Advantages: Good for upsetting opera lovers Disadvantages: You could lose the will to live
Some people possess the strangest CDs, don’t they? You wonder why they buy them in the first place and whether they actually listen to them once they own them. Idly browsing through Ciao’s classical music pages, I found that someone had proposed this disc to Ciao; and as I just happen to have a copy in my extensive collection it seemed fitting that I dusted it down and listened to it again – and wrote a review.
I freely admit that I listen to it ... ...many high society girls of the time she was given music lessons. She took them seriously and gave her first piano recital at the age of twelve.
When she was seventeen she announced her intention to go to Europe and become a professional musician but her father refused to let her go, believing that a woman’s place was in the home. Having a very definite mind of her own she eloped with a Doctor Jenkins, enduring an unhappy marriage until a divorce ...
Advantages: World Class Trumpet playing from a Brit! Disadvantages: Seven tracks of Spanish songs maybe a little to many for some
Alison Balsom is making quite a name for herself on the international music scene. Her delightful style and majestic sound make this album a top buy.
Throughout the CD influences of Hakan Hardenberger are heard (her former teacher). Looking at the track listing on the album you might think a risk has been taken transcribing works which are grounded into the history of other instruments and turning them into trumpet music. As soon as the CD starts ... ...pulled off. Music of Mozart and Bach sound like they were written for trumpet. Some say that Balsom has only made it to where she is because of her good looks. This is complete and utter nonsense as we here in track 4 'Variations on Casta Diva'. This composition challenges every aspect of trumpet playing yet Balsom takes it in her breeze. ...
Advantages: Cheap, easy to listen to Disadvantages: Won't rock your world
This is an elegantly packaged and well presented CD which pretty much does just what it says on the box. It is a re-release from EMI's excellent and superbly engineered back catalogue, well at this price what would you expect? The English Chamber Orchestra is ably marshalled by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, who for all his genius as a solo violinist, never really achieved top-flight status as a conductor. And alongside him the flute playing from Samuel Coles ... ...know, even if you didn't know that you knew them. Their vintage puts them at the back end of the time before period instrument performances began to dominate the market in classical music. In that sense this is a refreshingly full-bodied listen, without the up-beat tempi, straight-edged strings and honking wind and brass of 'authentic instrument' performances. It does smack a little of Classic FM, and too much of this CD will wear down your eardrums ...
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 (*)
