A good recent example is the Evil Penguin issue of three Weinberg works - Cello Concertino, Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, and Chamber Symphony No 4 - none of which I know at all. From Michael Cookson's, otherwise excellent, review I get no sense of the relative 'sizes' of the three pieces, although there is a mention of the 'ten-minute Adagio' in the Chamber Symphony.
However, at the bottom, there is a link to Nestor Castiglione's earlier, and also excellent, review, which was published under your 'old regime'. A quick glance at the heading of that review immediately tells me that the two cello works are around 17 minutes each, while the Chamber Symphony, at 34 minutes, is twice as long as either of them.
I think that is useful information to have as background to reading the reviews. I am sorry that Michael Cookson's review has been 'weakened' by its absence.
I find your new practice unhelpful. For instance, on today's list are Saint-Saëns and VW discs containing several works of varying length. Should I have to search elsewhere to find out whether Africa or Norfolk Rhapsody are 5 minutes long, or 20? Both are fairly unknown to me, and you overestimate my knowledge if you think that is unnecessary information! Of course that does not necessitate listing every two-minute song's duration down to the exact second. But for opera excerpts it may be the quickest metod to indicate if we get just an aria or an entire scene.
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