{"id":5167,"date":"2013-05-24T14:55:35","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T14:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/?p=5167"},"modified":"2013-05-24T14:58:30","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T14:58:30","slug":"cd-review-audiophile-audition-on-bobby-and-hans-vol-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2013\/05\/24\/cd-review-audiophile-audition-on-bobby-and-hans-vol-3\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review- Audiophile Audition on Bobby and Hans vol 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new review for the Orchestra of the Swan&#8217;s recording of Gal&#8217;s Second Symphony and Schumann Four from critic Lee Passarella at Audiophile Audition.<a href=\"http:\/\/audaud.com\/2013\/05\/hans-gal-symphony-no-2-in-f-schumann-symphony-no-4-in-d-minor-orch-of-the-swan-kenneth-woods-avie\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Read the whole thing here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A short sample follows<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk\/e\/cm?t=aviewfromthep-21&amp;o=2&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B00BGL3FKY&amp;ref=tf_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr\" height=\"240\" width=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"http:\/\/rcm.amazon.com\/e\/cm?t=aviewfromthep-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;asins=B00BGL3FKY&amp;ref=qf_sp_asin_til&amp;fc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;lt1=_blank&amp;m=amazon&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;bc1=000000&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;f=ifr\" height=\"240\" width=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Bobby-and-Hans-vol-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Just Released- Volume Three of the Complete Symphonies of Hans Gal and Robert Schumann\" src=\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/Bobby-and-Hans-vol-3.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><b>HANS G\u00c1L: Symphony No. 2 in F, Op. 53; SCHUMANN: Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 120 \u2013 Orchestra of the Swan \/Kenneth Woods \u2013 Avie AV2232, 73:11 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8230;.G\u00e1l never reclaimed the estime that he enjoyed on the Continent, and indeed he had doubts that his\u00a0<i>Second Symphony<\/i>\u00a0(1943) would ever be heard in public so he excerpted the\u00a0<i>Adagio<\/i>\u00a0third movement for stand-alone performance. Eventually, the symphony was performed in its entirety, though like most of G\u00e1l\u2019s works it quickly disappeared from the concert hall, receiving its first performance since 1951 by the Orchestra of the Swan just last year. It was written during a time of professional strife and personal tragedy for G\u00e1l, whose aunt and sister took their own lives to escape deportation to Auschwitz. This twin disaster was followed by the suicide of G\u00e1l\u2019s son at the age of eighteen in 1942.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Like G\u00e1l\u2019s\u00a0<i>First Symphony<\/i>, the\u00a0<i>Second<\/i>\u00a0begins unconventionally with a slow movement serving as an introduction to the whole. The opening is a more substantial movement than that of the\u00a0<i>First Symphony<\/i>, which for me seriously unbalances the latter work. In fact, the\u00a0<i>Second Symphony<\/i>\u00a0is an altogether more appealing and successful piece for my money. The wry second movement scherzo is quite memorable in its strutting gestures, its almost flippant melody, while the following\u00a0<i>Adagio<\/i>\u00a0is the grieving heart of the work, a dark elegy that somehow concludes with quiet uplift. The finale starts life as a roiling, boiling minor-key cauldron of a piece, but that menacing opening gives way to a bustling section with much more positive energy about it. As with the<i>Adagio<\/i>, the movement comes to a quietly contemplative close that seems to hint at hope in the face of tragedy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Whether you find the pairing with Schumann\u2019s\u00a0<i>Fourth Symphony<\/i>\u00a0apt or not, Kenneth Woods and his band give this work a spirited reading; and the lean sound the Orchestra of the Swan produces is actually a plus given the fact that Schumann introduced a certain bloat into the orchestration when he revised it in 1851 after its less-than-successful premiere ten years earlier. Commentators have long complained about the frequent doubling of string and wind parts in this version, but here the piece comes up sounding fresh, at least to my ears&#8230; I\u2019m as pleased with the performance of the Schumann as I am with the G\u00e1l, and given the real quality of G\u00e1l\u2019s symphony, I don\u2019t mind that this makes about the tenth Schumann\u00a0<i>Fourth<\/i>\u00a0in my collection!<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\u2014Lee Passarella<\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/2013\/05\/24\/cd-review-audiophile-audition-on-bobby-and-hans-vol-3\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8230;here the piece comes up sounding fresh, at least to my ears&#8230; I\u2019m as pleased with the performance of the Schumann as I am with the G\u00e1l, and given the real quality of G\u00e1l\u2019s symphony, I don\u2019t mind that this makes about the tenth Schumann Fourth in my collection!&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-opion-life-as-a-performing-musician"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5167"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5169,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5167\/revisions\/5169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}