Julius Engelbert Röntgen (1855-1932) – Solo Concertos

[Peter1953]

This German/Dutch composer has a website www.juliusrontgen.nl which is unfortunately (not for me...) in Dutch. If you go to 'Discografie' (Discography), and then to the red horizontal bar 'Soloconcerten' (Solo Concertos), you will see that 3 (out of 7) Piano Concertos are available on CD. No. 2 in D major, op. 18 and 'Two Piano Concertos (1929-1930)'. These could be No. 5 in E major (1929) or No. 6 in E minor (1929) and No. 7 in C major (1930) and are performed by Folke Nauta at the piano and the Orchestra of the East (het Orkest van het Oosten) under Jurjen Hempel. This CD (or these CD's) is (are) obtainable per e-mail through the Family Society Julius Röntgen. Obviously it's not a commercial recording. I don't have it yet, but will try to get a copy.

Another disc with Röntgen's Piano Concertos No. 2 (op. 18) and No. 4 (in F major, 1906) is (or will be) released by cpo, see here

Does anybody aleady have any of these CD's? If so, what is your opinion?

Any comments on the CD with the 3 Cello Concertos? And the only recorded Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor by Rachin Wenk-Wolff?

[Mark Thomas]

All Röntgen's concertos make for rewarding listening. My own favourites are the Violin Concerto, which is a fine example of the heroic romantic violin concerto and the three Cello Concertos, which are very tuneful pieces, written on a  rather smaller scale. I find that I have to work harder with the three Piano Concertos, they don't seem to me to be as lyrical or melodically memorable as the other four we presently have available but, like all Röntgen's music, they are very well put together.

Good news about the cop release.

[Alan Howe]

The CD of the three PCs was a commercial recording - on the Donemus/Composer's Voice label. It appears now to be out of print, unfortunately.

[eschiss1]

I have heard these works archived online on concertzender.nl . They are very good, I think, and I look forward to the cpo recording (they have done very well by Röntgen so far.)
Eric

[Gareth Vaughan]

I have the CD of the 3 piano concertos, bought when it was released under the Donemus label. They are D major (Op. 18) and the 2 concerti of 1929-30 in E minor and C major respectively. I find them very rewarding. The last 2 in particular are quite contrapuntal and there is an almost Bachian feel about some of the music.
I am very much looking forward to the CPO release.
I believe the early (1873 G minor) PC may be lost and one of the other PCs exists only in a two-piano score - the E major, I think. Perhaps someone could confirm, or deny, my understanding here. I know there is some reason why only 5 of the 7 concerti can be performed.  I believe the 2 being recorded by CPO are 1887 (D minor) and 1906 (F major), so 3 & 4 actually. If anyone knows differently, please correct me.

[Alan Howe]

cpo are apparently releasing PCs 2 & 4 (see New Recordings).

[Peter1953]

There is something strange with the numbering of his Piano Concertos.
Looking at the family website www.juliusrontgen.nl and Wikipedia (in Dutch) we find:

Year      juliusrontgen.nl / Wikipedia.nl

1873      Konzert g-moll [G minor] / No. 1 in G minor
1879      Konzert D-dur [D major] op 18 / No. 2 in D major, op. 18
1887      Konzert d-moll [D minor] / No. 3 in D minor
1906      Konzert F-dur [F major] / No. 4 in F major
1929      Konzert E-dur [E major] / No. 5 in E major
1929/30 Zwei Konzerte Nr. 1 e-moll [E minor] und Nr. 2 C-dur [C major] / No. 6 in E minor (1929) and No. 7 in C major (1930)
                               

[Gerhard Griesel]

I see that Amazon advertises one CD with Röntgen's PCs, but it comes at $22 for a used copy.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Code Select Expand

cpo are apparently releasing PCs 2 & 4 (see New Recordings).

I know what the site says, but, as Peter points out, the numbering may be misleading. Rontgen himself did not give numbers to his PCs, so until we know the keys it's not absolutely certain. In the projected survey of Rontgen's orchestral music by CPO (is that still going on, I wonder?) Kirschnereit and David Porcelijn were scheduled to record PCs "3 & 4".

[eschiss1]

Donemus used to have a Rontgen page with a link to a PDF with a very lengthy (43 pages) and detailed worklist, which seemed to be, if not better (how can I tell?), certainly longer and more filled with unpublished works etc. than anything I had found on other sites. It is now gone from the revised donemus.nl site, and I don't know if they've moved it or if it's just gone (searches of various kinds turn up nothing). I'll go see if I have a copy on my hard drive (or if it was wiped the last time my hard drive was- er... erg.) - ah yes, I still have it...

the piano concertos listed on the PDF rescued from the Donemus page are :

1873 concerto in G minor (no.1)
1879 concerto in D major op.18 (no.2)
1887 concerto in D minor (no.3)
1906 concerto in F major (no.4)
1929 concerto in E major (no.5)
1929-1930 concertos in E minor and C major dedicated to Donald Francis Tovey (nos. 6 and 7)
(the ones I've heard are nos. 2, 6 and 7.)
Eric

[Alan Howe]

You are right, Gareth. The coupling now announced by cpo is certainly not as originally planned (the couplings were to have been: (a) 2 & 6/7; (b) 3 & 4.) Curious.

What I do know is that cpo had no plans to record PC1 (it's a juvenile work) and that PC5 was never orchestrated.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you for that clarification, Alan. I thought it was the E major (No. 5) which existed only in 2-piano score. The date of No. 1 would indicate it's being a student work. Given that the Donemus CD contains 2, 6 & 7, it would make sense for CPO to record 3 & 4. However, we shall just have to wait and see, I suppose.

[Alan Howe]

I'm assuming from the information I received a few years back from a member of the team involved in the cpo Röntgen series that five PCs will be released, i.e. 2,3,4,6 and 7. So the question is: does the CD announced at jpc actually contain PCs 2 and 4? I assume that it does and that thereby cpo will avoid replicating the Donemus coupling.

[Peter1953]

In 2000 the grandson of Julius Röntgen, also named Julius (b. 1945), gave a lecture in the WTC in Rotterdam, which is published (in English) on the internet. See here

The two short Piano Concertos [of 1929-30] are mentioned:

Two years before his death in September 1932 he received a honorary doctorate at Edinburgh University. The British musicologist Donald F. Tovey invited him on this occasion to come to Scotland. Especially for this occasion Röntgen composed two short piano-concertos, which have been recently [1997] published on CD on the occasion of the fiftieth jubilee of the Society for Dutch music "Donemus".

[Alan Howe]

PCs 2, 6 and 7 were indeed published on Donemus CV64.