MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet
Download: Classicsonline

 

Mythical Dances
George CRUMB (b.1929)
Makrokosmos IV – Celestial Mechanics (1979) [24:23]
Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Le Sacre du printemps (1913) [33:46]
Belli Piano Duo
rec. August 2006, “La Fenice”, Amadola, Italy
WERGO WER68072 [58:06]
Experience Classicsonline

This is the second instalment in Enrico Belli’s project to record all four of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos – the first of which is reviewed here. As with the combination of Debussy with Crumb, the decision has been made to mix the music up rather than keep the two composers’ pieces complete. The programming here is Crumb’s Alpha Centauri, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre part I, Crumb’s Beta Cygni and Gamma Draconis, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre part II, and Crumb’s Delta Orionis to finish. The logic of pairing these works is fair, but the only reason for hustling them up in such a way is given rather lamely on the back cover: “[the] interweaving of works by Igor Stravinsky and George Crumb opens entirely new horizons of perception.” I’m not going to harp on about this for long, but I do wonder for whom these ‘horizons of perception’ will be opened. Newcomers to such works are more likely to be confused, wondering which piece is which. Old aurally wizened lags like your average MusicWeb-International reviewer are more likely to respond irritably, preferring to broaden their own horizons through playing multiple versions of the same piece through wobbly stacks of old CD players or trying to sing along to a karaoke production of ‘Wozzeck’ just for laughs. I will agree, putting different pieces of music against each other can change perceptions, but this rarely has durability in a library collection as its end result. I didn’t feel particularly enriched by having these pieces chopped about in this way, but will gladly give way to the experiences of anyone who ‘sees the light’ as a result.
 
My reference for comparison with Crumb’s Makrokosmos IV is that of Robert Nasveld on the Attacca label, 9371 and 9372. My main reason for selecting this version is that it has always come out on top, all other recordings which I have come across long having gone by the wayside. Add to this the association Nasveld has had with Crumb himself, something which gives his recording some status of authority. Unencumbered by Stravinsky, Nasveld, forming a duo with Jacob Bogaard, creates a sense of organic flow between the movements which has its own structure and logic. Their recording penetrates deep within the piano, much as a well amplified performance should in a live concert. This is essential, not for creating DJ loudness, but in revealing the subtleties of the inner workings of string harmonics, plucked strings, percussive effects, preparation of strings and all kinds of neat tricks, all of which were bigger news in 1979 than they are now.
 
With all due respect for the Belli duo’s talents, there is no comparison between these recordings. There is a distinct lack of any real impression of the detail of sonic activity within the piano, and any resonance there are come across as a weak echo of the performer’s actions rather than the musical consequence of the composer’s instructions. It’s sometimes as if the amplifier had broken down, but the concert went ahead anyway. There is more substance in the effects in Gamma Draconis, but the comparative effect is of the musicians going at the music like a bull in a china shop, and the results are jangly and unattractive. Crumb’s ideas still survive, barely, as fresh and original in this recording, but the music can and should sound so much better.
 
Le Sacre du printemps on pianos in various forms has been something of a collector’s hobby for me. Stravinsky’s own piano duet version is not the only variant available, but there are several versions of this on disc, with just two being Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Philips on Deux-Elles and on Naxos, with Benjamin Frith and Peter Hill. Observant critics will see that this latter release sports the label ‘Music for two pianos’, but before I get ‘aghast’ e-mails claiming gross incompetence on my part I would just like to point out that the earlier edition says ‘Music for Four Hands’, the ‘Rite’ indeed being the ‘right’ version for piano duet as opposed to piano duo. Out of these I find myself preferring the Naxos recording these days, with its greater sense of atmosphere in the recording. Dag Achatz and Roland Pöntinen’s recording on BIS should also be considered. I was initially happier with Enrico and Olivia Belli in their Stravinsky over their Crumb, but alarm bells rather than ‘Mythical Dances’ soon started ringing.
 
I can’t help but think the Belli Duo have come to see this purely as concert repertoire, rather than music for ballet. This is an important aspect of this arrangement and of the music as a whole, but for me the impression should still be left that the music is strongly associated with choreography. I want to sense Stravinsky at the piano, hacking out the score in reduction for the benefit of Diaghilev’s dancers, the smell of sweat and chalk and the instructor’s voice cracking out its demands like the whip of a circus ringmaster. From the beginning, that lonely melody becomes stretched and mauled about, so that the sense of rhythm is not only given added mystic aura, but is lost entirely. The impact of the Augures printaniers is better, but to my mind lacks real urgency, and the same goes for the Jeu de rapt, where those syncopated rhythms are over-pedalled and lose their feisty hammer-blow strength. I could go on, but you should be getting the idea by now. The music has a feeling of a cooking recipe, fine and expensive ingredients all prepared and almost formed into haute cuisine but brought out of the oven just a few minutes too early. The centre of the cake is just a little too raw, the meat too bloody, the soufflé flat and uninviting rather than quivering with excitement at its peak of perfection. Heavy, mannered chugging in the second section at 1:04 of the Mystic Circles of the Young Girls is another instance of what I mean – lighter, more separated figuration is surely required here, and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to dance to what follows. The Belli Duo’s Stravinsky is not bad, but we already have better recordings, so I can’t deny my preference for the greater élan of Frith and Hill. Adding faint praise to my colleague’s damning of Vol. I in this unfurling set doesn’t augur too well for Wergo’s project with Enrico Belli. I hope their future horizons open with a little more subtle finesse.
 
Dominy Clements       
 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.