Search - Victor Herbert, Keith Brion, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Bratisla :: Victor Herbert: Columbus Suite/ Irish Rhapsody/ Auditorium Festival March

A big surprise from the master of the operetta

F. Behrens | Keene, NH USA | 05/17/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The wonderful Naxos American Classics series is full of surprises. After firmly associating Victor Herbert with memorable melodies based on banal lyrics, we now get (8.559027) played by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) under Keith Brion. The opening "Auditorium Festival March" is pure Sousa out of Germany where Herbert learned his craft, while the "Irish Rhapsody" recalls the more familiar tunes from his land of birth. The third cut gives us a quarter hour of selections from his opera "Natoma," and very impressive they are. But the real surprise comes on cuts 4-7 where we hear, probably for the first time, his "Columbus Suite" in four movements: Dawn and Sunrise at Alhambra, At La Rabida, Murmurs of the Sea, and Triumph--the Vision of Columbus. Have some fun and play this at a party, letting people guess at the composer. (I would have said maybe Respighi.) This CD is a real treat and therefore a definite Grabbit."

The Irish Massenet discovers America!

Benoit Racine | Toronto, Ontario Canada | 03/16/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection of mostly pre-operetta Herbert is full of surprises. He is truly the "Irish Massenet" for the inventiveness and magnificence of his orchestral palette. The "Irish Wagner" comparison with which he was saddled after his "Irish Rhapsody" has always been idiotic. His "March", his "Rhapsody" and the instrumental excerpts from his opera "Natoma" are all breathtaking but I must reserve the bulk of my praise for the 30-minute "Columbus Suite", which was conceived for a project that never came to fruition, a "spectatorio" intended to accompany a kind of diorama of Columbus' travels that would have been performed at the 1893 Chicago World Fair (the "Columbus Exposition") as sort of predecessor to the last century's widescreen movies. The music describes a moving arc of longing climaxing in the inevitable "Triumph". But the 8-minute 3rd movement, "Murmurs of the Sea", is the real surprise: it describes a very calm sea in suspended anticipation and with a kind of mystical minimalism (a full three quarters of a century before Philip Glass), but with such life and colour that it of course makes Mr. Glass' compositions appear for what they are: the boring, lazy, inept Muzak intended for the waiting rooms of some yet unopened circle of Hell. Historical note: "Murmurs of the Sea" was premiered a full two years (1903) before Debussy's "La Mer" (1905). Infer from that what you will... This album is worth buying at any price."