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Topics - Alan Howe

#1
...recently released by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project - which I noted from this appreciative review:

<<Jones' Violin Concerto was originally intended for Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg but she sustained an injury to her arm in the lead-up to its premiere in 2016; Jones was fortunate indeed that Anne Akiko Meyers was available and managed to learn the new work in just six weeks. As for the present disc Michael Ludwig makes an accomplished soloist. The initial theme is reminiscent of that which opens Korngold's wonderful concerto; it's supported by forceful yet austere accompaniment. This Andante con moto movement unfolds slowly and with pleasing inevitability, its heart-on-sleeve content unabashedly romantic and intense. Jones certainly has a way with melody which easily finds a route into the listener's memory. At the core of the movement is a modest cadenza which is challenging but eschews superficial showiness. This music may not be earth-shatteringly novel but why should it be? It is satisfying, well-made and seems sincere and heartfelt. A gently tolling bell (clearly one of this composer's favourite textures) dissipates to reveal another appealing Korngoldian idea in the central slow movement; this is developed with great care and delicacy before the bell returns to herald a more playful central section prior to the recurrence of the wistful atmosphere at the movement's core. The mood, design and style of this music might seem a tad conventional to some ears, and Jones' influences may at times seem a bit obvious, yet it's indubitably an approachable and impressively crafted piece . The finale gets going in a vivacious moto perpetuo manner. Ludwig projects a gloriously sweet tone as it unfolds. It is easy to see why the concerto was such a hit at its premiere –it holds one's attention through its coherence and memorability. Only time will tell if this continues to be the case after repeated hearings.>>
https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/03/s-jones-three-concertos-bmop-sound/

It's a most beautiful work which I heartily recommend. The toughest movement is the finale, rather in the manner of Barber, i.e. after two outstandingly lyrical and expressive movements. I took a real punt on this release on the strength of the MusicWeb review - I'm very glad that I did!
https://www.bmop.org/audio-recordings/samuel-jones-three-concertos  (CD)
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9611549--samuel-jones-three-concertos  (download)
#2
Recordings & Broadcasts / Hahn Violin Concerto
Saturday 23 March 2024, 12:28
...hard to find online, but the CD's available direct from Maguelone:
https://www.maguelone.fr/en/home/129-hahn-sonate-et-concerto-pour-violon-3770003584100.html
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8174088--hahn-violin-concerto-violin-sonata (download only)

Is there a more beautiful 20th-century violin concerto than this? OK, there's the Barber, Walton and, of course, the Korngold. And probably many others. But oh, the Hahn! What a gorgeous piece it is - especially in this live recording featuring violinist Denis Clavier with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine (now called the 'Orchestre national de Metz' in eastern France) conducted by Fernand Quattrocchi.

This release has taught me two things: first, that I have missed out on a fabulous work (no doubt others here already know it!); and secondly, that I must never underestimate the ability of less well-known performers to scale the heights in particular recordings - because this is a classic instance of a release which I would probably have passed over thinking it might be too 'provincial' to bother about. Not every recording has to feature a world-renowned soloist and conductor!

Anyway, enough of my failings. I heartily recommend this CD, coupled with a Romance, Nocturne and Sonata for Violin and Piano by the same composer.

#3
Recordings & Broadcasts / Enescu Piano Quartet No.1
Sunday 17 March 2024, 20:20
...just released on Naxos, coupled with the much more familiar Piano Quartet No.1 by Fauré:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9556983--melodies-infinies-faure-enescu-piano-quartets

Absolutely superb! A three-movement late, late-romantic piece dating from 1908 lasting 42 minutes. Wow! Talk about stretching the bounds of tonality - not to mention those of chamber music. I'm surprised no-one's tried orchestrating this. The slow movement's simply sublime.
#4
...from Dutton, featuring:

Flourish for Glorious John (1957)

Fantasia for piano and orchestra (1896–1902 rev 1904)
edited by Graham Parlett (2011)

The Steersman (1906)
words by Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
realised and orchestrated by Martin Yates (2022)

The Future (ca. 1908)
words by Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
completed and orchestrated by Martin Yates (2019)

World Premiere Recordings [The Future, The Steersman]

Lucy Crowe, soprano [The Future]
Jacques Imbrailo, baritone [The Steersman]
Andrew Von Oeyen, piano [Fantasia]

BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Chorus/Neil Ferris chorusmaster [The Future, The Steersman]
conducted by
Martin Yates
Thomas Payne (assistant conductor)
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7411
#5
This is included in an inexpensive 2-CD set on Capriccio of chamber music by three generations of the Tcherepnin family. It is an extensive 38-minute work in four movements dating from 1902 with a seemingly inexhaustible fund of melody and invention in a late-romantic idiom. Well worth investigating!
#7
Composers & Music / Reger vs Senfter: a comparison
Monday 11 March 2024, 19:09
If you compare, say, Reger's late Violin Sonata, Op.139 (from 1915) and Senfter's Violin Sonata, Op.26 (dated somewhere between 1914 and 1918), the kinship is obvious. However, it's difficult not to sense that the pupil (Senfter) is sometimes pushing slightly harder at the boundaries of tonality than the master - and that this is the direction in which she would go further over time, without crossing over into atonality. Senfter's music, very beautiful, seems to say 'this far and no further'.
#8
Composers & Music / Reger Gesang der Verklärten
Monday 11 March 2024, 12:58
I was going to post this in the Senfter thread, but decided that the music deserved a thread of its own:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M-ckm7kgJk

It's gorgeous, isn't it? And it gives us an important context for the discussion of Senfter's music. Reger wrote this in 1903, well before Senfter entered Reger's composition class at the Leipzig Royal Conservatory in October 1908. The difference, I think, is that, while Reger's use of constantly evolving chromaticism here is very obvious, somehow he manages not to lose us 'in the sludge', as Dave Hurwitz would put it. And this - i.e. 'getting lost 'in the sludge' - is the difficulty I have with Senfter's orchestral music.

Clearly, I need help...

From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesang_der_Verkl%C3%A4rten

<<The work was first performed in Aachen on 18 January 1906 by the municipal choir and orchestra (Städtischer Gesangverein and Städtisches Orchester), conducted by Eberhard Schwickerath. A. von der Schleinitz reported in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik:

It is not enough to call Reger's Opus 71, the ink still wet on its pages, the strangest and weirdest thing that has ever resounded in notes. With its dauntless accumulation of huge masses of sound, its unbridled and randomly modulating counterpoint, its strange harmonies leaping over every commonly accepted connecting link and progression, its audacious agglomeration of ugly sounds rarely interrupted by melodic flow, and its difficulties for every participant, far exceeding anything known to date, it may well reach the outermost limit of musical expression altogether, just as it sometimes seems to be an absurd game played with musical forms by a master whose command of his craft borders on genius.>>
#10
Another release from SPMK, a 2-CD set containing:
Zelenski Piano Trio in E major, Op.22
Szeluto Piano Trio in D major, Op.81
Fitelberg (Grzegorz) Piano Trio in F minor, Op.10


https://spmk.com.pl/en/publikacja/zelenski-szeluto-fitelberg/

#13
Recordings & Broadcasts / Enescu Symphonies 1-3/etc.
Tuesday 27 February 2024, 20:40
...forthcoming from Cristian Măcelaru, conducting the Orchestre National de France (on DG):
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9607401--enescu-symphonies-nos-1-3-romanian-rhapsodies-1-2
#14
Recordings & Broadcasts / Mel Bonis Violin Sonata, Op.112
Wednesday 21 February 2024, 17:21
Wow! This is a very passionate and beautiful work, with soaring lines, very French, in a style somewhere between Fauré and Franck. In the new Chandos recording it is coupled with Fauré's 2nd Violin Sonata, Renaldo Hahn's Violin Sonata and a Nocturne by Lili Boulanger.
Here's an appreciative review:
https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/01/bonis-faure-hahn-violin-sonatas-chandos/
#16
Recordings & Broadcasts / Peter Benoit Choral works
Thursday 08 February 2024, 10:29
A reissue featuring some (or all?) previously released material in a 5-CD collection:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/heaven-and-hell/hnum/11745280
#17
Composers & Music / Beethoven arr. Gevaert 'Symphony' in C
Wednesday 07 February 2024, 17:54
An orchestration of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.3 in C major, Op.2, No.3 (1795) by Belgian composer François-Auguste Gevaert (1828-1908): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG82Ugme5Vw
#18
Recordings & Broadcasts / 'Swiss Dreams': 2-CD set
Wednesday 31 January 2024, 22:55
An interesting miscellany of works:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/stalder-swiss-dreams/hnum/11689619

Contents:

Joseph Franz Xaver Dominik Stalder: Symphony in E flat
Edouard Dupuy: "Jugend und Leichtsinn" ("Youth and Recklessness"): Overture
Franz Xaver Schnyder von Wartensee: Overture in C minor
Hans Huber: Serenade No.2 "Winternächte" ("Winter Nights")
George Templeton Strong: Suite No.3 "Le Livre d'Images"
Hermann Suter: Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 23
Paul Huber: Concerto for Dulcimer & String Orchestra

Performers:
Michael Barenboim (violin),
Christoph Pfändler (dulcimer),
Swiss Orchestra,
Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer (conductor)