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#1

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

Last post by tuatara442442 - Yesterday at 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!

#2

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

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 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.

#3

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

Last post by Ilja - Yesterday at 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).

#4

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

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 15:06

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)]

#5

Composers & Music / Re: Brambach, Carl Joseph (183...

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 14:53

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...

#6

Composers & Music / Re: Brambach, Carl Joseph (183...

Last post by tpaloj - Yesterday at 13:58

I recently made an inquiry to the Stadtarchiv in Bonn about Brambach's Nachlass which is kept there. There is no online list of that collection, but it appears that among other things his autographs to the Piano Concerto op. 39 and opera Ariadne are held there. Regrettably, they reported back to me that they don't have any materials of Brambach's Symphony, premiered in 1863, which was the work I was most looking forward to find.

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

#7

Composers & Music / Re: Asger Hamerik and Marie Ja...

Last post by Ilja - Yesterday at 12:54

Allow me to revive this ancient thread. I have found another piece that employs the same five-note motif (CCCD#C) at the start, Hendrik Waelput's Pacification of Ghent cantata of 1876:

So now there are three pieces that contain this fragment, all from the French-Belgian tradition and written in 1876 (Waelput), 1884 (Jaëll) and 1891 (Hamerik). It's awfully close to the opening of Mozart's Requiem, but slightly different. I'd be grateful if anyone would be able determine where this comes from?

#8

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Czerny Concerto for Piano ...

Last post by Alan Howe - Yesterday at 10:57

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!

#9

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Czerny Concerto for Piano ...

Last post by John Boyer - Yesterday at 05:44

I have returned to this disc many times. The Czerny is delightful from first note to last, reminding me of the youthful Beethoven in one of his happier moods.

I also love the performers' rendition of the Bruch Concerto. They give it an heroic nobility which almost moved me to tears. I wondered if others who have encountered this concerto felt the same.  Surveying reviews of recordings and concert performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony I found the critics at the Gramophone and other publications had this to say about it:

ungracious, truculent, overbearing, hasn't aged well, can wait another century to be repeated, charmless, unfortunate creation, overwrought melodrama, bizarre conflagration, vacuous note-spinning

I guess they don't share my enthusiasm. 

#10

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

Last post by TerraEpon - Yesterday at 01:26

Naxos is easily by FAR the label I own the most discs of. They've been a true god send for both unsung composers.

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

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