MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


Miklós RÓZSA (1907-1995)
Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Op.37 (1979) [36:26]
Hungarian Serenade, Op.25 (1945) [24:03]
Gilad Karni (viola)
Budapest Concert Orchestra MÁV/Mariusz Smolij
rec. studio 22 of Hungarian Radio, Budapest, Hungary, 7-10 November 2007.
NAXOS 8.570925 [60:41]
Experience Classicsonline

Miklós Rózsa was a truly remarkable composer. He left Hungary at the age of 18 in 1925 and, apart from a brief visit in 1974, never set foot again in his native country. Even so, his music carries an absolutely genuine and immediately identifiable Hungarian imprint. To quote the composer himself “the music of Hungary is stamped indelibly one way or another on virtually every bar I have ever put on paper”. When no feature work appeared in Paris where he’d gone from his studies at Leipzig Conservatoire he took up writing music for films at the suggestion of Arthur Honegger. He first tried his luck in London where his debut score was for Knight Without Armour for Sir Alexander Korda in 1937. By 1940 he had become Korda’s “one man music department”. He went to Hollywood, as he thought for a month or so, to put the finishing touches to his score for The Thief of Baghdad. He ended up remaining there for the rest of his life, dying in California 55 years later.

This disc presents two works from each end of his composing career, the viola concerto of 1979 being his last orchestral work. It has an overall dark feel to it more akin to Bartók than to Kodaly whose music the other work here, The Hungarian Serenade, more closely resembles. Opening with a brooding theme almost immediately taken up by the soloist, who is called upon to play virtually without a break throughout. The concerto has a sweeping momentum that demands attention and passionate themes that are full of emotion. Lovers of Hungarian themes will particularly enjoy the concerto as they are very much to the fore here as they are in all his works. Peasant dances and folk-style fiddling abound. Gilad Karni is a great soloist who obviously relishes his role here. The orchestra give committed support. This concerto proves yet again that the viola does not deserve the reputation it has for being second rate in comparison with the violin. Here it is called upon to perform beautiful phrases and heart-felt ideas.
 
The Hungarian Serenade which dates from 1945 had a long gestation to arrive at its present completed state. It began life as a piece for string orchestra simply entitled Serenade. The premiere came in 1932 at the opera house in Budapest under Bruno Walter. There it received furious applause from none other than Richard Strauss who was there with the wife of Dohnányi,. The work went through several revisions which included removing the final march and its replacement by a lively dance. It teems with folk-inspired music and shows once again how emotionally tied Rózsa was to his native land. It receives a wonderful performance from this orchestra which began its life as one founded in 1945 by Hungarian State Railways! The first in a Chandos series of the orchestral works of Rózsa recently reviewed also includes the Hungarian Serenade.
 
If proof is still required by some that Rózsa was a master composer whose reputation should not be confined to his fabulous film scores then this disc is one more salvo in that argument.
 
Steve Arloff
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


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

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

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
Past 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.