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Messages - Alan Howe

#1
Yes - thanks, Colin. I missed that. See here for details:
https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-24/prom-19/   (on 3rd August)
#2
Agreed. A fine composer of really attractive music.
#3
Mind you, who really knows Massenet's great opera these days? A much subtler score than Puccini's early belter. And what cast could we muster to do it justice? It's only had a handful of decent recordings, the last (and possibly best) back in 2000 with Gheorghiu and Alagna under Pappano. An opera once familiar and with a performing tradition is now cast adrift, virtually unknown except for a few highlights. But then, the performing traditions of much of 19th century opera, whether French, German, Italian or Russian (to name the main ones), have faded with the disappearance of singers trained in those traditions, leaving very few capable of mastering the roles involved. Yes, Bru Zane are doing a sterling job in the French repertoire, mostly with lesser-known works and excellent production values, but are there performances to match the great ones from the past? Historic recordings - and even ones from the days of LPs - suggest otherwise.
#4
Only Auber's Manon Lescaut is unsung, of course. Nevertheless this is interesting programming.
#6
It's wonderful to catch even a morsel of this lovely music. Thanks, Mark.
#7
Composers & Music / Re: Sibelius The Wood Nymph
Thursday 25 April 2024, 18:51
Actually the Wood Nymph contains plenty of music that is also proleptic of Sibelius' later works - especially the opening which looks forward to the 5th Symphony and, in its moments of sheer wildness, to Tapiola. What an amazingly original composer he was - virtually from the word go.
#8
Recordings & Broadcasts / BBC Proms 2024 Season
Thursday 25 April 2024, 18:45
Having scanned today's release of details, I find that there are some concerts of interest in the upcoming season:

22nd July: Schoenberg 'Pelleas und Melisande' & Zemlinsky 'Die Seejungfrau' (BBCNOW/Ryan Bancroft)

5th August: Busoni Piano Concerto (Ben Grosvenor/LPO/Gardner)

12th August: Farrenc Overture No.17 (BBCNOW/Nil Venditti)

27th August: Suk 'Asrael' Symphony (Czech Philharmonic/Hrusa)

13th September: Farrenc Symphony No.3 (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Manacorda)
#9
Works featured:

Clarinet Quintet in B flat, Op.119
Clarinet Sonata in A, Op.57
Kleines leichtes (= Small/Short Simple) Trio Op.134
Piano Quartet No.1 in E minor, Op.11
Sonata in D, Op.37 for Clarinet, Viola, Horn & Piano
Trio Op.103 for Clarinet, Horn & Klavier
#10
Composers & Music / Sibelius The Wood Nymph
Thursday 25 April 2024, 13:15
Coming between Kullervo and Symphony No.1, this is an entirely typical and characteristic tone poem of which I was previously unaware. I gather it was only rediscovered in the 1980s and given its first performance by Osmo Vänskä in 1996. I am blown away...
#12
Thanks. Can't wait!
#13
Is there any news about a possible release date for this important project?
#14
Yes, that's terrific, isn't it? But the whole work holds one's attention, I find.
#15
Composers & Music / Sir Andrew Davis dies 20th April
Sunday 21 April 2024, 19:45
I'm sorry to report the passing yesterday (20th April) of Andrew Davis who went to my school in Watford, although he was ten years older than me so I never met him. He was one of a number of distinguished musicians that the school produced, including Adrian Leaper (French horn and conductor) and Michael (Mick) Thompson (also a French horn player). My violin teacher was a Pole named Stefan Fragner who had been a prisoner-of-war in WW2 and was a very fine player. It was quite an era for music - although I never figured as a musician myself!