Romantic Violin Concerto - Vol. 19

[FBerwald]

The next vol. - 19 in the Romantic Violin Concerto series has just been announced by Hyperion



http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68060

Max Bruch

Serenade in A minor, Op. 75
Romance in A minor, Op. 42
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26

Jack Liebeck (violin), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

Inspite of this being a fairly regular repertoire, I look forward to this release! 

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, I'm sure it will be beautifully played and recorded - but I can't really see the point. There are lots of fine performances of this concerto already available on disk.

[Mark Thomas]

What a wasted opportunity. Harrumph!

[Alan Howe]

It'll be very, very good, no doubt. But a complete waste of effort as far as repertoire is concerned. What about the Lassen VC?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Or at least a dozen others we could mention.

[Revilod]

 Yes. I won't be rushing out to buy this one. It will be interesting to know how well it sells when there is so much competition. Aren't these Hyperion concerto series supposed to be repertoire led? I can't help but think that this disc would sell better if it weren't part of the series thus giving Hyperion an excuse to decorate the front of the booklet with a photo of Jack Liebeck who, as well as being a splendid player, may be a slightly better looking guy than Max Bruch!

[brianeb]

Hyperion appears to be working its way through all the Bruch violin concerti, for completeness' sake.  Just last year it released the VC3 and Scottish Fantasy (No. 17 in the Romantic Violin Concerto series).  The upcoming release faces tough competition indeed, especially with CPO's excellent volume 2 in its own survey of Bruch's works for violin and orchestra which I believe was released less than three months ago.  That one also includes VC1 and has been in heavy rotation on my ipod in recent days, along with the recently released Bis recording of VC2 etc. with Wallin/Kamu.   With all these Bruch recordings coming out at the same time, I think I'm drowning in Bruch...not a bad way to go, actually.

[Alan Howe]

not a bad way to go, actually

That's certainly true!

[eschiss1]

I'd prefer to drown in Bach*, myself, but...

*apologies to Beethoven for the theft.

[giles.enders]

In reply to Revilod, If you look back over the piano concerto series some of the issues have been very much 'sung' composers Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens for example.  In order to attract new purchasers to the series, it is important to include some well known composers.  Jack Liebeck is a very fine violinist with a following and clearly wanted to record some mainstream works.  These cd's will sell and hopefully subsidise some of the slower selling issues in the series.  Jack will no doubt record some lesser known works in the future. 

[Alan Howe]

OK, let's look at the facts here: out of 19 volumes in the RVC series, only 6 contain previously unrecorded concertos, i.e. vol.2 (Stanford), vol.5 (Somervell), vol.9 (David VC4 & VC5), vol.10 (Cliffe & d'Erlanger), vol.15 (Mlynarski VC1) and vol.18 (Jongen).

I suggest, therefore, that Hyperion's overall choice of repertoire has turned out to be extremely disappointing and unadventurous.

[Alan Howe]

Jack Liebeck is a very fine violinist with a following and clearly wanted to record some mainstream works]Jack Liebeck is a very fine violinist with a following and clearly wanted to record some mainstream works

While true, I just wonder why anyone looking for a recording of Bruch VC1 would prefer Liebeck over a whole host of better, indeed great violinists. The coupling, of course, may be a factor, but I'd suggest that anyone who doesn't have the Bruch is probably going to go for a coupling involving another mainstream VC.

[eschiss1]

Just for example, e.g. -- Francescatti in Sibelius & Bruch (1) (different conductors, on HMV.) Had this once on tape; still exists on CD; fine recording. Doesn't have the other Bruch works, but it's an excellent recommendation in my opinion.

[Revilod]

The unwritten rule seems to be that there must be at least one relatively unknown work on a disc for it to be included in the series. So, for example, Stephen Hough's Liszt/Grieg concerto disc was not part of the RPC series while his Saint-Saens/Tchaikovsky/Mendelssohn recordings were. (His Rachmaninov discs were also not included.)  That's why Jack Liebeck's Bruch made the cut.

Am I right in saying that all the recordings in the RPC series which include well known music are by Mr Hough? I expect his discs always sell and Hyperion doesn't mind how hackneyed the repertoire he records may be.

[Gareth Vaughan]

By no means. Stephen Hough made the first recordings (in the RPC series) of Scharwenka's 4th and Emil Sauer's 1st.
But, interestingly, I have just been doing a quick (and, therefore, probably not very accurate count) and find the 66 RPC disks already released contain nearly 80 works previously unrecorded.