Raff Piano Concerto with Tra Nguyen (Grand Piano label)

[adriano]

I think UC should send all our commentaries to MusicWeb, just "for your information" - or let them have a direct link of this thread, without log-in. Or a succint in the form of an official letter. At the end, all of us should be brave enough to put our real names (not pseudos) as senders; Mark's on top. In any case, I have already sent - without further comments - the Sterling Catalogue link with a cover photo of the CD with the Suite to MW, c/o Philip Buttall...

[Mark Thomas]

Gentlemen, I'm really rather touched by your support. Thank you all. I'm not one to complain about a poor review, one shouldn't expect to please everyone, but I do think that this review displays an ignorance of the repertoire and does the reader a disservice by not commenting at all on the qualities, or otherwise to be fair, of the performances.

I've written to MusicWeb's Rob Barnett saying so.

[adriano]

Thanks, bravissimo, Mark :-)

[Alan Howe]

The correct thing for Rob Barnett to do would be to commission a second review of the CD.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Hear, hear!

[Ilja]

... something which, if I recall correctly, MusicWeb has done in the past.
This review shows something which I see a lot in historical work as well: an almost compulsive desire to divide the world into "first-rate", "second-rate" and "third-rate" (or even more) categories, assign a given persona (composer, in this case) to one, and then judge their work mostly on that status relative to others rather than the work itself. It perpetuates historically formed prejudices (I might actually get violent if I hear the "test of time" argument one more time), it assumes that an artist's work can be regarded as entirely uniform and, consequently, bars any honest appraisal of a specific work.
But the advantage is that your universe stays an orderly one, without too much complication, where you can given anything its "proper" place. And you can theoretically write your review without having heard a note of the CD. I'm not at all saying that Buttall is guilty of the latter, but he has erred towards the former.
The other tendency, of which Buttall is fully guilty, is that reviews of unknown works tend to forget about the performers because they entirely focus on the merit of the composition – whereas with the iron repertory, reviewers typically do the reverse, and almost forget the work that is being played in order to focus entirely on the performance. A pity, because in this case it's Tra's performance that makes this a reference recording for me. And Buttall might actually have found out if he'd taken the trouble to listen to the four or five other recordings of the concerto. Sure, it's hardly a warhorse, but it's not an entirely unknown work either.
In short, I fully agree with Gareth; the epithet "silly" for this review is fully deserved and I can say far ruder things about it.


[Edit] Changed name of reviewer, who I initially misidentified as Rob Barnett (see posts below).

[adriano]

I fully agree with you Ilja. Bravo for your posting! But this stupid classification mania reaches not the arts alone, but also all social, scientific and political fields. The most simple kind of human brain, apparently, works only this way, and there are too many such brains around :-) Otherwise their owners would find themselves lost or discomforted in this world.

[Mark Thomas]

Barnett is fully guilty

Although I agree with your sentiments about the review and reviewer, Ilja, I must point out that it was written by one Philip R Buttall, not Rob Barnett, who is "Founding Editor" of MusicWeb International and, I have found, someone whose heart is definitely in the right place when it comes to the likes of Raff and many other unsungs, as his unstinting championing of Joseph Holbrooke attests.

[adriano]

Isn't Rob Barnett now responsible after Len Mullenger decided to retire?

[Ilja]

I stand corrected, Mark, I evidently misread (or misunderstood). But while often sympathetic, I also find Barnett inconsistent, although I sometimes have the impression that it is due more to haste (the guy reviews a great number of cds) than to lack of understanding. But perhaps in this case I shouldn't complain about haste since it caused me to misidentify the reviewer. Ahem.

So apologies to Barnett. Despite everything MusicWeb is still a great resource; even more a shame that such a lazy review should appear there, then.


I've amended the name of the reviewer though; wouldn't want Barnett to remain unjustly accused.

[raffite33]

Even one who has no knowledge of Raff could easily spot that review as a dud.  To carp about an instrumental piece being included as a filler?  He must have a very small CD collection, as this is a common practice.  After all, the word "complete" does not precede "works for piano and orchestra" on the cover.  Also, there's nothing more annoying than reviewers who criticize a recording for what's not on it, instead of focusing on what is.

Anyway, I found the CD to be quite excellent.  What would really make me happy, though, would be for Ms. Nguyen to find another pianist and have a crack at the piano 4 hands version of Raff's 5th Symphony.

[FBerwald]

Dave Hurwitz gives a stunning review of Raff's Piano concerto - Played by Peter Aronsky (piano)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0Fimf-nzLw

[Mark Thomas]

I can't say I agree with Hurwitz's contention that Raff was uncomfortable with traditional structures such as sonata form, but he's never made a secret of his enthusiasm for Raff's music generally and this is another ringing endorsement of two of Raff's most beguiling and successful works. I'm surprised and rather disappointed, though, that he isn't aware of Tra Nguyen's more recent recording for Grand Piano which, for me at least, at least matches Peter Aronsky's account pianistically, and has a signifcantly better orchestral contribution and recording.

[matesic]

Infected by Hurwitz's enthusiasm, I immediately called up Aronsky's recording on youtube but sadly (as with so much of Raff's music) I find I can't join the chorus of approval. My loss I'm sure, but maybe my reaction could throw some light on why he's still awaiting promotion to the big league.

Hurwitz describes the PC as "unalloyedly wonderful" which unintentionally puts the finger on one thing I miss - the cutting edge of steel! "Mellifluous" might also describe it pretty well. Themes follow one another effortlessly and I find I can often predict fairly accurately what's coming next.  A short passage in the slow movement has the epic quality that's an element of all the "great" romantic piano concertos (maybe not Chopin's), but it's over too soon and seems to mean little in the overall context of the piece. Raff clearly found composition very easy. I truly believe he might have worked harder to make it sound difficult - hewn out of stone rather than moulded from clay.

[Mark Thomas]

We can't all like the same thing, Steve, but before you dismiss the Piano Concerto in particular look out the Grand Piano release - the orchestral contribution in particular is much punchier than on Aronsky's recording.