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Track Listings
| 1. With the Wild Geese |
| 2. In Ireland |
| 3. An Irish Symphony |
Product Description
Review
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
Product Description
CD Composer: Harty,Sir Hamilton
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
By Dr. H. A. Jones
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD
This CD gives us a selection of three of Hamilton Harty's most popular compositions. Though Harty was a composer of quite accessible classical music in lighter vein, he is known primarily as a conductor. Though born in Ireland in 1879, he settled in London in his early 20s where his talent was soon recognized. From 1920 to 1933 he was principal conductor of the Manchester-based Hallé Orchestra and did much to raise the standard of its playing to world-class and it was here that he introduced English audiences to some of the `newer' music from continental Europe. He conducted the first performances in England of Mahler's 9th Symphony and Shostakovich's 1st Symphony.
The main work on this CD is Hart's Irish Symphony which has some lovely scene painting of the Irish landscape. The evocative tone-poem, With the Wild Geese, premiered in Cardiff in 1910 is prefaced in the score by two poems by Emily Lawless portraying scenes of battle in France - the first before the battle, the second after the battle where the ghosts of those slain return across the water to their Irish homeland. The third work is a short tone poem called In Ireland, the theme of which clearly needs no further description. A pleasant CD of music played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Proinssias O Duinn.
The main work on this CD is Hart's Irish Symphony which has some lovely scene painting of the Irish landscape. The evocative tone-poem, With the Wild Geese, premiered in Cardiff in 1910 is prefaced in the score by two poems by Emily Lawless portraying scenes of battle in France - the first before the battle, the second after the battle where the ghosts of those slain return across the water to their Irish homeland. The third work is a short tone poem called In Ireland, the theme of which clearly needs no further description. A pleasant CD of music played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Proinssias O Duinn.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars
5 reviews
10 of 10 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
- Published on Amazon.com
Format: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
Format: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
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hamilton Harty's Irish Symphony
15 Nov 2012
By Dr. H. A. Jones
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
This CD gives us a selection of three of Hamilton Harty's most popular compositions. Though Harty was a composer of quite accessible classical music in lighter vein, he is known primarily as a conductor. Though born in Ireland in 1879, he settled in London in his early 20s where his talent was soon recognized. From 1920 to 1933 he was principal conductor of the Manchester-based Hallé Orchestra and did much to raise the standard of its playing to world-class and it was here that he introduced English audiences to some of the `newer' music from continental Europe. He conducted the first performances in England of Mahler's 9th Symphony and Shostakovich's 1st Symphony.
The main work on this CD is Hart's Irish Symphony which has some lovely scene painting of the Irish landscape. The evocative tone-poem, With the Wild Geese, premiered in Cardiff in 1910 is prefaced in the score by two poems by Emily Lawless portraying scenes of battle in France - the first before the battle, the second after the battle where the ghosts of those slain return across the water to their Irish homeland. The third work is a short tone poem called In Ireland, the theme of which clearly needs no further description. A pleasant CD of music played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Proinssias O Duinn.
The main work on this CD is Hart's Irish Symphony which has some lovely scene painting of the Irish landscape. The evocative tone-poem, With the Wild Geese, premiered in Cardiff in 1910 is prefaced in the score by two poems by Emily Lawless portraying scenes of battle in France - the first before the battle, the second after the battle where the ghosts of those slain return across the water to their Irish homeland. The third work is a short tone poem called In Ireland, the theme of which clearly needs no further description. A pleasant CD of music played by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Proinssias O Duinn.
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3.8 out of 5 stars
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