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Sinfonietta R83
www.gramophone.co.uk
There are three reviews of Sinfonietta
recordings in the Gramofile records on the net since 1983,
all of which are probably currently in print, though not all
easily found. Not included is a review of the excellent Boult
recording with the LPO on Lyrita vinyl dating from 1968.
Chandos CHAN8456
Bournemouth Sinfonietta/Del Mar
Published September 1986
In the Sinfonietta the playing is again first
rate, but the diminutive title belies a work which is quite
large-scale, and which needs a bigger body of strings than
the Bournemouth Sinfonietta possess. On Boult's 1967 Lyrita
recording, with its pleasing Kingsway Hall acoustic, the LPO's
full complement of strings makes a better effect and Sir Adrian's
objective approach works well in a delightful work which has
a well-contrived blend of high spirits, charm and warmth of
feeling. Del Mar points the reflective passages with his usual
skill and sympathy: his tempos are on the whole faster than
those of Boult and it is possible to think that he presses
too hard in the lively episodes, which in the slightly over-reverberant
acoustic become rather blurred and too much dominated by the
Timpani. The new record is most welcome, however, for another
viewpoint on the Sinfonietta and for the revelatory account
of the Cello Concerto.
AS
EMI CDC7 49912-2
Northern Sinfonia/Hickox
Published February 1990
A very pleasant disc of orchestral works by
Moeran and Finzi, sensitively played by the Northern Sinfonia,
and recorded straightforwardly, with no quirks, although the
resonance of All Saints' Church in Newcastle upon Tyne sometimes
blurs the timpani rolls. Richard Hickox has flair for this
vein of British music and brings out both composers' considerable
skill in the application of orchestral colours, mostly pastel
shades in Finzi, but bolder in the Moeran pieces, which are
among his more extrovert compositions.
Moeran's Sinfonietta has been brightly recorded by Norman
Del Mar for Chandos and anyone who possesses it needn't look
further. It's a delightful work, eclectic like most of Moeran,
but tautly and expertly composed in an honourable tradition
of lighter music by British composers. I can't think why we
don't hear it more often in the concert-hall—well, of
course, I can think why: the chronic timidity of audiences
and managements.
MK
EMI CDM7 64721-2
Northern Sinfonia/Hickox
Published August 1994 (Reissue, mid-price)
In the case of the Sinfonietta, Hickox's
comparatively bluff way with the outer movements has much
in common with Del Mar's 1986 Bournemouth Sinfonietta version;
the former is, however, more acutely responsive to the chimerical
mood-changes of the central Theme and Variations. Let us hope
that this, Moeran's centenary year, sees the restoration of
Boult's pioneering Lyrita account (11/85—nla) of this
lovely score (coupled, ideally, to that great conductor's
superb recording of the Symphony in G minor).
AA
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