Search - Rudolph, Weber, Consortium Classicum :: Septet in E / Septet "From My Life"

2 delightful additions to the wind/string chamber repertoire

08/13/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First, let's take care of some business. The e minor Septett on this cd is purported to be composed by Archduke Rudolph of Austria. This, however, is not the case for a number of reasons, the most compelling of which is the fact that Rudolph died in 1831 while the manuscript of the Septett is dated 1850. The work must still be considered "Anonymous".Authourship aside, the music is a delight. It is a 5-movement work whose structure shows obvious influences from Beethoven's prototypical Septet, op.20. It is string dominated, the wind instruments displaying little in the way of pyrotechnics, but the balance between winds and strings is exceptionally good.The Septett by Joseph Miroslav Weber is a later programmatic piece. Each movement is evocative of scenes from the composer's life. At times it sounds as though Dvorak had written a second wind Serenade. The instrumentation (clarinet, 2 horns, bassoon, violin, viola, cello) is a one-off but it works. One wonders what else this composer has written. Predictably, the Consortium Classicum gives exquisite performances of both works."