MusicWeb Reviewer’s log: October/November
2007
Reviewer: Patrick C Waller
Pride of place this
month has to go to the EMI Collector’s Edition of Elgar’s
major works. On thirty CDs at little more than Ł1 per disc this
is one of the biggest bargains of all time. Contrasting it with
the larger EMI Beethoven
box I reviewed earlier in the year - that is full of worthy
recordings whereas in the Elgar box EMI virtually give away
the crown jewels. One of the most famous of all classical CDs
is included – Jacqueline du Pré’s reading of the Cello Concerto
with Barbirolli coupled with the Sea Pictures sung by
Janet Baker. Not long ago that would have cost you about one-third
of the price of this box on its own. Between Barbirolli’s orchestral
recordings – the first time I had heard his readings of the
symphonies – and Gerontius, other major choral works
directed by Boult, and one disc of Elgar himself conducting,
this contains many of most desirable Elgar recordings available
anywhere. I was very pleased to re-acquaint myself with the
Piano Quintet played by John Ogdon and the Allegri Quartet,
and Ogdon’s version of the Concert Allegro. I was rather more
disappointed than Rob Barnett appeared to be about the lack
of documentation. Since this is a set which for most prospective
purchasers would be the backbone of their Elgar collection,
I regard this as quite a serious omission. Whilst understanding
the need to keep the price and costs low, for something like
this, I suspect many would be willing to pay a few pounds extra
to have the texts and some background information on the less
familiar works. But don’t let me put anyone off from investing
in this marvellous set.
MusicWeb reviewers
are an interesting bunch of people from diverse backgrounds
and it was no surprise to find out that we have a least one
composer in our midst, Robert Hugill’s
music being the subject of a new release on the Divine Art label.
The centrepiece is The Testament of Dr. Cranmer, a powerful
work first performed in 2001. Robert’s music impressed me greatly
and anyone interested in contemporary choral music should be
investigating this disc.
Since hearing Rob
Barnett wax lyrical about the music of Kurt
Atterberg in January I have now managed to hear
all his symphonies, having come across a couple of discs of
the CPO cycle in the excellent second-hand shop Yarborough
House in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire and picked up the others
in a recent sale. Even so, I probably paid more than buying
the complete box straight off and, on re-reading Rob’s review,
that is what I obviously should have done. It’s a marvellous
canon and I particularly enjoyed the final disc which couples
the Sinfonia Visionaria (No.9) with the earlier
symphonic poem Älven.
Angela Hewitt’s
Bach recordings for Hyperion have a very high
reputation but I had heard little of them until the recent re-release
of the Well-Tempered
Clavier in a slimline bargain box proved too tempting.
The stimulus for this release is her current “world tour” playing
this work which runs until next August. These are wonderful
discs and I’m currently plotting to try and catch up with one
the concerts, possibly in Glasgow next May.
The Dutton Epoch
label continues to serve British music very well – a recent
release of Richard
Arnell’s fourth and fifth symphonies is particularly
rewarding. I also enjoyed very much a disc of Arthur
Butterworth’s Piano Trios and the second volume
of the series of Cyril Scott’s piano music. This features fine
playing of the sonatas by Canadian pianist Leslie De’Ath.
There is supposed
to be no such thing as a free lunch but the availability of
Georgian composer Alexi Matchavariani’s Violin
Concerto as a free download goes a little way to disproving
the theory. As David Barker’s review
makes clear, this is a considerable find. The composer’s website has quite a few
other works available for download, of which I have heard the
1st, 3rd and 5th symphonies.
None are as interesting as the violin concerto but the third
impresses me most and will fit nicely with the concerto onto
one CD. There is a limit to what can be downloaded at any one
time - about two major works - but this is hardly an important
disincentive.
As a regular subscriber
to the Naxos Music Library, it is possible to listen to their
new releases very promptly and there is always plenty of interest
on offer. Two piano discs have been particularly worthwhile,
one featuring Albéniz
in some lesser-known repertoire played by Guillermo González
and the other Schubert’s
Piano Sonatas played by Gottlieb Wallisch. The link given here
is to a previous disc in the series from 2004 – a pity that
it is progressing rather slowly. Wallisch’s playing is lyrical
and unaffected, and he seems to be going to give us the most
complete series since Martino Tirimo whose excellent interpretations
– and completions – were beset by terrible sound unfortunately.
The latest disc from Wallisch (8.570118)
is of particular note because it contains a more complete version
of the Sonata No 15 D.840 than is often played, the third and
fourth movements beginning incomplete and usually just omitted.
The F# minor sonata D.571 is also incomplete but contains some
wonderful music. Wallisch is daringly slow in the opening movement
and then contrastingly quick in the scherzo, and I soon warmed
to this approach. Also of interest is the fragment from the
“Sonata” D.655 in C# minor a fascinating glimpse of what might
have been. When Schubert’s sonatas were numbered as 21 in total
by Richard Capell in the Daily Telegraph in 1938 (source: the
9th edition of the Oxford Companion to Music)
he seems to have included this one despite its length of under
three minutes – it is the twelfth in Deutsch order but I had
never heard it before.
Alongside the Naxos
library, the Pristine
Audio website is the other place I to go for streaming,
and in particular to hear historic recordings. Among notable
recent additions is a 1954 Proms recording of Sir Thomas Beecham
conducting Sibelius’s
6th symphony. Also of great interest is a series
of BBC radio broadcasts of the music of James
Stevens, including his first two symphonies. After
I had reviewed his opera The
Reluctant Masquerade in February I received a letter
from the composer to thank for you “such a lovely, perceptive
review” but also taking exception to my reference to being reminded
of Britten. The composer wrote: “If you had written Mahler,
Janáček, Gershwin and, above all, Bach I would have agreed”!
I rarely have the
opportunity to listen to Radio 3 at midday but when I do, I
invariably find Composer of the Week presented Donald Macleod
fascinating. For one week afterwards it is possible to listen
to the programmes on demand via the Radio 3 website but
I had never got around to doing that until I heard a snatch
of one of the programmes about Bantock
recently. This certainly whetted my appetite to hear more and
the Chandos recording of Omar Khayyam – a recent Recording
of the Month – has just arrived. I have so far heard it
once and mighty impressive it is too, already on my shortlist
for recordings of the year - which reminds me that our contributions
are due soon as this will be published at the beginning of December.
Hyperion has also boxed up its Bantock recordings cheaply and
hopefully I will be listening to them soon.
Mention of Bantock
reminds me that the next English
Music Festival scheduled for May 2008. Festival director
Em Marshall’s recent interview on 18
Doughty Street.com proved well worth watching.
Last month I concluded
on a legal note and so here we go again. Despite a natural antipathy
to litigation, I didn’t feel sorry for Norman
Lebrecht who was sued by Klaus Heymann of Naxos and forced
to withdraw his recent book because of numerous factual errors.
Nor was I surprised, Lebrecht is invariably fun to read but
there has never been much doubt in my mind about the need to
have a salt cellar on hand.
Patrick C Waller
