MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is these advertisers that pay for it. Please visit their sites regularly to see if anything might interest you. Purchasing from them keeps MusicWeb free.

Classical Editor: Rob Barnett                               Founder Len Mullenger


CD REVIEW


Online Count. There are currently : visitors. What this means.
Site Map

More Reviews

How to find a review

Classical CD Review Archive

Book Reviews

Film Music Reviews

Jazz CD Reviews

Nostalgia

Comment

Norman Lebrecht Weekly

Arthur Butterworth Writes

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands

Classical blogs

Reviewers Logs

Announcements

Don't Go Here!

Community

Bulletin Board

Web Ring

Reviewers

Helpers invited!

Resources

Quiz

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Indexes
   Label
   Masterwork

Discographies

On-line Music
[Download sites]

Themed Review pages

Our Classic Classics

Online books
MWI Classical
     Encyclopaedia

Gilder Dictionary of
     Composers

MWI Pop
     Encyclopedia

Other Complete Books

Programme Notes

 

British Music Society
Performers
The BBC Proms
Musical WWW pages
Classical Music Online

Recording Companies and Retailers
Agents and Marketing
Publishers
Non-Classical Web pages
Orchestra Web Sites
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

 

Editorial Board
Classical Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Seen & Heard
Editor and Webmaster
   Bill Kenny
MusicWeb Webmaster
   Len Mullenger
Assistant Webmasters
   Patrick Waller
   David Barker

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office
Helping MusicWeb
Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools

Would you like a hyperlinked weekly summary of the CDs we have reviewed?
Click for further details

Sample: See what you will get

alternatively Crotchet


 

 

Frederick DELIUS (1862–1934)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C minor (1899) [18:42] *

rec. live, Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, 13 September 1955

Sergei RACHMANINOFF (1873–1943)
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op. 43 (1934) [21:38] *

rec. live, Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London, 8 September 1955

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor Op. 18 (1900) [32:56] +

rec. Abbey Road Studios, London, 13 and 14 August 1955

Benno Moiseiwitsch (piano)

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Malcolm Sargent *

Philharmonia Orchestra/Hugo Rignold +

GUILD HISTORICAL GHCD 2326 [73:32]

 


Two of these performances are live and were recorded at the Proms in September 1955. The third, Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto is the well known Abbey Road traversal with Hugo Rignold. For the Proms performances Moiseiwitsch was teamed with an old colleague, Malcolm Sargent, and together they essayed the Delius concerto and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

 

Sargent conducted the Delius concertos but not so frequently. He’d recorded the Violin Concerto in 1944 with Sammons whilst Moisewitsch had earlier recorded the Piano Concerto in 1946 with Constant Lambert. Moiseiwitsch of course always played the single movement version of the concerto and had been an adherent for many years  The Sargent performance is a full two minutes quicker than the Lambert and this adds some considerable tension and drama to the proceedings. The sound is a bit raw but the heat of the playing is compensation enough, and one hears the important oboe and horn lines quite well. As ever Moisewitsch plays it with almost Rachmaninovian panache, essaying the passagework with power and elan, treating the rolled chords with grace, nuance and sensitivity, layering chordal writing with the right calibration of weight. Throughout his playing garners just that much more power and intimacy than in the commercial recording with Lambert; it makes for exciting, often exhilarating listening and if you can cope with the raw sound you will be richly rewarded.

 

The performance of the  Paganini variations, which aren’t sepatrately tracked, is very similar to the 1938 Liverpool Philharmonic/Basil Cameron recording. There’s what sounds like a small patch of cross station interference at the beginning but that soon goes even if the acetates used are a little bit scuffy. Moisewitsch is his usual bewitching fusion of sanguine wit and leonine power. The famous eighteenth variation is desptached with a certain romantic hauteur and the faster variations show little diminuition of his technique. The well-known and admired 1955 commercial recording of the Concerto was also on  EMI CDH 7637882 but I greatly prefer this Guild transfer. Not only is it transferred at a higher level but there’s much more presence and body to the sound. You will have to contend with a higher ratio of surface noise as well but that’s of minimal account given the sonic improvements in immediacy and transparency.

 

We live in rich times for Moiseiwitsch lovers. Pearl, APR, Testament and Naxos have sourced a wide array of his recordings and live recitals and Guild has now fruitfully entered the fray. Let’s hope there’s more where this comes from.

 

Jonathan Woolf

 

 

 

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 21,000 Classical CD reviews on offer


Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

Naxos Classical 

Australian Eloquence CDs on Buywell.com


New Releases

Hyperion
New Releases


Guild Music


23rd-27th May





MusicWeb sells the Polish
catalogue CDAccord
£10.50 post free W-W


MusicWeb sells the
Arcodiva catalogue
£12.00 post free W-W


Price Reduction: £11.75
post-free


Bull Horn
Price comparison Website

 

MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues:
Prices include postage

[Acte Préalable £13.50]
[Arcodiva £12.00]
[Ashgate Music Books]
[Avie from £6.25]
[British Music Society £13.49]
[CDACCORD from £10.50 ]
[Hortus £14.99 ]
[Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ]
[Onyx £12.00
]
[REDCLIFFE £11 ]
[Tactus £11.50 ]
[Talent from £12.00 ]
[Toccata Classics £12.50 ]

MusicWeb Recommended Recordings 2007

DISCS OF THE YEAR 2007

 



Return to Review 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..

 


You can purchase CDs and Save around 22% with these retailers: