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 Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Georges ONSLOW (1784-1853)
Piano Trios - Volume 1
Piano Trio in E flat, op.14/2 (1818) [28:34]
Piano Trio, op.27 (1824) [27:06]
Trio Cascades (Katrina Schulz (violin); Inka Ehlert (cello); Thomas Palm (piano))
rec. 2006? DDD
CPO 777230-2 [55:45]



André George Louis Onslow, to give him his full name was the son of a French woman and a father from the British aristocracy. Several of the family were in British political life; three were Speakers of the House of Commons. He was born in Clermont-Ferrand where his father had settled after a family scandal forced him to leave his home country.
 
Between 1798 and 1805, Onslow studied piano with, amongst others, Jan Ladislav Dussek - who may have studied with C.P.E.Bach - and Johann Cramer - who had been a pupil of Clementi. That’s a pretty good pedigree for a fledgling composer.
 
As with so many composers before, and after, him Onslow never intended to be a composer. Study of the piano was just one of the many things considered part of your education. Again the usual parental response was that music wasn’t considered a profession, it was a drawing-room gift.
 
Although acknowledged during his lifetime, Onslow’s music has almost fallen into oblivion, with occasional outings in concert and radio broadcasts. His output is large. There are 36 string quartets, 34 string quintets (five with two violas, twenty five with two cellos and four with double bass), ten piano trios, six violin and three cello sonatas, some piano works, a handful of works for ensembles containing wind instruments, four symphonies and four operas. Quite an achievement.
 
The decision to become a composer came whilst listening to the overture to an opera by Méhul. His op. 1 was a set of three string quintets and they were successful so, with the support of his friends and publisher, he continued. Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, one of the foremost critics of the first half of the 19th century, thought Onslow’s chamber music on a par with that of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. It is said that one of the reasons for his fall into obscurity is because performers found his quartets and quintets too difficult to perform.
 
In general he led a quiet and uneventful life and was once the victim of a serious accident. Whilst hunting in 1829 he was shot and badly injured and, although he fully recovered he lost the hearing in his left ear. This incident inspired the last three movements of his 15th String Quintet, which he named "de la balle"- the bullet. Despite his fame, he was known as the French Beethoven, Onslow lived and died in his home town, founding a Philharmonic Society in 1839. He was a respected castle owner, had properties in the countryside, and was a true gentleman farmer, said to be as talented at running his farm as in negotiating contracts with his publishers.
 
Certainly not the usual life of a composer.
 
The Piano Trio in E flat, op.14/2, the fifth he wrote, opens with a broad Allegro which is very Beethovenian in mood and scope. The ensuing Menuetto contains a rather quirky tune and is so short that it is over before it has started. The slow movement is a set of variations on a tune from the Auvergne and the finale is a typically light-hearted affair with a forward momentum which never falters.
 
The Piano Trio, op.27 was Onslow’s 9th, and penultimate, work in a genre to which he was not to return for almost thirty years. It follows a similar path to the E flat Trio but, despite being written only six years later, it’s much more mature and assured. There’s more light and shade – in the first movement, for instance, the piano part is often much sparer in texture. The slow movement has a serene outer section surrounding an agitated middle. The scherzo – yes, a real scherzo, not a fast minuet – is jaunty and the finale relaxed but affirmative. The music is still under the influence of Beethoven but the writing is certainly more assured than the earlier work.
 
These are fine performances with a good feel for the music. They bode well for further issues in the series. The notes in the booklet aren’t extensive but they do pack in quite a bit of information. These works are like a breath of fresh air for music of this period.
 
Bob Briggs
 



 


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.