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

 

 

cover image

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Alexander PRIOR (b.1992)
Velesslavitsa - Concerto for two violins, cello and piano (2008) [46:35]
Michael Province, Simone Porter (violins); Nathan Chan (cello); Zhang Xiao Ming (piano)
Northern Sinfonia/Alexander Prior
rec. The Sage, Gateshead 29 April 2009. DDD.
TOCCATA CLASICS TOCC 0109 [46:35]

Experience Classicsonline

At 16, Alexander Prior was sent, by Channel 4 TV, around the world to find “the world’s greatest musical prodigies”, and then to write a Concerto for them. This work is the result. In his introductory note, Martin Anderson tells us just how talented Prior is, and that even before hearing a note of his music, “I knew this was no ordinary fourteen year old”. Oddly when I briefly met Prior, a couple of years after this, I felt exactly the opposite.

What we have here is a very long, actually a too long, work, which shows a young composer trying to find himself and working through the various influences which bombard a young musician these days. There’s everything from a bit of Vaughan Williams in the solo violin writing - shades of The Lark Ascending - some Copland, a morsel of Arvo Pärt, and some quasi-virtuoso writing for the soloists, accompanied by rather dull orchestral writing. The slow movement contains some of the sounds one finds in Alex North’s or Jerry Goldsmith’s best scores for film, but here it lacks the brooding intensity. To all of this is added a Sibelian horn call. The little-boy-Chinese-tinkly piano solo - at 2:45 - rather spoils things, and ruins any atmosphere which has been built. The finale starts as does Carl Nielsen’s 3rd Symphony, with big hammered notes, before launching into a tune which tries to be Hollywood but because the composer feels there must be virtuoso writing for the soloists all real momentum is lost.

Prior has garnered some fine reviews for his work - which includes Symphonies, Concertos, two ballets, two operas, and a Requiem - one even claiming that he is “No longer a Wunderkind, he's well on the way to being a Wunder-adult." One wonders just how often this particular writer attends student concerts at the various conservatories in London where music as good as, and, quite often, better than this can be heard almost daily. Prior isn’t yet anywhere near becoming a Wunder-adult, and on the strength of this work he’s not a Wunder-kind either, but there is the beginning of a talent. Then again, there are many more like him in London, alone. Prior will probably become a big name because he has backing. And that is more important than anything else these days.

What I hear here isn’t really worth our time. It’s a poor piece of work, poorly constructed, poorly executed, with a lack of real imagination and a total lack of flair.

Here’s an interesting point. By the time Erich Wolfgang Korngold was the age Prior was when he wrote Velesslavitsa he had completed the first two Piano Sonatas (1908 and 1910), the Don Quixote (1909) and Märchenbilder (1910) piano suites, the Schauspiel-Ouvertüre (1911), and the astonishing Sinfonietta (1912), both for large orchestra, as well as a Piano Trio (1910), a Violin Sonata (1912), a String Sextet (1917) and he was about to give the world his first two operas Der Ring des Polykrates and Violanta. All these works are written in Korngold’s own personal style and are vital and urgent works of musical art. Korngold’s is the work of a true Wunderkind. By the side of this man Prior is a mere beginner.

I find that I cannot bring myself to praise this disk for I find nothing in the music worthy of it. The recording and notes are good.

Bob Briggs

see also review by 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.