I am off on vacation!  However, the reviews for August are now complete on
Classical Music on the Web www.musicweb.uk.net although there will be no
more daily postings for a while.  Our topical live concert reviews will
continue to be posted in my absence.  These will not be found in Seen&Heard
but on the Performance site http://www.performancetv.co.uk/ ; select
classical and scroll down to Notes on Notes.

On the site for August you can see preview details of the next batch of
EMI's Great Recordings of the Century.  I have made sales links to Crotchet
but these are not active yet as the discs are not due for release until
September.

Tony Duggan has been considering the Mahler Song cycles. He will complete
his survey next month by investigating the boxed sets of Mahler symphonies.

I have selected a number of RECORDS OF THE MONTH

    CHAUSSON      Piano Quartet in     A, Op.30. SAINT-SAENS     Piano
Quartet in B flat Op 41.      Touchwood Piano     Quartet. ASV CD QS 6241
(DDD) [67.05] [DW]

    HARTMANN     Symphonies 1 - 8.      Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
I Ingio Metzmacher.  EMI     Classics. CDS5569112 . 3 CD set [DW]

    Magnus LINDBERG     Aura, Engine*               BBC Symphony
Orchestra, London  Sinfonietta*/Oliver Knussen               DG 463 184-2
 [51'22"][CA] [PW]     [LM]

    MAHLER     Symphony No.7 in E minor      Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Saarbrucken     Conducted by Hans Zender  CPO     999 478-2 [78.40] [TD]

    PROSPICE     Songs with quartet.     Piano. H Walford     Davies:
Prospice;     George Butterworth: Love Blows as the     Wind Blows; Arthur
Somervell: A Broken     Arc; Geoffrey Bush: Farewell, Earth's     Bliss;
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical     Songs.       Martin     Oxenham
(baritone); Bingham String Quartet; Katharine Durran (piano).      Meridian.
Duo DUOCD 89026     75' 12" [LF]

     DVD Review:       Strauss     Elektra           Eva Marton, Brigitte
Fassbaender, Cheryl Studer, Franz Grundheber &     James King Chorus &
Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, Claudio Abbado               Arthaus
Musik, 100048 109 minutes  [MB]

I would also draw your attention to the reviews of Berners music complete
with Lewis Foreman's  review of Marc Amory's book "Lord Berners: The Last
Eccentric".  Marc Bridle has also weighed in both senses that great tome:
Gustav Mahler:  Vienna - Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907) from the
series by by Henry-Louis de La Grange

You will find many more superb releases in the August reviews.

Due to pressure of work (we have just opened a Jazz review site) this is the
last month the thumbnail pages will appear. However, the site welcomes a new
technical assistant in Rosemary Powell who is helping sort out the backlog
of material and who will assist me in putting the site together.  She has
just completed the updating of the Film Composer Index of reviews on Film
Music on the Web which had slipped behind by a few months.

You might like to revisit the Arnold Bax site in the composers section where
Richard Adams has been hard at work on an update.

So I hope I am browner the next time I write.  For those not in the UK you
might like to know that Summer has never arrived here.  Most days are
either grey or raining - perfect for listening to records.

Regards

Len Mullenger
Webmaster for Music on the Web (UK)
www.musicweb.uk.net