Tír Na HiFi

Oh dear, that sounds more like a condemnation rather than an endorsement.

I actually like it a lot.

I am curious now.

If we go back to the 1930´s we´d realize how harshly was Rachmaninov criticized for those gorgeous tunes. Maybe Medtner consciously or not avoided the obvious tunes to present himself as a more "modern" composer, that, or quite simply he didn´t have them. But even if the late Romantic tunes are gone, his music is still tuneful if you know what I mean.
I like very much his concertos, and Hamelin made a gorgeous album with the sonatas.

Symphony No. 9....





The opening movement is a measured one in terms of pacing and assertion. It is very well played and it gradually builds in intensity as the movement progresses. The second movement is very nicely paced and is not played at a frantic speed. The slow movement is beautifully played. It is a glorious, expansive version which at first seems too slow but ultimately feels right as that wonderful theme flows along. The fourth movement opens ominously and almost threateningly but the mood eventually lightens when the big theme is introduced which, at first listen, seems to be played with an interesting heavy accent (must listen again). The choir deliver a powerful performance and the soloists, although not Walter’s original choice, all deliver a fine performance. Sometimes in this work the solo soprano role can turn into a shrieking session but not so here. Once again we have a powerful, expansive performance which concludes with a fine fanfare.

Lucrezia Borgia is one of Donizetti´s richest and most complex scores, and as James Joyce used to say, it needs superb singers. No soprano is better equipped today to tackle the hugely demanding title role than Mariella Devia. This amazing woman is well over 60 but easily sounds half her age. In recent years Renée Fleming and Edita Gruberová have also sung the role, but none can even begin to compete with la Devia, the reigning bel canto soprano of our time. To hear her sing Lucrezia´s aria "Com´é bello" is to look back into an era of truly great prima donnas, not girls next door.
We are lucky that Bongiovanni decided to preserve this utterly extraordinary performance for posterity.

Two discs of Shostakovich with Teodor Currentzis conducting. Excellent!

Lately I've been carrying a stack of sampler CDs in the car as an alternative to listening to Lyric FM. (I don't want my "proper" CDs to get wrecked in the car.) A recent one was a sampler from a few years ago for the naïve label and I was intrigued by samples from



Solos pour Orchestre by Pascal Dusapin and



string quartets by George Onslow.

I hadn't heard of either of these composers, but I was intrigued by the excerpts. Dusapin was born in 1955 and I've seen him described as a mixture of Xenakis, Mahler and Messiaen. What I heard had a chewy orchestral texture that kept me interested, though I must say it was fairly unremittingly loud.

Onslow lived 1784-1853 and wrote a lot of chamber music. What I heard was energetic and engaging, and hard to believe that it was by an obscure composer. Onslow has been referred to as "the French Beethoven" and I can hear why.

Has anyone else had any experience of these composers? Will I be disappointed if buy the CDs?

Ciaran wrote:Lately I've been carrying a stack of sampler CDs in the car as an alternative to listening to Lyric FM. (I don't want my "proper" CDs to get wrecked in the car.) A recent one was a sampler from a few years ago for the naïve label and I was intrigued by samples from



Solos pour Orchestre by Pascal Dusapin and



string quartets by George Onslow.

I hadn't heard of either of these composers, but I was intrigued by the excerpts. Dusapin was born in 1955 and I've seen him described as a mixture of Xenakis, Mahler and Messiaen. What I heard had a chewy orchestral texture that kept me interested, though I must say it was fairly unremittingly loud.

Onslow lived 1784-1853 and wrote a lot of chamber music. What I heard was energetic and engaging, and hard to believe that it was by an obscure composer. Onslow has been referred to as "the French Beethoven" and I can hear why.

Has anyone else had any experience of these composers? Will I be disappointed if buy the CDs?

I first got to know Onslow through a marvelous recording of his string quintets with L´Archibudelli, since then a few more recordings have appeared. I think he is a good second-rate composer. His music is pleasing but not really memorable. To sum up, he was an able composer but not a genius, obviously not everyone can be a Mozart, a Haydn or a Beethoven.

The Early Opera Company has been uneven so far. They started promisingly with a very fine recording of Handel´s Partenope, then they disappointed big time with their recording of Semele, but it seems Chandos has kept the Faith in them and now they turned to Handel´s incidental music for Alceste.
This time the recording is very good, and easily surpasses Christopher Hogwood´s 25 year old effort. Lucy Crowe needless to say is far preferable to Emma Kirkby in the earlier recording.

Jose Echenique wrote:

Ciaran wrote:Lately I've been carrying a stack of sampler CDs in the car as an alternative to listening to Lyric FM. (I don't want my "proper" CDs to get wrecked in the car.) A recent one was a sampler from a few years ago for the naïve label and I was intrigued by samples from string quartets by George Onslow.

Onslow lived 1784-1853 and wrote a lot of chamber music. What I heard was energetic and engaging, and hard to believe that it was by an obscure composer. Onslow has been referred to as "the French Beethoven" and I can hear why.

Has anyone else had any experience of these composers? Will I be disappointed if buy the CDs?

I first got to know Onslow through a marvelous recording of his string quintets with L´Archibudelli, since then a few more recordings have appeared. I think he is a good second-rate composer. His music is pleasing but not really memorable. To sum up, he was an able composer but not a genius, obviously not everyone can be a Mozart, a Haydn or a Beethoven.

Thanks Pepe, I thought you were perhaps the most likely to answer! There seem to have been a surprisingly large number of recordings of Onslow, and I'm quite tempted to try him. I'm not expecting an undiscovered Beethoven, but the second-rate composers have their own charms, as you are well aware!

Ciaran wrote:There seem to have been a surprisingly large number of recordings of Onslow

I surely can't be the only one thinking

<Thanks Pepe, I thought you were perhaps the most likely to answer! There seem to have been a surprisingly large number of recordings of Onslow, and I'm quite tempted to try him. I'm not expecting an undiscovered Beethoven, but the second-rate composers have their own charms, as you are well aware!>

Of course. And sometimes it´s even more healthy to hear a little Onslow or Franchomme than to buy yet another Trout Quintet (especially when you already have 17). And when I say second rate by no means I mean a "bad" composer, it´s just to put him in perspective with the handful of undisputed masters.