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
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


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

Availability
CD: Buywell

 

Ross EDWARDS (b. 1943)
Symphony No.1 "Da pacem Domine" (1991) [27:20]
Symphony No.4 "Star Chant" (2001) [32:36]*
Adelaide Chamber Singers*, Adelaide Philharmonia Chorus*
Adelaide Symphony Orchestra/Richard Mills
rec. 4-7 February and 12-13 March 2002, Adelaide Town Hall, Adelaide. DDD
ABC CLASSICS 476 6161 [60:00]
Experience Classicsonline

This fascinating disc pairs the first and fourth symphonies of Australian composer Ross Edwards. Separated by a decade, they demonstrate Edwards’ developing symphonic idiom and his consistency over time.
 
It would not be unfair to describe Edwards as Australia's holy minimalist. There is a kinship between his music and that of Arvo Pärt, despite differences of form and colouring. His mature works – both of these are symphonies belonging to that category – are characterised by lightness of touch, and a spirituality drawn in part from Christian mysticism. Hildegard von Bingen and William Blake are two influences named in passing in the booklet notes. He also draws in part on the natural world, understood and experienced mostly through the landscape of Australia. While his harmonic language is close to that of other Australian and American neo-Romantics, there is a reflectiveness and a sense of ritual in his music which is uniquely his.
 
The First Symphony is written as a single movement, a long sighing adagio that is Brucknerian in its nobility and yearning. A fragment of Gregorian chant, repeated and refracted, is at the symphony’s core. Edwards lays down a carpet of lush string sound, lit by smooth incantations from the horns and a gentle touches of tuned percussion. It builds to a broad brass chorale around the 11:46 mark, peaking again at around 18 minutes before fading away. It is a moving piece of music, deceptive in its simplicity.
 
The Fourth Symphony is cast in two movements, the first depicting the northern night sky and the second the southern night sky, as viewed from the Australian outback away from the pollution of city lights.
 
The northern night sky opens with mystery, with low strings growling a descending two note motif below the chanting chorus. The movement’s mood shifts to one of ecstatic ritual from about 10:45, with upper strings, brass and winds brightening before a twinkling of percussion. The southern night sky is generally upbeat with passages of Philip Glass rhythms and bright interjections from violins, before the chill of mystery returns and the music dies away. Throughout the piece, the choir chants the names of stars in various languages, supporting the sense of ritual at the core of Edwards’ work.
 
Edwards' fellow Australian composer, Richard Mills, leads the excellent Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in thoroughly prepared and deeply felt readings of both scores. A third Australian composer, Gordon Kerry, provides the detailed and eminently readable liner notes.
 
This is a first class production from ABC Classics that deserves to find a wide audience.
 
Tim Perry



 


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.