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
CD: CDOn

Danish Salon Music
Con Sordino (Bjarne E Hansen and Carl Sjöberg (violins), Søren Friis (cello), Poul Find (double-bass), Inke Kesseler (piano))
rec. 2008, The Carl Nielsen Academy of Music, Odense.
Full contents at end of review
GATEWAY MUSIC CONSCD003 [62:54]

Experience Classicsonline

Those who collect the splendid Guild series “The Golden Age of Light Music” may be forgiven for thinking that the age in question lies wholly in the past. Enjoyable as it is to look back at these older recordings the present disc makes it very clear that the appropriate style of playing and arrangement is far from dead and also that there are whole groups of very accomplished light music composers awaiting exploration. Only one of the composers on this disc – Jacob Gade, who wrote the “Tango Jalousie” in 1925 – is well known outside Denmark. All of the twenty other composers represented here were contemporaries from the first half of the twentieth century. When it is apparent that each wrote much other music it becomes clear that Con Sordino could continue this exploration over many future discs.

I certainly hope that they will, as the standard of playing and music here is amazingly high. Three members of the quintet, which was founded in 1987, play in the Odense Symphony Orchestra, but no other information is given. They have the style of this music to perfection, playing with affection, tenderness, bounce and crispness as required in arrangements by the group’s cellist, Søren Friis. I suspect that the success of several items is largely the result of the arrangement rather than the original composition, but no matter, it is their success here which largely concerns the listener. As is normal in such music, the titles indicate the genre and character of each piece (although I have no idea of the reason for the title of Poul Olsen’s “The Jumpers”). I am loath to mention individual pieces when the overall standard is so high, but the Merry Intermezzo of Eric Rostrup Bøyesen, the Ave Maria of Hugo Gyldmark and the Rococo Menuet of Christian Danning particularly charmed me last time I listened to the disc. Next time I suspect that I will fall for different items, but there is really not a single item that I did not enjoy here.

The recording is clear in a well chosen acoustic, and despite the cover picture of a salon orchestra playing to diners in a crowded restaurant there are none of the noises or distractions to enjoyment that must have been normal when this music was first performed. This is a disc that should be in the collection of every lover of light or salon music. I very much hope that Con Sordino will continue to mine these rich and, to me at least, unexpected veins.

John Sheppard


Full Contents
Lystigt Intermezzo (Merry Intermezzo) - Eric Rostrup Bøyesen (1915-1998) [2:06]
Til hende (For her) – Eilert Lindorff-Larsen (1902-1983) [4:21]
Tango Barcarole – Georges Ravn (1900-1972) & Poul Werner (1898-1988) [4:18]
Drømmende læber (Dreaming lips) – Jens Warny (1893-1979) [3:15]
Lille Wienermarch (Little Viennese March) – Franz Heinz (Christian Thomsen) (1904-1971) [2:53]
Rococo Menuet – Christian Danning (1876-1925) [2:04]
Romance – Fini Henriques (1867-1940) [2:28]
Ni plus ni moins (Neither more nor less) – Kai Mortensen 1908-1989) [3:04]
Ave Maria – Hugo Gyldmark (1899-1971) [4:41]
Canzonetta – Jacob Gade (1879-1963) [3:51]
Livets glæder (The pleasures of life) – Emil Reesen (1887-1964) [2:41]
Den allersidste dans (The very last dance) – Kai Normann Andersen (1900-1967) [3:40]
Radio Tango – Aage Jersholt (1896-1964) [2:21]
La Plata –Paso doble - José Ramondano (Harold Mortensen) (1897-1970) [2:48]
Jeg plukker fløjlgræs (Picking velvet grass) – Knud Van Thomsen (1905-1971) [2:32]
Pizzicato Intermezzo – Carl Rydahl (1888-1960) [3:17]
Crazy Fiddle – Pete Alman (Peter Deutsch) (1901-1965) [2:30]
En vals blev født i Wien (A waltz was born in Vienna) – Ewald Boilesen (1913-1986) [4:30]
Springfyrene (The jumpers) – Poul Olsen (1920-1987) [2:24]
Matador – Bent Fabricius-Bjerre (b1924) [2:54]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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.