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Site review by Polly Nomial August 18, 2006
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Performance: Sonics (MC): |
After being wowed by the superb volume 2 in this ongoing series (The Mannheim Project, Volume 2 - Murphy), I thought that I should explore the earlier release and see how the style of composition had changed. In short, the most striking difference is the length of composition attempted by Richter (who very nearly doubles these) whereas Stamitz has rather consolidated his style of melodic writing.
As in the later disc, four string symphonies are presented with two from each of Richter and Stamitz (and an encore from Stamitz) which makes a very pleasent listen of just under one hour. The playing and conducting are just as spirited and refined as I'd been hoping for and it must be said that with the New Dutch Academy under Simon Murphy, Pentatone have un-earthed another great ensemble for us to enjoy; from the listening that I (and hopefully others) have been enjoying in the last couple of years I am sorely tempted to proclaim that if ever there was a golden age of performance it is now!
The sound is well up to Pentatone's usual high standards and like the later release adds a pleasing smooth sheen to the sound of the period strings - not since the glory days of Mannheim can these works have been given such a beautiful acoustic or rendering.
Enthusiastically recommended for the beginning of what we know turns into a fascinating journey of the symphony.
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Copyright © 2006 John Broggio and SA-CD.net
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Review by mwagner1962 May 8, 2005 (9 of 9 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S): |
Well,
This is my first ever foray into the string music of either Stamitz or Richter. I have heard Richter's screaming trumpet concerto before, but this was my first purchase of purely string oriented material.
I am extremely happy with this SACD. It has a great sound with nice placement of instruments spread across the sound stage. The sense of space from the recording location gives a great feel to this recording.
I wish that I had other recordings of string music by these two composers to do a serious comparison, but since I do not, I simply have to say that the performances are inspired and also sound superb...another nice PentaTone addition to my SACD library!!!!
My humble $.02!!!
Cheers,
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