Disc Details

Contents

Work Title	Composer
Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, op.11	Joseph Horovitz
Euphonium Concerto	Joseph Horovitz	Listen
Jazz Concerto	Joseph Horovitz

Reviews

• You can hear why [the Euphonium Concerto of 1972] is so popular: it comes over immediately as tuneful, bouncy, extrovert and humorous, not without some touching pathos in the middle movement. It offers the soloist a fearsome challenge musically and technically, one which, if conquered, cannot fail to arouse enthusiasm...I was also very taken with the Violin Concerto of 1949-50, which manages the difficult feat of sustaining interest even when the string soloist is backed by an accompanying ensemble of the same texture. Once again the form is Horovitz's preferred fast-slow-fast, but within that structure he is never predictable or boring. Here, the first movement is comparatively leisurely, in a pleasing neo-Classical vein, but firmly held togetherby a three-note head-motif, while the second movement is an extended lyrical flight of fancy and the finale a catchy rondo...As to the final three tracks, you may need to grip the sides of your armchair a shade tighter than usual- though anyone familiar with Horovitz's whackier side will not need this warning...I am not sure that jazz aficionados these days would necessarily think Horovitz's 1965 idea of jazz was state-of-the-art for the time, let alone today: its cascades of notes and slightly brittle quality, emphasized by the presence of drum-kit and close-up feel to the recording, inevitably make you think of the 1920s or 1930s, but no matter. The slow blues of the middle movement has a nicely smokey, inevitably Ellingtonian feel, while in the outer movements David Owen Norris is sensationally nimble-fingered...
  Piers Burton-Page, International Record Review, 01 December 2007
• The Clarinet Concerto is lyrical, lucid and makes free with the accustomed woodnotes amid the capering maenads and satyrs.
  
  The Euphonium Concerto is grippingly determined yet exploits the considerable singing heart of the instrument. There’s no buffoonery here especially not in the Lento whose long-spun melody has the lineaments of a modest yet sweetly intoned carol. The finale has something of the quality of Frankel’s Carriage and Pair, carefree and slightly showy yet not undignified in the manner of a slightly whimsical 1950s British film score.
  
  The Jazz Concerto exists in versions for piano and for harpsichord. The title prepares you for the most overtly jazzy of the four concertos here. The keyboard, bass and drums rhythm trio are active prominently in the two outer movements which have the mien of the Jacques Loussier Bach of the 1950s and 1960s. The central movement is harmonically wayward Slow Blues with something of the sultriness of Gershwin’s Summertime and the commercialism of Moon River. Sultry, yes, but this also a cooling episode.
  Rob Barnett, Music Web International, 01 August 2007