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: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Engelbert HUMPERDINCK (1854-1921)
Hänsel und Gretel (1893) – Overture [7:33]; Der Blaue Vogel (1912) – Prelude: The Christmas Dream [5:26]; Star Dance [2:07]; Königskinder (1910) - Concert Overture [7:53]; Introduction to Act 2: Feast of Hella and Children’s Roundelay [3:14]; Introduction to Act 3: Dead and gone. - Minstrel’s last song [8:59]; Dornröschen (1902) – Prelude [7:06]; Ballad [3:41]; Wanderings [3:30]; Castle of Thorns [2:14]; Festive Music [3:04]
Bamberger Symphoniker/Karl Anton Rickenbacher
rec. Kulturraum, Bamberg, November 1990
VIRGIN 50999 628584 2 7 [55:32]

Experience Classicsonline


 
As far as most opera-houses and listeners are concerned, Engelbert Humperdinck is very much a one work man … and the wider public is probably more likely to associate the name with a singer rather than a composer. Given that many very good composers do not even have one well known work this might be seen as not unreasonable, but whenever the chance does come to hear more of his work I have always enjoyed it. Enjoyment is indeed very much the right word. Nothing on this disc is startlingly original and there are many echoes, some deliberate, of other works, but the sheer companionability of the music, together with its craftsmanship and humanity, make it very worthwhile hearing.
 
It is a pity that space had to be given to the Overture from Hänsel und Gretel which anyone likely to be interested in purchasing the disc will probably have already. Nonetheless in an affectionate performance such as this it does show straightaway why it is that the composer is worth investigating further. Of the works on the rest of the disc Königskinder is the only one likely to be familiar, and even then more on disc than in the opera-house. Admittedly it suffers from a pretentious libretto but the music is glorious and the excerpts heard here are likely to encourage exploration of the complete work. Similarly with Der Blaue Vogel – incidental music to a play by Maeterlinck – and Dornröschen – another version of the story of the sleeping beauty.
 
The Wagnerian echoes so familiar from Hänsel und Gretel are present in all of these works, but so also are some of Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky and, more a pre-echo, Korngold. I am not sure that it is possible to recognise something distinctive in all of Humperdinck’s music, and not everything here is all that memorable, but I come back to the word companionable about its character. If you enjoy Hänsel und Gretel there is a good chance that you will enjoy the rest of this disc. It is well played and the recording is generally satisfactory. It is a pity that the remaining space on it could not be used for the delightful and unfairly neglected Suite from The Miracle, a spectacular play by Max Reinhardt which was presented at Olympia in London in 1911. Nonetheless what we do have is very enjoyable and it is a pity that the listener tempted by it to explore further will find little in the current catalogues apart from Königskinder and the inevitable Hänsel und Gretel.
 

John Sheppard
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Error processing SSI file



Error processing SSI file