Search - August Enna, Roman Zeilinger, Danish Radio Sinfonietta :: August Enna: The Little Match Girl

Modestly appealing but not stunning music, well played

G.D. | Norway | 09/09/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"August Enna (1859-1939) enjoyed some popularity in his day, but his works - especially stage works - are pretty much forgotten today. Enter CPO to show us what we have been missing. The verdict is: not very much, really. That is not to say that the two works here lack merit, but they are far from forgotten masterpieces, and even thought this disc is almost guaranteed to provide enjoyment and pleasure, if you decide to pass it by, your life won't exactly be severely impoverished.



Both works are based on HC Andersen. The 35-minute opera The Little Match Girl (1897) was probably his single most successful work, and despite its modesty it involves some touching features and nice, unchallenging tunes and harmonic developments; quite effective, if a little sentimental. It receives a good performance here, both with respect to singing and orchestral playing. The Shepherdess and the Chimney-Sweep is a ballet with narration, and the music exemplifies the same virtues as the opera - lyrical, romantic, singable and easy on the ear with some inventive use of orchestral textures, but modest in scope and not particularly memorable. Performances are again rather good, though, albeit a tad uninvolded, and overall CPO provides good sound quality. So, a modestly enjoyable release of modest music - well worth hearing but not really anything to go out of your way to experience."