The next vol. - 19 in the Romantic Violin Concerto series has just been announced by Hyperion
(http://i60.tinypic.com/xckkza.jpg)
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68060 (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68060)
Max Bruch
Serenade in A minor, Op. 75
Romance in A minor, Op. 42
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26
Jack Liebeck (violin), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor)
Inspite of this being a fairly regular repertoire, I look forward to this release!
Well, I'm sure it will be beautifully played and recorded - but I can't really see the point. There are lots of fine performances of this concerto already available on disk.
What a wasted opportunity. Harrumph!
It'll be very, very good, no doubt. But a complete waste of effort as far as repertoire is concerned. What about the Lassen VC?
Or at least a dozen others we could mention.
Yes. I won't be rushing out to buy this one. It will be interesting to know how well it sells when there is so much competition. Aren't these Hyperion concerto series supposed to be repertoire led? I can't help but think that this disc would sell better if it weren't part of the series thus giving Hyperion an excuse to decorate the front of the booklet with a photo of Jack Liebeck who, as well as being a splendid player, may be a slightly better looking guy than Max Bruch!
Hyperion appears to be working its way through all the Bruch violin concerti, for completeness' sake. Just last year it released the VC3 and Scottish Fantasy (No. 17 in the Romantic Violin Concerto series). The upcoming release faces tough competition indeed, especially with CPO's excellent volume 2 in its own survey of Bruch's works for violin and orchestra which I believe was released less than three months ago. That one also includes VC1 and has been in heavy rotation on my ipod in recent days, along with the recently released Bis recording of VC2 etc. with Wallin/Kamu. With all these Bruch recordings coming out at the same time, I think I'm drowning in Bruch...not a bad way to go, actually.
Quotenot a bad way to go, actually
That's certainly true!
I'd prefer to drown in Bach*, myself, but...
*apologies to Beethoven for the theft.
In reply to Revilod, If you look back over the piano concerto series some of the issues have been very much 'sung' composers Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saens for example. In order to attract new purchasers to the series, it is important to include some well known composers. Jack Liebeck is a very fine violinist with a following and clearly wanted to record some mainstream works. These cd's will sell and hopefully subsidise some of the slower selling issues in the series. Jack will no doubt record some lesser known works in the future.
OK, let's look at the facts here: out of 19 volumes in the RVC series, only 6 contain previously unrecorded concertos, i.e. vol.2 (Stanford), vol.5 (Somervell), vol.9 (David VC4 & VC5), vol.10 (Cliffe & d'Erlanger), vol.15 (Mlynarski VC1) and vol.18 (Jongen).
I suggest, therefore, that Hyperion's overall choice of repertoire has turned out to be extremely disappointing and unadventurous.
QuoteJack Liebeck is a very fine violinist with a following and clearly wanted to record some mainstream works]Jack Liebeck is a very fine violinist with a following and clearly wanted to record some mainstream works
While true, I just wonder why anyone looking for a recording of Bruch VC1 would prefer Liebeck over a whole host of better, indeed great violinists. The coupling, of course, may be a factor, but I'd suggest that anyone who doesn't have the Bruch is probably going to go for a coupling involving another mainstream VC.
Just for example, e.g. -- Francescatti in Sibelius & Bruch (1) (different conductors, on HMV.) Had this once on tape; still exists on CD; fine recording. Doesn't have the other Bruch works, but it's an excellent recommendation in my opinion.
The unwritten rule seems to be that there must be at least one relatively unknown work on a disc for it to be included in the series. So, for example, Stephen Hough's Liszt/Grieg concerto disc was not part of the RPC series while his Saint-Saens/Tchaikovsky/Mendelssohn recordings were. (His Rachmaninov discs were also not included.) That's why Jack Liebeck's Bruch made the cut.
Am I right in saying that all the recordings in the RPC series which include well known music are by Mr Hough? I expect his discs always sell and Hyperion doesn't mind how hackneyed the repertoire he records may be.
By no means. Stephen Hough made the first recordings (in the RPC series) of Scharwenka's 4th and Emil Sauer's 1st.
But, interestingly, I have just been doing a quick (and, therefore, probably not very accurate count) and find the 66 RPC disks already released contain nearly 80 works previously unrecorded.
Another way of looking at it (perhaps) is that the VC1 will likely take up only about a third of the playing time of the disc. The VC1 takes a little over 20 minutes, the Serenade Op. 75 around 35-40 minutes, and the Romance Op. 42 around 10 minutes. The presence of a warhorse like the VC1 might be less offensive when one realizes that the majority of the recording will be devoted to the other, more obscure works (although admittedly, neither of those additional works qualifies as completely unsung).
I think the question that was asked wasn't:
(a) whether all the recordings in the series by Mr Hough were of well-known music, but:
(b) whether all the recordings in the series that were of well-known music were by Mr Hough.
(statement, converse, inverse, contrapositive, all that stuff? It's not just for logic students anymore :) )
Oh yes. I know that Stephen Hough also records rare repertoire and not only for Hyperion (wasn't his first, or one of his first, concerto recordings of works by Hummel for Chandos?) but he seems to be the only pianist allowed to record standard repertoire for the RPC series.
Yes, eschiss1! You have hit the nail on the head!
Thank you, Eric. I was reading the post too quickly. It does seem to be the case that all the standard repertoire disks in the RPC series are by Stephen Hough. Interesting!
...and this might expose another problem with Hyperion's RVC series - namely, that they may be favouring 'house' artists rather than seeking out soloists who haven't recorded for them before. For example, if Jiří Vodička has already performed the Lassen VC (and superbly well at that), why wouldn't Hyperion invite him to record it?
Here's Vodička's publicity blurb:
JIRI VODICKA
born 1988, has studied violin from the age of six, attending the Primary Artistic School in Ostrava-Vitkovice, Czech Republic. Since 2000, he has studied with Professor Zdenek Gola, and, in addition, has recently joined Professor Gola's violin class at the Institute of Arts, Ostrava University.
Jiri Vodicka was awarded First Prize in the following national and international competitions: Czech Nationwide Competition for Primary Artistic Schools, the Kocian International Violin Competition, Prague Junior Note, Violin Competition (Dolny Kubin), the Beethoven International Violin Competition in Hradec nad Moravici, and the 2004 4th Internationsl Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar, Germany.
As a soloist, Jiri Vodicka has performed in many concerts throughout the Czech Republic with the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Ostrava; Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, Zlín; Slovak Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Bohdan Warchal; and with Chamber Orchestra Camerate Janacek. He has also played many concerts in foreign countries including Sweden , Poland , Germany , Slovakia , Austria , Spain , Japan and China.
In his solo recitals and chamber music concerts, Jiri Vodicka includes compositions from various music periods, ranging from Baroque to the compositions of the most contemporary composers. Mendelssohn, Paganini, Lalo, Wieniawski, Dvorak, Sibelius and Mozart, among many other composers,
are featured in Mr. Vodicka's repertoire.
http://agsonata.cz/index.php?cnt=stf&id=66 (http://agsonata.cz/index.php?cnt=stf&id=66)
He is also concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic!
Hrm. If he would be willing to record the Lassen and something else (enough to come closer to filling a CD/a worthwhile download-bundle) for Hyperion; and if Hyperion would be willing to consider taking him and such a project on- (it seems difficult to present such a possibility in emails while making no promises and even implying no promises :( , as that's how it must be done, of course) - I wonder.
He is willing - and Hyperion know about him. So..................................
Finnnnnnnallllllly someone has recorded the Bruch #1!!!!!
(Accidentally posted this on another thread, sorry)
No problem, Jon - I've deleted it.
Well put, if applied to, say, Bruch's long unrecorded first (real first, I think?) string quartet :)- but that's another thread and another recording...
So there is a Bruch string quartet older than the Op. 9 in C minor? Oooooh...interesting.
Yes the op.10 both of the quartets are represented on CD.
Jon- huh? There are (unless I am misremembering) three Bruch string quartets. Whatever are you referring to? I'm not actually positive that the earliest one (w/o op.) -has- been recorded, but it has been performed recently, I believe. (The third may be a recent discovery, and does not seem to be mentioned in Fifield's book. I know I'm aware of- have heard, in fact- his second string quintet, so I'm not confusing it with that, but maybe I'm just misremembering period and tout court...)
Ah. Yes, Fifield does mention it, briefly, as a work mentioned by Hiller in an April 1850 letter about his student (Bruch)- so the early quartet is a student work. I believe it has been resurrected, though...
Ahhh! THIS (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5502.msg57863.html#msg57863) post by Giles.enders was what I was thinking of... (Wikipedia has 1852 but doesn't give a source; fixing to 1850 based on Fifield.)
Yes-ah yes indeed
The string quartet referred to was found by Christopher Fifield while researching his book about Bruch. It has now been recorded in Germany. Chris told me about it and I arranged the first UK performance at Conway Hall earlier this year. As far as I am aware it had only had one other performance which was by the group who recorded it.