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             


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

 

Ruperto CHAPÍ (1851-1909) 
Fantasía Morisca (1873 rev. 1879) [22:18] 
Symphony in D minor (1877 rev. 1879) [34:29]
Orquesta de la Communidad de Madrid/José Ramón Encinar
rec. rehearsal hall, Orchestra and Chorus of the Communidad de Madrid, Teatro Isabel Clara Eugenia, Spain, 25-29 June and 15-17 October 2007
NAXOS 8.572195 [56:49] 
Experience Classicsonline


Before I heard this disc I had thought of Chapí only as one of the best composers of zarzuelas. Indeed that is how he was best known in his lifetime although he also had some prominence as a fighter for improved performing rights for composers.  Naxos have two short excerpts from his zarzuelas on 8.555957 – the Prelude to “El tamor de granaderos” and the chorus of doctors from “El rey que rabió”.  They are the highlights of that disc and whet the appetite for more by this composer.  He did indeed also write several operas, some chamber music and a small amount of orchestral music.
 

The Symphony is the longer work here, and is full of delights even if perhaps somewhat overlong for the material.  The first movement, with its slow introduction, and the third movement scherzo are the most indebted to classical models of the first part of the nineteenth century.  The lengthy slow second movement and the more boisterous finale are still very much influenced in the same way but are as much character pieces as symphonic movements.  As a whole however this is an enjoyable work and well worth hearing. 

The same applies even more strongly to the Fantasía morisca which was originally conceived for military band – at the time he was director of the artillery regimental band in Madrid.  Its four movements are picturesque and imaginative.  Whilst it has a character similar to the Spanish-inspired works of, say, Bizet, Massenet and Chabrier, the Spanish-sounding melodies and textures here are presumably closer to the real thing than the former.  It is clearly a lighter work than the Symphony, but if the latter is worth hearing once in a while, the Fantasia surely deserves a permanent place in the normal orchestral repertoire alongside the Spanish-inspired French Suites of the same period. 

The performances sound idiomatic - I have not been able to obtain scores - and the recording is clear if somewhat dry and unatmospheric.  I understand that Chapí wrote other orchestral music, including a much later tone poem “Los gnomos de la Alhambra” (The gnomes of the Alhambra), described by Christopher Webber in his book on zarzuelaas “strikingly adventurous”.  It is a pity that it is not included here, but perhaps it might form the basis for a second disc of Chapí’s music.  In the meantime, here is a very enjoyable but inexpensive disc of two very worthwhile pieces by a composer who clearly ought to be better known beyond his own country.

John Sheppard

see also Review of an alternative version of the Symphony

 


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.