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             


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


 
REVIEW


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

 

 

alternatively
CD: Crotchet £8.99 AmazonUK £37.99 AmazonUS


American Serenades
Victor HERBERT (1859-1924)

Serenade for Strings op.12 (1897) [24:46]
World premiere recording of the complete work
Arthur FOOTE (1853-1937)
Serenade for Strings op.25 (1891) [25:28]
Philippe Honore (solo violin), Dietrich Bethge (solo cello)
World premiere recording of the complete work
Suite in E major op.63 (1907) [16:50]
London Octave/Kypros Markou
rec. St Paul’s Church, New Southgate, London, 23-24 July and 2 September 2008
DUTTON EPOCH CDLX 7238 [68:51]

Experience Classicsonline


 
Credit to Dutton for rooting out a genre I had not previously even thought of: 19th century American concert music for string orchestra. Victor Herbert wrote shelves-full of music theatre (try the Newport Classics label) but was also an adept of the concert hall. His orchestral music has been recorded in the Marco Polo series. His Serenade for Strings is in five movements: (i) Aufzug (Tempo di marcia); (ii) Polonaise (Tempo moderato); (iii) Liebes-Scene (Langsam); (iv) Canzonetta (Allegretto); (v) Finale (Molto vivace). It is delightful and always light on its toes. It reminded me a little of Frank Bridge’s much later Suite for Strings, of the Elgar Serenade and of the Parry string works. The Arthur Foote Serenade of 1891 has a wider emotional range – a deeper span of the passions. The serene Bachian second movement is followed by a cheery Grieg-like Intermezzo rather in the manner of the Holberg Suite. A classically deliberate muscular Gavotte ends the Serenade – it’s a shade too teutonic for my liking. The movements are (i) Praeludium (Allegro comodo); (ii) Air (Adagio, ma non troppo); (iii) Intermezzo (Allegretto grazioso); Philippe Honoré (solo violin), Dietrich Bethge (solo cello); (iv) Romanze (Andante con moto); (v) Gavotte (Allegro deciso). The Foote Suite in E major was premiered on 16 April 1909 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the very young Arthur Fiedler; has been recorded several times before: Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1940 – now on Pearl GEMM CD 9492, then on LP by the RPO conducted by Krueger Karl in 1963 on the miraculous SPAMH label (MIA 122) and most recently by the LSO and Kenneth Klein in 1987 at Watford Assy Hall on Albany TROY235 – originally issued on EMI Classics 49263. It is a fine poignant work with leaping melodic inspiration and a serious bearing; not that this stops Foote deploying a euphoria-inducing and witty Pizzicato second movement which more than doffs a hat to the equivalent movement in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. After two superb movements Foote’s grounding in Germanic models via Chadwick, Paine and Parker as well as a good few European tours delivered a seething heaven-high fugue which has its moments but cannot quite slough of the stultifying impact of the form. The movements are (i) Praeludium (Allegro comodo); (ii) Pizzicato and Adagietto (Capriccioso allegretto); (iii) Fugue (Allegro giusto). The useful notes are by Mary A Wischusen. The recording hall is magnificent allowing Kypros Markou’s London Octave orchestra to sing with the silkiest of smooth edges and for the pizzicato writing to resonate in delight. Recording managers should be queueing to book this hall.
 
A successful foray into a newly revived genre. More please. Anyone for Arthur Farwell’s Brucknerian Rudolph Gott Symphony?
 

Rob Barnett
 

 


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






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.