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: AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Adrian MUNSEY (b. 1947)
Requiem (2007) [5:27]
Theme from Images of Nature [3:48]
The Right Words [2:38]
Faraway Place [3:18]
The Distance Between [5:20]
Broadwell (for a Village, its Church and its People) [4:06]
Beautiful Earth [2:28]
The Sky Inside [6:00]
I Would Lay Down My Life for You [4:14]
Voice of an Angel [3:02]
I’ve Been Praying [2:44]
Faraway Place [3:18]
City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra/Paul Bateman (Beautiful Earth, The Right Words), John Bell (The Sky Inside) and Nic Raine (The Distance Between, I Would Lay Down My Life for You); English Sinfonia/Geoffrey Alexander (Broadwell, Theme from Images of Nature); Janice Graham (violin), English Studio Orchestra/Geoffrey Alexander (Requiem); Elin Manahan Thomas, Keedie, Treorchy Male Choir, London Studio Players/Paul Bateman (Faraway Place, I’ve Been Praying, Voice of an Angel)
rec. 2005-8, Abbey Road Studios, London, Angel Studio, London, Barrandov Studio, Prague, Gareth Williams’s Studio, Cambridgeshire. DDD
MUSIC INFINITY INS109 [47:00]
Experience Classicsonline

Adrian Munsey has enjoyed a long career in film and television both as producer and distributor, whilst carrying on an interest in musical composition. This is his second album and it is varied and very enjoyable.
 
I recently heard Requiem in a concert by the English Sinfonia at the Cadogan Hall and was stunned by its eloquence and noble simplicity. Scored for solo violin and small orchestra, it’s not a Requiem in the Latin Mass sense of the word – there’s no singing and it’s a mere 5 minutes in duration – instead, the composer tells us that he wrote the work upon receiving some news which was “unbearable”. He created this piece because “I wanted the idea of being able to rest in peace through its expression to be of some comfort to those who hear it.” It’s a sumptuous little thing, beautifully laid out for the orchestra with a singing line floating above, and sometimes spinning arabesques round, the texture. It’s worth the price of the CD for this track alone.
 
Theme from Images of Nature is a richly scored miniature, with some very tasty harmonic changes. Indeed, Munsey’s harmonic movement is one of the hallmarks of these pieces. 
 
The pieces recorded with the Prague Philharmonic have solo parts for stringed instruments. The Right Words (apart from Requiem and the songs with texts I have no idea whatsoever of the meanings of the titles) is basically a verse and chorus for solo viola, attractively played by Zdenek Zindel. The Distance Between is a song without words for cello, eloquently played by Pavel Belousek; it contains a most ardent climax. Beautiful Earth is another vocalise but with a solo violin. This is music of longing. I Would Lay Down My Life for You is dedicated to the composer’s wife and is another work for solo violin. The graceful soloist on these two works is Lucie Svehlova.
 
To match the solo string pieces there are also four vocal works. Faraway Place is a meditation on a place where one can rest – perhaps, even though the words journey’s end are used, this might not necessarily refer to death for there is a going–to–sleep–to–rest lullaby–like lilt to the music. I’ve Been Praying is a more obviously pop ballad inspired song, with lyrics to match the straightforwardness of the music. There is a delightful and contrasting middle section. Elin Manahan Thomas sings these songs with utter simplicity and a sensibility most appropriate to the sentiments. The second performance of Faraway Place is for the choir with orchestra and is a richly harmonized arrangement. Voice of an Angel is a simple prayer for peace, with a lovely vocal by Keedie. All the songs have lyrics by Jeff Chegwin.
 
Broadwell (for a Village, its Church and its People) is English pastoral at its most tuneful and restrained. There’s a lovely oboe solo which informs the music. The longest work on the disk is The Sky Inside, a nature impression, along the lines of Butterworth’s Banks of Green Willow but with a more recent harmonic sensibility. There’s a YouTube video to accompany this piece.
 
There really is little more to say. The music is very approachable and most enjoyable. The recordings, made at different times and various venues, is very good and spacious, but the Prague sound is a bit too far forward compared to the other tracks. The booklet is attractive, there’s no notes, with lots of beautiful black and white photographs. All the pieces move at a medium pace but there’s sufficient variety to keep the interest. This is a very attractive programme of deeply felt, and very genuine, miniatures. Give it a go, you won’t, I am sure, be disappointed.
 
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.