Reposted here as I think this release deserves a thread of its own:
From Simon Callaghan's website: "I am very pleased to announce that my recording of concertos by Bernhard Scholz and Josef Rheinberger will be released as Volume 76 of Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto Series on June 29th 2018. More information here:
https://www.simoncallaghan.com/news/a-date-for-the-diary/kDcyG4FfG8Tr4D6LS (https://www.simoncallaghan.com/news/a-date-for-the-diary/kDcyG4FfG8Tr4D6LS)
cheers,
Daniel
(https://ncms.imgix.net/simon/o7Z6najvtEsN55otB?w=300&h=3%3Cbr%20/%3E00)
This is an exciting release. Rheinberger's concerto is a fine piece and could do with a first-rate new recording.
Rob H. reports:
Here's the cover. July 1st release date:
http://www.clicmusique.com/rheinberger-scholz-concertos-pour-piano-callaghan-gernon-p-100621.html?osCsid=ed6416658f04dfdfabff77d1c10fdf01 (http://www.clicmusique.com/rheinberger-scholz-concertos-pour-piano-callaghan-gernon-p-100621.html?osCsid=ed6416658f04dfdfabff77d1c10fdf01)
Ah, just in time for my birthday. How providential!
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/ym.asp?ym=2018_07 (https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/ym.asp?ym=2018_07)
and confirmed by Hyperion.
...and sounding extreeeeeeeemely enticing!
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68225
Beautiful sound clips - the last movement of Scholz is a charming earworm.
Unfortunately my first post back at UC after a few weeks' absence abroad is a negative one. I looked forward to hearing the Scholz works with much anticipation, so it's particularly galling to find myself underwhelmed by his Piano Concerto. To be sure, the slow movement is as prettily charming as the sound clips suggested it would be, but I don't detect any real depth to the music. The same is true of the outer movements, but with the added disappointment of them being based on rather trite thematic material which Scholz repeats way too often. Throughout the work there are few harmonic surprises and little dynamic or emotional contrast. The piece is undeniably easy on the ear, but I was expecting something more from this intimate of Brahms and Joachim, and successor to Raff as head of the Frankfurt Conservatory, than a piece of watered-down Schumannesque easy-listening.
I haven't listed yet to Scholz's Capriccio, but I'm not now expecting much from it. Luckily Rheinberger's magnificent Concerto will be, I'm sure, a much more satisfying listen.
Actually, from the recent BBC Radio 3 broadcast of the Rheinberger, I'm expecting the recording of that marvellous piece to be distinctly underwhelming as well. Compare the wonderful Adrian Ruiz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xW-yxLsoOI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xW-yxLsoOI)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concerto-Piano-2-Sgambati/dp/B000005WWM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1530550194&sr=8-2&keywords=rheinberger+piano+concerto (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concerto-Piano-2-Sgambati/dp/B000005WWM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1530550194&sr=8-2&keywords=rheinberger+piano+concerto)
The orchestra on the Hyperion will be superior, though...
I think perhaps you expected too much of Scholz. I find it a very attractive piano concerto, full of melody and beautifully scored, but one which makes no attempt to plumb any depths. But then (a) I wasn't expecting it to, and (b) I love Herz - so perhaps there is no hope for me.
Yes, I'm sure you're right, Gareth. Still, hope (sometimes) springs eternal.
QuoteI'm expecting the recording of that marvellous piece to be distinctly underwhelming as well
The Rheinberger as well? Heigh ho. But, you're right, Alan, Ruiz' performance is the benchmark (as his is, for me, of Rubinstein's Fifth).
The orchestral support will be better on Hyperion, but I just have the feeling that these two works needed more dynamic treatment from all concerned. Of course, my copy's on order!
maybe Scholz will be more interesting in his chamber music (his quartet and sonatas - those that are posted at IMSLP, anyway; he seems to have composed quite a few cello sonatas - look intriguing to me.)
Quotemaybe Scholz will be more interesting in his chamber music
This is often the case. Think of Fuchs, for example; or Kiel, etc.
It is certainly true that the chamber music medium seems to bring out the best in some composers. I often feel that some of Raff's finest compositions can be found in his chamber music, for example.
Off topic, I know, but you're absolutely right about Raff, Gareth. Not only fine quality, but of consistently fine quality too unlike, say, the symphonies.
And Rheinberger's string quintet- for example- seems a more taut and memorable piece of work than such orchestral works of his I know, though the F major symphony for instance was worth reviving (and I recall enjoying the piano concerto and expect I will again next I hear it.)
Rheinberger's chamber music is choc full of gems. If folk can afford the Thorofon box, they will discover delight after delight.
I'm also a bit disappointed with the Scholz concerto but the Rheinberger (a really superb piece) gets a very fine performance in my view....certainly not lacking in dynamism, surely, and a punchy recording too. The ochestra is streets ahead of the Nurnberg Symphony Orchestra. I'm not too impressed with the waffly booklet note, though. At one point it confuses the two composers crediting Scholz with the twenty organ sonatas which Rheinberger wrote.
Oh, that's good to know (about the Rheinberger, I mean). Looking forward to receiving my copy.
QuoteAt one point it confuses the two composers crediting Scholz with the twenty organ sonatas which Rheinberger wrote.
I have just read through the booklet PDF online at Hyperion Records and can find no mention of Rheinberger's organ sonatas at all, much less confusion of the two composers. Does the text of the physical booklet differ from that of the online PDF? Or am I going crazy?! - not impossible!!!
Maybe they fixed it...
It says in the printed booklet (P.3) :
"Indeed, Scholz worked assiduously to promote Brahms and, in common with that composer, his chamber music is among the highlights of his output. He composed twenty organ sonatas..."
They must have spotted this error and corrected the PDF booklet.
Oh dear. Shows the need for careful proof-reading.
I've just listened to the Rheinberger Piano Concerto and I must say that it's a rather better performance than I feared. To be sure Callaghan doesn't quite have Ruiz' fire, but he does bring out the score's lyricism effectively and the orchestral contribution is 100% better than the Nürnberg Sinfoniker's was.
Although for much of the time the orchestra is superfluous, to my surprise I rather enjoyed Scholz' short Capriccio for piano and orchestra, which seems a more focused and atmospheric piece than the Piano Concerto. That said, the slow movement of the latter has grown on me with repeated hearings and certainly is a lovely piece. I'd like to say that I think better of the outer movements too, but I'm afraid that I don't much - they still teeter on the brink of triteness.
I keep asserting nothing else substantial by Scholz is recorded (or assuming it). As I seem to have forgotten, ...
String Quartet no.1 Op.46 as played (https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No.1%2C_Op.46_(Scholz%2C_Bernhard)) by Steve's Bedroom Band is not a complete string quartet performance, but at least it means 3 works of his can be heard.
Edit: Op.40 No.2 "Trotzkopf" for piano, in a 1997 performance accompanying a 2001 book... the only other listed offhand seems to have a song by Meyer-Helmund to a text by Scholz?
I certainly wouldn't make any great claims for the Scholz, but found myself enjoying it rather more than Mark T. I do feel, though, that more dynamic advocacy might have made the piece really take off - after all it has plenty of tunes, yet the opportunities to 'dig into' the juicier moments seem to me to pass by without much being made of them. For example, the orchestra in the first movement tends to 'sit down' on the repeated 'rum-ti-tum' rhythmic motif instead of leading the ear on. It all sounds a bit laboured and careful. Fortunately the slow movement and the spirited finale sound much more engaged - and, therefore, engaging. We'll never get another recording and - don't get me wrong - this is a fine performance overall; however, I think it could have been even better.
...the Rheinberger is given a fine performance, sounding much more energised, especially in the first movement. I'd say it's as near definitive as we're likely to get.
Having just finished hearing the Scholz Concerto I must say I rather disagree with the general opinion here - true the 1st movement isn't as ear-catchy as the other 2 but on repeated listening I feel it's a really well thought out and beautifully constructed movement. I do agree that had this movement been played a tad faster it would have gained a bit more 'identity'.
I think that's the issue here: the first movement of the Scholz just doesn't take off in this performance. It sounds too careful, too studio-bound.
That has been an issue elsewhere in the series, I think. I'm specifically referring to the Widor disc.
In a way it's amazing that this doesn't happen more often. It's a tribute to the ongoing quality of the RPC series.
Of course, repeated listening is a must for unfamiliar music such as the Scholz. And I now find myself feeling more positively towards the first movement. I find it quite a varied movement - with some obvious 'big moments', yes - but also with some interesting side-steps into subtler, more reflective passages. Perhaps the piece is growing on me...
Scholz wrote two other piano concertos, one of them incomplete, I think. The complete one, in D minor, is in a manuscript dated 1897. (There's also a violin concerto in ms dated 1894.) Mostly at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. These later works might be more interesting than the B major concerto.
The pianist Simon Callaghan informed me last year that the other concertant works [2 unpublished Concertos in manuscript in G Major & D minor in addition to an unpublished Concert-Fantasie in C minor] by Scholz are much on his radar...
Neat. I had the impression from the description @ RISM that the 1856 G major was at least slightly incomplete (missing 4 pages of its finale), but maybe only that one particular source of it is, or maybe not even that bad...