Stamitz: Clarinet Concerto

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

...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

Advantages: It is simply one of the finest pieces of music ever written
Disadvantages: How dare you ask of any disadvantges!?!

...of agitated questioning ("What do you want? What is happening?") with gentle string heaves trying to calm the soloist down. For a moment the soloist does calm down for a sorrowful refrain from the strings, clarinets and horns that tries to cry, but are too feeble, faltering down into sobs. The cello, now almost trying to comfort the orchestra with a hesitatingly rising scale allows the orchestra to form what it has been trying to say. The violas launch into the 9/8 lament Elgar wrote after his surgery, which has become the most widely known melody of the concerto. This is the first idea that Elgar came up with; it is this melody that most readily identifies the concerto's fame of "autumnal feeling and regret of a world gone away"; it is this melody Elgar hummed on his death bed to his friend and said: "If ever after I'm dead you hear someone... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Good tuba muisc
Disadvantages: None

...The tuba has generally been ignored as a solo instrument, and although it enjoyed some success in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and the operas of Wagner, it didnt really emerge as a solo instrument until the 20th century. However, recently the tuba's potential as a soloist has been realised through the children's tale, Tubby the Tuba, where the whole point of the story is to highlight the fact that most peoploe would not think the tuba of being capable in taking a soloistic role, but the fact that it can take this role, and take it extremely successfully is shown here in this CD with these four Tuba Concerti, that were all written in the years after Tubby the Tuba. The first Tuba Concerto on the CD is Tuba Concerto (1978) by Edward Gregson. 1 - Allegro deciso 2 - Lento e mesto 3 - Allegro giocoso This concerto begins... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful