Harmonia Mundi has become a shlocky horror show

Harmonia Mundi has become a shlocky horror show

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norman lebrecht

March 21, 2018

Two of this month’s classical covers.

Someone’s not taking their medication…

Comments

  • John Rook says:
    March 21, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    Weren’t they bought up by some low-rent Belgian outfit?

    Reply
    • Olassus says:
      March 21, 2018 at 8:11 pm

      Yes. The new class-act in the former HM space (and with some former HM artists) is Mirare, at mirare.fr.

      Reply
  • Thomasina says:
    March 21, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    Since I read about the viola in the other thread, I understood how the viola was neglected and I think the viola players have the reasons to express their indignation.

    Reply
  • Joel stein says:
    March 21, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    The Widmann disc does include some duets which feature shouting presumably by the instrumentalists.

    Reply
    • Thaddeus Watson says:
      March 21, 2018 at 10:18 pm

      The concerto is a fine piece, one of Widman’s best…. the piece has performance elements in it and Tamestit’s facial expressions and movements around the stage are an important aspect of the piece….. it works well and is well received, at least for more enlightened audiences

      Reply
      • Pianofortissimo says:
        March 22, 2018 at 8:51 am

        What is an ”enlightened audience”?

        Reply
      • Thomasina says:
        March 22, 2018 at 2:19 pm

        I have watched a video clip of the piece for 6 double basses by Mr.Widmann, played by the members of BRSO. It was very exciting and I loved it, but I also thought it may have been less impressive without image. I don’t know about this concerto whether it’s interesting even without facial expressions and movements…

        Reply
  • Petros Linardos says:
    March 21, 2018 at 10:49 pm

    Thank you very much for making me look at the Harmonia Mundi website. While the two above releases are not my cup of tea, I noticed a potentially excellent new recording I now consider ordering: Handel’s Concerti a due cori, played by the reliably superb Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.

    As always, excellence doesn’t necessarily make enough noise to get the publicity it deserves.

    Good news sources are those that support excellence.

    Reply
  • Ellis Cage says:
    March 25, 2018 at 12:48 pm

    The Widmann Viola Concerto is fantastic, fun, modern & highly listenable. The disc as a whole is a mixed bag however, with a lone string quartet (we already had the complete Widmann string quartets on Wergo) and an incomplete and seemingly random set of duos.

    Reply

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