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Track Listings
| 1. With the Wild Geese |
| 2. In Ireland |
| 3. An Irish Symphony |
Product Description
BBC Music Magazine
Hamilton Harty was one of Ireland's most important musicians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although as a composer he was largely self-taught, extensive experience as a conductor first in London and then with the Halle in Manchester informed his own music, for which his principal influence as an orchestrator was Berlioz. This new recording fully savours the brilliant colours that characterise the buoyant folksong style of the tone poem With the Wild Geese, Ó Duinn and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland vividly evoking the unmistakable mix of nationalistic fragrance and images of the Irish regiment whose fortunes this music's programme portrays.
Harty wrote the rhapsodic fantasy In Ireland for flute and piano in 1918, orchestrating it some 17 years later. The instrumental solos are in pleasing focus in this delightfully fresh account and, enlivened by perky rhythms and sensitive instrumental balance, Ó Duinn and his orchestra winningly capture its opposition of cheerfulness and wistfulness.
Predictably, these musicians empathise completely with Harty's An Irish Symphony. They aptly contrast the scherzo's lively Irish humour with subtly nuanced expressiveness in the plaintive slow movement. Idiomatic music-making in the outer movements highlights the composer's clever symphonic development of folk themes.
Performance *****
Sound ***
© BBC Music Magazine 2001
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The new first choice for the Irish Symphony., 21 Mar 2005
By Into "voidness" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Harty: Orchestral Works (Audio CD)
This is a quick, easy review to write. I found a very cheap copy of this disc--even cheaper than Naxos' normal great price--so I decided to buy it; mostly for "With the Wild Geese" and "In Ireland," since I already have a good recording of the symphony. Well, the pleasant surprise here is, not only are these great recorded performances of the first two pieces, but this recording "blows the doors off" of the "old" Chandos recording of the Irish Symphony by Bryden Thompson and the Ulster Orchestra--which that label has released and re-released in multiple over-priced pairings a few times, and has now deleted--both in terms of performance and sound quality (I'm not sure what the other reviewer could've found lacking in the recording quality). For those of you who have been looking for the Thompson, stop looking and get the Naxos. My copy of the Thompson my very well be sitting in a used CD bin sometime soon. Naxos does it again!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting, 25 Jun 2008
By David Saemann - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Harty: Orchestral Works (Audio CD)
I have Bryden Thomson's recordings of With the Wild Geese and In Ireland, which I prefer. O Duinn's tempos in both works are a bit faster than Thomson's, building up some excitement but also losing some of the lyrical flow of both pieces. Also, the sound engineering on Thomson's album is better, although the Naxos sound certainly is very good. This is my first encounter with the Irish Symphony. It's interesting to note that Amy Beach also wrote a Celtic Symphony around the same time, which was based on native material as well. The Irish Symphony, however, is the better of the two works. It has sparkle, especially in the second movement, and a wonderfully evocative and atmoshperic approach to the material. O Duinn's performance seems to me to be very good. His orchestra plays well, although I would really like to hear Bryden Thomson's version, too. Collectors wishing to experience Harty's music at Naxos's price need not hesitate.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
False value - this is no match for Thomson, 14 Feb 2009
By G.D. - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Harty: Orchestral Works (Audio CD)
No unqualified masterpieces here, but these Harty works are still delightfully charming with lots of good tunes in excellent orchestrations - definitely worth hearing, in other words. Some questions can however be raised concerning the performances here. The strings of The National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland sounds at times dangerously thin and the orchestra is in general no match for the Ulster players on Chandos - the balance is somewhat skewed and details are imprecisely played. O'Duinn's approach is questionable as well, going far too fast at times and rushing over many of the beautiful touches of Harty's orchestrations. On the other hand, O'Duinn certainly manages to whip up some excitement with his fast approach, but in the end it is a poor substitute for magic and atmosphere. Sound quality isn't up to the Chandos standard either - reverberant and loud and with a poor balance. It would be wrong to say that this disc is bad, but there really is no competition here - Thomson on Chandos is your man in these works and with the price-reduction on the Chandos reissues Naxos doesn't even have that advantage.
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