Ironwood give these quintets the full period style treatment, the period being the middle years of the 19th century, when romantic practice was maturing and becoming more indulgent of special effects. If you don’t like spread piano chords, extensive portamento in the violins and a piano sound far more brittle than a modern Steinway, then this record is not for you…
There is a sense that Stanford’s chamber music is at last getting the attention it deserves. Despite being recognised in his lifetime as an important late romantic composer the twentieth century programmers largely wrote him off as being second class…
Charles Koechlin is one of those composers that have suffered neglect mainly because his music was so individual it was hard to characterise, or so it seemed in his own time (1867-1950). With distance he mirrors those 77 years well, beginning in the aftermath of D’Indy and Fauré, independent but relative to Debussy and Ravel, ending in the world of film music and the ravages of World War II…
These are all world premiere modern recordings made in Paris of music by two composers who have largely slipped through the reputational net undeservedly…
The concept behind this release is to compare and contrast two cello concertos written a century apart, 1919 and 2017, and both imbued with echoes of World War I. There’s nothing wrong with the concept but from the buyer’s point of view once the point is made, the recording has only the quality of the music and performances left to offer…