Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb recording!, 3 Jun 2000
By A Customer
When you hear these 8 symphonies you will notice that William Boyce (1711-1779) is a very great and enjoyable english baroque and rococo composer. Try listen to the "symphony no. 8 in D minor" especially the last movement and you will think: How great the music was in the 18th-century. The outstanding conductor Trevor Pinnock and his authentic instruments ensemble The English Concert gives a first-class, lively and superb performance. This cd is highly recommendable.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ideal performances of these underrated works, 1 Jan 2000
By A Customer
Boyce's symphonies are a ragbag of overtures he reissued and renamed, but the sheer quality of the music they contain defies criticism. Pinnock's performances bring out the full range of the music, and the orchestral playing shows how sweetperiod instruments can sound. A lovely disc.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction into the music of Boyce, 19 Feb 2009
In 1760, Boyce published his second set of instrumental works, the Eight Symphonies - which was to be his last acclaimed publication as he retired from his career in the public eye. It is curious then, for a composer whose reputation rested on a lifetime's output of sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music, that he is known now almost soley for these pieces. All but one started life as an overture to an ode or other vocal work.
Although Boyce's talents are best displayed in his vocal music, each of these instrumental works is instilled with the vigour, good humour, melodic skill and sure-footed contrapuntal technique which characterise all of Boyce's music. The style is unmistakeably that of the late Baroque, with a predilection for binary forms and fugues. However the first two symphonies, being the most recent are not free from hints of the galant. In fact, for the music scholar, an analysis of the melodic and tonal structure of the first movement of No. 1 will reveal the same relations as that of a monothematic sonata form, making it a prototype for the Classical Symphony.
The most popular examples are often the older symphonies (shrewdly placed at the end of the set by Boyce) which display his exemplary fugal technique. No. 5 is taken from his gargantuan St. Cecilia day ode from 1739, a recording of which is available and highly recommended. Its striking opening, with Trumpets and Timpani treated antiphonally with the rest of the orchestra supplants the usual saccadic opening of the french-overture form. Then follows a sprightly fugue, the attractive subject is treated and developed with natural good humour, although Pinnock's tempo may be a little conservative in this reviewer's opinion.
No. 6 started life as the overture to Boyce's most popular work, Solomon. The opening is instilled with a delightful pastoral feel. Although the subject of the fugue is a little bluff, the players treat it with great delicacy and it is developed superbly. The episodic sections are reduced to a solo string texture, with an alternating octave-leap accompaniment which subtly morphs into the fugal theme when the ripieno returns.
The greatest in scope is the only symphony in a minor key, and the only one which was written as an independent piece - No. 8 the "Worcester Overture". It begins with a marvellously imposing slow section, which unfolds passing its motifs between the two violin, two solo oboe and basso parts, and lasts almost as long as the double fugue which follows.
Mention should also be made of some of the other movements, particularly the exeptional lyrical quality of the slow movements. The traverso solo in No.1 has a sublimely mellow and haunting tone, the violins soar effortlesly in No. 6, and the woody, slightly melancholy texture of solo bassoon and violins in No. 3 is one Boyce was particularly fond of. The final movements are often of equal merit, the robust jigs in No.s 1 and 7, and the fine minuet in No. 5 are of note.
The English concert make a fine job playing on period instruments. The slight intonation issues in the string parts do reveal the age of the recording, period performance has progressed almost immeasurably in the last 30 years. However this reviewer feels this lends an almost rustic-quality to the music. Certainly it is likely to be closer to the actual sound at the time, than a more finely polished performance - especially as Boyce published this largely for the benefic of amateur societies. Largely the tempi and articulation are good, but occassionally seem a little on the slow side, possibly giving occasional movements a slightly stuffier air than is needed. However this is a minor complaint and Boyce's skill and ingenuity shine through this performance, sounding even newer and fresher on the instruments it was written for than on many of the modern-instrument recordings
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