Albert Dietrich: symphony, violin concerto and overture, forthcoming from Naxos

[eschiss1]

The following CD is apparently to be released by Naxos in late July: Naxos 8.574507 - Dietrich symphony, violin concerto and overture in C (confirmed by Presto Classical), with Christoph König conducting the "Solistes Européens Luxembourg" (?) and violinist Klaidi Sahatçi.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks very much for this news, Eric. Fascinating.

[Justin]

Looking forward to hearing the symphony. A great recording of it exists on CPO.

[eschiss1]

Both works are on the cpo disk, and the violin concerto was recorded on a Koch Schwann LP (later CD) 40 years ago (wait, ... yes, I was alive then, too.) The overture in C _may_ be new to recording? But I'm guessing it's neat to have new recordings of the first two works- it's not like they're over-recorded.

[Ilja]

Considering that we know these forces from Farrenc's symphonies, it is to be expected that their interpretation of this piece will be backward- rather than forward-looking. Which should provide some contrast with the existing recording by the Oldenburgers under Rumpf.

[Alan Howe]

Let's hope it won't be too HIP-influenced to be enjoyable. After all, this is post-Schumann and 'on the way' to Brahms.

[Ilja]

It isn't that far post-Schumann, though (1869-70), and I always find terms such as "pre-echoes" or "on the way" problematic since they suggest knowledge of future developments that the composer obviously could never have. A somewhat leaner performance than the one we have would be interesting from that perspective, and I'm guessing that's what we're going to get. Moreover, since we have a fairly decent first recording I would have no issues with a variation of approaches in subsequent recordings. In the case of Dietrich, however, we know the musical language and performance preferences of his and Brahms' circle (including Gernsheim, Fuchs, Scholz, Herzogenberg et al.) quite well and this should - in my view at least - curtail the urge to make the work sound much earlier than mid-Brahms.

[Alan Howe]

You may well be right, Ilja. I'll certainly be buying this anyway - and the violin soloist sounds really fine from the various excerpts available on YouTube. Speaking purely personally, I like lean and muscular Schumann and Brahms, but not scrawny and small-scale. Just saying...

Rumpf's recording on cpo is pretty standard stuff (well done, though), so there's certainly room for a more muscular alternative.

[Alan Howe]

According to their respective websites, the orchestra on the forthcoming release is approx. 60-strong whereas the orchestra on the cpo release is 70-strong, so the major difference will surely be to do with matters such as string vibrato, tempo and general articulation. Muscularity shouldn't be an issue - however, listening to excerpts of the Luxembourg orchestra's Farrenc symphonies, some of the tempi chosen make for less clear articulation than is ideal.

[Alan Howe]

Presto now has the timings for the Naxos release. Here's a comparison with the cpo recording of the Symphony:

  Naxos             cpo

I   13:16          13:07
II    9:10            9:11
III   9:45          10:21
IV 10:16          10:49
TT 42:27         43:32

Not a great deal of difference between the two...

[eschiss1]

Does anyone have timings for both of the older commercial recordings of the violin concerto, the better to compare both of them with the new one ? (Edit: According to Amazon, the Koch recording had total length 32:07, but the label didn't subdivide. Still, that information may be available elsewhere. Presto gives 34:02 for the cpo recording, divided as: Allegro 14:41, Adagio espressivo 10:33, Allegro molto vivace 8:48. And the new recording, indeed, is 31:48 divided as 14:08/8:45/8:55 - rather briefer in the Adagio. Will see if I can find out anything about the 1982 Koch recording.)

[eschiss1]

Ah. The Koch was, I'm reminded, reissued on CD. And also, a Discogs entry for the original LP, has 31:15 (not 32:07) divided into 13:25 / 10:04 / 7:40 for the three movements/sections of the concerto. cpo is longest in the first movement, followed by the new Naxos, followed by Maile/Lopez-Cobos speediest (if complete) on Koch; in the second movement cpo is again longest, followed by Maile on Koch, followed by the upcoming recording; in the finale, the new recording seems to be slowest at 8:55, followed by cpo at 8:48, followed by a speedy (assuming not cut?) Maile at 7:40.

[Alan Howe]

I'm less bothered about the VC provided that the soloist doesn't go full HIP and forego all use of vibrato. Maile, by the way, is the superior soloist - so far! However, I've always liked the extra time taken by Kufferath in the first two movements. To have a third recording will be luxury indeed, although given that this is, in my opinion, Dietrich's most fully realised large-scale orchestral work, the fact that it hasn't been more frequently recorded (or even performed) is a scandal. It would make a great coupling for any of the more famous VCs - or, perhaps, for the Goldmark or Raff's VC1.

[John Boyer]

The Kufferath/CPO has a more natural balance between soloist and orchestra, so it's the one I always return to. The engineers in the Koch placed Maile in an exaggerated perspective. 

I agree with Alan that this is one of the great Romantic concertos.  It needs no apologies, no special pleading.  That it has been ignored for so long is perplexing.  But then Bruch 3 is also ignored, so why am I surprised?   

[Alan Howe]

Excerpts are now available at Presto:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9631207--albert-dietrich-symphony-in-d-minor-violin-concerto-overture-in-c-major

...and I'm not sure I like everything I hear. The opening of the VC sounds rather sluggish to me and the strings don't come across very well (maybe because I've been used to the fuller sounds on Koch and cpo). However, as I suspected, the violinist sounds very fine indeed. The symphony has some excitingly recorded timpani, but again the strings don't really 'dig in' as a larger orchestra would - and they're not good in the scherzo either.

I'll be buying this for the VC, but I think it's a missed opportunity as the Symphony's just not as well done as on cpo. If you don't know the music, I'd stick with the excellent cpo recordings.