Although written in 1947, Brun's Cello Concerto (which we recorded last month) is a totally post-Romantic work.
Here the video promo I've just completed. It contains the complete 2nd movement. Sorry, if presently this video is only available in a German version.
https://vimeo.com/141051073 (https://vimeo.com/141051073)
The CD will be released in February 2016
Thanks, Adriano!
Do you mean "post-Romantic", Adriano? Judging by the excellent promo video and the 2nd movement in particular, I'd say it was a fully Romantic work, and really rather lovely in fact.
Well, I just call it "post" because it was not composed during the official "Romantic" period. Or would the expression "neo-Romantic" be more appropriate?
Next year, all my Brun videos will be completed, there will be 9 in total, including a 30-minute's biography. I am working on this "promotional project" since a few years - and this is all being financed out of my own pocket.
As with all the recent Brun releases, this'll go straight on my wants list.
"Romantic" is just fine, given the implications of "post-" (very academic), "neo-" (don't get me started) (and in the other thread, "unashamedly-" (why? does it have nude scenes as with several Strauss operas?) *rolls eyes*) I say just stick with "Romantic".
:D
No comment 8)
Really wonderful music, beautifully performed. Roll on next February!!
Thanks very much, Alan :-)
My Fritz Brun video essays will be 9 in total, the last of which a 30 minute's biography. Last year I also made an atmospheric video clip of Brun's home in Southern Switzerland, based on the lovely slow moment of his 7th Symphony.
Of course there is no commercial interest in such a collection and all TV stations I had contacted, refused to co-operate. So I am financing all out of my own pocket :-( Will try next year to upload the videos on a server, or have a limited DVD edition available. But, before this, English versions have also to be made. Gladly enough, I have professional knowledges of video editing (in the 90s it was me, incidentally, who launched and produced the first titles of the "Naxos Musical Journeys" collection - which lately has been reissued on DVD:
http://www.adrianomusic.com/resources/Journeys.pdf
(Of course, I do not need images to listen to music, but I have done this in order to help unexperience people to like classical music).
Other Brun videos will be showing mountain landscapes of the Bernese Alps, which the composer all knew by heart and climbed during his holidays. A reviewer once wrote that he was a composer who set Swiss mountains to music.
Last week I went to Lucerne (where Brun was born) to shoot city sights. The ones on Bern were done last year already; what a lovely city! Once the Bernese authorities realised that Brun was deserving it, he was given a flat in a classicistic villa in the midst of an immense park, another great scenery for filming.
Next week I will be running around with my camera in a valley near Lucerne, where the Bruns came from. As it is in my case: a Central Swiss father and and Italian originated mother - but this is not the principal reason for feeling very close to Brun; I discovered a few more characteristics, making me understand why Brun had not always an easy life as an artist :-)
It all sounds fascinating, Adriano, and a noble project. I'm sure that those of us who have already "discovered" Brun will relish it and, more importantly, it will help convert new devotees to his music.
I echo Mark's words. Brun has been a thoroughly worthwhile cause...
... and here the Vimeo link to my (27-minute) video on the recording of Fritz Brun's Piano Concerto:
https://vimeo.com/142860891 (https://vimeo.com/142860891)
Quotehadrianus@Vimeo ...
This is my video essay about the recording Tomas Nemec and I were doing in 1913 in Bratislava ....
I had not expected that you have recorded the piano concerto such a long time ago - sound and video quality
are quite fascinating for that age :-)
O dear, what a fatal typing mistake :-)
Sorry for that and thanks a lot :-)
Hope you appreciate the more important aspects of my posting as its description...
QuoteHope you appreciate the more important aspects of my posting as its description...
I've seen your video of Brun's cello concerto - it is a fantastic work. I am looking forward to get the CD recording soon.
Claudius Herrmann gives a really committed performance, and I have always been fascinated by his recording of Reinecke's cello sonatas (with Saiko Sasaki on cpo).
Agreed. Claudius Herrmann is a superb player.
Thanks very much - will let him know :-)
My email Guild newsletter just arrived with the availability announcement (first I've seen, anyway) of the Brun CC.
http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=47974843a45&tpl=produktdetail.html&pid=17301&rid=261&recno=3 (http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=47974843a45&tpl=produktdetail.html&pid=17301&rid=261&recno=3)
Gregory
I'm glad you posted this, thanks! A must-buy for me.
Oh, nice to hear that, thanks - since Guild are ignoring me. I haven't got a single artist's copy yet and they never told me the exact release date :-(
The CC is quite a challenging listen - until one gets to the slow movement, which is absolutely sublime. Brun's music may often be 'knotty', but the rewards of patient listening and re-listening are many...
...and the finale's a magnificent piece of work in a post-Brahmsian idiom.
...and I've just been blown away by Brun's 9½ minute-long Verheissung for mixed choir, orchestra and organ of 1915. The nearest thing I can think of to compare it to would be parts of Brian's Gothic.
Bernadett Fodor is also very good in the very subtle Fünf Lieder which Adriano has arranged for string sextet. Very nice indeed.
Oh, immense thanks, Alan
This causes me a three-times blush in crescendo :-)
Just coming from a rehearsal of my (latest) arrangement of Debussy's "Trois Ballades de François Villon" (a masterpiece!) for (medium voice) with flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet. The original is for large orchestra. I use the same instrumental group (Ravel's "Introduction et allegro") for my previous arrangements of Debussy's "Faune" and Ravel's "Tzigane" - and a pocket version of Dvorak's "Rusalka"...