Customer Reviews

Orchestral Works

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The Irish-French composer Augusta Holmes (1847-1903) failed to make a lasting stamp on the history of music, but she enjoyed a relatively successful career despite the many obstacles put in her way because of her gender. Apparently her looks helped her career and reputation - it seems to have been partially responsible for introducing her to a wide variety of artists and composers, although she was apparently a very skilled singer and pianist as well. Her affinity for large-scale symphonic music rather than salon music, however, certainly did not help her in times when such interests appear to have been deemed unsuitable for women, although she did achieve some success with a couple of her works.

Her music is certainly an interesting venture for an enterprising record label. The performances, however, are variable, making this collection more of an issue for the specialist than for the general music lover. The music is also a little variable, and to start with the weakest work, the relatively early Ouverture pour une comédien is structurally weak with few interesting ideas (the scoring is fine, however). The three somewhat later symphonic poems were written under the influence of Franck and are finer works; the bold and dramatic Andromède is definitely worth hearing even though the ideas are a little short-breathed, and Irlandea is a well-crafted, tuneful and really enjoyable work. Pologne is less interesting - there is a certain shortage of invention here, and the music is rather episodic. La nuit et l'amour, from the symphonic ode Patria, is somewhat syrupy but not completely without merit.

As for the playing, it is certainly committed, but the textures are a little raw and grey (which is somewhat surprising given the sterling work the Rheinland-Pfalz State Philharmonic Orchestra has done for Marco Polo on other occasions), and fails to brush over the episodic nature of much of Holmes's music - there is some drama in these performances, certainly, but little forward momentum; the energy is static rather than dynamic, and the sound is a little unpolished as well. Still, there are enjoyable things here, and I am certainly not unhappy to have made the acquaintance with Holmes's music. A qualified recommendation seems in place.