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             


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

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

 

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT

Giuseppe MARTUCCI (1856-1909)
Notturno, for piano and orchestra, op.70 no.1 bis (1891) [6:45]
Piano Concerto no.2 in B flat minor, op.66 (1884-5) [43:40]
Tema e Variazioni, for solo piano op.58 (1882) [12:33]
Notturno, for solo piano, op.70 no.1 (1888) [6:45]
Pietro Massa (piano)
Neubrandenburger Philharmonie/Stefan Malzew
rec. Konzertkirche Neubrandenburg, 11 November 2009 (live); DLR Studio, Neubrandenburg, 25 January 2010 (solo pieces). DDD
CRYSTAL CLASSICS N67052 [69:43]

Experience Classicsonline



The title given to this CD, 'Piano Rarities', is both superfluous and a little misleading. This is not the first recording of Giuseppe Martucci's Second Piano Concerto: in fact it appeared fairly recently on a Naxos release, played by another lesser-known Italian pianist, Gesualdo Coggi - see review. Interestingly, that reviewer was "shocked" at the "paucity of the material" and goes on to inveigh against almost every other aspect of this work, rounding off with the remark that he "cannot imagine why Naxos should have chosen to record this music". Naxos did do so, however, and on a couple of other of their discs can also be found the orchestrated version of both the Notturno and the Theme and Variations - see this much more sympathetic review. Additionally, both Martucci Piano Concertos can be found in an earlier 4-disc Brilliant Classics set, played by Francesco Caramielo (93439), and the Notturno has occasionally cropped up as a filler elsewhere.

Opinions on music are what they are - could it have been that the modest orchestra, conductor or pianist hired by Naxos were more to blame than Martucci for any shock suffered, perhaps? - but the Second Piano Concerto is a massive, impressive work of genuine late-Romantic boldness and panache, with plenty of memorable material expertly crafted into a widely appealing whole. Brahms's throbbing First Piano Concerto looms large in this work - in the first movement, in fact, there are several paraphrases, deliberate or otherwise.

Pietro Massa peers earnestly out from the CD cover, as if to indicate that he has what it takes to bring off a work of this magnitude - and he has. Not only the considerable, almost Busonian virtuosity required, but the sheer stamina to come out in one piece at the other end of a work that is almost as long as Brahms's own Second. The Neubrandenburg Philharmonic has a decent sound for an ensemble based in such a relatively small locality, and the odd quavered quaver apart, they are deftly marshalled by Stefan Malzew.

After the exertions of the Concerto the listener is invited to wind down with two works by Martucci for solo piano, the relatively low-key but nevertheless virtuosic Theme and Variations, and the original version of the Notturno that begins the programme.

Sound quality is pretty good, if not always 'Crystal' clear. The CD states that the recording took place in Neubrandenburg's 'Concert Church', presumably referring to the lovely Gothic Marienkirche there. There is some occasional traffic rumble in evidence, but none of the coughing and rustling usually associated with live recordings.

The booklet is quadrilingual, which means the notes are actually slimmer than they first appear. The translation into English from the original - rather pleonastic - German has been done by...a German speaker! In other words, expect plenty of unidiomatic language, compounded by several typos. Thus: "igneous piano-recitative" ('igneous' instead of 'heated'), "started to rehears", "concert" instead of 'concerto', "the vibe and expressions" for 'the range of mood and expression', "further CDs will be already for release", and so on. Another label devaluing their product to save a few euros. Pietro Massa's biography also pre-dates the CD by at least two years, referring to 'future' projects that have already happened - not least this Martucci disc!

The timing is fairly generous, however, and overall this must count as a worthy disc likely to be enjoyed by anyone keen on Romantic piano concertos.

Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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






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.