Messages

(If Vierne's quintet hasn't been given a thumbs-up/shout-out, I will do so... )

I'd agree completely with that, Eric.

It seems to me that the only obstacle would be playing harmonies with the pedals.  You would be unable to use the dynamic pedals in that event.  But, like in organ playing, you can use a heel-toe maneuver to play melodic lines with one foot while manipulating the dynamic pedals with the other.  I see Mr. Prosseda doing this in several places during the video.

That's assuming the pedal-part moves more or less step-wise, rather than containing any wide leaps!

Thanks.
I can now rest assured that when I casually mention his name at one of my candlelight suppers there will be no embarrassing faux pas! 

Nice to know you are keeping up appearances!

Looking at my Mediafire folders it seems that no one has downloaded Jongen's Epithalme et Scherzo. I encourage all to do so, for it is beautiful and exciting work completely successful in all aspects.

Mediafire seems to be giving you unreliable "management information" because I can confirm that I downloaded both versions of the Epithalme et Scherzo on 23 August (and I agree about its beauty).

Dohnányi's Variations on a Nursery Song; and it's not just the portentous introduction -- the whole thing is a hoot from start to finish!

Lionel, I am so envious of your ability to read a score so well. Silas is a new name to me, and I echo Alan's thanks for taking the trouble.

  Thanks, chaps; glad to be of assistance.  The ability to read a score comes from what feels like about 100 years of practice!

Thanks, Christopher, for the link to that radio programme.  On the basis of the extracts of his piano music therein, I can quite understand why the pedagogues of the Moscow Conservatory were all agog when they heard him.  He's clearly a first cousin of Scriabin and am I alone in detecting a similarity with Catoire in the concentrated, distilled nature of his inspiration?  I see some of the piano music is available on CD but, as a chamber music junkie, I'd really like to hear the string trio and the sextet.  Does anyone know the instrumentation of the latter?

I had never heard of Silas and so I downloaded the score of the Symphony to see if it might be a lost masterpiece.  In my opinion, it isn't.  It's quite old-fashioned for its time and while some of the themes are attractive (especially in the scherzo), they are worked to death in an uninspired, rather four-square and mechanical manner.  The orchestration is competent, owing something to Schubert, but overall (to damn with faint praise) I found it not unpleasant -- merely dull.  However, I must emphasise that I express this view on the strength of one reading (rather late at night); others may find things in it that I have missed and so I'd be interested in the opinions of any who might care to peruse it.

Thanks for passing on that interesting and intriguing information, Eric.  The Hyperion CD will be a must-buy for me. 

Thank you very much for that pointer, X. Trapnel. I shall definitely order it. 

Thank you so much, John, for kindly downloading your recordings of Jongen, especially the Violin Concerto; it's very generous of you to share your interpretations which I feel privileged to hear.  I can only echo Alan's mystification about why the concerto has not been recorded commercially.  Please do what you can to remedy that!

After listening to all your downloads, I continued a very rewarding afternoon listening again to the Quatuor Gong's CD of the first two String Quartets as recommended by Petershott (note to self – must get their CD containing the third!) and again I agree with Alan that the first is a gem.  Another early masterpiece is the op. 10 Piano Trio (a good recording by the Ensemble Jospeh Jongen on Fuga Libra, coupled with the Aquarelles op. 59 and the Deux Pièces en trio op 95) which shows Jongen to have a melodic and lyrical gift second to no-one in the Franco-Belgian school, as well as the capacity to build completely absorbing narrative arcs over long periods.  At times the harmonic language reminded me of the anguished Piano Quintet of Louis Vierne (written twenty years later, of course).

Like most here I'm sure, I continue to be astonished by the unsung status of some composers who are undoubted masters; without, I hope, any hint of hyperbole, it seems scarcely credible that these works by Jongen are not in the standard repertoire.

Another note: the programme mentioned that the original libretto had a fifth act introducing Jane Seymour, but Saint-Saens et al. dropped this early in the planning stages.  A terrible idea dramatically, of course, but intriguing, none the less.

David

If only Henry VIII himself had been smart enough to drop the idea of Jane Seymour... 

And an even more belated thank you than semloh's from me too, Latvian.  Yes, Beethoven and Schumann are clearly hinted at and some of the harmonic swerves and dominant preparations remind me of Tchaikovsky but, influences aside, the Symphonic Allegro is a thoroughly well-crafted and enjoyable piece in its own right.  If you have any more of Jurjans' pieces from radio broadcasts, I'd very much like to hear them.

Very true, Jim.  Maybe I was just expecting it to sound a bit more like Albeniz than it actually does.

The thematic transformation is still reminiscent of Liszt, however.

Oh yes, I totally agree with that.  I also agree that there is a Spanish flavour to it but maybe it's just not as 'picante' as in the later works!