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

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: AmazonUK AmazonUS

César FRANCK (1822 – 1890) Violin Sonata in A (1886) [28:00]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809 – 1847) Violin Sonata in F (1838) [23:49]
Manuel de FALLA (1876 – 1946) Danse espagnole (La Vida Breve) (1913) (arr. Fritz Kreisler) [4:43]
Antonin DVORÁK (1841 – 1904) Slavonic Dance No.2 in E minor (1878) (arr. Fritz Kreisler) [3:40]
Uri Pianka (violin); Timothy Hester (piano)
rec. January 2008, Studios of KUHF, Houston Public Radio, Texas. DDD
ROMÉO RECORDS 7272 [60:38]

Experience Classicsonline

César Franck’s Violin Sonata is one of those pieces which are simply too beautiful. They seem to transcend the medium in which they exist. What we hear is not a Violin Sonata but a hymn to the perfection of the musical art. As with Guillaume Lekeu’s slightly later Sonata – and what a coupling that piece would be for the Franck – this music is very special. It is filled with wonderful soaring tunes, brilliantly and gratefully laid out for the players. The whole is free from romantic angst. My relationship with this work, over some 45 years, has been akin to a love affair, so perfect a partner to my life is this music.

Uri Pianka is a fine player, indeed I cannot fault his technique for it is just about flawless. However, I question his interpretation of the Franck for it is very hard driven. There is little light and shade and it isn’t until about half way through the slow movement that he finally relaxes and allows himself to enjoy the lyricism. His tone is very full, perhaps too much so, for I want my lover, here, to yield to her occasional winsomeness. Pianka likes to push the music forward somewhat ungraciously; the finale, in particular, is totally lacking in charm. The Mendelssohn receives the same hard-driven treatment, and here, in the cooler, more precise classical mood I find Pianka’s wide vibrato to be very annoying. The little encore pieces are in the same vein. They appear on the disk in the reverse order to the listing in the booklet and the rear inlay.

Part of the trouble with this disk is the recording, which is very forward. There’s no space between you, the listener, and the performer. It’s as if he’s in the room with you, but so close as to be overwhelming. The performers would have been better served if the engineers had allowed some room for the sound to expand into.

There’s a lot of competition for the Franck and you cannot do much better than go for the excellent performance by Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan (Naïve V5122, coupled with the Shostakovich Sonata). The Mendelssohn is well served in a recording of the composer’s complete music for violin and piano by Nicholas Milton (leader of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra) and Nína-Margrét Grímsdóttir (Naxos 8.554725).

Bob Briggs

 


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.