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
Download: Classicsonline

 

Georg Christoph WAGENSEIL (1715-1777)
Concerto in E flat major for oboe, bassoon and orchestra (c.1761) [16:25]
Concerto in F major for harp and strings (c.1761)[17:14]
Concerto in A major for piano, violin and strings (c.1760) [19:17]
Concerto in D major for flute and strings (c.1760) [17:36]
Florian Deuter (violin); Rainer Johannsen (bassoon); Susanne Regel (oboe); Martin Sandhoff (transverse flute); Johanna Seitz (harp); Alexander Weimann (fortepiano)
Echo du Danube/Alexander Weimann
rec. 5-10 July 2008, Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal, Cologne
ACCENT ACC24186 [69:01] 

 

Experience Classicsonline


Wagenseil is one of that interesting group of composers whose music helped develop and establish the new classical style as the 18th century progressed. He was a prolific composer who was held in high esteem by his contemporaries, and his work at the Habsburg Court included the composition of some sixty symphonies. Among later musicians, Haydn and Mozart knew his music - at least from the printed scores - and admired it. Most notably, Wagenseil established the combination of first subject in the tonic key and second subject in the dominant, while also employing contrasts between major and minor keys.
 

If he is best known for his contribution to the development of the symphony, Wagenseil’s interest in the concerto should not to be overlooked. He worked with talented musicians and therefore wrote music for them. In that sense these performances by the chamber orchestra Echo du Danube follow the correct procedure in employing soloists from within their own company, though perhaps it seems a little churlish only to mention the identities of these individual performers in the small print at the end of the booklet. 

That booklet does an excellent job in supporting this little known music, with a thorough essay about the man and the music, written by Helga Scholz-Michelitsch and translated very effectively by Debbie Hogg - other labels take note: it can be done. The layout is clear and unfussy. 

These high production standards extend to the quality of the recording too. There is a good sense of atmosphere and the balance is expertly managed, so that the details emerge and the sonorities are effective. As for the music itself, this is interesting rather than compelling. In the longer lines of the central slow movements, interest is not always maintained in terms of the quality of the invention, though all the notes are present and correct. In the outer, quicker, movements, there is that same chronic short-windedness that can be found in so much of the music of the pre-classical era, which is why it is seldom heard in live concerts and remains on the fringes of the repertoire. 

Echo du Danube acquit themselves well, striking an effective compromise between scholarly accuracy and artistic expression. If the results are largely unmemorable it is not because the performers have let the side down, it is simply the nature of the music itself, which is accomplished but ultimately presents a whole that is less than the sum of the parts. This is a disc that will give pleasure but is unlikely to become a firm favourite. 

Terry Barfoot

 


 


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.