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


Pierre RODE (1774-1830)
Violin Concerto No. 7 in a minor, Op. 9 [17:53]
Violin Concerto No. 10 in b minor, Op. 19 [20:14]
Violin Concero No. 13 in f-sharp minor, Op. posth. [19:53]
Friedemann Eichhorn (violin)
South West German Radio Orchestra, Kaiserlautern/Nicolás Pasquet
rec. SWR Studio, Kaiserlautern, Germany, 29 January-1 February, 6-9 February 2007.
Includes free downloadable bonus track available from Classics Online.
NAXOS 8.570469 [58:00]
Experience Classicsonline

Pierre Rode was a prominent violinist in his day and was one of the founders of the violin department of the Paris Conservatoire, newly reformed after the ousting of Louis XVI. He was respected by Beethoven, and was a friend of the Mendelssohn family. Favored by Paganini, he enjoyed a fairly successful career as a soloist, spending a brief span as the solo violinist at the Paris Opera, and four years in Russia as violinist to the Tsar. Upon his return to France in 1808 his playing was received with far less enthusiasm than it had been in the past, and his fame diminished. A disastrous comeback attempt in 1828 ended his performing career, and his friends claimed that the failed concert hastened his death in 1830.
 
He left behind thirteen violin concertos, none of which has a place in the modern repertoire. Friedemann Eichhorn has attempted a bit of a revival here as a part of the laudable quest by Naxos to give us a recording of every note of music ever penned. The result is some fairly elegant stuff, worthy of the occasional listen, but with little chance of supplanting Mozart, Beethoven or Mendelssohn on the concert stage.
 
To modern ears, this is classical music through and through. Structured and somewhat formulaic, one might mistake it for the work of a lesser Beethoven upon first hearing. These concertos were, however, somewhat groundbreaking in their time, with their emphasis upon the soloist as the hero. The solo parts are indeed more prominent than what Mozart allowed in his concertos, and the music is by turns dramatic, lyrical and jaunty. Well crafted, concise and to the point, they provide the needed aural pleasure to pronounce them good, but they will hardly change the world.
 
Mr. Eichhorn plays with a sweet and airy tone, well suited for the light-heartedness of the music, even when it is cast in the minor mode. There is ample technical display to support Rode’s reputation as a virtuoso, and Eichhorn carries off florid passages with ease. The Kaiserlautern Orchestra is a fine ensemble, playing with a taut rhythmic drive and a fine sense of balance and intonation. Maestro Pasquet never lets his players overwhelm the soloist and he has chosen brisk but never breathless tempi.
 
It would be nice to see some of these works revived in the student repertoire perhaps or in the professional realm as matinee material. They are pleasant excursions, and worthy of a listen or two, especially at the Naxos bargain price!
 
Kevin Sutton
 

 


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.