RECORDING OF THE MONTH RECORDING OF THE MONTH BARGAIN OF THE MONTH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS A London Symphony Oboe Concerto £11 post free World-wide RACHMANINOV Elegy, Preludes, Piano concerto 3 £12 post free World-wide CHAUSSON, DEBUSSY RACHMANINOV TRios 2CDs £16 post free World-wide

BUY NOW  Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Floating Senses: Sanctuary: "Refuge" Canterbury [5.30]; 2 Refuge [5.57]; Introduction to Antiphon [1.03]; Antiphon [3.21]; Adoro Te [3.41]; Lament [4.35]; Passio [8.41]; Vigil [6.28]; Blue in Green (Miles Davis) [3.16]; Surrender [5.00]; Introduction [0.47]; When I Fall in Love (Ed Heyman) [2.57] Sanctuary: Peter Togni, organ; Christoph Both, cello; Jeff Reilly, bass clarinet Recorded at St. Mary’s basilica, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, June 2003 Notes in Deutsch, English, Français, Castellano. Colour photos of Iona Abbey, Scotland HÄNSSLER CLASSIC CD 98.451 [51.12]

This is meditation music much in the "New Age" ethic but with a Roman Catholic focus. Organist Togni (track 1) was official organist for the Papal Visit to Vancouver, Canada in 1984. The other instrumentalists achieve very smooth, sweet sonority and make use of long sustained notes interacting harmonically, or textures, or rambling phrases somewhat in the style of instrumental plainchant. Clarinettist Reilly certainly has Herculean breath control to achieve such long controlled lines and attains considerable variety in the sounds and textures of his instrument. Cellist Both likewise plays very expressively and with a variety of tones and textures (Track 6). Numbers 1, 2, 5, and 8 are based on actual plainchant, with Numbers 9 and 12 based on popular tunes (track 12). There are no natural sounds, such as rain or running water, and almost no motion, harmonic or otherwise. I must confess that although I am not hostile to this sort of music, or to the idea of background music in general, and in fact recently reviewed very favourably David and Steve Gordon’s "Garden of Serenity II" this disk did not impress me. For me the best thing about the whole album was the very artistically done photographs of the Scottish abbey. My thought is that if you had attended a live Sanctuary concert this disk would make a nice memento, but it is difficult to approach this music "cold" without the setting and concert ambience. Paul Shoemaker     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 MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage There will be NO VAT Rises [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   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     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.