Customer Reviews

Rawsthorne: Concerto, Divertimento / Lloyd-Jones, Northern Chamber Orchestra

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how can you resist the cover art of geese and fish in boxes?

rawsthorne's warm, complex music is a joy! after getting hooked on his chamber music (also a naxos issue), this was a good logical progression.

it's gentle and romantic in places, but sometimes discordant and angry- but always in complete control. also i had no idea the recorder could be such an expressive instrument- very interesting. this CD is an excellent example of mid 20th century classical music.

spend the $ and get all three naxos issues of rawsthorne's music. the playing is intelligent and sympathetic, the liner notes very helpful, and the naxos engineers have done a good job of capturing little details.

This is a variegated disc. It is unfortunately also somewhat variable. To start with the best, the Concerto for String Orchestra is an excellent work, well-constructed and full of subtle moods, but with a certain anxiousness to it that doesn't exactly make it easy listening. In the end, though, it isn't really quite on the level of Bliss' Music for Strings (which might seem like the most apt comparison); but it is still a fine work.

The Light Music for strings is not, though. It is certainly light music, but unfortunately thoroughly dull and lacking exactly that kind of memorable melody light music demands. The Elegiac rhapsody is better, but in the end rather dour. The Concertante Pastorale and the Divertimento are worth hearing, if no more than once. The real letdown here, though, is the Suite for recorder and string orchestra, which is recorded here for the first time but should frankly have been left to gather dust - thoroughly uninspired and dull as it is.

Performances are excellent, virtuosic, even, when called for. I wouldn't want to be without the Concerto for String Orchestra either, but with the major exception of that one, this is for the specialist only.