Michał Bergson

[markniew]

Hi All,

Very intriguing news from the DUX label.
Recording of the completely unsung Polish composer Michał Bergson (1820-1898) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Bergson
Among others we have his Piano Concerto op. 62 played by Jonathan Plowright with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra under Łukasz Borowicz.
I await it with great interest!
http://www.dux.pl/bergson-muzyka-symfoniczna-plowright-orkiestra-filharmonii-poznanskiej.html
Marek

[4candles]

This is excellent news. Bergson has deserved some attention for too long! And Plowright and the forces involved in this recording will clearly put forward the best case possible for this composer's music.

Thanks for alerting me to this 🙂

[Gareth Vaughan]

Very exciting. Thank you.

[Alan Howe]

Unfortunately I get an unsafe website warning when trying to proceed to purchase on Dux's website. Can anyone help?

[Mark Thomas]

I got the same thing, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is unsafe to carry one, just that the vendor's online security certificate doesn't check out, and that could be for all manner of reasons. Anyway, I took a deep breath, ploughed on (an option in "Advanced") and all appeared well. The credit card I used has a very low credit limit to minimise such risks.

[Sharkkb8]

Hmmm, my problem occurs once I get to the website.  When I search for "Michał Bergson" (or "Antoni Kątski" from other thread), I can only get:

"Sorry! Your search does not appear to match any products!"

Targeted links would be greatly appreciated!

[Sharkkb8]

....and an additional couple of tries gets me where I need to be.  Crisis averted.   

[pianoconcerto]

For more information on this concerto and to hear some excerpts, see the 7' video at https://filharmoniapoznanska.pl/nie-znacie-to-posluchajcie/, which has comments by the conductor (in Polish) and pianist (in English).  The work is in e minor (New Grove says g minor).  According to the title page of the manuscript, the work was composed in 1862 and was submitted for his appointment to the Geneva Conservatory, where he began teaching in 1863 and became its Director.  It was performed for the first time on 22 March 1868 in Paris.

The Polish Music Center at Univ. of Southern California also has an article on the discovery of the manuscript full score in a small antiquarian book store in London

https://polishmusic.usc.edu/newsletter/2020/sept-2020/piano-concerto-discovery/

[eschiss1]

imslp has a clarinet work of his, iirc.

[Martin Eastick]

This is most interesting.In fact, I had come across this same manuscript on the Abebooks website a couple of years ago, and had it in my basket for some time whilst considering whether or not to commit to buying it! I still have the images forwarded to me by the seller! In the end, however, I decided against it having already sounded out the  prospects of possible interest by such as Hyperion and one or two others, without much interest however, and I was not prepared to part with several hundreds of pounds on the offchance. However, I am delighted that the item was eventually acquired as indicated above and has gone to a most deserving home - and now look forward very much to the CD. Certainly a case of "All's well that ends well" perhaps?

[4candles]

I believe I remember seeing this work on AbeBooks too Martin, probably around the same time as yourself.

Members wishing to get a flavour of the music (who don't already have the disk), or even to play it, might be interested in the composer's solo piano transcription which I've just discovered has been digitized by Berlin State Library.

• Concert Symphonique, Op.62
  (solo piano transcription by the composer), 1866.

4c

[Alan Howe]

I'd say the idiom of the compact Concerto Symphonique is somewhere between Chopin and Schumann. I don't hear any particularly individual voice, except in the 'skipping' main theme of the finale - a real earworm. However, there are some really lovely things in the work - indeed the slow movement is a gem. Hyperion should've got hold of this years ago.

[Martin Eastick]

Alan, I did mention this when I became aware of the score for sale, but to no avail unfortunately (for them)! My one concern was that, if I had not bought the item, it would inevitably disappear into some library or archive, never again to see the light of day. However, in this case, I'm delighted that the outcome has been so successful! Would that this could be the case in all such similar circumstances though!

[Alan Howe]

It's a fine discovery. Thoroughly worthwhile. Well done on having spotted it in the first place.

[Mark Thomas]

What an attractive work this is - a real find. I do agree with Alan about both the lack of individuality (not that that's a problem in itself) and the influence of Chopin in the more cantabile passages. I don't hear much Schumann, but in the outer movements in particular I was reminded quite strongly of Litolff's own Concertos Symphoniques, and I wonder if they were in part Bergson's model? Whatever, playing the "sounds like" game never gets us very far, and the important message to get across is that this is a very enjoyable work, considerably better than some of the weaker offerings in Hyperion's RPO series. If it has a weakness, to me the tuneful finale is rather inconsequential when compared with the long, heroic opening movement and the gorgeous slow one, but the concerto receives a most persuasive performance from Plowright and the Polish forces and overall gets a hearty recommendation from me.