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Topics - ewk

#1
Hi all,
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Andrzej Boreyko released a video of their live broadcast of the Karłowicz  violin concerto played by Julia Fischer:


I only knew this piece from its Naxos recording. As far as I can tell until now – I'm midway through the 1st movement only – Fischer's playing is superb and does the piece great justice.
Although I do not consider this piece a top rank concerto, I appreciate that it gets such a high-class outing here.

Best wishes! ewk
#2
Hi all,

I am looking for a birthday gift for my father who is an amateur violinist having played a vast amount of string quartet/quintet repertoire. Now we are looking for a substantial unsung quartet/quintet meeting the following requirements:
- inside our remit
- interesting to play, not only beautiful to listen to (Raff's beautiful No. 1 was a disappointment at some point in the past for this reason).
- not a "concerto for 1st violin", i.e. meaningful parts for all of the instruments
-not necessarily hyper-unsung, but that would be ok, too. Outside standard repertoire would be also acceptable.
-playable for ambitious amateurs (if you can tell -- e.g. hyper-chromatic works like Kormgold 1st quarter tend to be frustrating for amateurs - although their group tackled the Reger Sextet last summer).

Please give reasons why you like or recommend a work, otherwise this kind of threads often degrade to mere lists.

Thank you all very much, I am very much looking forward to your recommendations!

Best wishes,
Ewk
#3
Composers & Music / Reger Bach Variations, arr. Levin
Friday 14 January 2022, 21:17
A while ago, when I was really into the Reger sets of variations, I always thought it was a shame Reger hat not made orchestral versions of more of his variation sets.

At least for one of the sets – some say his finest – someone has tried to compensate for that:

Max Reger, arr. Ira Levin: Variations and Fugue on a theme of J. S. Bach, available at Youtube, played by the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt (the other Frankfurt, i.e. Frankfurt an der Oder at the German-Polish Border). The Naxos booklet is available here, the preface of the published score is to be found here.

While it does, in my opinion, not match Reger's orchestral versions of the Hiller and Mozart variations, I think it is still very enjoyable and in many places it sounds like genuine Reger. It is not a complete orchestration of all the variations – Levin says he has applied the same approach like Reger when shortening and rearranging the order of the Beethoven variations for his own orchestration.

Has anyone come across this, how do you judge Levin's work?

Best wishes, ewk
#4
Hi all,

As I type this, we hear the encore after a live stream of Stenhammar's 2d piano concerto, performed by Martin Sturfält, Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) from the Herkulessaal Munich. This is the link – I am sorry I noticed this only now, there is only an interview with Blomstedt and an "Eroica" left now: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=notif&v=636344807801012&notif_id=1639163260562404&notif_t=live_video or audio-only https://www.br-klassik.de/concert/ausstrahlung-2737578.html

I hope this will be available on the BR's facebook site or for download later!

Best wishes! ewk
#5
Dear all,

I just ran across this most charming little set of variations by Franz Waxman/Wachsmann on the well-known tune of »Auld Lang Syne«, originally created for Jascha Heifetz' 1948 new year's eve party. The last movement is of course outside our remit, but the first three are in the style of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, respectively. What a gem!

Franz Wachsmann/Waxman, Auld Lang Syne Variations, for piano quartet (or String orchestra and piano)
I. Eine Kleine Nichtmusik
II. Moonlight Concerto
III. Chaconne a Son Gout
IV. Hommage to Shostakofiev.

Performed by Geoffrey Applegate (violin), James Van Valkenburg (viola), Marcy Chanteaux (cello) and Pauline Martin (piano.)

More information here.

Best wishes!
ewk
#6
Dear all,

Tarkmann is a renowned arranger who has done everything from a "Ring without words" to chamber arrangements. If you see a chamber arrangement e.g. of an opera here in Germany, chances are high he did it.
What I know from his own compositions is romantic as well (e.g. his overture "Das Kalte Herz" (The Cold Heart), after a fairytale by W. Hauff). He also composed a lot for children.

That being said, I discovered this fascinating arrangement shortly ago after reading a enthusiastic review in "Fono Forum". Also The Guardian is full of praise, as is Rondo (German). An interview about the recording (German, again, I'm sorry!) with the performers can be heard here.

I was sceptical at first, loving the original Symphony very much. But to me, this arrangement feels so very natural as if it was composed like this. Tarkmann said he tried to follow the way of arranging that Brahms did in his own 2 pianos version of the Symphony. For me, this is more than one of the countless "Corona arrangements" that had been done in the past year.

Coupled with Brahms' g minor piano quartet (the album title "The Schönberg effect" derives from that – they see the Symphony arrangement as the "reverse" from Schönberg's genius orchestration of said piano quartet)

The album can be listened to at youtube.

Highly recommended!

Best wishes!
ewk
#7
Hi all,
this might just as well been posted in the unsung concerts thread, but as this will result in video recordings, I put this here – admins might of course relocate it if deemed appropriate.

I received the 2021/22 Digital Concert Hall programme today and was relatively pleased – probably all of the pieces present in CD recordings, but all these works are performed live at the Philharmonie Berlin (and as live stream of course) which might be a rare thing to happen, and will end up as a (video) recording with a top orchestra.

Chausson's Symphony on 25 Sept
John Williams: Elegy for Cello and Orchestra (under the composer's baton) – I was first unsure about the idiom, but some minutes in, it evolves quite late-romantic (at least not less than e.g. Korngold's cello concerto): 16 Oct
Korngold: "Much ado about nothing" Overture: 31 Dec
Tschaikowski's Iolanthe – Tschaik is not unsung at all, of course, but Iolanthe is rarely performed as far as I can see: 15 Jan
Josef Suk: Lebensreife (life's ripening) op. 34: 12 Feb
Nielsen: Helios overture op. 17: 4 June
Sinigaglia: Rapsodia piemontese for violin and orchestra op. 26 + Romance for Violin and Orchestra op. 29: 11 June
Zemlinsky: Lyrische Sinfonie op. 18: 11 June (Gerhaher+Lise Davidsen)
Rued Langgaard: Symphony 1: 18 June
Ljadow: Kikimora: 25 June (Waldbühne!)

I am looking forward to see some of these, be it live or as a recorded video!

Best wishes, ewk
#8
Dear all,

Brahms himself and also his piano quintet are of course not unsung. But this arrangement is somewhat obscure – mentioned here and there, but it does not seem to be available although it has been recorded in 2014.

Clara Schumann herself suggested that there are orchestral qualities within Brahms' op. 34 two-piano sonata/Piano quintet. Robin Holloway (had never heard of him, but seems to be a somewhat renowned 20th-century composer, his works being recorded by major UK orchestras and conductors) orchestrated it in 2008, the score is available from Boosey&Hawkes, it was performed in 2014 by the Bergen philharmonic orchestra.

Wikipedia tells us that a further 2014 performance was recorded for norwegian Radio – the link to the performance is dead, unfortunately. The snapshop from the internet wayback machine  did not help me to resurrect it – it seems it was a flash-player based media player at the time.

Did anyone record the performance back in 2014 or downloaded it from NRK when it was still available – or is anyone more successful at the internet wayback machine?

Best wishes!
ewk

P.S.:  I put this in the "recordings" forum because it's most about finding the existing recording – but admins may of course relocate the thread if deemed appropriate.
#9
Dear all,
as was suggested in the Korngold PC thread, it might be worthy to dive into the Left-Hand Piano concertos commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein.
I didn't hear many of them until (none of them in concert, to be honest). Quite some of them might be out of this board's remit, but some are quite romantic. I remember listening to the Bortkiewicz and being most impressed.

First insights can be found here: https://interlude.hk/paul-wittgenstein-lefty-concertos (but this does not mention many of the works, but highlights the interesting differentiatino between scores emulating a two-hand piano (e.g. Korngold, Ravel) and those who understand the one-handed piano as a separate instrument (Schmidt, according to this article).
Wikipedia has a list of works associated with Wittgenstein, including the commissions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_associated_with_Paul_Wittgenstein (no idea how complete this is)
A more complete analysis may be found here (doctoral dissertation): http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/10040/ as brought up by eschiss1 in the Korngold thread.

To avoid mere listing, which of these works do you know and what do you recommend to listen to and why? And, were you able to hear anything of it in concert, apart from the obvious Ravel?

(and if someone is able to compile a complete list, I am happy to include it in this first post)

Best wishes! ewk
#10
Dear all,
The idea about asking you for guidance came across my mind when writing about Taneyev's op. 31 string trio including a tenor viola. I have been fascinated by the Hutchins instruments for a while now, and when Corona allows, I will start building an alto violin in summer.

Carleen Maley Hutchins was an American luthier and violin acoustic scientist mostly working in the 2d half of the 20th century. Her life is very interesting on its own, how she made it from a biology teacher to a leading violin acoustic expert (there's a biography by Quincey Whitney, for those interested).

Besides her landmark acoustical findings (see the moving obituary on the famous violin maker Joseph Curtin's site: https://josephcurtinstudios.com/carleen-hutchins-remembered/), she is probably best remembered for creating the "new violin family", a series of 8 scaled violins from treble (octave violin) to contrabass violin (ca. double bass). Yo yo Ma recorded the Bartok viola concerto on her alto violin, a 50cm vertical viola which also Stokowski greatly admired.

From the Met Museum's exhibition description:
QuoteThe Hutchins Violin Octet includes: Treble Violin, tuned an octave above the conventional violin; Soprano Violin, tuned an octave above the viola; Mezzo Violin, an enlarged version of the conventional 14-inch violin; Alto Violin, an enlarged, vertically
played version of the conventional viola; Tenor Violin, tuned an octave below the normal violin; Baritone Violin, tuned like the cello; Small Bass Violin, about the size of a three-quarter bass; and Contrabass Violin, larger than its conventional counterpart, the double bass.

More information here: https://nvfa.org/8tet.html

Now, there is only one permanent ensemble, the Hutchins consort. There are some inspiring videos on YouTube of them playing.

The thing is, as always for unusual instruments, the repertoire. The consort plays arrangements and original compositions. When I came across the Stelzner instruments (violotta and Cellone, which correspond to Hutchins' tenor and bass violins), I thought there might be original romantic compositions for this kind of instruments.

So far, I know about the Krug Sextet, the Draeseke quintet, the Taneyev trio op. 31 and some (obscure) compositions by Stelzner himself.

Can anyone add to this list, or can anyone tell more about these works, their quality? Does anyone know more of Stelzner's own compositions? Any help and recommendations would  be  greatly  appreciated!

Best wishes and thanks in advance, ewk
#11
Dear all,

as announced earlier in the Violanta thread, I report about the Freiburg Performance of Korngold's early opera »Ring des Polykrates«. On that occasion I would be interested in a discussion about the work in general.

I found three reviews, all of them in German:
http://www.omm.de/veranstaltungen/musiktheater20192020/FR-korngold.html
https://www.die-deutsche-buehne.de/kritiken/humorfrei-durch-die-buergerliche-hoelle
https://www.badische-zeitung.de/kosmos-korngold-ein-komponist-wird-besichtigt--181851507.html

1) The apparent: The mixture of concert and opera. This worked very well for me, although I wouldn't have needed the little gags that should tie the two parts of the evening together (the Hofkapellmeister from polycrates sits on stage during the »theme and variations« and reads along in a score and, after the piece, is praised by the conductor as if he was the composer of the piece). I think there would have been possibilities to create real links between the pieces, but this didn't help a lot I think. The »Passover Psalm« and the  Sechs einfache Lieder op. 9 impressed me most (some of the Lieder were very touching!), while I was not very impressed by »Der Sturm«.

2) The opera itself. It was critisized for a lack of mise-en-scene in the Deutsche Bühne review. Well, the orchestral stage of the first half was the theater stage of the second half, the orchestra having moved into the pit. Well, for me, an opera with near to no plot can do with very little mise-en-scene and for the subject, I found this a rather clever idea. It may be  caused by my dislike for the plots (or lack thereof) of many comic operas, but I found the plot relatively dumb, to be honest. The finale is funny and enjoyable and also during the piece, there are some very funny moments. However, in my opinion, it takes to long for no action when the Hofkapellmeister Wilhelm thinks about putting his wife on test and finally does so and also during the beginning.
That being said, the music impressed me far more. Again, the beginning was not the part that impressed me the most. Relatively fragmentary, no big lines or melodies. But the more the work progressed, I absolutely loved the music, the orchestration, the melodies, the atmosphere created. Wonderful!
While I am no expert to judge the singing, especially the women sang very nicely for my ears. Irina Jae-Eun Park (Lieschen) also impressed and touched me with the Sechs einfache Lieder. The orchestra under Fabrice Bollon played well, wonderful piano, bombast where needed, but doing the young genius justice.

I may want to listen to the music again without reading the surtitles in order to fully concentrate on the music which was, for me, the undisputed highlight of the evening. Especially, but surely not only as it was written by a teenager, very impressing.

What are your opinions about »Ring des Polykrates«?

Best wishes,
ewk
#12
Dear all,

I recently witnessed a performance of Schönberg's »Verklärte Nacht« (a pice I love a lot) in the String orchestra version. It might have been the effect of the concert hall's acoustic, but I must admit that I did miss the clarity of the original string sextet version.

That being said, I started to wonder whether there was ever an attempt to transcribe the piece to full orchestra? It would, for some, surely be sacrilegeous. However, I could imagine many passages very well in an orchestral sound.  The using of different winds etc. could also add to the clarity I missed in the string orchestra version for some passages.
Does anyone know of an orchestration or is of the opinion, as me, that it could sound fascinating? (Of course, copyright issues might have prevented such projects and will continue to do so until 2022, at least in life+70 countries).

Best wishes, ewk
#13
Hi all,

I just found this on the Facebook page of the HR-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony):
https://www.facebook.com/hrsinfonieorchester/photos/a.456174131103467.107019.436311013089779/1257171501003722/?type=3&theater

QuotePaavo Järvi hat es in der ,,alten Heimat" so gut gefallen, dass unser ,,Conductor laureate" gleich noch ein paar Tage länger in Frankfurt geblieben ist, um mit uns in dieser Woche die 1. Sinfonie Franz Schmidts für eine geplante CD mit allen vier Sinfonien dieses leider immer noch viel zu wenig bekannten österreichisch-ungarischen Spätromantikers aufzunehmen

Which translates more or less as follows:

QuotePaavo Järvi liked it so much in his "old home" that our "conductor laureate" has stayed some more days in Frankfurt in order to record the First Symphony by Franz Schmidt for a planned CD with all four Symphonies of this still far too unsung Austro-Hungarian composer.
(the post dates from today, 3 hours ago).

I did not find a discussion about this at this forum (neither an announcement of the CD somewhere else, at least with a quick google search) and thought that it might interest some of you...

I am really looking forward to hear Paavo Järvi's recording of these magnificient symphonies!

ewk
#14
Dear all,

This week, the Theater Freiburg (Germany) announced its next season's programmes. Thanks to them, we have the new recordings of I gioelli della Madonna (Wolf-Ferrari) (upcoming), Die königin von Saba (Goldmark), Francesca da Rimini (Zandonai) and L'Arlesiana (Cilea) (All cpo).

The upcoming season is probably quite interesting for us, the booklets can be viewed here:
opera: https://issuu.com/theater.freiburg/docs/tf_spielzeitheft16_17_ansicht_einz
concerts: https://issuu.com/theater.freiburg/docs/pho_konzertheft_16_17_ansicht_einz

unsung works to be performed:

Very young Verdi's opera "Jerusalem" (can Verdi's works be counted as unsung? I at least had not heard of "Jerusalem")
Massenet cendrillon – according to Wikipedia, the work has not seen so many performances but may also not count as really unsung.
BUT:
Korngold: Das Wunder der Heliane (concert performance), according to the booklet to be recorded by Naxos.

Concerts:
21 March 2017: Goldmark: Sakuntala Ouvertüre, Alberic Magnard: Symphony No. 4. According to the booklet, this will be the start of a Magnard series including his entire orchestral works recorded by Naxos.

Very nice to have these works performed (and recorded!) in such a small town (200.000 inhabitants)!

Best wishes,
ewk
#15
Composers & Music / Fredric Kroll (b.1945)
Thursday 18 June 2015, 22:25
Dear all,

As he lives near Freiburg where I am living as well, I recently met the Composer Fredric Kroll (*1945) (I did not talk to him, so presenting him here is of pure musical interest, not of my own personal interests). Though he still lives, his style is entirely romantic and influenced by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler. In Germany, he is known as the absolute authority on Klaus Mann, son of Thomas Mann (Nobel price winner).

According to Wikipedia, his relatively small oeuvre is:

    Sinfonie in g-Moll, 1959
    The Scarlet Letter, Opera in four acts, 1965, world premiere 1981 in Cape Coral, Florida and DE 2014 in Hamburg (chamber opera version)
    Lieder aus der Einsamkeit (songs from loneliness, 1966, world premiere 1982 in Wiesbaden (Germany)
    Romanze in d-Moll (Violin and piano) 1969
    Frantumi, song cycle, 1969
    Kerzenglut in d-Moll (Cello and piano) 1970
    Weiße Nächte, opera in three acts(still unfinished, he has been working on it since 1980)

Has anyone heard about him? Although he is maybe not an eminently important composer, he does not seem to be the kind of entirely unimportant regional composer as shows the 2014 stage performance of his opera "the scarlet letter" in Hamburg (chamber opera version).

There are quite some videos of his music on youtube, although uploaded by himself:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fredric+kroll
There are also 2 CDs available at JPC.

His style seems to be very romantic and with many memorable melodies, the audience seemed to have loved the Scarlet Letter in Hamburg.

Has anyone made any experiences with his music?

EWK
#16
Composers & Music / Ranjbaran: Persian Trilogy
Thursday 04 September 2014, 15:08
Hi all,

I came across a work by the Iranian Composer Ranjbaran (*1955): The Persian Trilogy.

1. Seemorgh (1991)
2. The Blood of Seyavash (1994)
3. Seven Passages (2000)

Despite composed in modern times, it is said to be composed in a Neo-Romantic style (though inside the remit, as I think), comparable to Rimski-Korsakow, Holbrooke and many others.

Does anyone know the work and what do you think about it?
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/May06/Ranjbaran_PersianTrilogy_DE3336.htm

ewk
#17
Composers & Music / Piano, Choir and Orchestra
Saturday 12 October 2013, 12:28
Hi all,

I think everyone here knows Beethoven's Choral Fantasy. I wondered if there were more works with this exeptional instrumentation, and I found:

IMSLP lists three more works:
http://imslp.org/index.php?title=Category:For_mixed_chorus%2C_piano%2C_orchestra&transclude=Template:Catintro

Gesänge und Lieder einheimischer Dichter (Hanke, Karl)

Piano Concerto No.6, Op.192 (Herz, Henri)

Die Tageszeiten, Op.209 (Raff, Joachim)

But Herz's piano concerto is more like a piano concerto plus some choir in the last movement like in Busoni's PC, not with an equally important choir part. Raff's Tageszeiten are as far as I could find out (no recording on youtube...) more like a mixture of symphony, oratorio and piano concerto, so the choir part is more important (which makes it more interesting to perform for amateur choirs)

Wikipedia says that Debussy's »Printemps« is scored for Orchestra, Choir and Piano, but all I fond on youtube was either orchestra and piano four-hands or orchestra and wordless mixed choir.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_for_piano_and_orchestra

Any further ideas?

Sebastian
#18
Composers & Music / Korngold’s Schneemann
Monday 16 September 2013, 14:51
Hi all,

May Korngold be unsung or not, but his public début »Der Schneemann« (The Snowman) is certainly not a work that is performed very often. In fact I think only the Violin Concerto, »Die tote Stadt« and sometimes the Symphony are performed some kind of regularly at all.

First performed for the Emperor of Austria back in 1910 in Zemlinksky's orchestration, I have always loved this work from the very first second when I bought my first Korngold CD as a 16 years old boy (It was the chandos one with the Märchenbilder and the Schauspielouvertüre). But as I discovered much later, the Chandos CD only contains the Introduction, Act I and the Entre'acte, I think in the booklet they write that they where unable to obtain the rest of the sheet music in order to record it.
I always wondered what the second part sounded like and if it was just as wonderful as the first part. Apart from a koch recoding (http://www.amazon.de/Schneemann-Woolley-Scot/dp/B000001SHT/ref=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1379339178&sr=1-4&keywords=korngold+schneemann) of the piano version, I have never come across a full recording of the ballet in its orchestral version.

Does anyone know a such recording or was able to attend a performance of the whole 40 minute long piece? I would really love to hear it in its entirety one day...

I just came across this Suite on Youtube which contains at least some bits of the second Act (the last 5 minutes):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dB6ngXpz8Y But still I'm sure there are even more lovely melodies in the second Act!

(Should this maybe be posted in Recordings and not in composers?)
#19
Hi all,

I'm not quite sure whether there is already existing a thread like this in this board but at least the search didn't show me any.

The idea is somewhat "stolen" from our local radio station SWR3 which does this game for unsung pop songs:
You give the name of something sung (or maybe also unsung) and you get as an answer one or two works you should also listen to because they're quite comparable.
I liked the idea to apply this for "classical" music because there are still some sung works I really like and I have no unsung »equivalent« for it.

I would like to set up the rules as follows:
1) You can propose 2 or 3 equivalents to the »inputs« of the two preceeding posts
2) Then you can make an input yourself and ask the others which work they would consider equivalent: also 3 works maximum (to avoid huge lists)

In order to make Alan happy and to qualify your answers, reasons why the works are comparable would be nice.

Any questions?

My Input (works I like and which I don't have an equivalent for):
1) Rachmaninow 2nd symphony (I've never found anything so beautiful again) (there are quite some PCs that are comparable to Rach's PCs,  but for the symphonies?)
2) Wagner: Vorspiel and Liebestod from Tristan (the same reason)
3) Barber: Adagio for strings (anything so intense?!)

Sebastian
#20
Hi all,

As there have been already some threads about Wagner transcriptions, I hope this one can also be published although Wagner is hardly unsung (although some of his early operas clearly are – Die Feen for example).

I wanted to ask if someone has already bought and/or listened to Henk de Vlieger's Wagner transcriptions – he seems to have compiled some kind of symphonies from the operas. Are they recommendable? I'm not the biggest fan of operas but I love the orchestral preludes from the Wagner operas and I always wanted to have some "more" orchestral Wagner.

A further point are Siegfried Wagner's opera preludes – I like them all quite much. My question would be: Which one would you recommend to start with? For example, I would like to propose my orchestras to play one of them – which one would you consider appropriate to convince the orchestra of Siegfried's sheer genius?

cheers,

Sebastian