorale is delightfully light and sprung with the organ tending to simply a supportive spongy base. The ethos is broadly Handel meets Schumann and the latter predominates in the Abendlied albeit with a touch of Schubert. This is all undemanding and attractive, and recorded sympathetically: the Most-Ziener duo plays with finesse and elegance – and not too much sauce. 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

Return to Index

Reviews from previous months Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.