Reviewed by Steven Whitehead

Here is a discussion starter: what links Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and Antonio Vivaldi (1680-1741)? Other than all being dead European males who composed music in what is generally called the classical tradition I am stuck for an answer. Three of the four wrote for the piano but that is not much help. The blurb on the box tells us that there are four CDs "packed with over three hours of music from the Great Classical, Romantic and Baroque Composers spanning over three centuries" which is not much help either and, as a quibble, four CDs cannot be said to be "packed" when each of them runs to just over 50 minutes. Could we not find another 20-minutes worth of music for each of them? As you can see, I am struggling to see where this collection is pitched. I am very fond of Mozart so have everything on his disc in my collection already; I can see why people admire Beethoven but do not particularly enjoy him myself so I can take or leave his disc and do I really need another copy of the "Moonlight Sonata"? The biggest weakness of this collection is that it is entirely instrumental. Fair enough, it says so on the cover, but a Mozart collection without any vocal music is like Morecambe without Wise or Jeeves without Wooster; good but not great. Likewise Vivaldi. True, he is always going to be remembered for "The Four Seasons" and we do get a quarter of an hour or so spread across six extracts which would, I hope, encourage you to go and hear the whole piece, but without any of his sacred vocal music this is just as incomplete as the Mozart disc. I wish I could tell you something about the performers on the four discs but there is next to no information on the CD booklets (title sheet would be a more accurate description) and I could not find anything on the Classic Fox Records website either. I am happy to say that everything sounds pretty good and I suspect the recordings have been licensed from some old releases on other labels. If this set is priced at a super budget level (and, again, I tried to find out but could not get any information) it is a pleasant enough, albeit severely limited, selection. However if you want to add to your collection of Christian music this is a waste of time. If a companion box set of vocal extracts exists it may be of much greater interest.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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