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That's good. Thanks Alan

My copy is on order but not arrived yet. Does it have the libretto with it (preferably with translation!)?

It having been on a wants list for a few years, I finally bought the MDG CD of Hans Weisse chamber works - his Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Sonata, both from the 1920s. I don't recall seeing anything about him here and he really is properly Unsung: there doesn't seem to be a lot known about his compositional output, but he is well known as a student of Schenker and a leading exponent of Schenkerian analysis which he introduced into America from 1930 onwards. He was born into Jewish family in Vienna in 1892. What I can say is the Quintet, in particular, is a lovely work in a late Brahmsian mould, at 43 minutes long, a major composition. I recommend.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hans-Weisse-Clarinet-Quintet-Sonata/dp/B07FSWS47B

Yes, Moser another pupil of Reger. Seem to be lots of them coming out of the woodwork recently!

Thanks very much for the uploads of the Piano Concerto and the upgraded Symphony No 4.

Here's a little more info I've got from Senfter's listings on the Schott site. For the Symphony, the conductor's surname is Mága (ie not with an umlaut), and it gives the work's performance history:

Johanna Senfter
4th Symphony Bb major
Conductor: Othmar Mága
Orchestra: Jenaer Philharmonie
October 14, 2011 | Jena (Germany) , Volkshaus

Conductor: Johannes Goritzki
Orchestra: Bamberger Symphoniker
November 19, 2000 | Fürth (Germany) , Stadttheater

Conductor: Johannes Goritzki
Orchestra: Bamberger Symphoniker
November 18, 2000 | Fürth (Germany) , Stadttheater — World Premiere

For the concerto, there's the following:

Conductor: Jonathan Bloxham
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
November 17, 2021 | Cardiff (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , BBC Hoddinott Hall

This is good news. It's the 1979 recording that has done the unofficial rounds for years, so it will be nice to have a cleaned up copy. It may be a flawed work, but it's got some of Schmidt's loveliest music in it.

I have only just caught up with this news and am deeply depressed by it. As someone who really started to appreciate classical music in the early 1980s, Hyperion – then really finding their own feet – introduced me to so much. Their catalogue contains some of my most-cherished recordings, from early music, Renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic through to more contemporary music.

They boldly set out, of course, on the big RPC and RVC series that have been mentioned. It's difficult to overstress how groundbreaking these were, incredibly brave explorations of repertoire no one else would have touched at the time, let alone put so much love into.

But there was so much more - the Schubert Edition, scores of discs of early English music most notably the incomparable Purcell series of choral works, outstanding series of recordings of Monteverdi and Vivaldi sacred works from Robert King, loads of 19th/early 20th C British music, wonderful Dvorak and Brahms, the Solomon Quartet's Mozart quartets ... the list just goes on and on. They showed that you didn't need the big beasts of the international concert stage to make interesting, vital music, and instead they put their faith in largely lesser-known soloists and bands that were able to develop their own, hugely appreciative audiences.

As has been said, the production values and presentation were always immaculate, but the learned and beautifully understated booklets were often an education in themselves. During 10 years as a CD reviewer, I always found the folk at Hyperion to be incredibly helpful and supportive and approachable, and always, always enthusiastic about the music in a way that I rarely encountered elsewhere. They were a real family concern – and, being British, a homegrown one, too. It's very sad to think of that coming to an end and the legacy being swallowed up by Universal.

I'll go and lie down now ...

It would seem that Wikipedia might be the culprit here (an ever-useful reminder to take its entries with a pinch of salt):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_M%C3%BCller-Hermann

I don't think that this has been flagged up yet, but Johanna Müller-Hermann is to be Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3 beginning on Monday 6 March. Her teachers included Labor, Zemlinsky and Foerster and she went on to a distinguished teaching career of her own at the Neues Wiener Konservatorium. Full details of the five programmes (including much music that I've not yet heard) can be found here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jlgh

As an aside, I see from the excellent notes to Toccata's third helping of orchestral works by Moszkowski that Wüesrt taught him composition at Julius Stern's Conservatoire in 1869. Did a good job, too, if the delightful Suite No 1 is anything to go by (the disc also includes a very competent student work, the Overture from 1871-2).

Yes, I also heard Romeo and Juliet on R3 the other day and just couldn't place it at all! At first, I wasn't really listening, but then what an arresting piece – and reading comments here has prompted me to get the Järvi Sym No 2/Preludes disc.

Intriguing. Was just looking up this in Antony Beaumont's Zemlinsky book (publ 2000) and he says of Z's work on this in 1902, "neither libretto nor sketches have survived". Something must have turned up in the interim, then! Does anyone know anything more?

Trust Offenbach!

I can't think of any other work to have appeared on this site to feature the appearance of the humble duck call - or so joyously!

As I thought it might be, this opera is highly recommendable.

Thanks so much for that: I really appreciate the effort that people go to here to make sure we all get to hear all these unsung treats.