Soundbite 60 Reviews

Here we write a short précis of a CD or DVD giving you a concise summary in a sixty-word soundbite.

Dvořák Slavonic Rhapsodies & Slavonic Dances
If not as familiar as his Slavonic Dances, Dvořák’s three, and substantial, Slavonic Rhapsodies memorably evoke the Bohemian landscape and civilisation in warm-hearted and mellifluous music on which Masur and...
February 25, 2007
The Two Pigeons
A feel-good ballet score (first danced to in 1886) that is full of delightfully lyrical tunes, foot-tapping rhythms and colourful orchestration. André Messager (1853-1929) composed a delightful work, sparkling and...
February 24, 2007
Pomp & Circumstance Marches … Things to Come … Welcome the Queen
A composer’s tribute to a forebear with these bracing, unvarnished and unsentimental versions of Elgar’s ‘quick marches’, including “Land of Hope and Glory”. Bliss’s conducting of his own music is...
February 12, 2007
Mozart Sinfonia Concertante & Concertone
Both recordings here receive their first CD release. The Sinfonia concertante is very fine, with the ASMF exhibiting the just sense of scale and clarity that so distinguishes its recordings...
February 10, 2007
Scandinavian Serenade
The bustling, eloquent Holberg Suite and heartfelt ‘The Last Spring’ – a ‘100 best tunes’ that has passed into popular consciousness (tenderly espoused here) – lead off, Valse triste adding...
February 6, 2007
Liszt Piano Concertos
These are suave, polished accounts of the piano concertos, soloist and orchestra making the most of Liszt’s quasi-operatic writing by highlighting the motif-as-hero against a detailed orchestral landscape. Not a...
February 5, 2007
Pizzetti, Respighi & Rota
Three Italian composers of the last century, the Pizzetti items on CD for the first time: brightly scored, exotic music of wide appeal, rather filmic and ‘Wild West’. Respighi’s gift...
February 3, 2007
Paganini Variations & Études Symphoniques
Thibaudet at his most ingratiating: style and solidity combined with glamour and sparkle. But never facile. The Brahms can seem a bit rushed and over-emphatic, sometimes, but the overall sweep...
February 1, 2007
Favourite Overtures
A superbly played and recorded collection, Maazel ensuring that these performances are no mere run-throughs; like or not his approach, he has a view – sometimes mannered, always ear-catching, full...
January 27, 2007
Russian Spectacular
Not Vernon Handley’s usual fare, but that’s the danger of typecasting. These innately musical accounts of popular Russian scores are neither Technicolor productions nor showpiece renditions – but there are...
January 26, 2007
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