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Please forgive me if this has been addressed already. Today at the Colorado MahlerFest I was talking to an editor from Breitkopf music publishers who was introducing and explaining the work behind their new edition of the Mahler 3rd. It came to light that they are also preparing new scores and parts for Raff symphonies 3 and 5! That's great news to me. Maybe people will take it seriously and we'll see some performances and even new recordings. They're also issuing new edition of some of the chamber music. With a company like Breitkopf behind it wouldn't it be awesome to see Im Walde or Lenore taken up by say the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, the London Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic? I can always dream.

[Le Bal]

During this pandemic, like many people I've been staying home and listening to a great deal of music I haven't heard in some time. The Rubinstein collection among them. Then this week I received something new: Le Bal with pianist Warren Lee on Naxos. This is wonderful music. And really well played. Orchestral writing wasn't Rubinstein's strong point, but his piano music is just great. And this disk at nearly 88 minutes could be the longest yet - the Marantz played it without a hitch!

Here's something to brighten the day after Christmas. Be sure to listen from 1:30-1:35!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=15&v=LACCAF04wSs&feature=emb_logo

Happy New Year!

I see maestro Albert has passed at 84. Made some important contributions to the Unsung repertoire: Raff, Korngold and others. Rest in peace.

I've been enjoying the new Chandos recording of Ethel Smith's Mass this week. How did I go so long without knowing this music? The Wreckers overture is more familiar, and the BBC and Oramo play it marvelously. But what I am really puzzled by is the booklet.

The writer, Laura Turnbridge, writes that at age 19 she went to Leipzig to study. "Her classmates there included Edvard Grieg, Antonin Dvorak, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky." This just can't be right. Smith was born in 1858 so at 19 would have put her in Leipzig in 1877. Now Grieg was  born in 1843 and did go to Leipzig - at age 15, or in 1858. Almost twenty years earlier. Dvorak was born in 1841 and to the best of my knowledge completed all his music studies in Bohemia - at the Organ School. Tchaikovsky, born 1840, studied in Moscow - he conducted in Leipzig around 1877-78 but surely wasn't a student there. Am I missing something? Going bonkers? or is Miss Turnbridge getting bad information from somewhere?

I see maestro Stadlmair has died at the ripe old age of 89. RIP. Thanks for all the Raff!

Hello all. Sometimes I pick up a baton and conduct orchestras - most recently four performances of The Nutcracker for a ballet company. I've been asked to conduct an overture or something to open a concert in Scottsdale this coming September. I've already warned the manager that I will not be doing anything by Beethoven, Mozart, Dvorak, Brahms, etc. He knows my attraction to the obscure and forgotten composers. Some of the things I've considered:

Raff - overture to Die Parole
Klughardt - Concert Overture op 45

and most interestingly...

Draeseke Academic Festival Overture.

All three are online at IMSLP, although it will mean either reconstructing parts or a score. This is not a problem as my Finale skills are good.  I have recordings of the first two, but know nothing about the Draeseke, and given the enthusiasm for him on this site, this might be a good choice, especially since the orchestration matches exactly what the maximum forces for the concert will be. Does anyone know anything about this alternative Academic Festival Overture? Has anyone heard it? Is it worth pursuing? Or any other recommendations? The orchestration cannot exceed winds in pairs, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, 2 percussion, timpani and the usual strings. I'm looking forward to reviving more obscure music in the desert!

I'm one of those addicts who readily, and without much thought, buy new recordings of forgotten repertoire just knowing that "this time it's going to be a great, undiscovered gem". Last week's arrival was the Sterling disk of the Elfrida Andree symphony 2 and the Fritiof suite. Is this disk new? I hadn't heard of it until last week when Music Web reviewed it quite positively, referring to these "captivating scores". Well, ugh. I found nothing redeeming. The melodic in both works was dull, the orchestration dull. Neither outer movement of the symphony had anything to raise the temperature - just note spinning, going through all the motions, resulting in 30 minutes of boredom. Compare it to the nearly contemporary Brahms first, and it's easy to see why Andree was forgotten.  The recordings were made in 1995. The orchestra is pedestrian and so is the conducting. So I struck out...again. Anyone have a different response?

In the new issue of American Record Guide, reviewer Lawrence Hansen wrote a scathing review of the new Centaur recording of Rubinstein's first piano concerto and Don Quixote. Both performer and composer are roundly beaten up. But he ends the review with an eloquent statement that has given me a lot to think about.

"With another birthday a few days in the rearview mirror, my assessment here may be reflecting my age somewhat. As I become ever more aware that I have less and less time to experience the greatest works in the repertoire, I find myself less patient with the music that missed the cut of posterity. If you have more years ahead of you than I do, you may want to stroll down the Rubinstein by-way and explore it a bit."

Is that me? 30-40 years ago I snatched up recordings of off-beat repertoire every chance I got. Raff, Reinecke, and Rubinstein. Each new release on Marco Polo (and now CPO) was something to look forward to. But I have to admit, that with birthday number 60 in my rearview mirror, I have found myself listening lately to a lot of Beethoven, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Wagner and their like and a lot less of the obscure - those who didn't make the cut. I realized some time ago that there are still symphonies by Haydn and Mozart I have never heard. Lots of piano music by the masters that I haven't heard and likely never will. Same goes for operas, Verdi especially. Beatles, too, for that matter. I have to get off my duff and get those cds spinning!

Anyone else have similar thoughts to Mr. Hansen?

I received my weekly email from Presto and lo and behold, there's a new recording of Balakirev's wonderful "Tamara" from the LSO and Gergiev. I didn't think anyone was still interested in that atmospheric work and here it is in a new SACD recording with one of the greatest orchestras out there. The sample provided is great and as a dedicated Balakirevite, I'll have to order it. The only downside is the coupling: Rachmaninoff's 1st symphony. Wish it had been the Balakirev first...maybe later?

Here is some genuinely welcome news:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/announcement/1480/Unicorn-Records

Although Herrmann's recording of Raff's 5th isn't among the first re-releases, it can't be far behind. But at least the Mahler 1st and 3rd recordings will be available to a generation who may have missed them.

From Slippedisc:
Librarians at the University of Toronto have found a concerto that has been deemed lost for more than a century.

The Norwegian Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) composed it for the Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow (1890-1963), who gave its premiere on August 14, 1909 in Scheveningen, Holland. She gave two more performances that year in Oslo, after which the score disappeared.

Until now.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2016/01/a-lost-concerto-turns-up-in-canada/#sthash.7GPEimG1.dpuf

1927-2015. Not especially committed to rare, obscure music, but sure gave a nice set of Bruch symphonies. I always loved the bolo tie.

There's a new horror movie out just in time for Christmas, called Krampus. It's not very good. But it did cause me to look into the Krampus mythology a bit deeper and in the German speaking world Krampus a big deal - and what would seem to be an ideal subject for a composer. But there's nothing! Thinking of Franck's The Accursed Hunstman, the Dvorak Erben tone poems (Noonday Witch, etc), the symphonic poems of Liszt, Karlowicz, Ciurlionis, and many other lesser-knowns, I was surprised that no one, to my knowledge, has ever done it. Does anyone know of anything that has ever been composed on the theme of Krampus? Would sure be a nice antidote to all the sickeningly sweet Santa Claus/St. Nickolas stuff this time of year!

There's a search function on the Vienna Philharmonic's website that was news to me:
http://www.wienerphilharmoniker.at/converts/archive

You can search their entire concert listings from the beginning. Very interesting. Schmidt's 2nd has been a favorite, conducted by several giants. They even did Raff - the only symphony was the 3rd and the last time that happened was in 1924 with Weingartner. But they did do concertos for violin, cello, and the piano. I wonder what, if any, archive recordings exist. There are some really interesting concerts from the 1950's and 60's.

I switched to a new computer and tried to log in, but seems I forgot my password. When I requested to reset it, the link that was sent to me just took me to the login in page with no instructions about a password reset or anything. Still couldn't login in - tried it several times. So wound up making a new login ID with an alternate email acct. Did I miss something or is the system in error somehow?