Adderbury Ensemble play Elgar, Grainger and Tchaikovsky

Advantages: Great passion, beautiful melodies, unrestrained romanticism
Disadvantages: The finale doesn't quite convince in it's purpose

...the composer's direction and repeated a week later. The symphony was received with great success, despite some reservations among some critics. Tchaikovsky himself stated that he was pleased with it: "It's not any worse than the others." His opinions however were not always steady and soon enough he started feeling differently of his new work: "Having played my symphony twice I have decided it is a failure. There is something repellent in it, some over-exaggerated color, some insincerity of invention, which the public instinctively recognizes." To some extent this may seem like Tchaikovsky being a little over-critical, but there is a truth to this also. While I find the Fifth Symphony to be a very enjoyable and ultimately well wrought work, the biggest stumbling block in this symphony is the sudden transition into happyland when we reach... Read review

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Advantages: Very exciting and powerful piece of emotional hysteria
Disadvantages: If you're obsessed with classical form and beauty, then this might just be too much

..., the music returns to its original demenour. Originally Tchaikovsky was not very sure about how fast to play the movement. His initial instructions told the pizzicato was to be played as fast as possible, but he gave up the idea and assigned a more standard direction of Allegro. Tchaikovsky was very proud of his novel orchestration, but later on felt more annoyed as the "cute" scherzo made a bigger impression than the rest of the symphony. IV. Allegro con fuoco "If you can't find joy within yourself, then look around, go to the people. See how they can give themselves up to pleasure! A peasant festival is depicted. But no sooner do you forget yourself in others' joy than the unrelenting Fate again reminds its presence. Again the heavy theme from the first movement appears. But the others don't care. They are not looking at you at all... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great performances of popular favourites and some rare gems
Disadvantages: Barely none, with perhaps slight issues with sound.

...and it is indeed music I could decadently play and get fat by just sitting and listening to it. And with the added comical side effect, it always reminds me of Michael Palin riding on his bike in the middle of the English countryside in one of the Monty Python sketches, naively happy, which the music only enhances. It is followed by the most excellent "Funeral March of a Marionette" that Gounod wrote to parody a particularly disagreeable critic practically nobody liked. Unfortunately for Gounod, the critic happened to die before he had a chance to dedicate the work to him. Most famous as the title theme for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, it is cumbersomely bumbling and comically amusing (though unfortunately the version included here is the shorter, edited version of the too rarely performed work). Percy Grainger has the last word on the set with "Handel... Read review

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