MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


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


REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos 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

 

 

AVAILABILITY

Buywell.com


Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
CD 1
Capriccio Italien, Op. 45 [14:22]
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24: Polonaise; Valse [4:10 + 5:36]
The Nutcracker - Suite, Op. 71a (Miniature Overture; March; Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy; Russian Dance (Trepak); Arabian Dance (Coffee); Chinese Dance (Tea); Dance of the Reed Pipes; Waltz of the Flowers) [22:31]
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
CD 2
Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32 [22:37]
Serenade for Strings in C major, Op. 48 [28:12]
London Symphony Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
rec. Wembley Town Hall, London, UK, December 1973 (Capriccio Italien, Eugene Onegin, Nutcracker Suite); Brent Town Hall, London, UK, October 1974 (Serenade for Strings, Francesca da Rimini). ADD
DECCA ELOQUENCE 442 8335 [47:15 + 50:49]
Experience Classicsonline



Here we have a big and burly bear-hug of a Capriccio Italien with lots of typically italicised attention to expression and phrasing. The sense of depth and perspective in the recording is pretty wonderful - listen to the oboe at 2.19 onwards. Then again the crashing cymbals, blasting brass and chest-shuddering strings are also bound to impress. Feeling jaded? Then give this one a try: it acts like a shot in the arm and reminds you what you first loved about music.

The Onegin - Polonaise is blisteringly exciting and the Valse is almost supernatural with some wonderful stuttering effects. Sadly though, the Valse is impatiently rushed - pity. The Nutcracker has Stokowski back on form with little skittering figures sent scurrying, sprinted dances and a super-exaggeratedly slow Dance of the sugar plum fairy. I have never heard it taken this slow - loved it. The wonderful quiet playing from the strings at start of the Sugar Plum is reproduced again with Arabian Dance complete with beautiful swooning portamentos. Stokowski got the LPO to play their best for him. Music-making with face.

Turning to the LSO disc we can expect great things and not be disappointed. Even so, the casual and uninterested start to Francesca seems unlike the Stokowski who conducted Francesca for the NY Stadium and Vanguard in 1958. Things warm up and the LSO play their hearts out with the sort of whooping horns we can hear from the Philharmonia at the end of the first movement of the Boult Moeran Symphony (Lyrita). There’s an interminably decaying tam-tam crash at the end - a good touch.

Apropos of a great opportunity let me renew my plea for some kind guardian angel to issue the BBC Radio 3 broadcast of an RFH concert performance of Francesca as conducted by the much maligned Yuri Ahronovich with the LSO. He directed one of the great Francescas that evening on 19 September 1978.

After such high melodrama and volcanic passions welcome to the Serenade for Strings which is big, reverberant, fulsome and, in the Elegie, deeply heartfelt. This may not have been as heated as the Svetlanov version on BMG-Melodiya but it is pretty hot. Stokowski and the Decca engineers make wonderful use of the stereo signals as in the contrast between discreet pizz and flowingly cavalier-rich string contours. It is a ripping performance offering delicacy and sumptuous dazzle.

There are useful notes from Raymond Tuttle.

Another triumph from Cyrus Meher-Homji with his hotline to Universal's grand analogue treasury. What a pity we cannot persuade him to gain access to the series of recordings Charles Gerhardt made for Readers Digest and then for RCA in the period 1967-1979 including the mysteriously neglected RCA classic film music series he made with the Sidney Sax's London-based National Philharmonic. Now that would be a coup!
Rob Barnett

 
 


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.