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

AVAILABILITY  Brana Records

Felicja Blumental – The Italian Collection Volume 2 Vincenzo MANFREDINI (1737-1799) Piano Concerto in B flat major Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg/Michiyoshi Inoue Giovanni PAISIELLO (1740-1816) Piano Concerto in F major Torino Symphony Orchestra/Alberto Zedda Piano Concerto in C major Württemberg Chamber Orchestra/Jörg Faerber Felicja Blumental (piano) – with accompaniments as above Recorded 1972 (Manfredini – others undated) BRANA RECORDS BR0026 [63.34]

This is the second of Brana’s ‘Italian Concerto’ series with their favoured artist, the late Polish pianist Felicja Blumental. Earlier we had Viotti and two by Piatti; here we have Manfredini and two by Paisiello. The symmetry is cemented by virtue of the fact that the biggest works on both discs – there the Viotti, here the Manfredini – turn out to be less impressive than their smaller confrères. Manfredini’s Concerto in B flat major is confident and classically shaped with a sprightly and elegant opening movement. Its slow movement is reserved and not especially memorable; it doesn’t plumb much depth and tends toward the generic and decorative but the finale – much the best movement – has a brightness and edge that embraces a solid scotch snap and fine orchestral tuttis – powerful and alive, and ending well. But it’s for the two concertos by Paisiello that the disc is most valuable. Though he’s known principally for his church and operatic music the C major shows particular panache in writing for the medium. The F major was written for an amateur royal and is betrayed by the (however ingenious) limited opportunities for soloistic display. But the companion work shows considerable daring and imagination – pert and athletic and with a humorous and fluent finale that exudes easy going charm – albeit one that threatens (but never quite delivers) a Turkish Rondo finale à la Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto. Performances are alert and warm, though hardly of course in the luxury class; strings are thin on the ground from the sound of it in the F major but otherwise these recordings – the Manfredini comes from 1972 but the others are undated – are pretty much par for the Vox course for that period. Attractive – especially for that Paisiello C major. 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.