Search - Franz Schubert, Michael Collins, Alish Tynan :: Schubert: Octet/ Shepherd of the Rock

Collins uses the Octet as a showcase

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The noted English clarinetist Michael Collins puts himself forwrd as first among equals in this vivid live account of the Schubert Octet. The work is tricky to bring off. Among those works by Schubert that are of "heavenly length," the octet can begin to flag at the halfway point. When palayed by top-flight musicians, as here, the many repetitions in the score continue to sound fresh, however. Thanks to close miking, the clarinet is in the listener's lap, but there's lots of detail from the other participants. I miss the intensity of the version on DG led by Gidon Kremer (also, it makes more sense for the leaer of the group to be the violin), but Collins' appraoch is gentle, refined, and quietly absorbing.



The filler should have been good, since Schubert's great last song, The Shepherd on the Rocks, calls for sublime clarinet plaing. Unfortunatley, the sosprano, Ailish Tynan, is overtaxed by the music and lacks the technical security to master the colorature passages at the end."

Amazing

Beatrice Kelleher | 04/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am astonished at this negative review of Ailish Tynan's singing. I bought the CD as the result of a BBC radio show that named this performance of 'Shepherd on the Rock' as one of the recordings of the year, and I was not disappointed. I think she is one of the finest modern interpreters of this much loved piece and if the first reviewer's level of knowledge of coloratura singing matches the inaccurate spelling of it, I am not surprised that they failed to recognise her impressive articulation."