Sunday 8 March 2009

Very large crab this weekend; quite enough for three meals! Also managed to buy some John Dory fillets in Cirencester; quite delicious.

For music, there was Henryk Wieniawski, whom I like very much since he is melodic, elegant and sophisticated. Admired once again the violin sound of Corey Cerovsek (accompanied on this Wieniawski recital CD kindly supplied by Lee, by Katja Cerovsek -- presumably a sister). Cerovsek does not have a broad palette of colours -- it's all very beautiful -- but he does play elegantly and makes a nice sound.

Cerovsek's counterpart in the vocal world is Carolyn Sampson. Her recital of airs and songs by Purcell is a CD that I do not file away under "P" but keep next to my player. It is always a breath of fresh (musical) air, sung by a very atractive voice.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Likewise, Sarasate is the Spanish equivalent to Wieniawski and Paganini is also the Italian version of old Henryk - with the melodious, elegant sophisticated nature of the Polish master. I am afraid that Vieuxtemps does not come close the 3 masters I mentioned earlier. I am ordering the Wieniawski Vol 2 - played by Janowski and Plagge on 2L records - which you don't have. We'll see how that sounds like when it arrives.

Best - Lee

Harry Collier said...

Not sure I agree with the down-sizing of Vieuxtemps! He, like Ysaye, was a more "serious" composer than Wieniawski, Ernst, Paganini, Sarasate, et al. Not as good a composer of salon music, agreed. But some of Vieuxtemps' chamber and orchestral works are excellent.

Anonymous said...

His best piece so far is the VC 5 - which has many versions on the CD catalogue. Not so many chamber works come to mind as well as orch pieces.