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Since I just mentioned the Bronsart PC in a different thread in which I was about to add "the Bronsart PC, which is clearly the best by a Liszt student" I recalled that I haven't really heard them all. My favorite, amongst the ones I've heard is clearly the Bronsart but the very germanic d'Albert (who sounds like a weird but interesting crossover of Brahms and Liszt) and the very muscular Sauer PC are also of significant interest.

Anyway, which is your favorite Piano Concerto composed by a student of Liszt? Please to refrain to just one.

Maybe somebody else has mentioned this in a previous thread, but it bears mentioning just in case someone hasn't heard about it: ASV's catalog is about to be reprinted by Presto Classical: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Nov/ASV_Russian.htm

I have recently listened to Naxos' re-release of Carlo Giorgio Garofalo's Violin Concerto and I can't avoid concluding it is definitely a fine piece. Not a masterpiece of the concertante literature, of course, but it is very tuneful and has plenty of oportunity for ambitious violinists to show their skills. Besides, it has it's very own style, one wouldn't confuse it with a work by, say, Brahms or Reinecke.

Anyways, the reason for this post is to ask if anyone knows of a different recording from the one by Naxos. Sergei Stadler is actually a quite good violinist (he even won the Tchaikovsky competition in the 80's) but the orchestra sounds very perfunctory. It is actually one of the best orchestras in the good olde Marco Polo label, and one can't find any harsh section but it sounds so perfunctory, no real excitement or emotion, almost like if they were recording for a badly paid tv add. The exception are the oboe and horn players who actually deliver some beautiful passages, the rest sounds like a professional orchestra of undisputable quality but without much (or any) involvment with the pieces in this recording.

This sunday there will be a concert of mostly mexican romantic music, including the Castro piano concerto. The orchestra is top notch (at least for national standards) and the solist is Abdiel Vazquez who is definitely -along with Rodolfo Ritter- the top young pianist around. You can listen at him playing the Ponce concerto with a student orchestra here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLsSXwtjM3Y .

Anyway, the whole concert will be broacasted at: http://c7jalisco.com , be sure to pick the culture (cultura) broadcast. I don't know if it will be available internationally, but I guess it won't have any IP banning by region since it is a public channel. The concert is scheduled for sunday 25th, 12 30 local time. Since we are at GMT -6 that would be 6 30 PM in UK time and 2:30 East Coast time.

The full program is:

José ROLÓN, Zapotlán

Manuel M. PONCE, Chapultepec

Ricardo CASTRO, Concierto para piano (Abdiel Vázquez, piano)

José ROLON, El Festín de los Enanos, Poema Sinfónico op.30 (1925)

José ROLÓN, Tres Danzas Indígenas

Hopefully, some of you might be able to watch it!

A few months ago I attended a concert by OFJ with Rodolfo Ritter as pianist which was advertised as Ponce's PC but turned out to be a new piece to me: Ponce's Piano Concerto No. 2. Ritter is touring the country debuting the piece, or at least was since late 2013 and through this year.

The reason I'm writing this entry is that I can confirm that a recording has been made, or at least I've been told that by the people of Quindecim recordings at Guadalajara's Book Fair. It was not clear to me if it is going to be released by Quindecim themselves or if Rodolfo has other plans, but a pro-quality recording does exist. If I know more I'll post it here.