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 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 Jazz reviews 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

AVAILABILITY http://www.wichitafallsrecords.com/ customerservice@wichitafallsrecords.com

Frank Lee SPRAGUE (b. 1958) Concerto in E flat major for Violin with Orchestra (2005?) (Tempo de Walse, Adagio, Allegro Assai) synthesised solo and orchestral (?) Wichita Falls Records Studios, North Hollywood, California, Feb 2006 WICHITA FALLS RECORDS WFR344 [30:42]

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     Advertising on Musicweb Donate and keep us afloat     Recordings of the Month December Conner Riddle Songs Rodzinski Sibelius Of Innocence and Experience November Symphonies 1, 2, 3   October Aho Symphony 5 Dowland - A Fancy MÄNTYJÄRVI - Choral Rachmaninov_ Babayan

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.