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

 

 

Buy through MusicWeb
for £10 postage paid World-wide.

Musicweb Purchase button

English Harpsichord Music
John BLOW (1648/49-1708)
Ground No. 1 in G [2:54]
Suite No. 5 in d minor [5:38]
Chacone in F [6:36]
William CROFT (1678-1727)
Suite No. 3 in c minor [9:41]
John BLOW
Suite No. 10 in G [5:33]
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Rondo (Abdelazer) [Round O] (Z T684) [1:46]
Ground in d minor (Z D222) [1:31]
William CROFT
Minuet in g minor [0:55]
Aire in g minor [0:48]
The Duke of Ormond's March [1:11]
Thomas CHILCOT (1707-1766)
Suite No. 1 in g minor [15:25]
Ruth Dyson (harpsichord)
rec. July 1990, no location details given. UK. DDD
HERITAGE HTGCD 215 [52:36]

Experience Classicsonline


 
The Heritage label reissues recordings some of which date from the vinyl era. Recently several of their discs have received positive reviews on this site. It has been noted by the reviewers, though, that the documentation is rather poor. That is also the case here. In the track-list the catalogue numbers of the pieces by Purcell are not given, and it is also unclear whether the various suites are performed complete. Fortunately the booklet - if you would call just four pages a booklet - contains some information about the composers and their time by Ruth Dyson.
 
It is a shame that no information is given about the harpsichord she plays. It sounds like an English instrument of the early 18th century. That would certainly be the most suitable choice for a performance of English harpsichord music from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Strangely enough this repertoire doesn't receive that much attention. Over the span of some forty years that I have frequently attended live performances and listened to commercial recordings very little of this repertoire has ever crossed my path. Thanks to more adventurous keyboard players some of his works are available on disc. Fairly recently I reviewed here a disc with music by William Croft, recorded by Colin Booth. Croft's music is of good quality and deserves more attention. Therefore it is nice that this recital of English harpsichord music includes some of his compositions.
 
The programme begins with John Blow who is better known for his sacred music. His keyboard oeuvre is substantial, though, and quite individual in character. His treatment of harmony is especially noteworthy. The opening piece, the Ground No. 1 in G, ends with a passage full of strong dissonants. The saraband from the Suite No. 5 in d minor contains some spicy harmonies. The Chacone in F also bears witness to Blow's skills as a keyboard composer.
 
The suite was one of the main forms of keyboard music around 1700 in Europe. Although English composers also made use of it, they foreswore the standard structure of the 'continental' suite: allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. Croft's Suite No.3 in c minor, for instance, sports an almand, a corant and a saraband, but also a rondo, a ground and a hornpipe. Blow's Suite No. 10 in G has a character piece, called 'Hunting Almand'. The same individual approach to the suite comes to the fore in the music of Thomas Chilcot. He is the latest composer featured, of the generation after Handel, and clearly influenced by him. His suites enjoyed great popularity. The Suite No. 1 in g minor begins with a movement in four sections: ouverture, fugue, adagio and aria. It is comparable to the overtures of baroque operas. Next follow a siciliano, corente, aria, minuet and jigg.
 
This suite is one of the best pieces on this disc as far as the performance is concerned. In particular the closing jigg is very well played. Also good is the 'Hunting Almand' by Blow. The performance is quite evocative, and the hunting effects come off well. Otherwise I am not that impressed with these readings. Some tempi are a bit slow, in particular Purcell's Rondo from Abdelazer. A bigger problem is that Ms Dyson often plays staccato, and that results in too little differentiation between good and bad notes. The result is that the dance rhythms are not always clearly noticeable, for instance in Croft's Menuet in g minor. Colin Booth’s interpretation, mentioned above, is much better in this respect. I often find the playing a little stiff and awkward, and not as fluent as one would wish.
 
That doesn’t diminish, in any way, my great respect for Ruth Dyson who played a key role in the development of keyboard playing on historical instruments in Britain. I would like to refer to a nice obituary which was published in The Independent on 19 August 1997. This disc stands as testimony to her activities in this field. From that perspective it is very welcome as it documents an important aspect of the development of historical performance practice in Britain.
 
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


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.