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#91

Composers & Music / Re: Jakab Gyula Major Concert ...

Last post by Gareth Vaughan - Monday 08 April 2024, 17:21

If you can get through it, the realisation shows what a fine and beautiful work this could be and, IMHO (one I have long held), deserving of a good professional recording with a real orchestra and soloist. We must be grateful for Mr Hoffman's efforts in producing this realisation, but the primitive sound fonts make it, as Alan says, a rather "trying" listen.

#92

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Franz Schmidt Fredigundis

Last post by Alan Howe - Saturday 06 April 2024, 21:51

I'm glad to report that the singers of 1979 are no barrier to enjoyment of this remarkable work. In fact, I'd wager that no comparable cast could be readily assembled today. This is a must-buy for all lovers of late-romantic opera. Its idiom is much more to my taste than, for example Schreker, with rather more grateful material for the singers.

[John FOULDS]

#93

Recordings & Broadcasts / British Tone Poems, vol.2

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 05 April 2024, 18:51

An absolutely spellbinding collection from Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos (which I had missed):
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8658344--british-tone-poems-volume-2

Review here:http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2019/Oct/British_tone_v2_CHAN10981.htm

Contents:
John FOULDS (1880-1939)
April-England, Op.48 No.1 (1926, orchestrated 1932) [8:15]
Eric FOGG (1903-1939)
Merok (1929) [8:40]
Eugene GOOSSENS (1893-1962)
By the Tarn, Op.15 No.1 (1916) [4:48]
Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958)
Harnham Down (ed. James Francis Brown) (1904-07) [8:35]
Dorothy HOWELL (1898-1982)
Lamia (1918) [14:27]
Frederic Hymen COWEN (1852-1935)
Rêverie (1903) [6:22]
Patrick HADLEY (1899-1973)
Kinder Scout (1923) [6:51]
Arthur BLISS (1891-1975)
Mêlée fantasque (1921, revised 1937) [11:16]

#94

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Ferdinand Ries symphonies ...

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 05 April 2024, 17:11

I agree. However, in the two examples I provided it's clear that the orchestra in the first example cannot articulate clearly the opening of the second movement. At a slightly less frenetic tempo it works much better.

#95

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Ferdinand Ries symphonies ...

Last post by Ilja - Friday 05 April 2024, 16:59

Perhaps it's somewhat of an over-compensation of the "great slowing down" of the twentieth century. Still, although I like a first recording of a piece to keep within conventional limits I have no problems with subsequent ones being more experimental.

#96

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Ferdinand Ries symphonies ...

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 05 April 2024, 16:35

There is a tendency in some recent recordings to adopt tempi which are so fast that articulation suffers. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should...

Example: can the orchestra here really articulate clearly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0amzWr0J0
...or is this rather better?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw6slNXSzNg
I know which I prefer.

#97

Composers & Music / Re: 2024 Unsung Concerts

Last post by scarpia - Friday 05 April 2024, 14:52

Raff's Autumn Symphony (the 10th) will be performed on a program that also features Louise Farrenc's 3rd Symphony, August 17th at Bard College.
https://fishercenter.bard.edu/events/bmf24-p9/

Part of this year's Bard Music Festival devoted to Berlioz, August 9th - August 18th
https://fishercenter.bard.edu/whats-on/programs/bard-music-festival/

Nice! this weekend 4/6 and 4/7 at Bard the Conservatory Orchestra will play Egon Wellesz's early work The Dawn of Spring.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is touring Canada with the Price Symphony #4 April 17-19. And then in Ann Arbor on 4-20.

#98

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Ferdinand Ries symphonies ...

Last post by Ilja - Friday 05 April 2024, 14:46

I like those too, but I'm glad there are others, which seemingly show a somewhat different approach.

#99

Composers & Music / Re: "In Wagner's Shadow" – Int...

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 05 April 2024, 11:30

It would be great to be able to access this article on Cornelius:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/959852

This study also looks interesting:
https://ia800906.us.archive.org/5/items/operasofpetercor00lawt/operasofpetercor00lawt.pdf

#100

Composers & Music / "In Wagner's Shadow" – Interna...

Last post by Wheesht - Friday 05 April 2024, 09:24

As part of the Peter Cornelius festival in Mainz, Germany, to celebrate the bicentenary of the composer's birth (and 150 years since his death), there will be an exhibition about him, and also an international conference about opera in Germany in the mid 19th century. Details here. To round off the conference, there will be a performance of Cornelius's opera "Gunlöd" on 25 May.