Search - Ignace Joseph Pleyel, Howard Griffiths, Zurich Chamber Orchestra :: Ignaz Pleyel: Symphonies

Pleyel: a newly discovered gem

J. Wiesenmeyer | Howell County Missouri | 02/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ignaz Pleyel? Who is that? Such was my reaction. I heard a brief clip of Pleyel, from this album, on the radio, managed to be lucky and have the tape rolling. Playing it back, I thought this is really good stuff. Took a chance and bought the CD. No regrets. I'm rather fussy and hard to please when it comes to music albums, but I must say that there is not a single track from this disk I've deleted from my playlist. Pleyel was a pupil of Haydn, so don't be too surprised if you find some similarities. This is definitely not what I like to call "sing-song" music; tracks that don't seem to go anywhere. Each track has a personality, and shows a lot of creative spark. The Zurich Chamber Orchestra that performs here does a nice job. I'm very satisfied with this purchase, and saved some money as well, compared with what one would have to spend at a local store. My suggestion: give this Ignaz Pleyel a listen. Any lover of classical music will be surprised, especially if you are not familiar with this fine composer."

One word- Mozart

S. Hansen | Palo Alto,CA | 02/09/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"While I have enjoyed exploring CPO's catalogue, this album suprised me when compared to the samples I heard elsewhere. No matter how much I've listened to the CD, the only thing that comes into my head to describe it is, again, Mozart. Not bad Mozart, pretty good Mozart actually, but, Mozart nonetheless. It's not that Pleyel has lifted passages from him, it's just that the tone and style is just so overwhelmingly like Mozart's as to to be, by my ears anyway, virtually indistinguishable. The effect is by no means unpleasant and I'll certainly continue to play it from time to time, but it is very derivative."