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             


 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


Alphons DIEPENBROCK (1862-1921)
CD 1
De Vogels Overture (1917) [10:14]
Marsyas (1909-10) - Concert Suite [33:55] (I Prelude. Marsyas' awakening in spring [7:19]; II Entr'acte. Wandering through the forest [12:31]; III Marsyas and the nymphs [6:04]; IV Prelude to Act III. A summer's night [4:49]; V Finale. Dance of the nymphs and Apollo's epilogue [2:55])
Hymne for violin and orchestra (1898, 1904-5, 1917) [12:37]
Elektra - symphonic suite (arr. Eduard Reeser) (1919-20) [19:52]
CD 2
Hymne an die Nacht for mezzo and orchestra (1899, 1909) [17:24] (1 'Muß immer der Morgen wiederkommen?' [7:57]; 2 'Ewig ist die Dauer des Schlaf' [3:25]; 3 'Sie wissen nicht, daß du es bist' [6:01])
Die Nacht for mezzo and orchestra (1910-11) [15:25] ('Rings um ruhet die Stadt' - [7:25]; 'Aber ein Saitenspiel tönt fern aus Gärten' [3:15]; 'Jetzt auch kommer ein Wehn' [4:45]
Hymne for tenor solo and orchestra [8:40] ('Wenige wisen das Geheimniß der Liebe' - [3:07]; 'Wer hat des irdischen Leibes hohen Sinn errathen?' [3:14]; 'Hätten die Nüchternen einmal gekostet' [2:20])
Im großen Schweigen for bass solo and orchestra (1905) [22:56] ('Hier ist das Meer' [6:53]; 'Das Meer liegt bleich und glänzend da' [5:06]; 'Sei es drum!' [3:37]; 'Ach, es wird noch stiller' [2:49]; 'Oh Meer! Oh Abend!' [4:31])
Linda Finnie (mezzo); Christoph Homberger (tenor); Robert Holl (bass-baritone); Emmy Verhey (violin)
Residentie Orchestra, The Hague/Hans Vonk
rec. Dr Anton Philipszaal, The Hague, The Netherlands, 24-27 September 1989 (orchestral works); 18-20 April and 3-4 July 1990 (symphonic songs)
CHANDOS CHAN 10029(2) [77:07 + 64:51]
Experience Classicsonline

It is good to welcome this set of the extravagantly brooding orchestral music of the Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock. Hans Vonk (1942-2004) presides. It was issued as such in 2002 but eluded us at the time. The same set but in one of those card-fold wallets has been licensed as Brilliant Classics 93412. I have not heard the Brilliant but assume that it will not be as well documented as the Chandos original. 

The overture De Vogels (The Birds) is a fairly blithe Straussian piece with an exuberant whoop yet by no means densely orchestrated. Much of the piece is quiet, delicate, fluttering and chirruping with birdsong - some of it luxuriously diaphanous and redolent of Ravel's Daphnis on the one hand and Bax's Spring Fire on the other.

The five movement Marsyas (Magic Fountain) concert suite is warmly orchestrated and blooms in the early afternoon sun. It dates from eight years before Der Vogels. Its second movement skips along in rather lively fashion with castanets and tambourine and a general sense of one of the more lively moments from Sibelius's incidental music. There's a sidelong Delian Prelude to a summer's night and a final romping Dance of the Nymphs and Apollo's Epilogue.

The Hymne for violin and orchestra has its origins in a piece for violin with piano. It has its salon sentimental stickiness but if you enjoy the Chausson Poème you will like this affectionate piece. It's beautifully played by Emmy Verhey.

The Diepenbrock authority Eduard Reeser prepared the symphonic suite of the music for Sophocles' Elektra. It 's in four movements. Gleaming gossamer textures are the order of the day. The mournful wistful second movement creates a chill in the air which is in part dispelled by the Fauré-like lambency of the third movement - very much in the line of the French composer's Pavane. Restless, ruthless and complete with castanets again the final segment depicts the Erinyes'; hunt and vengeance upon Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. There is a certain tortured darkness in this score; something which would have appealed to Bernard Herrmann.

The second disc sets forth four works for solo voice and orchestra. The Hymne an die Nacht No. 2 is a grand scena demanding a powerful voice set amidst a constantly shifting lyrical-expressionist orchestral backdrop. Linda Finnie's operatic chops are not in doubt and her reading while occasionally finding a beat in the voice conveys the sense of a great voice ready to come off the leash at any moment. This is lush and luscious romanticism with Delius and Wagner never far distant.

Finnie returns for the two episode Die Nacht with its coolly woven flute and woodwind partners. The solo violin and viola also course around the soloist's voice in the second segment. A slow burn.

The Hymne for tenor and orchestra is another slowly flowering pensive piece of melancholia. It is richly upholstered with the apparatus of the late-romantic orchestra yet with little dramatic conflagration.

Im großen Schweigen is laid out for bass solo and orchestra. It begins with some Brucknerian conspiratorial propulsion of the type to be heard in the Fourth and Eighth symphonies. This five movement sequence has much in the way of whispered confidences and soliloquies beside chilly lakes or roaming through cedar groves. One might think in terms of Bantock's Sappho Fragments. It includes some notably magical moments as in the fragile trumpet solo at 2:09 in the last chapter of the piece. Im großen Schweigen would go well with the Chausson Poème de l'Amour et de la Mer, with the more brooding Schulhoff songs and with Wagner's Wesendoncklieder.

The sung words and translation into English are printed in the no-holds-barred booklet.

The recordings are of exemplary clarity and the orchestra responds to every demand with security and engagement. I have known these discs since they were first issued individually in 1989-1990 as CHAN 8821 and CHAN 8878.

This is music that will appeal strongly to the late-romantic constituency that favours Zemlinsky, Bantock, Bax and Biarent.

Rob Barnett

 


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