Alongside AD1620 BASIL RAMSEY listens to the music of Edward MacDowell Naxos    8.559075

Spending much time for musical training in Europe, Edward MacDowell was as American as his music illustrates, more so in the programmatic pieces than in symphonies and concertos. Arguably, the former have more bite and character than the latter. Therefore this CD provides much lighthearted music and less of the dramatic variety [listen -- track 5, 0:00-0:52]. The slower pieces, too, have qualities that bear repetition [listen -- track 7, 2:34-3:32] without losing sight of the overall purpose of pleasure in diversity.

Apart from the two suites opus 42 and 48, appears his earlier tone poem Hamlet and Ophelia opus 22. It mostly skims the surface of any dramatic tension, preferring to manipulate colours and moods, leaving the listener a cameo relief that represents general impressions.

The Irish orchestra provides the sympathetic qualities that puts warmth and life into the music, and leaves a good impression of MacDowell's best compositional features.

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Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Wednesday series of shorter CD reviews