RECORDING OF THE MONTH


RECORDING OF THE MONTH

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
A London Symphony
Oboe Concerto
£11 post free World-wide



RACHMANINOV Elegy, Preludes, Piano concerto 3
£12 post free World-wide

CHAUSSON, DEBUSSY
RACHMANINOV
TRios
2CDs £16 post free World-wide

Search
What's New
Classical CD Reviews
Live Reviews
Jazz CD Reviews
Composers
Resources
Contact Us

Every Day we post 10 new Classical CD and DVD reviews. A free weekly summary is available by e-mail. MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is our 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

EXPLORE
Musicweb - CLICK

------------------
Message Board
Announcements
Twitter @MusicWebINt
------------------


Schubert complete symphonies
Bamberger Symphoniker
Jonathan Nott


Only complete set on the Market
35CDs £67

 


 

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Momentous!

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

Italian Cello Concertos and Sonatas
3CDS £10.95


Brahms Symphonies Zinman
£26.85

 

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

Beethoven Symphonies
Thielmann


Magic Moments of Opera
10 Operas Arthaus £95


Brilliant Classics 40CDs


Brilliant Classics 60CDs


9 Symphonies Chailly
£31.90


9 Symphonies C Davis
£18.70

BARGAIN OF THE MONTH

Absolutely marvellous!
£5.99 post free


Bruch VC1 Gluzman
Quite the finest performance of the Bruch concerto I have ever heard.


The best opera DVD of the year so far [ST]


Mahler Song Cycles
Katarina Karnéus

Available again

The Raga Guide
4CDs + 196 page book
£33 post-free world-wide
15,000 copies sold

 

 

Would you like a hyperlinked weekly summary of the CDs we have reviewed?

Click for further details

Sample: See what you will get

Editorial Board
Classical Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Seen & Heard
Editor Emeritus
   Bill Kenny
Editor in Chief
   Stan Metzger
MusicWeb Webmaster
   Len Mullenger
Assistant Webmaster
   David Barker

 


alternatively Crotchet

Antonio VIVALDI (1678–1741)
Double concerto for 2 guitars in G Major, RV 532 [11.39]
Trio Sonata in C major, RV82 [10.03]
Concerto for guitar in D major, RV 93 [10.10]
Trio Sonata in B minor, RV 85 (orig. in G minor) [9.10]
Concerto for guitar, in C major, RV 425 [8.45]
Sylvius Leopold WEISS (1685–1750)
Sonata in A major [11.12]
Peter Katona (guitar); Zoltan Katona (guitar)
Carducci String Quartet (Michelle Fleming, Matthew Denton (violins); Eoin Schmidt-Martin (viola); Emma Denton (cello))
Jeroen van Keulen (double-bass)
rec. October 2006, Doopsgezinde Kerk, Deventer, The Netherlands
CHANNEL CLASSICS CCSSA23707 [62.31]



The Katona twins - Peter and Zoltan Katona - are a Hungarian guitar duo that has made something of a speciality of music for two guitars. Previous discs have included arrangements of music by Handel and Scarlatti, so it comes as no surprise that this new disc explores Vivaldi’s guitar music. Except, of course, Vivaldi didn’t write any guitar music; strictly he wrote a number of pieces for mandolin and lute.
 
The balance between solo instrumentalist and accompanying ensemble must always have been something of a challenge in mandolin and lute concertos. On this disc, the Katona twins solve the problem by reducing the accompaniment to one instrument per part.
 
In addition to the double concerto for mandolin and lute, they play two solo concertos written originally for lute and for mandolin. In these solo concerti, the second guitarist plays the continuo part. In all three concertos, the results sound impressively balanced and relaxed, as if we were listening to genuine chamber music.
 
The Carducci Quartet play in a strong, upfront manner which suits the pieces; though their rhythms are quite sprung there is no feeling of them aping period practice. What we get is well played, intelligently phrased modern style Vivaldi.
 
The concerto for two guitars is the only concerto which includes virtuoso passages for two guitars. The brothers play these brilliantly and are exceptionally well balanced. In all the pieces there is a sense of continuity between the two guitarists as if we were listening to a single player. Though the guitar is quite a restrained instrument these performances are by no means understated. The string playing is gutsy and well matched by the guitarists. Many of the faster movements are melodically uplifting.
 
When transcribing the pieces for guitar, the Katona twins have experimented with different techniques of playing the arpeggiated passages. Normally guitar technique for such passages differs from a mandolin, but here the twins have approximated something closer to the mandolin technique which probably accounts for the brightness and liveliness of the guitar passages.
 
The concertos are paired with two trio sonatas by Vivaldi. Though Vivaldi wrote trio sonatas for one or two violins and basso continuo, he also wrote trio sonatas for lute, violin and basso continuo. The Katona twins have arranged two of these for two guitars, the second guitar taking the basso continuo part.
 
Vivaldi’s trio sonatas are more melodic than Bach’s, with a reliance on texture rather than polyphonic lines. This is emphasised when the violin and continuo cello are removed so that the accompanying figures become even more textural. The results are pleasantly attractive and convince as guitar music.
 
The final piece on the disc is a sonata by Sylvius Leopold Weiss, a member of the Dresdener Hofkapelle and contemporary of Bach’s. Bach might even have composed his lute suites as a result of meeting Weiss. Weiss wrote a number of lute duets, but unfortunately none has survived complete, the second parts are missing. German lute player Karl-Ernst Schroder has reconstructed the missing lute parts and the Katona twins have used his reconstructions as the basis for their guitar version.
 
The resulting piece seems to be highly dependent on a single melodic line, articulated on one guitar, with accompaniment from the other. The results are attractive and charming chamber music for the delight of the participating musicians rather than grand concert music. But this is an interesting addition to the concert repertoire for guitars.
 
The Katona twins provide a well structured programme with some fine guitar playing. The disc will not necessarily please purists, but everyone else can simply enjoy a fine recital.
 
Robert Hugill
 



 

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer

Discs received

Having a problem Donating?



Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

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

There will be NO VAT Rises

[Acte Préalable £13.50]
[Arcodiva £12.00]
[Avie from £6.25]
[British Music Society £12.00]
[CDACCORD from £13.50 ]
[ClassicO £12.50]
[Hallé from £11]
[Heritage £10]
[Hortus £14.99 ]

[Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ]
[Nimbus Special prices]
[Northern Flowers £13.50]

[REDCLIFFE £11 ]
[Sheva £11]
[Tactus £11.50 ]
[Talent from £12.00 ]
[Toccata Classics £10.50 ]

Musicweb
Special Offers

Monthly Best Buys

 

Naxos Classical


New Releases

Hyperion


New Releases


 





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


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


£11.75
post-free
world- wide

 

 

Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here
Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Pat and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

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




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


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.