Second Waghalter CD to be released

[DavidWGreen]

Naxos will release its second CD of orchestral music by Ignatz Waghalter. Information about the recording and excerpts from the music can be accessed at: http://www.waghalter.com/2014/05/naxos-to-release-second-waghalter-cd/

[Alan Howe]

Very attractive-sounding music too - and some nice jazz inflections in the Suite. Definitely one to look forward to.

[Mark Thomas]

Absolutely. Excellent news.

[JimL]

Speaking of jazz inflections, I have noted that the second subject in the first movement of the VC sounds almost like it could have been lifted from a Broadway musical written some 50 years down the pike.

[Alan Howe]

Latest news from David Green:

I thought you might be interested in viewing a new Waghalter video that
has been posted on www.waghalter.com. It deals with Naxos' upcoming
release of the second Waghalter CD, which features orchestral music from
the opera Mandragola (1914) and the New World Suite that Waghalter
composed in 1939 for the American Negro Orchestra (which he founded). If
you find it worthwhile, perhaps you might want to inform readers of
"Unsung Composers" about it.

By the way, I am presently in Warsaw. Tonight, the Waghalter Violin
Concerto will be performed at the Teatr Wielki at a Gala Concert
celebrating Tuesday's Grand Opening of the Core Exhibit at the Museum of
Jewish History in Warsaw. There will be 1700 people in attendance at the
concert.

It seems that Waghalter's music is suddenly finding an audience. There
was a Waghalter perfomance in Toronto on Friday evening. The Deutsche
Oper is holding a chamber concert on November 7 to commemorate the 102nd
anniversary of the opening of the House. Waghalter's String Quartet will
be performed along with a Quintet by Schumann. On November 14, the
Toronto Sinfonia is performing an orchestral transcription of the
Waghalter Quartet.

I think the growing interest in my grandfather's music reflects a
broader revival of composers whose work was neglected and even dismissed
during the post-war decades of triumphant serialism and extreme atonalism.

[jerfilm]

Whatever has happened to this release?  Wasn't it anticipated last fall??

Jerry

[Alan Howe]

The link in David Green's opening post tells us that this will be an April 2015 release...

[jerfilm]

Ah, thanks, Alan.  I'll quit searching for it for a while.

J

[JeremyMHolmes]

On its way!!
http://www.mdt.co.uk/waghalter-ignatz-new-world-suite-symphony-orchestra-alexander-walker-naxos.html

[DavidWGreen]

Naxos has formally announced the upcoming May 2015 release of the new Waghalter CD: http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.573338. The story behind this release is remarkable. Almost three years ago, Alexander Walker visited me in Detroit to look through the boxes which contained what remained of my grandfather's musical legacy. Buried in the bottom of one of the boxes, in a large manila envelop, Alex discovered a 200-page orchestral manuscript, written in Waghalter's hand with ink and pencil. Coffee stains were visible on some of the pages. It was the orchestral work, composed for the American Negro Orchestra that he had founded, of which Waghalter had spoken in his interview with the Afro-American newspaper of Baltimore in a January 1939 interview. Alex slowly turned the pages of the score. "What do you make of this work?," I asked. "This is simply astonishing music, and it must be recorded," he replied. Alex meant what he said. He threw himself into the project, and turned the unproofed handwritten draft into a performable printed score. And so, six months later, the New World Suite was recorded in Moscow. The CD also contains the exuberant Overture and haunting Intermezzo composed by Waghalter for his 1914 comic opera, Mandragola. And finally, there is a rousing March that my grandfather composed in honor of President Thomas Masaryk of Czechoslovakia. It is my hope that the release of this CD will provide fresh inspiration for the efforts of those who have been engaged in the fight to rediscover and revive unjustly forgotten and neglected great composers of the 20th century.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, David. We're really looking forward to this.

[Alan Howe]

Just received my copy of the CD. The Overture to Mandragola (1914) is a magnificent romp of a piece, wonderfully orchestrated and brilliantly played here by the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Walker. The Intermezzo from the same opera is colourful and shows off the composer's ability to pen a good tune. Lovely stuff.
The major work on the CD, though, is the much later (1939) and more original 10-movement New World Suite which was reconstructed and put into performable shape by the conductor. Its idiom is rather tougher and more varied in idiom. I'm not sure it's really my cup of tea, but...
...the disc is rounded of in fun style with the celebratory Masaryk's Peace March of 1935.
Now for some more stuff from the operas...

[Wheesht]

My copy of the CD is on order from my local shop - I do try to support shops with actual, physical discs - and now I am really impatient for it to arrive.

[Alan Howe]

My shop's 15+ miles away. And far too expensive, I'm afraid.