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 AmazonUK   AmazonUS

Clémence de GRANDVAL (1828–1907)
1. Concerto for oboe and orchestra (1878) [16.54]
2. Lamento for oboe and strings [4.14]
3. Scherzo for oboe and strings [4.10]
4. Romance for oboe, violoncello and strings [3.51]
5. Gavotte for oboe, violoncello and strings [3.08]
6. Trio de Salon [8.14]
7. Noel [5.47]
8. Aux Quatre Morceaux (excerpts) [7.01]
Lajos Lencses (oboe, cor anglais)
Ansgar Schneider (cello) (4,5); Ulrike Sonntag (soprano) (7); Libor Sima (bassoon) (6); Francois Killian (piano) (6-8); Budapest Strings (2,3)
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR/Andrey Boreyko (1,4,5)
rec. 16 June 2005, Stadthalle Sindelfingen (Concerto); 12-14 June 2006, Studio Karlsruhe (works with String Orchestra), SWR Stuttgart, Kammermusikstudio
HÄNSSLER CLASSICS CD 98.295 [54.09]


Clemence de Grandval is not a well known name now. However in 19th century Paris she was a person and composer of stature. Born Marie de Reiset her family were wealthy and the composer Friedrich Flotow was a family friend. Flotow gave her composition lessons and she had piano lessons from Chopin. Flotow left Paris before she finished her musical training. She married the Vicomte de Grandval and went on to study for two years with Saint-Saëns. He remained a friend and the dedications of her major works are testimony to her wide musical circle.
 
Her works were esteemed during her lifetime and she garnered both performances and favourable reviews. She wrote five operas and a number of other major works. In 1878 she wrote an oboe concerto for the brilliant oboist Georges Gillet. At its premiere the work was conducted by Edouard Colonne, then Gillet and Saint-Saëns went on to tour the work around Eastern Europe.
 
The concerto became a familiar examination piece at the Paris Conservatoire, in its oboe and piano form. But despite this popularity the orchestral score seems to have disappeared. In order for the concerto to appear on this disc, oboist Lajos Lencses has produced a new orchestration. In fact he has also orchestrated some of her smaller pieces, creating charming miniatures for oboe and strings.
 
The oboe was not a characteristically Romantic instrument. A disc called the ‘Romantic Oboe’ would have to dig quite deeply to produce any major works written for the instrument. It is not clear why de Grandval wrote so much for oboe, but apart from the Concerto the pieces are more like salon music, though of a most superior stamp. Perhaps de Grandval’s friendship with Gillet helped to generate the works.
 
Lencses’s orchestration of the concerto is effective and helps give the work life, though I did wonder whether he had been a little conservative. The orchestral effect can be a little face-less at times, though it is obvious that de Grandval is taking care not to obscure the oboe in the tuttis. The work is in three movements and requires an oboist who can cope with its brilliance and its charm. Lencses does both, but the tone of his instrument would seem to be more suitable for Classical rather than Romantic music, though this is a rather small quibble.
 
Whilst the concerto is effective and shows off the talents of the oboist, I felt that the smaller pieces were more successful. Obviously, given that she wrote operas and large-scale works, de Grandval was capable of much but in these salon pieces she seems to relax and create a charmingly sunny atmosphere.
 
Lencses has created two pairs of pieces with string accompaniment. There’s a Lamento and a Scherzo for oboe and strings, then a Romance and a Gavotte for oboe, cello and strings. It was in the Romance and Gavotte, where Lencses’s oboe duets with the cello of Ansgar Schneider that the warmth and delight of de Grandval’s talent really shines through.
 
The remaining pieces on the disc remain in their original salon format: a two movement trio for oboe, bassoon and piano, a song, Noel, for soprano, oboe and piano and finally two movements for cor anglais and piano.
 
In the trio and the song de Grandval seems to work well when she creates textures from the oboe and other soloists. Here Lencses is well supported by the bassoon of Libor Sima and piano of Francois Killian.
 
Lencses does sterling work on the disc, both in terms of the orchestration and playing the brilliant oboe part. He deserves much credit for reviving de Grandval’s work.
 
Inevitably this disc will be essential listening for oboists, but these are charming pieces, so the disc is well worth searching out especially if you are interested in the musical life in Paris in the 19th century.
 
Robert Hugill
 



 


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.