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I agree, but each to his own, within our remit of course. 

The soloist in the Piano Concerto is the indefatigable Oliver Triendl I see. The man is a wonder.

Having just listened to Caro's Piano Trio (from the Homage à Paul Caro recording) I can only echo everything Alan has written about it's appeal and quality. It's very seldom that one comes across a work by such an unsung composer which couples such generous melodic richness with a firm grasp of form. It's a real delight and I'm very much looking forward to hearing the two companion sonatas. One does indeed wonder what the symphonies might be like but if they echo the characteristics of the Piano Trio then maybe something resembling Goetz's sole Symphony might be expected?

CD orders from jpc are now being shipped.

Thanks very much, Tuomas. What an attractive piece. Bernhard Scholz really has been a welcome discovery: the two symphonies, Piano Concerto and Capriccio for piano and orchestra are all equally well made and appealing.

Agreed, Terry, and we've started the process of trying to interest appropriate CD labels in discussing with the owners the prospect of taking over the rights to the Kaufmann Symphony recording in particular, though of course we've no control over whether that happens in the end.

[A final report]

A final report, for now at least, on the Franke Case.

The only major development is that Ilja managed to have a helpful discussion with the principal of the Franke Foundation and former owner of the publishing company which issued the CDs and published "Franke" scores. She's certain that his daughter had no idea of his plagiarisms and was greatly upset to learn of the first to be unearthed (Rheinberger's Taming of the Shrew Overture masquerading as the finale of Franke's 4th Symphony). The Foundation has not actively promoted his music for some time and instead has been funding music scholarships. It will probably now be renamed and focus solely on that activity. In the last few days the CDs have been withdrawn from sale although the scores are still available under his name.

The professionals involved in establishing the Franke Foundation, in recording and selling the CDs and publishing the scores, all clearly took his biography and authorship of the music on face value, never checked facts as we have done, never questioned the startling inconsistencies of style (although some at recording sessions at least recognised it). They continued with recording the "Symphony No.6" and "Piano Concerto No.1" despite the irrefutable proof of plagiarism which had halted the earlier recording project only a few moths before. All in all, the impression one gets is of a complacent, incurious German musical establishment which was not interested at all in Franke or his music but was happy to help Franke's daughter establish her foundation and secure funding from it.

We think that we have reached the limit of what can we can usefully achieve: Franke has been exposed as a lying plagiarist, the Franke Foundation has acknowledged and accepted that and the recordings at least have been withdrawn from sale. Our final step will be to hand the case over to the German press and it will be up to them whether they wish to pursue the investigation any further.

Thanks to everyone at UC who has contributed to this thread and to uncovering Franke's deception: to Reverie, whose digital realisation of Kauffmann's Symphony unwittingly set the ball rolling and who subsequently digitised extracts from a couple of Franke's other symphonies, to eschiss1 for identifying some of Franke's plagiarisms, but most of all to Alan Howe for initially identifying the various conflicting leads and following them up so doggedly, and to Ilja for his huge amount of research spadework in German, visiting the archive in Dresden and copying scores there and for contacting all the principals involved and persuading them to talk about the case.

Looks like you fixed it Eric, thank you, and thank you Ilja for posting it.

For most people, streaming IS how they listen to things.

Oh, I understand that, of course, and I have no problem with it. But if it's on YouTube it's not monetised as it would be on the commercial streaming platforms, so neither cpo nor the artists will get anything financially from it being streamed from there.

I'm gobsmacked that the whole double album, as yet unreleased, has already been posted of YouTube by the choir.

Good oh! To answer Justin's earlier query, this is definitely the Leipzig performance, recorded at the Gewandhaus on 6 June 2022.

My tolerance of heavy, extended chromaticism lessens by the day, so this is probably a recording I'll avoid. My loss, I'm sure.

Yes, me too. I add all newly acquired music to a playlist to ensure that it gets listened to in, roughly, the order in which I acquired it. Of course there are "can't wait" exceptions to that. As for Goetz, as I remember the piano music is like the rest of his output: often imbued with a delicacy which is still never slight or merely pretty and, when it's vigorous, it's never raucous.

Excellent! I'm fairly sure that it was recorded in Leipzig. With the upcoming release of Samson and the prospect of Die Eifersüchtigen in the autumn, it's going to quite a year for major vocal works by the master.

It's nice music, but an entirely unnecessary purchase. There's no great discovery here.

I wish I'd read that before I bought it, Alan!