I see this gentleman composed at least 3 piano concertos (all have been recorded) plus solo piano pieces and ?? Anyone done any research on him?
Jerry
I thought we had a thread on him before, but I don't see it anywhere now.
There is a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phan_Elmas) on him, and a Fondation Elmas (http://www.stephanelmas.org/)...
I see that the three concertos have been available on CD, issued by the Armenian PO (NAB Productions Ltd.). I wonder if anyone on UC has heard any of them. The details from the link Eric gave are:
◦November 1999: Piano Concerto No. 3 and a Barcarolle and three mazurkas for piano solo. Babakhanian soloist Armen, Armenian PO, cond. Alexander Siranossian.
◦Mars 2002: Piano Concerto No. 2 and 4 mazurkas Babakhanian Soloist Armen, Armenian PO, cond. Alexander Siranossian
◦Avril 2005: Piano Concerto No. 1 along with some solo piano pieces. Soloist Armen Babakhanian, Opera Orchestra cond. Alexander Yerevan Siranossian.
I presume these pieces are tonal [romantic! :D] Any idea about the key's of the concertos?
Orders for the CDs can be placed here:
http://www.stephanelmas.org/boutique.html (http://www.stephanelmas.org/boutique.html)
I have done so myself, so will report back on progress...
The PCs date, respectively, from 1882, 1887 and 1900.
I have all of the recordings. They are pleasant, remind me mostly of Chopin (and I saw somewhere that he was called "the Armenian Chopin").
Proceeds from the sale of the CDs go to a charity for Armenian children I believe.
You can sample PC 1 here: http://odeonmusic.blogspot.com/ (http://odeonmusic.blogspot.com/)
Added: Also now #2
Jerry
The 1st Piano Concerto is now on YT. It's in G minor.
Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11nPmWkGTzQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11nPmWkGTzQ)
A very pleasant listen, and a very commendable effort for a 20 year old. I see that you can download for free what looks like almost all his scores (and certainly the three concertos) in modern typeset PDFs from the Fondation Elmas website (look under "Partitions" here (http://www.stephanelmas.org/partitions.php)).
I am just giving the 1st piano concerto a second listen as I post. I wouldn't compare it to Chopin - it's more reminiscent of Liszt or even Grieg. Then Elmas did idolise Liszt. Highly romantic music! Both the 1st and 2nd concertos are on YT; I have not looked for the 3rd.
I was wondering - is it the first piano concerto written by an Armenian? Not that it sounds Armenian or even Russian in its musical language.
The third concerto can now be heard at http://odeonmusic.blogspot.com/ (http://odeonmusic.blogspot.com/) and my suspicion will be that it will shortly now show up on YouTube.
Jerry
The Second Concerto is indeed on YouTube - here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--z4LAb21J4), and it's as enjoyable, if no deeper, than the First.
erm. not sure I have a fair notion of what "sounds Armenian" really sounds like, authentically, anyway. ("Does your music sound American?" "Yes. An American composer wrote it." Paraphrasing, but I've always tended to approve that answer and its cognates...) Anyhow, can't find sign of an earlier concerto by an Armenian composer listed on en- or Armenian Wikipedia, e.g., and Classical-era and Romantic-era composers on those sites seem to be "ethnic" or religious in orientation; the composer who seems next after Elmas, Spendiarian/Spendiarov, who might have written a piano concerto at a young age (having been born in 1871 I think) though admittedly would have had to have been a rather young age to have gotten under Elmas' 1882 concerto - seems to have written some orchestral works starting in the 1890s or so but no concertos, I think. (Then we're into the 20th century and Aram Khachaturian b.1903, &c. The piano concertos site also describes Kabalevsky as an Armenian composer, though not sure why- born and died in Russia.)
I've listened a couple of times to the first two concertos, and they are both very approachable works in the high-romantic style, which appear to make prodigious demands on the soloist. Presumable Elmas wrote them as vehicles for himself, in which case he was clearly a fine pianist. They are pleasantly, if mostly unmemorably, melodic and competently, if unspectacularly, orchestrated. If it sounds as if I am damning with faint praise then I am to some degree, because what they lack is any individuality. In that respect I was strongly reminded (not in style, but in overall conception) of all those glittering, note-heavy, spectacular-but-empty products of the legion of virtuoso pianist/composers of the early romantic era - the Kalkbrenners, Dreyschocks and so on. The First Piano Concerto at 40-odd minutes is a bit of a beast and the first movement is way, way too long at 20 minutes, but overall the work struck me as a stronger, more vigorous piece than the shorter Second, in which Elmas tends to descend further into "easy listening" territory. It does boast though, for me at least, the strongest movement of the pair: its central slow movement has real, lasting melodic appeal coupled with genuine depth of feeling. The soloist in these performances, Armen Babakhanian, adopts a properly barnstorming approach to the outer movements and has a limpid touch in the slow ones. He is recorded too far forward for concert verisimilitude, but that's common practice these days.
Despite my sniping, I did enjoy listening to these pieces as an undemanding romantic wallow, and will return to them when I want some pleasant background listening, but they aren't by any stretch great music.
I see that the Piano Concerto No.3 can now be heard on YouTube here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiO62TDSAOA).
... and Elmas' Third Piano Concerto proves to be pretty much a clone of the first two. Despite 18 years elapsing between the No.1 and No.3, there is no discernible development in style. In terms of both the music and the performances, if you liked what you heard in Nos.1 and 2, then you'll enjoy No.3. On the other hand, don't go looking for any more profundity in this piece than was demonstrated by the other two.
In case you're still interested:
Piano Concerto No. 1 is in G minor.
Piano Concerto No. 2 is in D minor.
Piano Concerto No. 3 is in E minor.
All 3 are up on YT now.
Always, in my case :) - erm, almost always (major general syndrome? me?)
Quoteerm. not sure I have a fair notion of what "sounds Armenian" really sounds like, authentically, anyway.
That's very easy - it means inflected with either Armenian folk music or church music. Armenian church music is particularly distinctive - the melodic shapes used by Hovhaness are cribbed directly from it.
On another note, i completely agree with Mark re Elmas's concertos.
The Elmas concertos aren't great music - the dreamy slow movements are without doubt the best parts of them. The outer movements are pretty well all too long and meandering. I'm glad to have heard them all, but I don't think Hyperion will be doing them...
Yes, the 3 concertos are recorded and available as 3 separate cds on stephanelmas .org/boutique
A little bird tells me they may well be recorded by Hyperion, but I don't know when. The present recordings are not "top drawer".
But they're also hardly excruciating - solid enough, I think, and Babakhian is a reliable performer. In other words, I don't think giving these works more attention is going to result in an eye-opening experience.
I really like these works, but for what they are: solid, sometimes inspired pieces by a provincial composer. They do suffer from "finale problems" rather badly though; Elmas is at his least interesting in these "whimsical" third movements.
I'd buy them again, I suppose - but not with great enthusiasm.
I'm sure that between us it wouldnt take long to come up with quite a few potentially more deserving candidates for the RPC series than Elmas' concertos, pleasant enough though they are.
Quite so.
Further to earlier postings, Hyperion's website shows as 'coming soon' piano concertos by Elmas. Unfortunately, the cover image is not clear, but it looks as though two concertos are included. I cannot make out which two, nor details of the pianist, but perhaps someone with links to Hyperion may know more?
Having already bought all three concertos on cd from the Elmas Foundation, I would still be interested in the Hyperion issue and, regardless of whether the concertos are great music or not, they will certainly fit very well into the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos series.
Here's a link to the relevant Hyperion web page:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/advertisements/Hyperion/2020/Oct2020.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/advertisements/Hyperion/2020/Oct2020.htm)
All I can make out is that the soloist/conductor is Howard Shelley, with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
Am I mistaken or is there another RPC volume shown beside Elmas CD. From the tiny cover image I feel like it's Paderewski.
No, I'd spotted that too. I think the pianist might be Jonathan Plowright - see this thread:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7431.msg80499.html#msg80499 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7431.msg80499.html#msg80499)
So, back to Elmas...
But they haven't recorded the Polish Fantasy for piano and orchestra.
Well, it's impossible to make out from the image. At least, it is for me!
I think we'll find that it's the Gablenz PC and Paderewski's Polish Fantasy - as indicated in the thread on that subject.
Anyway, back to Elmas...
I understand that Hyperion will be accepting pre-orders in December,with the plan being a January launch.
Thanks for that info.
Quote from: terry martyn on Friday 18 September 2020, 09:08
I understand that Hyperion will be accepting pre-orders in December,with the plan being a January launch.
Apple Music has the download listed as a pre-order
now, with release 8 Jan. And this is (again) before it is to be found on Amazon or Presto.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/elmas-piano-concertos/1532397499 (https://music.apple.com/us/album/elmas-piano-concertos/1532397499)
(https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music124/v4/8d/f3/f5/8df3f568-4d1b-5a34-091e-2878d1d05250/034571283197.jpg/500x500bb-60.jpg)
No doubt the performances and recording quality will be huge improvements on what's currently available on YouTube, but whether even Howard Shelley can make more of the music itself is the key question. Of course, whether or not there are depths to plumb, a pair of sparkling virtuoso performances, full of big romantic gestures would still be quite welcome.
I am sure that Howard Shelley will do his best. I´ve been listening to a lot of Shelley and a lot of Ponti recently. Both fine,and different, performers, but sometimes when it comes to Shelley I´m reminded of what Rex Harrison once said about the acting gamut of Robert Morley.......
"A legend in his own lunchtime"? He's not the showman that Ponti is, of course, but I think that's rather unfair to Shelley. They're very different musicians.
Harrison is supposed to have said ¨One wife, one house, and , come to think about it, one performance
Ah, didn't know that one, but it still undervalues Shelley.
It's pointless to compare a pioneering keyboard wizard like Ponti with the brilliant and arguably more reliable Shelley. Both are incredible virtuosos, but of rather different types.
Howard Shelley must surely be a hero for everyone who is interested in unsung music. His indefatigability is astonishing and he has recorded countless works which otherwise would not have been recorded at all. Where would we be without him?
Absolutely.
True. I will be buying the Elmas, and I know that he is far more likely to bring the music to life than the current performances on YouTube do
My thoughts exactly.
Excerpts from the forthcoming Hyperion CD are available here:
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68319
Quote from: terry martyn on Sunday 27 September 2020, 09:12
True. I will be buying the Elmas, and I know that he is far more likely to bring the music to life than the current performances on YouTube do
Not wanting to be the messenger of doom, but I rather doubt this. The Babakhian performances are by no means incompetent, and they portray these concerts as what they are: solid if not always very inspired and increasingly backward-looking works. They're melodic and often sensitive, and from numbers one to three show great consistency. That's also the problem, because they repeat their weak elements as well, particularly the always underwhelming final movements. The opening movement of the 3rd concerto (not on this disc) seems to be the most successful of the lot, but I rarely feel tempted to play anything else.
I'll be looking forward to a better orchestral contribution...
The Tasmanian orchestra is normally pretty reliable in this sort of fare.