The Romantic Cello Concerto - Vol 7.

Started by FBerwald, Tuesday 07 July 2015, 19:02

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minacciosa

I think it would fit right in, and so would Walton and Barber. McKay's concerto was written in 1942, a year before Pfitzner's last cello concerto.

Alan Howe

Pfitzner was from an entirely different generation - that of Richard Strauss, etc. He counts as a relic of late romanticism who survived beyond his time. Walton, Barber and McKay, on the other hand, take elements of romanticism (lyricism, melody) and combine them with levels of modernist dissonance that lie outside this forum's stated remit - which is why we don't include them here. This is a subject which we have touched upon countless times since the re-casting of the forum three years ago, so let's not go down this road again, please.

Hyperion may choose to record McKay, but it won't be as part of their RCC series - any more than his VC would be a candidate for their RVC series, fine work though it is.

Moving on...

ReDoLe

A performance of Stock's concerto can be found on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj5KNKM4S-c
It would be great to have a better recording, but it is certainly not suitable for the RCC series.

I would love to see the Molique concerto op. 45 in that series, a three movement concerto full of memorable tunes, and considered one of the best of its kind by von Bülow and Riemann. It exists in at least two radio recordings (Ina Joost and Angelica May), but has never been published on disc.

As a coupling, I would suggest, although already recorded, the works for cello with orchestra by CMv Weber, Variations J. 94 , Grand-Potpourri op. 20 and optional the transcription of Weber's second clarinet concerto by Cassadó.


eschiss1

If I understand these archive descriptions right, there's ms scores and parts and reduction for another cello concerto of the 19th century (by a composer who emigrated to the USA), Frédéric Louis Ritter, in Vassar's special collections. (Also of at least one of his symphonies and his piano concerto.)

JimL

The Cello Concerto in A minor of Alexander Gretchaninov would be a good candidate, but it's a short work (1 movement, 4 sections) and would need a substantial companion or two.