IRR Reviews-February 2012

[Dundonnell]

Excellent, detailed, in-depth reviews and analyses of the recent releases by Dutton of the Bate/Reizenstein Piano Concertos, the Toccata Volume 2 of Havergal Brian's opera music and of the RTE Lyric Kinsella Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7(graded as outstanding and "a knock-out cd" by Martin Anderson) in the new issue of 'International Record Review'.

Once again that magazine-from which I DO NOT receive a retainer -maintains its standard as the only really serious classical music magazine published in the UK for reviews of the entire repertoire.

[albion]

I was vastly entertained by the letter from Blackheath ...



... and even more entertained by the closing sentiments of the response from Richard Whitehouse.

[Dundonnell]

I was vastly entertained by the letter from Blackheath ...



... and even more entertained by the closing sentiments of the response from Richard Whitehouse.

Just read both

One would have thought it hard to imagine that someone would forgo the opportunity to hear an outstanding performance for those reasons

[albion]

One would have thought it hard to imagine that someone would forgo the opportunity to hear an outstanding performance for those reasons

Quoth King Gama,

And isn't your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at!

[Mark Thomas]

Whitehouse's closing barb is joy - I laughed out loud! As for the Blackheath fellow's petulant harrumphing which provoked it, I'm sure that he'd be appalled by our amusement at his winge, but I suspect that he's not an "online" sort of chappie.

[Alan Howe]

...there's also a very appreciative review of the recent release of the Reger VC on Hyperion. Spot-on, IRR - again!!

[Gareth Vaughan]

As also of the Dutton Holbrooke disk (Aucassin and Nicolette, & Saxophone Concerto) + Richard Rodney Bennett.

[Jimfin]

Argh, awaiting my copy here in Japan! Can't wait!

[Gareth Vaughan]

One would have thought it hard to imagine that someone would forgo the opportunity to hear an outstanding performance for those reasons

Extraordinary indeed! But then "there's nowt so queer as folk", as they say up North.

[Alan Howe]

I'm just getting round to Kinsella - symphonies 3 & 4 on Marco Polo are superb: have any forum members heard 6 & 7 yet?
The idiom of, say, No.3 is attractive - great rhythmic activity, a cool, bright soundscape, exhilarating use of brass, etc., and memorable themes and motifs. Just my kind of modern symphonist. His music has a nordic feel to it (affinities with Sibelius, maybe?) - or might it be better described as celtic...?

[Dundonnell]

I'm just getting round to Kinsella - symphonies 3 & 4 on Marco Polo are superb: have any forum members heard 6 & 7 yet?
The idiom of, say, No.3 is attractive - great rhythmic activity, a cool, bright soundscape, exhilarating use of brass, etc., and memorable themes and motifs. Just my kind of modern symphonist. His music has a nordic feel to it (affinities with Sibelius, maybe?) - or might it be better described as celtic...?

Yes, Alan, I can thoroughly recommend Kinsella's Symphonies Nos. 6 and 7

I could parrot-but, obviously, shall not -Martin Anderson's excellent review in IRC. His description of the music could not be bettered

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Yes, Alan, flourish the debit card, and go for it!! Sapere aude!

Recently we've had some super releases from RTE Lyric. In addition to the Kinsella disc, do investigate the one devoted to Aloys Fleischmann, Raymond Deane (the Violin Concerto in particular), and what for me was an entirely new name - Frederick May (the work which gives the CD its title, 'Sunlight and Shadow' is a lovely piece).

I recommend all of them with enthusiasm. Ireland is clearly the place to be. A work I found very moving indeed is May's 'Songs from Prison'. It is for baritone and orchestra, and the text is Nigel Heseltine's (son of Peter Warlock incidentally) translation of Ernest Toller's poem. I quote the notes: Toller was "a Jewish socialist playwright...who died by suicide in 1939. ....His time in Vienna in the mid 1930s, as Nazism was taking over, is undeniably reflected in this work. The poem concerns a political prisoner who gains solace from watching swallows building their nest outside his prison cell, but the prison guards deliberately destroy the nest..." May's piece dates from 1943, and I found it a veritable stunner.