Messages

Actually the Wood Nymph contains plenty of music that is also proleptic of Sibelius' later works - especially the opening which looks forward to the 5th Symphony and, in its moments of sheer wildness, to Tapiola. What an amazingly original composer he was - virtually from the word go.

Having scanned today's release of details, I find that there are some concerts of interest in the upcoming season:

22nd July: Schoenberg 'Pelleas und Melisande' & Zemlinsky 'Die Seejungfrau' (BBCNOW/Ryan Bancroft)

5th August: Busoni Piano Concerto (Ben Grosvenor/LPO/Gardner)

12th August: Farrenc Overture No.17 (BBCNOW/Nil Venditti)

27th August: Suk 'Asrael' Symphony (Czech Philharmonic/Hrusa)

13th September: Farrenc Symphony No.3 (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Manacorda)

Works featured:

Clarinet Quintet in B flat, Op.119
Clarinet Sonata in A, Op.57
Kleines leichtes (= Small/Short Simple) Trio Op.134
Piano Quartet No.1 in E minor, Op.11
Sonata in D, Op.37 for Clarinet, Viola, Horn & Piano
Trio Op.103 for Clarinet, Horn & Klavier

Coming between Kullervo and Symphony No.1, this is an entirely typical and characteristic tone poem of which I was previously unaware. I gather it was only rediscovered in the 1980s and given its first performance by Osmo Vänskä in 1996. I am blown away...

...a 2-CD collection from cpo:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/johanna-senfter-klarinettentrio/hnum/11170347

Thanks. Can't wait!

Is there any news about a possible release date for this important project?

Yes, that's terrific, isn't it? But the whole work holds one's attention, I find.

I'm sorry to report the passing yesterday (20th April) of Andrew Davis who went to my school in Watford, although he was ten years older than me so I never met him. He was one of a number of distinguished musicians that the school produced, including Adrian Leaper (French horn and conductor) and Michael (Mick) Thompson (also a French horn player). My violin teacher was a Pole named Stefan Fragner who had been a prisoner-of-war in WW2 and was a very fine player. It was quite an era for music - although I never figured as a musician myself!

Well, my copy arrived today - and now that I'm finally able to listen to it in its entirety it's hard not to wonder what might 'top' this as the unsung discovery of the year. OK, there's Raff's Samson still to come, but this Requiem is an utterly amazing achievement for a work composed by an unknown composer in 1798. I hope it sells like hot cakes and gets the reviews it deserves.

Only two of the 'Study Symphonies' have been recorded and Nos.2 and 3 are presumed lost. I haven't listened to the completions of (the much later) Nos.4 and 5 for ages - I'll have to dig them out. Certainly it'd be good to have the two surviving early symphonies in new recordings, though they are very early and uncharacteristic - No.1 in D minor is from 1895, (No.2 in F major from 1895, No.3 in F major from 1896) and No.4 in E flat from 1898, i.e. all were written by the time Enescu was seventeen.

The same applies to Dohnanyi, of course. And Tippett. And Sibelius. And Arnell. Perhaps.

This 3-CD set is now out - and should do much to bring Enescu's vibrant (and somewhat left-field) symphonies to the public's attention. At around £20 for the set it's something of a bargain. Perhaps the conductor, Cristian Măcelaru, will be introducing us to further unusual repertoire in future recordings.

[Sinfonie (vgl. AMz 1863, S.128)]

Too bad. Perhaps that score is in another cupboard someplace else, or not...

Quite. The works list at IMSLP simply reads Sinfonie (vgl. AMz 1863, S.128), which is a reference in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitschrift (= General Music Magazine) of 1863, p.128. One wonders where the score might be...

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!

No, it's good to talk...

(I've been collecting Alfano too!)