Hermann Graedener Violin Concertos 1 & 2

[eschiss1]

She (the violinist) has an upcoming disc of violin "concertos from the Caucasus" (one of them by a well-known name, Aleksei Machavariani- died 1995, not his son also a composer who died just a few days ago I think).

I've read many of Mr. Dubins' reviews back when I was a subscriber to Fanfare and this was about as good as the rest of them.

[Mark Thomas]

I've read many of Mr. Dubins' reviews [...] and this was about as good as the rest of them.

Now there's an ambiguous sentence, Eric!

[Alan Howe]

Indeed. But I for one would like to hear more of Graedener's music - and that of his father, Carl/Karl.

[Gareth Vaughan]

So would I.

[Alan Howe]

And part of the reason is that I'm not yet totally convinced about the ultimate quality of Herrmann Graedener's music. Having gone back to the two VCs, I find them very much in the (post-)Brahmsian mould (although nowhere near the chromatic experimentation of Reger) - an idiom with which I am very comfortable. However, I come away from both pieces with very little that stays in the memory. I have the impression that these are extremely competently worked-out concertos which are obstinately unmemorable, even vaguely forbidding. Was the composer trying too hard? Maybe - he was after all a proficient violinist himself. I wonder whether he relaxes rather more in some of his other music?

Really good music, it seems to me, has the ability to make striking statements. I find this (among the recently released recordings of unsung repertoire) in Grimm and Hiller, but not, sadly, in Graedener.