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I just checked, the video is available to re-watch at both links now as the concert is over.

Hi all,

As I type this, we hear the encore after a live stream of Stenhammar's 2d piano concerto, performed by Martin Sturfält, Herbert Blomstedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) from the Herkulessaal Munich. This is the link – I am sorry I noticed this only now, there is only an interview with Blomstedt and an "Eroica" left now: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=notif&v=636344807801012&notif_id=1639163260562404&notif_t=live_video or audio-only https://www.br-klassik.de/concert/ausstrahlung-2737578.html

I hope this will be available on the BR's facebook site or for download later!

Best wishes! ewk

Dear Martin, thank you for the realisation of the Märchen!

Nice to hear how good midi orchestras are by now, there are certainly passages where it would be difficult to tell that it's not an actual orchestra – especially the strings are nowhere as bad as they used to be in the old days (while there are of course other passages that sound like a harmonium, mostly when brass is involved ;-) – simply the limits of this techinque, nothing to do with your work of course).

I assume you created a modern computer score at least as a side product of this realisation – would you be willing to upload it e.g. on imslp, as well as the parts? Especially the latter would of course make an actual performance far more likely, should any orchestra happen to be looking into Wüerst!

Best wishes! ewk

On the webpage itself, there is a shorter link labelled as "permalink": https://opac.kbr.be/LIBRARY/doc/SYRACUSE/18198173
Best wishes! ewk

I whitnessed the Herbstsymphonie in London a couple of years ago (we had a thread on that concert), and it was nearly such an adventurous programming, with Respighi's "Poema autumnale" in the first half. They had Julia Fischer perform the latter, of course.
But, alas, the concert hall was quite empty with ca. 700 of the 2000 available tickets sold as far as I remember...

Back to the Asrael recording this thread is about: There is a lot of Finnish talk in the interval and bevor the concert, as well as a Mozart Piano concerto, so anyone just interested in the Symphony can skip to 1:47:50, or follow this link: https://youtu.be/hY9TlP2BpHI?t=6466

Best wishes,
ewk

You are right, Ilja, Muromets might be of the category "in some conductor's dreams" just as Asrael, but there is a big gap between this piece and Asrael concerning actual performances, indeed!

Hm, I feel it is on the edge at the most, at least concerning live performances. I can only speak for Germany – here it gets an outing every once in a while (indeed by top orchestras), but not more than that.  Mostly due to Jakub Hrůša and Kirill Petrenko. It is surely still a venture to put it on a programme, as the general public does not know it (nor the composer I think) and you need to hope they come to the concert nonetheless. But that, of course, is true for many composers apart from the always-the-same core repertoire.

My feeling says it is one of those pieces conductors and orchestras know and appreciate as one of the seldomly-heard gems, but that you need to persuade your financial director for.  Maybe same category as Ilya Muromets (even more persuasion needed) or Stenhammar 2 (mostly due to Blomstedt, probably comparable level of persuasion?) or maybe the Nielsen symphonies (maybe a bit less persuasion needed)? I am, of course, not in the business myself, so it's all more of an educated guess from the perspective of a concert-goer and former amateur orchestra organizing committee member.

A few years ago, I had the honour to briefly chat with Herbert Blomstedt after a concert (a deeply moving Mahler 9). Among other, I asked him why he would mostly resort to Stenhammar's Second instead of giving the 1st an outing every once in a while – he said (in fluent German, having led German orchestras for many years) that it was too much modelled after Bruckner for him – ha added "quite good a model of course, but only "modelled after" instead of having its own voice" (or so, I do not recall his exact words).

Although a brief chat, a memory that will last!

Just tried it, it presented me with 6 pages of results within a second.

Well, that's a nice and very handy thing to have. Thank you for the hint, Ilja!

[Franz Wachsmann/Waxman, Auld Lang Syne Variations, for piano quartet (or String orchestra and piano)]

Dear all,

I just ran across this most charming little set of variations by Franz Waxman/Wachsmann on the well-known tune of »Auld Lang Syne«, originally created for Jascha Heifetz' 1948 new year's eve party. The last movement is of course outside our remit, but the first three are in the style of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, respectively. What a gem!

Franz Wachsmann/Waxman, Auld Lang Syne Variations, for piano quartet (or String orchestra and piano)
I. Eine Kleine Nichtmusik
II. Moonlight Concerto
III. Chaconne a Son Gout
IV. Hommage to Shostakofiev.

Performed by Geoffrey Applegate (violin), James Van Valkenburg (viola), Marcy Chanteaux (cello) and Pauline Martin (piano.)

More information here.

Best wishes!
ewk

What an entertaining piece. I did not know that Heinz Erhardt did compose.

On a side-note, a funny coincidence – the piano she is playing on has the logo of the "Klavierhaus Hermann" printed on its side, a small piano seller at the small town of Trossingen in South Germany, a few km from where I was raised. It's funny how small the musical world is, sometimes... (there is a small musical university in Trossingen, but the pianist does not seem to be associated with it. The video must have been taken at a concert in the region)

May I suggest instead of banning CD announcements of works that have several pre-existing recordings altogether, joining them into a collecting thread like "some 2021 unsung concerts"? I see the point why some would not be interested an announcement recording  of a work that is relatively rarely heard in concert, but that has several recordings (which is true for many semi-unsungs, I think). Nonetheless, I enjoy following certain composers' way out of obscurity, as I have commented before elsewhere.

Those of us who belong to the first category could simply skip this thread. And maybe here and there, a discussion starts that is worth its own thread – I remember Die tote Stadt from Munich being discussed intensely despite the piece re-entering repertoire these days (or even having re-entered already). I think this might apply to more composers than only Korngold (e.g.: Glière 3d symphony with approx. 8 recordings), and I think this board's members would be wise enough not to post the next recording of, say, the Brahms Sextets.

What do you think of this?

As for recordings, this seems to be the case more and more (if not for all works, but this is surely common for many composers). In the concert hall, things are of course much more conservative, sadly enough. Here in Germany, even Elgar (apart from Enigma and Cello concerto) would qualify ad unusual or even adventurous programming. By Korngold, I've seldomly seen anything apart from the Violin concerto (or die tote Stadt) on a concert programme -- although the symphony seems to make its way out of obscurity these days.
The opposite is of course only true for Brahms, Beethoven and the likes.

I own the historic recording with Korngold at the Piano, and it has quite a charm to it. The spoken passages are so unmistakably Viennese! The plot is rather silly, of course (if it wasn't in my mother tongue, I could easily just not pay attention to the dialogues and song texts, but as it's German I can't). But given the music and the many earworms, I don't care!
Very nice to hear that it is going to be staged.