Aho; Nielsen: Clarinet Concertos [SACD]

Advantages: A definite easy listen
Disadvantages: Maybe too easy

...exactly say im 'into' it, i jus fancied a change. Its a good CD if u want to relax or for background music if u have sophisticated dinner parties! Not one of the most used CDs iv bought. In fact i only listen to it about once evry 2 months so it isn't exactly excellent value for money. Below is a list of the tracks incase ur interested. The CD is priced around £19.99 and available from most music stores such as HMV and Virgin Megastore. CD 1 Vivaldi - The Four Seasons Pachelbel: Canon JS Bach - Air 'on the G string' Mozart - Ave verum corpus Handel - Largo JS Bach - Jesus bleibet meine Freude Mozart - Clarinet Concerto Beethoven - 'Emporer' Concerto Mascagni - Intermezzo Bruch - Violin Concerto Rutter - The Lort is my shepherd Saint-Saens - Aquarium Holst - Venus Chopin - Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor Faure - Pie Jesu Shostakovich... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: a new take on a familiar warhorse
Disadvantages: is it worth full price?

...It's unlikely that any music lover who has a good recording of Beethoven's violin concerto on CD (say: Perlman, Grumiaux or Szigeti) would ever say to him or herself: 'boy, I wonder what that sounds like on the clarinet'. In fact, the only people who might would be clarinetists, for they tend to feel (mistakenly, as it happens)that there just isn't enough original repertoire written for their instrument. So here, spanking new, is a Deutsche Grammophon CD offering us an original work in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and an arrangement of the Beethoven prepared by Russian pianist/conductor Mikhail Pletnev. The soloist is Michael Collins, who plays the familiar Mozart on his basset horn with all the joy and panache we expect. The Beethoven is a different cup of tea. It's difficult to listen to the famous melodies without hearing the fiddle (or... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: beautifully composed, orchestrated and performed
Disadvantages: not for the "sing-a-long" musician

...is it particularly "chill-out". Those who have heard Finzi's works before can understand but if not, its meancholic beauty summons stirring emotions. The clarinet concerto (hailed as one of the best written to date) opens the CD with its raw passion, the string orchestra showing its true force through powerful octaves, dischords and fugal entries as the stirrings of a melody occurs, a short dramatic passage climaxes in huge hammered quavers, before the delicate clarinet melody soothes the powerful orchestra. Other pieces on the disc include the Five Bagatelles, also for clarinet, nad a number of works for string orchestra, equally well written and performed. Whether a dedicated follower or not this is well worth a buy, I guarantee you will be after you've heard it!... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful