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

Affectuoso : Virtuoso Guitar Music from the Eighteenth Century
Rudolf STRAUBE (1717-1780s)
'Suite' for guitar (arr. Takeuchi) [14:36]
Sonata I for guitar & harpsichord [18:01]
Giacomo MERCHI (1730-after 1789)
La Follia di Spagna con Variazioni, for guitar* [15:49]
Johann Christian BACH (1735-1782)
Sonata for guitar & violin [13:01]
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Menuet for guitar [3:16]
Francesco GEMINIANI (1687-1762)
Menuet Affectuoso, for guitar* [6:10]
Taro Takeuchi (Baroque guitar*, English guitar)
Judy Tarling (Baroque violin)
Terence Charlston (harpsichord)
ec. Holy Trinity Church, Weston, Southampton, England, 18-20 July 2010. DDD
DEUX-ELLES DXL 1146 [71:00]

Experience Classicsonline



This is Japanese Baroque specialist Taro Takeuchi's second solo CD for the British independent Deux-Elles, and unfortunately a long time coming. Only those with long memories will recall Folias (DXL 1050), as it came out a full decade ago! However, fans of the Baroque guitar are rewarded for their patience by this beguiling new release, in which Takeuchi, with some valuable assistance in places from Judy Tarling and Terence Charlston, offers up some rarities from the 18th century in an outstanding programme.
 
The composers are linked by the fact that they were all active in England in the eighteenth century. Guitar music had yet to really catch on in the public imagination, but some composers had already realised its potential for accessibility and intimate expression, not least Johann Christian Bach, whose only work work for guitar, gentle and genial, must surely have inspired many younger composers and players. However, the bulk of Takeuchi's recital is made up of the relatively unknown Rudolf Straube's two works, but is none the worse for it - they are both mellifluously idiomatic and memorable.
 
Giacomo Merchi and his brother Joseph both did much to promote the guitar in eighteenth-century Europe; here Takeuchi - perhaps to remind listeners about his previous CD! - plays a seldom-heard but captivating take on the so-called 'La Folia' theme, which was made famous by Lully and Corelli and used by more than a hundred other composers, including Geminiani, whose strikingly modern-sounding Menuet Affectuoso gives the CD its title and brings Takeuchi's marvellous recital to an end.
 
Takeuchi's period instruments are two mid-18th century English guitars (or 'guittars') made by Thomas Perry and John Preston, and a French-made double-stringed Spanish Baroque guitar from the same period used for the Merchi and Geminiani pieces. Tarling's violin and Charlston's harpsichord are exactly contemporaneous with these for total authenticity. The tones of Takeuchi's instruments are delicately atmospheric and original, the metal strings of the English guitars in particular imbuing his programme with a unique charge. Takeuchi's innately musical prowess and poise are finished with an endearing modesty that leaves the listener both deeply satisfied and wanting more.
 
Sound quality is very good, although it may be said that the balance is not quite right for the Bach Sonata or Straube's Sonata I: the violin and harpsichord respectively are too prominent, making the piece sound more like a violin/harpsichord sonata with guitar accompaniment than vice versa. Minor quiddities, however.
 
The booklet takes a genial retro approach to presentation - all the writing in bold, for one (odd) thing - but is informative and well written, the notes shared between Takeuchi and Peter Holman. There is also a fine colour photo of the three guitars Takeuchi uses for these recordings.
 
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


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






Error processing SSI file