Search - Ethel Smyth :: Ethel Smyth: String Quartet; String Quintet

Classicist with stream-of-consciousness

minnow | Oakland CA | 12/22/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ethel Smyth was a contemporary of writer Virginia Woolf, although somewhat older, and famous in her day as a composer. She was a strong, gregarious personality and also traveled to conduct orchestras performing her works. She earned recognition in her day, which has since faded. This CD, a modern high-quality recording, is well worth checking out. Her writing is sensitive but at the same time exhibits a good vein of humor and a conversational style, in the quick, sprightly manner of Vivaldi. She can also score some good dense passages. Some pieces are very thoughtful and melancholy, evoking Grieg at his deepest and most profound. She can spring from lyric passages to sprightlier moods, and so one can hear how the stream-of-consciousness movement of her day (as was bought to the public in letters by Woolf and others) may have influenced her. An interesting CD that shows some impressive work by this artist."