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#1
Composers & Music / Re: Asger Hamerik and Marie Ja...
Last post by Ilja - Today at 12:54
Allow me to revive this ancient thread. I have found another piece that employs the same five-note motif (CCCD#C) at the start, Hendrik Waelput's Pacification of Ghent cantata of 1876:


So now there are three pieces that contain this fragment, all from the French-Belgian tradition and written in 1876 (Waelput), 1884 (Jaëll) and 1891 (Hamerik). It's awfully close to the opening of Mozart's Requiem, but slightly different. I'd be grateful if anyone would be able determine where this comes from?
#2
I'll bet they've never tried to live with the music they're denigrating and appreciate it for what it is. Czerny may not be Beethoven, but there are other pleasures to be had, his evident joy in music-making being one of them. The same applies to Raff in comparison with, say, Brahms, but I know who I'd take to my desert island if I wanted to remain sane...

So: to all those know-it-all, high-and-mighty critics: MUST TRY HARDER!




#3
I have returned to this disc many times. The Czerny is delightful from first note to last, reminding me of the youthful Beethoven in one of his happier moods.

I also love the performers' rendition of the Bruch Concerto. They give it an heroic nobility which almost moved me to tears. I wondered if others who have encountered this concerto felt the same.  Surveying reviews of recordings and concert performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony I found the critics at the Gramophone and other publications had this to say about it:

ungracious, truculent, overbearing, hasn't aged well, can wait another century to be repeated, charmless, unfortunate creation, overwrought melodrama, bizarre conflagration, vacuous note-spinning

I guess they don't share my enthusiasm. 
#4
Naxos is easily by FAR the label I own the most discs of. They've been a true god send for both unsung composers.

Also I don't think anyone's mention the other Alfano recording they just released?

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574533
#5
No, it's good to talk...

(I've been collecting Alfano too!)
#6
Quote from: Alan Howe on Yesterday at 17:53It's also the price you pay to get repertoire like Alfano. It's not as if they're putting out Beethoven symphonies with the Back of Beyond Philharmonic...

Indeed, and I'm not complaining, mind you.  Just taking note of facts.

The breadth of their catalog is inspiring and I've been introduced to so many, for me, formerly unknown composers on whose music I've taken a chance and have become a fan.  More power to Naxos - at any price!

Anyway - sorry to change the subject. 
#7
It's also the price you pay to get repertoire like Alfano. It's not as if they're putting out Beethoven symphonies with the Back of Beyond Philharmonic...
#8
Naxos' rise from bargain basement to the penthouse has outpaced inflation.  So it goes.

But you're right - or, perhaps, "somebody" is right.  When I scan my CD shelves, I see tons of Naxos spines looking back at me.  Tomorrow, the world...
#9
Naxos releases certainly aren't bargain basement any more - I suppose that's inflation for you. While all price hikes are to be regretted, nevertheless I don't really regard Naxos as a budget label any longer - more like just below standard price. And when you consider (for example) that their latest release of Meyerbeer's L'Africana features world-renowned tenor Michael Spyres, they're not putting out bargain-quality material any more. Somebody once opined that Naxos would conquer the world one day. Perhaps that day has come...

#10
There are also the 3 Concert Fantasies Op. 63 for piano & orchestra, mss. of which are in the Szechenyi Library.
I'm not sure that the E major PC without opus number is complete. Szechenyi never replied to my enquiry about that  which, admittedly, I sent during the COVID outbreak.