Messages

Yes pre WW1 Italian composers have a pigeon hole (opera) that they must reside in or they will be ignored by the critics and then the public

Nevertheless, Sgambati and Martucci are two very impressive Italian pre-WW1 non-operatic composers. Two of my absolute favourites, especially in their symphonies and piano concertos.

I suppose one issue would be how complete the new version will be in comparison. Secondly, though, I've never been a fan of McCracken's rather woolly and effortful tenor in the old recording and I suspect that Osborn might be better. I've listened to the soprano and mezzo on the new recording and they're both pretty good, so I had no hesitation in ordering it - especially also with the LSO and Elder at the helm.

Sometimes it's just nice to have another recording of an old favourite such as this - after nearly 50 years!!

I note that this is a co-production with Bru Zane - interesting:

Try this YouTube recording of the Cathedral Scene (30+ mins, audio only), evidently from the same performance in Aix-en-Provence on 15th July last year. I'm assuming it was recorded from the radio broadcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tl995uHhDqo

I can hear an awful lot of pre-echoes of Verdi here: the Auto-da-fé scene in Don Carlos comes to mind....

How different from the direction Raff was to take just a few years later in Samson - I'd like to hear his earlier opera König Alfred (which is roughly contemporary with Le Prophète) for comparison purposes...

By the way: I've put my (pre-)order in for Le Prophète straight away - the singing sounds exceptional (for once!)

An 8-minute video (in German with English subtitles) is now available at jpc:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/johanna-senfter-klarinettentrio/hnum/11170347

Thanks. That's a useful update on current developments.

Even more excerpts are now available at jpc:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/joachim-raff-samson/hnum/11860991

That's a very exciting prospect, if it's a possibility.

I take your point.

I just wondered whether AI-derived classical music (which is surely going to be unfamiliar) counts as 'unsung'? In the above brief article the violinist Daniel Kurganov says that he had some sort of hand in 'creating' the new music in the video...

<<Violinist and creator Daniel Kurganov has released a new video. Listen to it here and see if you start to ask yourself some questions...
https://www.thestrad.com/video/did-ai-just-kill-classical-music-a-video-from-violinist-daniel-kurganov/18010.article

Kurganov shares: 'How do we understand what is good string playing? What exactly have we learnt about the intricacies of nuance and beauty? Is it a mystery? Can it be taught or understood in explicit terms? Or can it only be emulated and passed on from one emotional being to the next? I would like to gently challenge all of our preconceptions with this sample of music.

'What you are hearing is music entirely composed by and played by Artificial Intelligence. My role was minimal, limited to guiding the AI with simple text instructions. This represents a groundbreaking moment advancement in technology—and this is the dumbest these tools will ever be. So, we must ask: are we seeing the end of classical music as we know it, or does this mark a new beginning?'>>

An excellent Chandos 2-for-1 set, including Cello Concertos by Finzi (one of his best works), Bax (hyper-late, late romantic), Moeran (beautiful, elegiac) and Stanford (Irish Rhapsody No.3) - plus the Bliss, which probably lies beyond the bounds of this forum:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8117054--british-cello-concertos

The eleven excerpts at Schweizer Fonogramm give a good idea of the general 'feel' of this large-scale opera which, had it been performed in the late 1850s, would surely have sounded very modern in the age of Meyerbeerian grand opera, rivalling even early Wagner.

I must give Cornelius' Der Cid (1865) another listen, for comparison purposes.

My order's in!

Orders can be placed here:
https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/produit/joachim-raff-1822-1882-samson-oper/

Audio samples are now available at Schweizer Fonogrammm:
https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/cd/die-schweizer-opernsensation-samson-von-joachim-raff-1822-1882/

Well done, John-Boy! A poet - and don't 'e know it...