I should have been
suspicious when, having opened the box,
I found no background notes on the composer
or the piece and no details of performer
or orchestra or conductor. On the evidence
of my ears both the solo part and the
orchestra are synthesised. Despite advances
in audio science the sound still has
that harmonium-Hammond zing. I have
no abiding prejudices against the process
(witness my reviews of various Bortkiewicz
discs) but I just wish Mr Sprague and
his company had declared this. After
all they are quite open about the CD
playing for only just over half an hour.
I have done a little
research and find that Frank Lee Sprague
is an American composer born in Wichita
Falls, Texas on 8 January 1958. He is
said to have more than one thousand
works to his credit. His website notes
refer to performances in Los Angeles
by Ernest Ehrheardt, Karen Elaine, Robert
Korda and Brian Leonard. They also say
that he has spent his life studying,
writing, and performing music his main
instrument being the guitar. This is
his newest recording.
The Concerto for Violin
with Orchestra can lay no claims to
originality. Provided you are ready
to accept the sound of a synthesised
solo and orchestra then you will find
a work whose gracious and I think rather
hackneyed manners ape the violin concertos
of Beethoven and Mozart. This is sometimes
moderated by the sort of music you find
in the more pallid pages of Sibelius’s
theatre music. Despite the exalted claims
made for this music by Mr Sprague’s
publicists this is never stronger than
pleasant and often sounds like a Beethoven
facsimile but without Beethoven’s unruly
originality and structured energy.
If you would like to
hear more Wichita Fall Records have
produced two other Sprague discs: WFR336
Symphonic Poem and WFR342 Piano Quartet.
Rob Barnett
WICHITA FALLS RECORDS WFR344 [30:42] 
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