Topics

[Benedetto Marcello]

Premiere Opera is offering a recording of Raff's Benedetto Marcello, presumably from a German radio broadcast in 2002.  I, like many of us, have been intrigued by Raff's largely unappreciated efforts in the theatre...this recording will offer the chance to assess the verdict of history.  Recordings of the various overtures, etc. have not suggested to me that Raff was really a man with the theatre in his blood, as many composers who could never have duplicated his symphonic accomplishments unmistakably were (Giovanni Pacini, anyone?), but I look forward to discovering that I was wrong...

http://premiereopera.net/product/benedetto-marcello-by-raff-metzingen-2002/


David

[Poliuto]

This reworking of the banned Poliuto as a French grand opera was performed by the Opera Rara team on November 4.  The concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3,  Sat. Nov.15 @6:15 pm.  There are over three hours of music, even with the omission of the ballet.

Review extracts may be found here:

http://www.opera-rara.com/media/1415377185.pdf?utm_source=Opera+Rara+supporters&utm_campaign=b8c885f84f-Les_Martyrs_reviews_and_broadcast11_11_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_23d7711123-b8c885f84f-108389469

Recording to follow.  Hats off to all involved!

Best, David

Victorian Opera Northwest had plans to set down this interesting,  rather late (1858), Balfe opera over the summer.  I haven't seen or heard anything since.  Does anyone know if the sessions took place?

On a related note, I see there is a highly specialized newish website devoted to Balfe's operas in languages other than English.

http://balfecontinentaloperas.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/m-w-balfes-2-foreign-language-operas/

David

I don't know the works involved, but Rebecca Miller will conduct the Royal Northern Sinfonia.  Ms Miller has been very active in the studios recently: discs with Beach, Hopekirk, Hadley and now Bristow, bless 'er.

David

[Salome]

Apologies if this has been reported...(my use of the search function does not seem to be up to the international standard.)  Dutton has recorded a disc of orchestral music by Henry K. Hadley with the California-born, British-based conductor Rebecca Miller leading the BBC Concert Orchestra.  Apparently I missed this when it was posted on Facebook in January, (Hadley and I not being Facebook friends,) but there you have it.

Some exciting Hadley news: there is a new Hadley cd being recorded next month. It will include Salome, Scherzo Diabolique, In Bohemia, the San Francisco Suite and Othello.
Conductor: Rebecca Miller
Orchestra: BBC Concert Orchestra

I've never thought much of Salome, which just encourages unfavorable comparisons with you-know-what, but nice that Hadley is getting an outing.

David

[Carlos Chavez and his World]

How thrilling is this...next year's (2015) Bard Festival will offer staged performances of Ethel Smyth's masterpiece.  I assume the dates will be in July, as were the perfs. of Weber's Euryanthe this year.

The theme of the 2015 Festival itself will have nothing to do with Dame Ethel, it is Mexican and 20th century: Carlos Chavez and his World.  This will be very exciting for many of us as well, but the Chavez/Revueltas orbit largely falls outside the remit of this forum, though the music of Manuel Ponce, which may make an appearance or two, would be grist for our mill.

Botstein's devotion to The Wreckers will be vividly recalled by those who attended the ASO concert version a few years back.  Not only was there a large portrait of the composer onstage, but during the thunderous applause, Botstein triumphantly held the score over his head...

Very, very exciting.  I may have to go more than once.

David

[Herculaneum]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned since BerlinExpat's original list of novelties for 2014...but I see that the Palazzetto Bru Zane folks have recorded their March 8, 2014 concert performance (at Versailles, no less) of David's grand opera Herculaneum (1859.)  A good cast will compliment their usual high production values: http://www.bru-zane.com/?concerti=herculanum&lang=en   I can't wait.

David

From the Feb BBC Music:

"...Rare Vieuxtemps and Ysaye have been occupying Alban Gerhardt of late.  The German cellist went to Antwerp to record the disc, which includes two Vieuxtemps concertos, with the Royal Flemish Orchestra and conductor Josep Caballe-Domenech, for Hyperion Records..."

I assume the Ysaye is the Meditation and/or the Serenade, both short-ish pieces for cello and orchestra.

I've had the Schiff/Marriner versions since vinyl days...the reviews would have to be pretty splendid for me to invest in another set.  That being said, the a minor concerto has some of my favorite stormy Vieuxtemps writing for orchestra, so who knows.

David

From the Stanford Society newsletter.  Some of this we've discussed (the concerto) others (the string quartets and the Mass) I don't remember reading about:

"...Also on September 1st Priory Records released the first volume in their series of recordings of Stanford's complete organ works played by Daniel Cook. Volume 1 is played on the organ at Salisbury Cathedral and includes the first two organ sonatas. Volume 2 has already been recorded by Daniel Cook on the organ at Durham Cathedral. We expect that the full set will comprise 4 or 5 CDs. Almost all of Stanford's organ music has already been recorded before but it will be good to have all the works recorded together in excellent performances with modern recordings.

...The enterprising EM Record Label linked to the English Music Festival has two recordings of Stanford's music planned for early in 2014. Rupert Marshall-Luck will be the soloist in a premier recording of Stanford's Second Violin Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The second recording will involve forces from Exeter College Oxford performing the Stanford Mass in G together with works by Parry. The Society is providing financial support to both these recordings.

Also in 2014, SOMM Records is planning to follow-up the success of the recent partsong CD with first recordings of Stanford's String Quartets Numbers 7 & 8 with the Dante Quartet..."

[La Colombe]

Coming from Opera Rara in 2015: Gounod's comic opera La Colombe, with Miah Persson, Christopher Purves, Allan Clayton and Kathryn Rudge.  Sir Mark Elder conducts the Halle Orchestra.

Add that to the forthcoming recording of Donizetti's Les Martyrs and the future looks good for this valuable label.

David

[Leoncavallo's]

It should be a lively spring, summer and beyond, if you're close to these performances:

Opera Orchestra of New York has not officially announced its season for this year, but the Carnegie Hall calendar shows a performance of Leoncavallo's I Medici scheduled for April 8, 2014 @ 8pm.  No hints on the cast, although the conductor will be Alberto Veronesi, who led the fairly recent DG recording.  The opera is a hot-blooded 4 act historical melodrama with surprising Wagnerian moments.  Great fun, as is the recording which featured Domingo.  OONY's 2nd performance would seem to be Donizetti's Roberto Devereux (June 5 @ 7:30), which can hardly be considered unsung anymore.

The Caramoor Festival will present Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia, more often heard of than heard, on July 12 and 18, 2014.  The marvelous Angela Meade will sing Lucrezia for the first time.

I think I've already mentioned somewhere that in August this year's Bard Festival will focus on Schubert and his World .  I haven't seen any programs announced, but there is always some attention paid to lesser known composers, so perhaps fellows like Franz Lachner will get an outing.  There will be chamber, vocal and orchestral works, as well as staged performances of Weber's Euryanthe...a rare occurrence to be sure.

Across the pond, the invaluable team at Opera Rara will present a concert performance of Donizetti's Les Martyrs on Nov.4, 2014 at the Royal Festival Hall.  Les Martyrs is a fascinating reworking of Poliuto as a French Grand Opera.  A recording will follow...

Best, David

Mr. Punch's 'interview' with Sir C H H Parry from 1903.  Lots of fun, I admit to laughing.  Not for those allergic to nautical and musical puns.  And helpful footnotes, too.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Apr13/Parry_Punch.htm

Happy holidays!

David

[Huguenots]

Not sure if this is on sale yet.  The Strassberger production will probably be distracting/overactive, but it's better than nothing (as were his Huguenots and Le roi in varying degrees.)  From the Bard website:

http://fishercenter.bard.edu/calendar/event.php?eid=117644&utm_source=02.06.2013+Bard+SummerScape+2013+Season+Preview&utm_campaign=Jan+6+Eblast&utm_medium=email

David

[Mass in D]

Dame Ethel Smyth's Mass in D will be performed by the St. Cecilia Chorus at Carnegie on Sunday, April 14, 2013.  A wonderful, characteristically full-blooded piece with some rarely encountered Tchaikovsky rounding out the program:

http://www.ceciliachorusny.org/

David

[Oresteia]

Having already scheduled a staged production of Taneyev's Oresteia for next summer's Bard Festival, the never-sleeping Leon Botstein now announces his programs for next season's American Symphony Orchestra series at Carnegie Hall.  Naturally, there are a few items for Unsung Composers fans:

Massenet's late opera Ariane on Dec. 15, 2013.

Bruch's oratorio Moses on March 3, 2014

A mixed program on May 30, 2014 which includes Max Reger's Eine Vaterlandische Ouverture, Op.140 and Szymanowski 3.

We'll probably take in the Massenet and Bruch and pass on the Reger .  If anyone knows of a decent recording of Ariane, I'd be grateful for details.

David

Although we now have a good recording of the overture on Naxos, this enjoyable Wagnerian opera, written on a large scale, remains in the shadows.  Until some enterprising German company takes it up, we can only play through it...and read about it.  I see that there is a dissertation devoted to its only New York performance (Metropolitan Opera House under the auspices of the Damrosch opera company.)  Looks interesting, and perhaps others will think so, too.

David

http://gradworks.umi.com/34/76/3476504.html

There will be 2 performances of this 1862 opera, one in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater (Jan 26, 2013) and one in NYC at the Rose Theater, Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle (Jan. 31, 2013)  The first is billed as the Modern World Premiere and the company is Opera Lafayette, which I think is a period instrument group.  The Rose theatre is about 15 minutes from my house, so maybe I'll go...

David

[The Oresteia]

While Taneyev is not the focus of next year's Bard festival (that will be Stravinsky) there will be staged performances of Taneyev's opera trilogy The Oresteia, surely a US premiere.  Look for 5 or 6 performances next late July/early August.  Leon Botstein will conduct, the American Symphony will be in the pit, and all's right with the world...

David

It's true, and you could have knocked me over with a feather.  Appreciative, well-informed and spot-on.  Not a hint of "Well, it's no masterpiece..."

From this past Sunday's Times, part of an article discussing this summer's Bard Festival and its leader, Leon Botstein:

"...Saint-Saëns's "Henry VIII," on the other hand, may need more special pleading. Though it had a brief currency in major European opera houses after its successful premiere at the Paris Opera in 1883, it never really caught on.

Saint-Saëns himself adored it. "The work stands out brilliantly," he wrote to his publisher during rehearsals for a revival in 1909, when "Henry VIII" seemed to be fading from sight. "Why an opera like this is not in the repertory everywhere is something I refuse to understand."

One reason "Henry VIII" never became a repertory piece is suggested by Mr. Botstein in "Beyond the Conceits of the Avant-Garde: Saint-Saëns, Romain Rolland and the Musical Culture of the 19th Century," an article in the hefty book of essays that accompanies the Bard festival's composer immersion, "Camille Saint-Saëns and His World," edited by Jann Pasler (Princeton University Press).

"In Rolland's dream of a modern synthesis of Classicism and the post-Wagnerian a political, ethical ideology takes center stage," Mr. Botstein writes. "Yet Saint-Saëns did not have the extra measure of inspiration, idealism and intensity Rolland invested in his fictional hero, his modern Beethoven."

Yes, Saint-Saëns was a rather chilly character whose music tends to generate more light than heat. For all that, "he possessed extraordinary musical gifts, daunting range, versatility and spectacular craftsmanship," Mr. Botstein wrote, and "Henry VIII" shows Saint-Saëns at his best. He was correct to be proud of what he had achieved: an imposing operatic spectacle that avoids Meyerbeer's bloated heroics and Massenet's often fussy decorations, not to mention the grand-opera overkill that smothers Wagner's "Rienzi."

Beyond that, Saint-Saëns seems to find a special identification with classic figures from British royal history. The plot concentrates on the first two of Henry's six wives, Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, whose conflicts, contrasting characters and downward-spiraling fortunes could not be more poignantly etched. Catherine's haunting death scene is still waiting to be discovered by some enterprising soprano.

In contrast to the tense private drama Henry's public defiance of the Roman Catholic Church brings Act III to a thrilling conclusion, as the king defies the papal legate, divorces Catherine, takes Anne as his wife and proclaims himself head of the Church of England. Saint-Saëns, in his correspondence, referred to Henry as "a sausage on legs" and even more rudely as "fatso" ("petit gros"), but musically he presents the king as a dignified if complex figure who gets precisely what he wants, both as a manipulative lover and as a politically savvy hands-on king.

Saint-Saëns may have disguised his debt to Wagner in "Henry VIII" even more artfully than Chabrier did in "Le Roi Malgré Lui," but you can still sense Wagner dabbling a ghostly finger in the extended scenes between Catherine and Anne. Like many other French composers who embraced Wagner's musical innovations Saint-Saëns took only what he felt he needed and absorbed them without ever completely abandoning the traditional Gallic virtues of clarity, precision, balance and gestural incisiveness. When the marriage is a happy one, as it is in "Henry VIII," the musical results can be exquisite.."

Amazing.  Wonderful.  Thank you.

David

[Der Vampyr]

May Botstein live forever and conduct ASO until his dying breath...next season he promises Marschner's marvelous opera Der Vampyr at Carnegie (3/17/13). 

Not as many 19th century unsungs next ASO season as usual, but there is von Herzogenberg 1 on a program (1/25/13) shared with Dvorak 4 and Brahms 4.  One doubts the reviews will be very kind to HvH when the program is entitled "What Makes A Masterpiece?" and it is pretty much obligatory around these parts for 'critics' to begin all reviews of unsungs with the phrase "Of course, it's no masterpiece..."

David