Advantages: Pleasant melodies, good structure Disadvantages: not terribly adventurous in harmony
Franz Joseph Haydn's music is interesting as it is pleasant to listen to. Although he is actually Austrian, most of Haydn's music was written in Hungary for Prince Esterhazy's twice weekly dinner parties. Which meant that many of Haydn's symphonies and string quartets were written in less than four days - quite an achievement, when you consider the length of time his contemporaries spent writing similar works. Haydn wrote and conducted high standard ... ...who were employed by the Prince. And it is in many of Haydn's pieces that we can begin to have an insight into the life of him and his musicians. For example, the "Surprise Symphony" was written with the party gusts in mind. It begins in a plodding, slow mesmerising rhythm, which the already bloated and drowsy guests would listen to once they had eaten their fill at the banquet. Just as it gets to the stage where the guests would be nodding their ...
Lief Ove Andsnes predeeded his highly acclaimed recording of three Haydn piano concertos with this delightful recording of five piano sonatas, also available on EMI. They are the sonatas 24, 30, 32, 33 and 44. They are not very long in duration, but they have spikey wit, charm and are cheerful. Andsnes brings them off brilliantly. His judgement of tempo and pedalling makes these a joy to hear. He is supported by a warm but very clear recording. The ...
Advantages: An excellent introduction to Classical Music Disadvantages: None
This is a companion set to Naxos' "The A~Z of Opera" (previously reviewed.. It follows the same format and is an ideal compilation for people who are new to classical music as well as classical music buffs. It contains a double CD with two and a half hours of classical music (as you would expect) and a 562 page book (not quite as thick as the Opera one) compiled and written again by Keith Anderson.
So what's in the pack?
~~ The Book
This contains ... ...same size as a CD and fairly thick. The text is concise and clear and informative, with portraits of composers throughout. After the index you get 450 pages of concise histories of composers, with recommendations of recordings from the Naxos catalogue. It is arranged in alphabetical order, and starts with Adolphe Adam and is completed by Bernd Alois Zimmerman. As well as details about the composer there are sections on the different types of music ...
Advantages: Good recordings of unfamiliar, but rewarding works Disadvantages: None
Karlowicz is a relatively unknown composer whose chief claim to fame was his untimely death in a skiing accident just before the First World War. He left a small collection of works, the later of which (figured in this disc) show a talent that was tragically snuffed out before he could achieve greatness.
The Symphonic Poems featured here reveal a composer adept at interesting orchestral effects (try the sad theme at the start of the Lithuanian Rhapsody, ... ...writing for the lower-toned instruments of the orchestra. Karlowicz has clearly learnt a lot from Richard Strauss, whose shadow fell across much pre-1914 music, but it often lacks the extrovert quality of the Gernman composer's tone poems; as the inlay notes say, there is a 'brooding' quality to much of this music, particularly evident in the middle sections of these works. Another feature of Karlowicz's writing is his tendency to pick himself up ...
Advantages: A good introduction to sacred music Disadvantages: A rather niche album on which those into the genre will find nothing new
...the same. Requiem is subtitled "music for Reflection and Meditation". It takes various well known settings of the requiem mass, together with a couple of other fitting pieces and puts them together in one place. If one is so minded, one should note that this album is NOT a requiem mass. The pieces don't follow in the right order but, having said that, to the knowledgeable, the whole album stands on its own as a good religious set. One of the other ... ...who are less well-known. When one says "requiem" one might think of Verdi or Mozart but here we also have offerings from Spanish composer Lobo (a motet) and the Italian Pergolesi (an extract from his Sabat Mater). I feel that Naxos have really got it right with this compilation. The perfect balance between the known and the unknown is struck with excerpts from the more well known Requiems by Mozart and Verdi featuring more than once meaning ...
Package, to drive, nippy, economical, relaible (*)
