Recent posts

#1

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Recording of Raff's Samson

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 20:39

Thanks. Can't wait!

#2

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Recording of Raff's Samson

Last post by Mark Thomas - Yesterday at 19:47

I'm sure that Fred can be more specific but the last I heard it was scheduled for late April or during May. So, within the next few weeks unless it's been delayed.

#3

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Recording of Raff's Samson

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 18:27

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

#4

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 12:33

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

#5

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem

Last post by Christopher - Yesterday at 11:06

What's your favourite section Alan? Mine is unquestionably the Confutatis.  Just so dramatic.  I might have had it on repeat...repeatedly..!

#6

Composers & Music / Sir Andrew Davis dies 20th Apr...

Last post by Alan Howe - Sunday 21 April 2024, 19:45

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!

#7

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem

Last post by Alan Howe - Saturday 20 April 2024, 21:52

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.

#8

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Franco Alfano string quart...

Last post by tuatara442442 - Friday 19 April 2024, 23:40

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

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574533

I did, so the topic resurfaced!

#9

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Enescu Symphonies 1-3/etc.

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 19 April 2024, 20:29

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.

#10

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Enescu Symphonies 1-3/etc.

Last post by Ilja - Friday 19 April 2024, 19:47

Thanks, this sounds like a really interesting set; not least because they show a very clear musical evolution. However, that might even be more illustrated if everyone didn't keep forgetting about the other symphonies. After all, Enescu wrote nine of the things. 

Now, I sort of understand the reluctance about Bentoiu's completions of the E minor (1934) and D major (1941). But the neglect of the "Study symphonies" is more difficult to fathom. The fact that they were written when in he was his teens doesn't mean they've stopped being symphonies all of a sudden; the "study symphony" ephitet to justify ignoring them is even possibly even more moronic than talking about numbers "00" and "0" (Bruckner) or just assigning random symphony numbers to orchestral things even if they're not symphonies (Mendelssohn).