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   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Gerald FINZI (1901-1956)
A Young Man’s Exhortation Op.14 (1926-29) [29:16]
Till Earth Outwears Op.19a (1927-56) [17:29]
Oh Fair to See Op.13b (1925-56) [17:18]
John Mark Ainsley (tenor); Iain Burnside (piano)
rec. Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK, 27-28 November 2006. DDD
Programme notes in English and German. Texts in English
NAXOS 8.570414 [64:03]


This is a very thoughtful recital of Finzi songs. A Young Man’s Exhortation is that rare thing in Finzi’s output – a series of songs actually conceived from the outset as a cycle. What makes this collection so attractive in programme terms is the inclusion of two other collections which include songs possibly originally intended for A Young Man’s Exhortation. This cycle has fared well on CD. Both Martyn Hill and James Gilchrist have recorded the complete set quite beautifully. This music is very much ‘English tenor’ territory and John Mark Ainsley is among the very finest of the breed. His voice is lucid, diction always beautifully clear and the musicality and phrasing is faultless. This makes a wonderful companion to the two Finzi discs recorded by baritone Roderick Williams – both also with Iain Burnside – which represent volumes 12 and 15 of Naxos’s excellent English Song Series.
 
Finzi was a huge admirer of Thomas Hardy and set his words more than those of any other writer, beginning in 1921 with By Footpath and Stile and also including Before and After Summer, I Said to Love, Earth and Air and Rain and Till Earth Outwears – the last included here. A Young Man’s Exhortation is a relatively early collection. Its ten songs are all beautifully crafted, with great care being taken over the setting of the words for which Finzi felt such an affinity. The music is still early enough in Finzi’s output to show the influence of Holst and Vaughan Williams but there are some remarkable touches which are pure Finzi, such as the lush musical language of Her Temple and the spare textures and eerie harmonies in The Comet at Yell’ham.
 
Finzi was a notoriously slow composer and many works occupied him for a considerable number of years. The songs that formed his sets as he called them were collated over many years, slowly being grouped into suitable combinations. At the time of his death more than twenty songs remained unallocated to any groupings. Finzi's widow, son Christopher and composer Howard Ferguson divided these into four groups. Till Earth Outwears brings together seven Thomas Hardy tenor settings. One of the earliest of these is At a Lunar Eclipse, which was probably one of those originally intended for inclusion in A Young Man’s Exhortation. Two of the songs are very late pieces. Life laughs onwards dates from March 1955 and is tinged with regret, doubtless due to Finzi’s knowledge of his terminal illness. It never looks like summer here is from February 1956 and so ranks among Finzi’s very last works.
 
The seven songs of Oh Fair to See bring together settings of words by a variety of poets, including one more by Hardy. Again, they represent many years from Finzi’s composing career, including another possible contender for inclusion in A Young Man’s ExhortationI say ‘I’ll seek her side’.
 
The recording was made in the Finzi anniversary year 2006 exactly fifty years and three months after Finzi’s death. I found the balance of Ainsley’s voice and Burnside’s piano quite perfect, with enough bloom around the sound to present these lovely songs at their very best. The excellent and informative booklet notes are by possibly the Finzi expert of our times, Andrew Burn and a full set of texts for the songs is provided. For any lovers of English song, this is an indispensable disc, especially with this thoughtfully compiled programme.
 
Derek Warby
 



 

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.