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A fourth Raff opera, Dame Kobold, is due to be recorded in October, for release on a major label probably late next year. It's a comedy, based on Calderón's famous farce La Dama Duende and was his most successful foray into the medium, enjoying a respectable run when it was staged in Weimar in 1870. Of Raff's six operas, Benedetto Marcello has been available for a few years, Samson was released earlier this year and Die Eifersüchtigen comes out next next month, so the arrival of Dame Kobold on the shelves next year will leave only König Alfred and Die Parole to be recorded. Who'd ever have thought it?

Chandos has announced that's it's to close its download service on 25 October. In an email Managing Director Ralph Couzens writes: "The reason for the closure is purely that sales of digital downloads have been decreasing year on year, with many customers preferring to stream from their favourite streaming service. It has now become un-profitable for us to continue the service". If the  decline in download sales is an industry-wide trend, then this is a potentially worrying development for those of us who have focussed on owning downloads rather than CDs but I'm not panicking yet. Chandos has only ever offered the products of a relatively limited selection of labels, often at prices higher than UK rival Presto. In addition, it's now owned by Klaus Heymann, whose own Naxos operation relies on third party download sellers, rather than hosting its own service, so maybe his influence has informed Couzens' decision. Still, perhaps it's a straw in the wind?

David Hurwitz is often controversial, and he's being so here, but I do think what he says about HIP in his latest video is refreshingly objective. Or maybe it's just that, this time, I agree with him!

Thanks to Mathias for posting in our Downloads Board the recordings of these two choral works by Reinecke. I haven't listened yet to Belsazar, but there is some really lovely music in Sommertagsbilder, which is surprisingly effective despite its generally moderate-to-slow tempi.

Has anyone yet had a chance to compare the new Naxos release of Meyerbeer's L'Africaine with the earlier cpo release? With Michael Spyres in the role of Vasco it's a very tempting buy.

A new CD featuring the estimable Oliver Triendl playing Rudolf Moser's Piano Concerto, coupled with various of Moser's orchestral works, is imminent from Hänssler - details and audio samples her. Moser is a new name to me but his idiom, although clearly 20th century, seems to be within UC's area of interest.

I understand that we can expect Raff's final opera Die Eifersüchtigen to be released on a major label later this year, probably sometime in the autumn. It's a live recording, taken from the 2022 Zurich performances, with some studio infill and I can vouch for its quality. More, as soon as I know it.

For enthusiasts of Polish rarities, Grzegorz Fitelberg's Symphony in E minor is due out in digital format on Friday from Dux - audio extracts here. The Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Łukasz Borowicz.

Many thanks to Justin for uploading the recording of a recent broadcast of Raff's Symphony No.10 Zur Herbstzeit. At first hearing it's a more driven and dynamically varied account of it than we've had so far on disc and, as such, may be more in keeping with what Raff originally intended - we know that his requested tempi were generally regarded as brisk even for his time, and so the 20th/21st century "slow down" in tempi has rather misrepresented Raff's intentions (Järvi being an honourable exception). I'm very much looking forward to enjoying a more leisurely listen later on today.

Huge thanks to britishcomposer for uploading the recording of the completion of Norman's Piano Concerto to our Downloads Board here. More details about the work, including movement tempi, are to be found at the Swedish Musical Heritage website here.

A video of a fine performance in Switzerland a few months ago of Raff's Octet has just been uploaded to YouTube here. The opening and slow movements are taken at a rather more leisurely pace than is sometimes the case but are none the worse for that.

I'm very sad to report that Mike Hopf, a UC member of long standing known to many of us here, passed away last week after suffering a heart attack. Mike was a valued member of our community with a particular enthusiasm for unsung vocal works and he'll be very much missed. Ave atque vale, Mike.

Due out at the beginning of next month from Sterling is a 2001 recording by Swedish Radio of Andreas Hallén's Waldemarsskatten, a four act romantic opera from 1898. Details and sound bites here.

I've uploaded to our Downloads Board here a recording broadcast by Swiss radio a couple of days ago of a concert performance last year of Raff's First Violin Concerto. The soloist, Anatol Toth, was only 19 at the time, which maybe accounts for the very short break between the second and third movements - the work is intended to be played attacca.

Anyone who has enjoyed Joncières' Gounod-esque opera Dimitri, recorded by Palazzetto Bru Zane, may be intrigued by the prospect of some purely orchestral music by him - a symphony no less. A recording of his Symphonie Romantique, played by the Brussels Philharmonic under Hervé Niquet is on YouTube here. Much as I enjoyed Dimitri, it isn't the subtlest or most finely wrought piece of work, so my expectations for the Symphony weren't high, but unfortunately even they weren't met. Joncières piles on the orchestral colour in its four short movements (the work lasts just 23 minutes) but, as his thematic material is trite and symphonic development largely absent, it's very much an empty succession of "effects without causes". At best it's a Suite Romantique but, for me a least, it's not a work to which I'll bother returning.

In contrast to his stark demolition of Rauchenecker last week, this time David Hurwitz is spot on in his YouTube video about Gernsheim.

The tireless Dario Salvi directs the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra in an interesting selection of very early orchestral works by Meyerbeer, the major piece being a ballet: Der Fischer und das Milchmädchen. Full details and audio extracts here. Released today in the UK.

Just released by Naxos is a CD with several previously unrecorded (I think) works for violin and orchestra by Vieuxtemps, including his unfinished Violin Concerto No.8 - he had only completed the first movement with piano accompaniment when he died. It was published posthumously and has now been convincingly orchestrated by Christoph Baumgarten. I've yet to listen to the other works, but the concerto movement is a substantial 13+ minutes, and well worth a hearing.

As I've mentioned previously, as part of the Raff bicentenary celebrations two operas by Raff are receiving their premieres in the next few weeks. Firstly there's the Zurich Opera Collective's production of Raff's final opera Die Eifersüchtigen in the Theater Arth, Switzerland on 3 and 4 September, followed by performances in Zurich itself on 16 and 17 September. Full details here - tickets bookable now. The poster promises an appropriately light-hearted staging, though clearly not 16th century Florence as intended by Raff.



That's followed a week later by Raff's second opera, the five act music drama Samson, which will premiere at the National Theatre in Weimar, Germany on 11 September, followed by a further eight performances. Full details here - tickets bookable now. Weimar has been one of those venues which in the past has indulged in some controversial Regietheater stagings, so all bets are off as regards the production itself, but judging from this publicity shot it does at least look as if Samson's hair loss will feature:



For any Raff enthusiast this is a dizzying prospect and I'm delighted to be going to both first performances, following each of which I'll post a report here. Samson (but not this production) will definitely be recorded next year by the Schweizer Fonogramm label as reported in this thread. I believe that a recording will be made of the Die Eifersüchtigen production, but it's not yet clear whether this will be a commercial release or just for private circulation. Interest has also been shown in recording Dame Kobold, Raff's most successful opera, but I've nothing concrete to report unfortunately.

Raff's Symphony No.3 Im Walde will be played at Hamburg's prestigeous new Elbphilarmonie on 13 November this year to celebrate the composer's bicentenary. Simon Kannenburg (author of the award-winning two volume complete Raff/von Bülow letters) will conduct the Neue Philharmonie Hamburg in Weber's Der Freischütz Overture and Strauss' Horn Concerto No.1 as well as the Raff. Full details here.