Nice, thanks. Why am I not getting these e-mails anymore, I wonder? Meanwhile the useless Classical.com ones arrive like clockwork. I miss the free Da Capo DLs too!
I have that one already, and in fact my copy of the 19-disc edition from which these tracks were taken is in the post.
Sunday is the 50th anniversary of his death. I don't like the term "underrated", so instead I'll say that Grainger's music isn't as well known as it deserves.
I'm glad I signed up for their newsletter after seeing this post. I fell in love with Grainger's work after playing many of songs for Wind Ensemble's, especially Licolonshire Posey, The Children's March, Gum Suckers March. Actually visited a small museum dedicated to him at the University of Melbourne, Australia in 1999, just after a film came out about him and his eccentricities. This album by the Michigan State University Band is a good one: [url/]http://www.amazon.com/Percy-Graingers-Great-Symphonic-Music/dp/B0000006XN/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1298156282&sr=1-1[/url]
I'm glad they're finally showing up in my email after having to rejoin the newsletter list 5-6 times (anytime they get a bounced email, they drop you).
FYI - the Grainger set above is still available as of today.
As Doofy said a while back, "Why am I not getting these e-mails anymore, I wonder? " Has anyone ever worked out when the Classical Shop deigns to send their emails? Is it just after you've ordered something from the Chandos website? (I suspect that might be it, since I bought something in May, and lo and behold I got the email in June, after nothing for several months.) Or is it totally random, or what? One of life's little mysteries?
This one offers free music for trombone quartet...
And here's Fanfare's review:
The Chicago Trombone Consort is made up of principals, nine on this disc, based in and around Chicago. The exiguous liner notes inform us that the consort was founded in 2008, this being its debut recording. It certainly lives up to its intention of offering a varied program. Within the first 10 minutes or so one lurches from a pleasant opening fanfare (the Czech Nelhybel) that starts with a delightful low raspberry, via an arrangement of ceremonial Gabrieli, then a rather suave contemporary piece by the English composer Jeremy Dibb, followed by the Pergolesi trio sonata, whose first and third movements are instantly recognizable from Stravinskys Pulcinella.
And then, with far too short a pause, comes the disconcerting sound of the opening of Strausss Alpine Symphony. This is a fascinating relaying of the big work for trombone quartet, or rather a judiciously selected 11 minutes of it, presenting mainly the slow sonorous passages. Wisely, the arranger, Ben Mansted, has eschewed most of the vigorous tramping up the mountain, which would have surely been implausible, to say the least, on four trombones, resulting in a rather skewed impression of the original. Unfortunately, the sunrise counts for little, the players having not held back before it, and maybe a conductor might have shaped the performance of this work more persuasively.
The trombone solo at the beginning of Entering the Forest is the only miscalculation in the recital, having something of the associations of lachrymose music hall (vaudeville?) soloists. Otherwise the arrangement is curiously successful on its own terms. However, by this time in the CD all the euphony and mellow, rounded edges are beginning to pall. The contrast with the air and energy on Kempes recording of the Strauss was a shock when I turned to it for comparison. The recording of the Chicago players is fine and isnt in itself claustrophobic, but the sound world of the trombones is just too restricted for my taste. One longs for the bite of trumpets and rasp of horns. There arent any sustained passages of fast music, and the dynamic range offered by the players isnt that wide (I am sure the recording is technically faithful). With intervals between pieces that are far too short, giving a certain relentlessness to the presentation, this isnt a CD to play all the way through at one sitting.
Rob Deemers piece, Shock and Awe, is a commission from the Chicago Trombone Quartet, a subset of the present band. In the absence of any information in the CD booklet, I havent been able to find anything on the Web about this work, so can only report that it is a, presumably deliberately, facetious and ironic work in three short movements, of which the middle one, Calls/Responses, is more than half the whole work and juxtaposes widely disparate music. The first movement more than nods at the lighter music of Shostakovich in its jauntiness. Whether the jolliness of the final movement, Brave New World, is intended to be straight or ironic, Im not sure.
Another short snatch of Baroquethis time Palestrinabefore Crespos Bruckner Etude. One immediately thinks of Bruckners Aequali and the E-Minor Mass, and it is as if Bruckners idiom has been thickened by 20th-century Romanticism. Its sound world harks back to track 9, the music of Calls/Responses. Bozzas Andantino is another stylistic hybrid. Bozza, who was French (d.1991), apparently wrote plenty of brass music, and this piece, all of 2:18, starts with a theme dangerously close to Ravels Pavane pour une infante defunte (on trombone, of course) before becoming all Baroquy. And onward Mark Fishers arrangement of Rhinebergers Abendlied is more glorious sonority before the CD finishes with the Bach Passacaglia.
All in all, this CD is too much of a good thing in one sitting, like a meal consisting of cream cakes. However, taken in smaller doses, with imaginative selections of tracks, the performances never fail to entertain and impress, and their quality is abundantly clear. Jeremy Marchant
Here is December's link (hopefully I get the link correct this time) - http://www.emailunlimited-online.net/tu/tr.aspx?ID=rd5146_83&LEA=vjvl51@gmail.com&T=http://www.theclassicalshop.net/newsletter/NewsLetter6842447519.htm
Sorry but I don't know how to do it nice and neat like Vivaldi55
- Thanks ! - It worked, all you need is the part starting with the second http. If you don't want your email in public you might want to edit your post.
Here's the link to the November newsletter, as requested.
The content of the November newsletter appears mix-up, with the free album details being a repeat October offering. Fortunately the free album download links can be reconstructed knowing the album number.
So, the link for the November free album download A Christmas Celebration on Chandos Brass (CHAN 4530), is http://theclassicalshop.org.uk/mp3s/Zipped_CHAN4530.zip The November album was still free when I tried just now - I can never remember how long it remains though...
Comments
Here's december:
What ? It was supposed to be 516x516, Oh well.....
Sunday is the 50th anniversary of his death. I don't like the term "underrated", so instead I'll say that Grainger's music isn't as well known as it deserves.
FYI - the Grainger set above is still available as of today.
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/newsletter/NewsLetter1397458620.htm
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/newsletter/NewsLetter9825882441.htm
This one offers free music for trombone quartet...
And here's Fanfare's review:
Sorry but I don't know how to do it nice and neat like Vivaldi55
The content of the November newsletter appears mix-up, with the free album details being a repeat October offering. Fortunately the free album download links can be reconstructed knowing the album number.
So, the link for the November free album download A Christmas Celebration on Chandos Brass (CHAN 4530), is http://theclassicalshop.org.uk/mp3s/Zipped_CHAN4530.zip The November album was still free when I tried just now - I can never remember how long it remains though...
- Maybe subscribing once more did the job.