2020 54,416 reviews and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here You can also use this FreeFind              International mailing

Searching Musicweb Monthly index Recordings of the Year Label index Masterwork index Series index Search engines Review Archive Classical Downloads Jazz Concerts Nostalgia Books Film music Resources Composer pages Tony Duggan's Mahler survey National discographies Mark Morris's Guide to Twentieth Century Composers Ralph Moore's Surveys Online books Piano Trio Survey Cello Concerto Project Pot Pourri - Early MusicWeb Gerard Hoffnung Arthur Butterworth's columns Philip Scowcroft's British light music collection Interviews Programme notes MusicWeb Listening Studio Other material Articles Seen & Heard Message Board Announcements About Musicweb About Musicweb Contact Musicweb Contributors What they say about us Visitor stats Site Map

Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn

Buy through MusicWeb for £12.49 postage paid World-wide. Immediate delivery Sales Link The bonus DVD is in the PAL format.

Tangos and Dances Jacob GADE (1879-1963) Jealousy (1925) [3.46] Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) Oblivion (1984) [5.51] Libertango [4.27] Chiquilin De Bachin (1968) [4.48] Gerardo RODRIGUEZ (1897-1948) La Cumparista (1917) [3.54] Enrique GRANADOS (1867-1916) Spanish Dances [Danzas Espanolas] – Andaluza (1892-1900) [4.32] Miguel VARVELLO (b.1943) Tiempos Inciertos [5.16] Carlos GARDEL (1890-1935) Tomo y Obligo [3.19] Isaac ALBÉNIZ (1860-1909) Tango Op.165 No.2 (1892) [4.36] Pablo ZIEGLER (b.1944) Desde Otros Tiempos  [4.59] Alberto GINASTERA (1916-1983) Danza De La Moza Donosa [6.16] José BRAGATO (b.1915) Graciela y Buenos Aires [7.45] Fionnuala HUNT Fino Irish Tango [2.22] Fionnuala Hunt (violin and director) RTE Concert Orchestra Recorded at Studio One, RTE, May 2004 Includes bonus DVD of filmed interview between Fionnuala Hunt and Sean Rafferty filmed at the Wigmore Hall in May 2005 [10’] AVIE AV2083 [61.57]

As Fionnuala Hunt explains in the brief bonus DVD that accompanies the disc this project has been, over the last three years, something of a labour of love for her. She’s arranged for orchestra some classic examples of the tango genre as well as exploring more contemporary trends – Varvello and Ziegler amongst them – and finishes with her own slyly Irish take on the form. Gade’s evergreen gets off to a bold and vigorous start with thwacking pizzicati and whilst the Danish composer may not seem a likely tango composer his Jealousy was an international hit. It’s Piazzolla however who stands at the crest of Nuevo Tango and it’s right that three of the works, the most by any single composer, should be his. I was more reconciled to Oblivion than is usually the case – there’s something about a melancholy leavened by sweetness in this orchestration that makes it less self-pitying than one generally encounters. Then again maybe Libertango is rather too static to communicate fully. The tango is La Cumparista – you’ll know it when you hear it, even if you think you won’t – though here it sounds to me, with the orchestral cushion behind Hunt, rather amazingly like a Brahms Hungarian Dance. She evokes nice violinistic colour from the Granados, albeit with a rather slow middle section and a touch of the generic in the orchestral strings and this applies to the Albéniz as well. There are examples of a "band within a band" approach when a small group of cello, bass, percussion and variants thereof, brings a certain acidic and resinously tough rhythmic approach that the equably orchestrated string patina can’t. You can hear this in the Varvello and the Ziegler, where there’s more sawdust and sweat in the air than padded concert seat. It’s good that Hunt lavishes affection on the Gardel and it’s always grand to hear Ginastera, in this case an orchestral arrangement of the piano piece Danza De La Moza Donosa which inevitably loses a degree of intimacy but wears a warm effusion well. She has usurped the cello’s solo in the Bragato but no matter, it was worth it, and Hunt’s own tango makes for a saucy pendant. The bonus DVD is an engaging one as both she and Rafferty are congenial company and articulate speakers. She’s certainly paid tribute to the song legacy of tango with care and affection. Jonathan Woolf     Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat   New Releases All Naxos reviews All Chandos reviews All Hyperion reviews All Foghorn reviews All Troubadisc reviews all Bridge reviews all cpo reviews Click to see New Releases Get 10% off using code musicweb10 All Divine Art reviews All Eloquence reviews All Lyrita Reviews   Obtain 10% discount Recordings of the Month August 2022 Louis Caix d'Hervelois orchestral songs   String Quartets   July 2022 John Luther Adams Houses of the Wind Horneman Alladin Piano Concertos 1 & 2 Yi Lin Jiang - Dualis I

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.