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Fascinating news, Alan. Do you know what other works are being performed that season?

May I just make clear that I do not find (nor did I imply) that minimalist music is vapid or naive. My comments were directed solely at Gorecki's 3rd symphony and they are my personal opinion.

The CPO CD of orchestral music by Josef Holbrooke has now been released. It contains the early tone poems, The Viking and Ulalume + the late overture Amontillado (in effect, another tone poem based on E.A. Poe, a perennial source of inspiration for the composer) and the delicious orchestral variations on "Three Blind Mice", a tour de force of invention. The orchestra is the Brandurburgisches Staatsorchester, Frankfurt an der Oder, under Howard Griffiths, and they play superbly. The booklet notes by Franz Groborz are excellent. My only quibble is that one of the music examples is incorrectly printed: instead of the love theme from The Viking, which is what is being referred to, the printer has duplicated a theme referred to earlier from Amontillado! A pity. But it is marvellous to have these works available in good modern sound and splendidly committed performances.

Hear, hear! I'm not saying you shouldn't like the Gorecki - just that I don't, approachable though it is, AND I don't think it is worth trying to like, whereas the Messiaen might be.

Just to make it clear that Gorecki's 3rd is not naive - it is vapid. There's a big difference.
Rufinatscha's music, on the other hand is neither.

The Messiaen is rather difficult. It needs work on the part of the listener - I can't say I've really given it the attention it probably deserves. People speak highly of it but I don't find it appealing.

The Gorecki Symphony is a con-trick. As I said on the old forum, it is one of the great musical emptinesses of our time. That is expressing trenchantly what Mark has written more politely.

I'm particularly fond of Ries' piano chamber music.

But I get some free CDs! And there is a nice mention of me (and Jean Holbrooke) in the booklet of the recently released CPO disk of orchestral music by Josef Holbrooke.

The double concerto is a minor masterpiece. The first two movts. are superb - arresting, exciting, lyrical... everything one looks for in a concerto; the finale not quite in the same league perhaps, but the whole work a joy from beginning to end.

Andre Mathieu's music is really beautiful. I've mentioned his piano concertos once before, I think - but only in passing.

I was lucky enough to locate the piano part of the Op. 45 Benedict concerto (maddeningly, a set of orchestral parts, minus the solo part, are in the library of the RAM in London) in the Cambridge University Library, and Mike Spring leapt at it, so I knew it was on the cards for the RPC series, but I didn't know exactly when it would be done, though I did know it would be sometime soon.
Two lovely works.

After I directed Mike Spring to the Full Score of Pixis' PC, Op. 100 in the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, he became keen to record it and the original coupling was to have been with the Rosenhain. However, since he discovered the score of Pixis' Concertino for piano & orchestra in the Sibley Library in America, he is now thinking about an all Pixis disk which would have to include the splendid double concerto for violin and piano. The problem is that Kees Kooper has the score and parts and declines to reply to any emails about the work. I think he wants the Vox/Turnabout recording he made with his wife, Mary Louise Boehm, to be re-released before he'll condone another recording. All a bit frustrating.

Litolff: Concerto Symphonique No. 4 - no question. It's a completely OTT entry for the soloist.

Chris Fifield, who is to conduct the Frederic Cliffe VC for Sterling, has been considering the Holbrooke VC "The Grasshopper" as a possible coupling. Another possibility is the VC by Frederic d'Erlanger. I'll try to find out from Chris if any decision has been made yet.

A big thank you, Mark, for all your hard work in getting the Raff site back up. We are all very much in your debt.