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

 

 

cover image

availability
CD: Ludomentis

Sounds’ Falls
George GERSHWIN (1898–1937)
Variations on I Got Rhythm (1934) (arranged by Anna Lisa Fergola) [10:19]
Samuel BARBER (1910–1981)
Souvenirs
Ballet Suite, op.28 [17:49]
Aaron COPLAND (1900–1990)
Variations on a Shaker Melody
(Appalachian Spring) [6:02]
George GERSHWIN
Preludes
(1926) (transcribed by Gerald Stone) [6:29]
Rhapsody in Blue
(1924) (arranged by Henry Devine) [18:38]
Anna Lisa Fergola and Roberto Ramadori (piano duet)
rec. Magister Area Studios, Preganziol, Italy 30-31 October 2009. DDD.
VELUT LUNA CVLD 186 [59:27]

Experience Classicsonline

The only original work for piano duet recorded here is Barber’s delightful Souvenirs, a set of six dances which might have been performed in the Plaza Hotel at the turn of the 19th century. It’s a really delicious confection, and it’s written entirely without irony, Barber having a great respect and delight for the kind of light music he’s celebrating. And it is a celebration, of the most affectionate kind. Fergola and Ramadori show real fondness and tenderness for this music, their performance is very good. Their straightforward approach makes the music all the funnier and more enjoyable.

I suppose that Copland’s Shaker Melody Variations (from Appalachian Spring) is the composer’s own arrangement; nobody is credited with the transcription in the notes. Taken out of context the work is small beer, and smaller still when shorn of its instrumental clothing. Again the performers give a “no frills” performance but it’s not particularly inspiring and some of the runs sound to be blurred.

And so to Gershwin. The Preludes suit four hands well, and one doesn’t feel that the textures have been filled out to accommodate the extra eight fingers and two thumbs. This is a nice performance but lacks real forward impulse, the music can stand some real weight which it doesn’t have here. Rhapsody in Blue was arranged by a man who studied the work with the composer and we must, thus, assume some kind of imprimatur on the arrangement. The performance, however, is dull and stolid, being too slow and without charm. The I Got Rhythm Variations was Gershwin’s final original composition for the concert hall and the orchestration contains some effects new to this composer. It’s a colourful and enjoyable piece but, as with other works here, stripped of its orchestral colouring it loses its appeal.

Fergola and Ramadori are obviously fine pianists but their approach to this music, Souvenirs excepted, is lacklustre and far too small-scale, and, it sounds to me, their ensemble isn’t always as good as it should be. It’s a valiant attempt to put a new slant on well known works but good intentions aren’t enough: there has to be a strong musicianship behind the endeavour. Sadly, strength, both of purpose and performance, is sorely lacking on this disk. The recording is very close with no feeling of the room in which the music was recorded. Ramadori’s notes are OK but I am left wondering what are the American ‘Avant-Guards’ he mentions. If you want the Gershwin Rhapsody and Variations find a version with the original orchestral scoring, they are fuller, more enjoyable, and present exactly that the composer wanted.

Bob Briggs



 

 

 

 

 


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.