MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet


John IRELAND (1879-1962)
Piano Concerto in E flat major (1930) [24:50]
Frank BRIDGE (1879-1941)
Phantasm
for Piano and Orchestra (1931) [26:00]
William WALTON (1902-1983)
Sinfonia Concertante for Orchestra with Piano (original version) (1928)
Kathryn Stott (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley
rec. All Saints’ Church, Tooting Graveney, London, 10-12 July 1989
DUTTON CDLX7223 [70:01]
Experience Classicsonline

An old friend returns wearing new clothes provided by Dutton Epoch. This collection was one of Conifer's most enduring successes. Second-hand copies of CDCF175 still circulate. Now you have no need to scour e-bay or Amazon to experience these three British works of the 1930s.
 
Never mind the dedication of the Walton work to the three Sitwells. The movements are dedicated to: I Osbert; II Edith (she of the Facade poems); and III Sacheverell. Never mind the title: Sinfonia Concertante. This is to all intents and purposes Walton's piano concerto. It is saved for last on the disc and leaves the listener on an emphatic upbeat. This is life-enhancing music - neither precious nor dry. As for the triptych of dedications there is no need to regard this as a sort ‘friends pictured within’ indulgence. The music flies on its own sinew-driven lyrical wings whether syncopated, soughing or startlingly heroic. The first movement is stunning - and its jazzily hip-swaying peroration is glorious. It is topped off with a flurry of strutting confidence. After a touching central movement we come to the joyous finale with its romping euphoria and castanet echoes of Constant Lambert.  The original 1928 orchestration used here is more dense than the version you may be familiar with but the luxury of intricacy has not leached the kick and zest imparted to it by Stott, Handley and the RPO. Wow! It was premiered in this version at the Queen’s Hall in 1928 by the Royal Philharmonic Society. York Bowen was the soloist and Ernest Ansermet, the conductor.
 
Frank Bridge's Phantasm bears the impress of the Second Viennese school. It inhabits the world of the Second Piano trio, the last two string quartets and Oration. The tonality twists in ways that Bridge's Summer and The Sea would never have prepared you for. This work is endlessly fascinating and has its heroic rhetoric (as at 20:10) as well as its pastoral poetry even if the world is one of lichen and ferns rather than bleached fields and sun-lit forests. The recording is powerful - listen to the RPO horns at 24:30 and to Stott's obsidian verve at 24:03. Every detail emerges unmistakably. This is music that is both angry and grimly atmospheric. It joins other fine versions by Peter Wallfisch on Lyrita and Howard Shelley on Chandos.
 
The Ireland Piano Concerto often emerges for me as rather precious; blanched Prokofiev at best. His Legend and Forgotten Rite are so much better. Not so here where Stott, Handley and the RPO give the work a sharply delineated captivating character. This is the most touching and affecting of readings. It steers well clear of the lavender water we sometimes hear when this work is played. I am looking forward to hearing my first live concert reading of this work next Sunday with Mark Bebbington and the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ian McRae.
 
The notes for this disc are in English only: the original lyrically-informed essays by Christopher Palmer, a piece by Conifer capo John Kehoe and a fresh Vernon Handley essay by Lewis Foreman.
 
Rob Barnett
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


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.