Just released:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Motherland-works-Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k-Bart%C3%B3k-Walton/dp/B078FFX7JD/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1528043379&sr=1-3&keywords=motherland
The performance by Carpenter of the Dvorak Cello Concerto (in an arrangement by J.Vieland edited by Carpenter himself) is notable not only for some very expressive viola playing (superlative tone and expressive power), but for the wonderful conducting of the Japanese, Kazushi Ono: http://www.kazushiono.com/top.php (http://www.kazushiono.com/top.php)
With all of the quality viola repertoire crying out for exposure, this is an example of unoriginal thinking and a complete waste of resources. I don't care how well it is performed; it is exactly what the catalog and industry does not need.
Well, there aren't many quality viola concertos in the period covered by UC. And the performance is really rather fine.
What repertoire have you in mind (say, from the period 1800 to 1920)?
I always wondered if Chrétien Urhan (the solo violist in the premiere of Berlioz' Harold in Italy) ever wrote a concerto or concertante work for viola. He did compose a fair amount of chamber music (but he lived such an ascetic life that perhaps the thought of being a soloist in the spotlight was anathema to him.)
Well, even a couple of his small ensemble works ask for viola solo. ("La romanesca, fameux air de danse de la fin du XVIe. siécle : arrangé pour l'alto avec acct. de deux violons, alto, basse et guitare obligée ou piano"; also one alternate instrumentation of one of his quintets calls not for viola solo but for -three- violas in addition to other instruments...) Have we had a separate thread devoted to his music?...
What about more substantial fare?
Define? BNF has uploaded some cantatas and instrumental duos of his (and Worldcat lists some quintets), but some of the instrumental works are based on others' songs, etc.
Sorry. I meant more substantial fare by anyone in the 19thC/early 20thC, i.e. specifically viola concertos - which is where we came in in this thread.
ah sorry, right. There were a few- will look into them. (How is the Arends concertino? The Meyer-Olbersleben?)
I assume you mean the Viola Concerto in D, Op. 112 (1925) by Max Meyer-Olbersleben (1850-1927)? It's at IMSLP:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Viola_Concerto_(Meyer-Olbersleben%2C_Max) (http://imslp.org/wiki/Viola_Concerto_(Meyer-Olbersleben%2C_Max))
yes, both works are. but -how- are they? to the ear? in one's opinion? etc? (re Olbersleben - no opus number, that I know of. "IMM 12" != Op.112.)
Coincidentally, last week I came across a live performance on YouTube of Cecil Forsyth's Viola Concerto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1_8bfhCgk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS1_8bfhCgk)
I found it to be on the sunny side of pleasant. Even though it was written past the year 1900, I think it's very clearly within this site's remit. I don't really know what general opinions are of it, but I liked it. I'm not sure I'd eagerly seek it out in the near future for a second complete listen, but while it was playing, I got a fair amount of enjoyment. Sounds to me like it was written in the 1890s or even 1880s, for what that's worth.
It's been recorded - twice actually - by Hyperion:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bowen-Forsyth-Concertos-Lawrence-Power/dp/B00095L8XE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1528231523&sr=8-2&keywords=forsyth+viola (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bowen-Forsyth-Concertos-Lawrence-Power/dp/B00095L8XE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1528231523&sr=8-2&keywords=forsyth+viola)
...and by AMAdea Music (who?):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forsyth-Concerto-orchestre-clavecin-Orchester/dp/B00TAWMUIE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528231523&sr=8-1&keywords=forsyth+viola
(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forsyth-Concerto-orchestre-clavecin-Orchester/dp/B00TAWMUIE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528231523&sr=8-1&keywords=forsyth+viola)
Any other unrecorded viola concertos?
Emil Kreuz's? Frederick Hay's? Bartels? Karl Julius Marx (1897-1985)?
Details, please - dates of composer, dates/details of works. Thanks!
Kreuz- 1867-1932, viola concerto in C minor Op.20, published 1885 or before.
Hay- 1888-1945, viola concerto in A minor Op.16, published 1927/8 or before. Very little other information seems to be available; seems Romantic to me (reduction @ IMSLP), but...
von Bartels - 1883-1938 - viola concerto Op.20 - manuscript, ca. 1927, @ Nederlands Muziek Instituut.
Karl Marx (1897-1985) - viola concerto Op.10 - published by Bote&Bock, available from Boosey & Hawkes, published & premiered in 1930.
There's also Szeremi Gustave (1877-1952) whose viola concerto was published sometime around 1910ish, and Hugo von Steiner's (1862-1942) 2 concertos published in 1909.
According to RISM, there is a Konzert für Viola und Orchester by the Dresden composer Theodor Blumer (1881-1964). Unfortunately, it seems that the Sächsische Landesbibliothek only have the piano reduction... his style (in his wind chamber music) is usually post-romantic, with some touch of Strauss, but I have no idea if this concerto from 1947 is in the same idiom.
...and then there's Emanuel Moór (1863-1931):
Concertstück in C sharp minor (1886?)
VaC No.2 in C sharp minor (1886?)
NB See correction below!
No one has mentioned Hans Sitt (1850-1922) who, as well as writing a number of violin concertos, wrote a concerto and two Concert Pieces for viola and orchestra, though the later of these is described as "for violin or viola". I have not seen the scores so cannot comment on their merit, however. Are they discussed by Toskey?
Toskey does discuss Sitt's works in detail, yes. Of the VaC in A minor, Op.68 (Eulenberg, c.1900) he says:
'This is perhaps the finest of the very few examples of viola concertos in the Romantic vein.'
Now that's interesting, isn't it? The question now is: where are the score and parts, if anywhere?
Answer - at IMSLP, of course!
http://imslp.org/wiki/Viola_Concerto%2C_Op.68_(Sitt%2C_Hans) (http://imslp.org/wiki/Viola_Concerto%2C_Op.68_(Sitt%2C_Hans))
FLP also has, it seems, a Sitt viola concerto Op.46 in score, parts and arrangement (here (https://know.freelibrary.org/Record/1617297).) Worth looking under their viola-concerto tags ("Concertos (Viola)" ; "Concertos (Viola), Arranged > Scores and parts.") for Romantic viola concertos and filtering for unrecorded works. (They may just have the arrangement; under MARC they -list- the full orchestration, whether or not they have the full score or parts.) (IMSLP gives Op.46 as a concertpiece.)
have we had a thread, as for Schumann, for Dvorak's least known worthy works (and there are a good number of those?), out of curiosity? In either of our subforums?
Don't know - probably on some of his lesser-known works (of which there are many). No reason not to start a new one, of course...
...but not in your little grey cells, evidently! Great to have your views here.
Moór's 2nd Cello Concerto is also in C-sharp minor. As there doesn't appear to be a 1st Viola Concerto, I'd be willing to bet that the "Viola Concerto No. 2" is an arrangement by the composer of the cello concerto.
Hmm. I think I'll have to correct my earlier post. I have a works list compiled from other sources which includes a Concertstück for viola and orchestra in C sharp minor and a Viola Concerto in the same key. However, the list at the Henrik und Emanuel Moor Stiftung website http://www.emanuel-und-henrik-moor-stiftung.de/Emanuel/works.shtml (http://www.emanuel-und-henrik-moor-stiftung.de/Emanuel/works.shtml) makes no mention of a Viola Concerto at all - only the Concertstück. So I don't think the Viola Concerto exists. Sorry, Jim!
To add a few:
- Jenö Hubay's Viola Concerto, Op. 20 (1884). Recorded by Peter Barsony with the Erkel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gergely Vajda.
- Samuel de Lange's Viola Concerto (1900). Recorded (but not published I think) by Jürgen Kussmaul with the Netherlands Broadcasting Orchestra (Omroeporkest) conducted by Leo Driehuys.
- Alfred Hill's Viola Concerto (1940). Recorded by Robert Pikler with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henry Krips.
... and we should probably mention the Schmidt-Kowalski, too (2010).
QuoteHowever, the list at the Henrik und Emanuel Moor Stiftung website http://www.emanuel-und-henrik-moor-stiftung.de/Emanuel/works.shtml makes no mention of a Viola Concerto at all - only the Concertstück.
That was my impression too, Alan. However, there is, as you know, a considerable collection (at least equal in size to that at the Henrik und Emanuel Moor Stiftung) in the basement of the Westminster Music Library. The errant viola concerto may be there. However, bearing in mind that sources give the same key and date of composition (1886) for both the Concertstuck and the Concerto, I think they are probably one and the same.
That's my suspicion. Toskey lists them separately - that's probably the original source of my information.
They are also listed separately in the work list at the back of Pirani's study of Moor - but that has more than one error.
So... where does all this leave us in relation to minacciosa's very strongly expressed opinion that a version of Dvorak's cello concerto arranged for viola is "a complete waste of resources"?
...with a matter of opinion, I imagine.
... but opinion based on what arguments or rationales, Alan?
My own simplistic argument would be that there's no harm in producing recordings of concertos employing a different instrument to the one intended by the composer, and leaving it to audiences to decide whether they enjoy it or not. They generally aren't popular, but sometimes they do reveal aspects of the music that listeners may have previously overlooked (e.g. the PC of Beethoven's VC) - a point that has been made previously in the archives of UC. Concertos are sometimes arranged for another instrument by the composer, of course (but I think not Dvorak), and that can also be a revelation. So, for my part, I'd be quite interested in hearing "Dvorak's Viola Concerto". ;)
I'm afraid I'm with minacciosa here. When I consider the huge number of works for which we lack full scores (by which I mean, for example, piano concertos that exist only in 2-piano scores but for which there are clues enough as to instrumentation) I would much rather see the efforts of talented arrangers and orchestrators applied to restoring these works to a state approximating the original so that we can hear them, rather than messing around with works that already exist in the precise forms intended by their composers. And in my opinion Beethoven's own arrangement of his violin concerto for piano and orchestra adds nothing of value to the piano concerto repertoire nor gives us any insights into the violin concerto, except to illustrate how remarkably Beethoven wrote for the violin in his original composition.
I respectfully disagree here. I find the viola version of Dvorak's fabulous concerto a really wonderful piece of work, giving violists something truly great from the 19th century to play. It's not a question of 'either - or', but 'both - and', in my humble opinion, of course.
Well, of course, I haven't heard it, so I could be accused of being unfair. But I'm just talking about a general principle here.
...with which I generally agree!
Eh, IMO the biggest question is "is it enjoyable to listen to as an isolated entity"? In the case of Beethoven's Op. 61a, this is an emphatic YES for me.
I usually don't consider cello music being played on the viola in general as being different enough to matter, per se, but I have to imagine it'll still work as a piece. And how much would have to be changed? There's a huge huge difference of effort involved here vs what Gareth is asking for.
I'd rather see some duplicated recordings of real viola concertos of quality (though my favorites, e.g. Benjamin Frankel's, aren't in our remit), and new recordings of unrecorded ones, than a recording of a work whose selection may have lain more in a reduced willingness to take chances. (Though even then, the few viola works by the recognized masters, the viola version of Brahms' clarinet works aside, don't get that many recordings either- consider Mendelssohn's viola sonata (which is in fact PD-US despite its recent copyright date, because of certain oddnesses of copyright law in regards its East German editors, as I recall, but. Ah well.)
Quotereal viola concertos of quality
Me too. But there don't seem to be many covered by UC's remit.
Has anybody mentioned the Viola Concerto in C minor, Op. 121 by Johanna Senfter? I think it would be in our remit, judging from her 4th Symphony, provided that as she got older she didn't get more acerbic, like, say Julius Weismann.
re Senfter, the 1994 Wergo recording of selected piano works of hers ranges from 3 wo/o individual works to 3 sets from Op.77 to Op.129. Don't know about their dates or, for that matter, that of the viola concerto, though since I -believe- few of them were ever published (a few of her works were published during her lifetime, but not many iirc) I'm guessing this is a case where the opus number does more or less track with composition date. Anyhow, if anyone has access to that recording they may be able to give a tentative answer to Jim's question by auditioning the 2 piano pieces Op.129...
Edit: listening to Op.129 No.1 via Naxos Music Library, the opening reminds me strongly of 3rd-period Reger (late, as opposed to 2nd period extremely harsh - or... of the most relaxed variation in the slow movement of the F major cello sonata Op.78 from that period, too... (or similarly from the Mozart Variations Op.132, going back to late Reger...)) , though the middle section is more agitated.
I may be mistaken but from the soundbites on the Amazon web site I am under the impression that the viola plays the bulk of the part in the same octave that the cello would. Cello concertos, including the Dvorak, tend to feature the upper register of the instrument heavily, so a large percentage of the part would not have to be transcribed at all--except for the clef. (Not sure what one does with the passages written for the thumb though.)
If so the soloist plays an octave lower relative to the instrument's tuning than a cellist would have to. This would greatly reduce the technical difficulty of the part and maybe make some of the passages sound more relaxed and singing than in the original. At any rate as far as re-instrumentations go this one is going almost the shortest possible distance.