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I think De Greef expires at the end of this year which will be nice.

Thal

Love, love, love the De Greef concertos - the usual unanswerable question but why aren't these better known?
Does anyone know of a recording of his Concertino in G, Fantaisie on Flemish folksongs op3 or Minuet variee (all piano and orchestra)?
Rob

Maybe the problem with the Schelling was that at the time the Suite was recorded, Schelling's widow, Helen (Schelling) Scholz was making arrangements for her friend Mary Louise Boehm to record An Artist's Life in Majorca with the local orchestra.  Perhaps she made objections to a rival recording?  She was very protective of MLB.  And of Schelling as well; I once wrote program notes for a Schelling performance MLB and Helen were involved with and referred to his having had a nervous breakdown at the end of his child prodigy period.  'Absolutely not,' said Helen, 'he was always as healthy as your or I.  Take that story out.'  And I did, even though I knew he'd had a collapse before working with Paderewski put him back together again.

As for the MLB recording: as might be imagined, the results, orchestrally speaking, were sub-par and that recording will never be released.

Now Helen is dead and her objections hardly matter.  Here's her Death Announcement from the NY Times:
SCHOLZ--Helen ''Peggy'' (Marshall), age 89, died in her sleep on July 28, 2007. Lifelong New Yorker, daughter of Charles H. ''Buddy'' Marshall and Alice Huntington, and sister of the late Charles H. Marshall. Widow of Ernest Schelling and Janos Scholz. She is survived by her son Christopher Scholz, his wife Ines Elskop and their son Nicolas Scholz. Helen will be remembered at a memorial service to be announced in the fall.

David

Thanks for the info, David. It seems so odd to think she survived him by 68 years!
Regarding the Artist's Life impressions I have a copy of Schelling's performance coupled with Paderewski's Polish fantasy which is marvelous but it would be great to have a modern recording. What are people's thoughts on an American coupling? My vote would be one or both of the Chasins Concertos (don't know how long they are).
Rob

Hopefully sometime after that we will also get the Schelling Artist's Life - it should be out of copyright soon.
Rob

It is already out of copyright old chap.

Thal

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?
I asked Mike about the Schelling and I think he said they couldn't record it at the same time as the Suite because it was still in copyright - obviously things have moved on.
Rob

The point is that a different RPC Volume 50 could have been released that would have been met with whoops of delight, broad grins, or jubilation on the part of someone advocating that we'd benefit from listening to music from a hitherto neglected composer. Instead there is a slight puzzlement: the Tchaikovsky release is doubtless good enough as a set of recordings of Tchaikovsky, but why has Hyperion done it? Is there strong musical (or commercial) point to it? Hardly.

Peter

In one sense I agree - We have come to expect 'rare' Romantic Piano Concertos and, if you all are like me, crave even more rareties. However I doubt very much that many of the previous 49 volumes have actually paid for themselves so I think Hyperion can be forgiven for including a disc that will make them money and, let's be honest, includes one of the ultimate Romantic Concertos. OK I'm a huge fan of Stephen's so will be getting the disc sometime soon but it also nice to know that quite apart from the upcoming Rosenhain and Taubert we will be getting Wieniawski, Goetz, Widor, Pixis and Wiklund and others in the next two years.
Hopefully sometime after that we will also get the Schelling Artist's Life - it should be out of copyright soon.
Rob