Messages

I'm a big fan of Poulenc. He has a style entirely his own. I think it was Richard Rodney Bennett who once said that he thought he could imitate the style of all the great composers except for Poulenc. If you don't know it, try his ballet suite "Les Animaux Modeles" and I guarantee you'll be hooked.

Yes, "someonewhocares2" is one of my aliases.
It is a pity that the libretto is in German only. This is bound to affect sales though, to be realistic, I don't suppose  "Der Golem" would sell well outside Germany in any case. I suppose the problem was that it would have been necessary to commission a translation. CPO managed it, though. They provided an English libretto for "Die Toten Augen". Some days ago I sent Dabringhaus and Grimm an email asking if an English libretto is available anywhere.  They haven't replied yet and I'm not at all hopeful.

I've just published a review of "Der Golem" on Amazon.co.uk  here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Golem-DAlbert/dp/B0040VJU5Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1288974548&sr=8-1
If anyone else has taken the plunge (it'll set you back the best part of £30) I'd like to hear their impressions.

Am sure, Thal, vid WAS in Everett's best possible taste:)
Revilod, are u, overall, a Ponti afficianado?(though I discern some ambivalence in your remark that he sometimes goes too far:)!) I think his approach would have pleased the pianist-virtuosi-composers of the era: his power, flamboyance and zest(and fast tempi:))Though, as i have often said here, he CAN be delicate(in the slow movements and second, slower subjects). As everywhere, he(sometimes strongly) divides opinion here; I LOVE him and his style; would be interested to hear your views.

None of the Hyperion pianists brings a similar verve and devil-may-care; very staid. For instance, he brings the Raff to life so hypnotically and excitingly(not necessarily an oxymoron), which, besides its stunningly beautiful slow movement melody, and its later hair-on-back-standing contrapuntal combination of that melody with a complementary one, DOES need some special pleading. Whilst ALWAYS being fun, and beautiful in some other sections, besides the slow movement, it DOES have its longeurs: and Ponti brings the WHOLE thing to vibrant life. (the Bronsart is another example).
Maestro Ponti is now very ill; and is not even, in public anyway, playing left-handed(only-he had a stroke in about 1998). Have u heard him play Rach 3 (On Dante) Probably his last recording and the most exciting and moving/tear-jerking of any I know.

Steve

Oh yes, Steve. I'm very much a Ponti fan. It's partly, of course, because he introduced us to so much entertaining and previously neglected music in his Vox days. He set the ball rolling. He also conveyed  the spirit of the music he played so effectively. A good example, I think, is his recording of the Bronsart concerto. Nobody else, I think I'm right in saying, has dared to record it, yet it is a very fine work. In the finale, you get the impression Ponti's at full stretch technically and there are wrong notes and even one passage which is almost fluffed yet he knew that a cautious approach to the music  just wouldn't work and he was prepared to take a chance...even though, it seems, Vox weren't too interested in patching in retakes.

Ponti didn't always hit the bullseye, though. I do think he skates over Medtner's magnificent concerto a little and he seemed to be having a bit of an off-day when he recorded Balakirev's 2nd Concerto which can't compete with Malcolm Binns's  performance on Hyperion. But, overall, I am a definite Ponti fan. Ultimately, aren't we all?

I haven't heard his Rachmaninov 3 and must investigate it!

Eugen d'Albert's Second belted out by Michael Ponti...not in Piers Lane's cautious performance. So much happens in that 15 minute span. It's a piece which beats Liszt at his own game!

A fine work, but rioutous?  Well, maybe Ponti could turn a quiet riot into a knock-down dragout!

Ponti could turn anything into a riot. His pioneering recording of Medtner's  Third Piano Concerto shaves well over 5 minutes off Demidenko's recording...and he's no slouch! I do think Ponti's version of the d'Albert concerto is very much in the spirit of the music even if he may go to far.

By the way, does anyone remember an old video of Volker Banfeld playing d'Albert's concerto dressed as a British airman Kenny Everett style?!

Eugen d'Albert's Second belted out by Michael Ponti...not in Piers Lane's cautious performance. So much happens in that 15 minute span. It's a piece which beats Liszt at his own game!

I find Delius pleasant, but no great master.  For some reason he was lumped for a while with the "Impressionist" composers in academic circles, which I find a bit of a stretch.  I heard the Double Concerto on the radio a number of years ago.  It just seemed to be a lot of noodling by the soloists, usually at the octave.  I lost interest, too.

I just can't let you get away with that assessment of the Double Concerto, Jim! Although it is not quite as fine as the 'Cello Concerto, let alone the Violin Concerto, it is still a superb work. Although an unbroken 20 minute span, it is in three sections, the last being a truncated version of the first.

There is a short introduction which returns at important structural points. The outer sections are built on two tunes, one wonderfully lyrical and the other  plainer and much more square-cut rhythmically.  The middle section is built on another lovely tune which builds to an exquisite phrase which Delius dwells on and which forms the rapturous climax of the whole work.

For most of the time the soloists play together so it's important to pick out the main melodic line. That will take a few hearings. The orchestra's role is largely supportive. The Double Concerto  is a lovely piece. You really must try it again!

I do think there was an element of Impressionism in Delius's earlier music but he did outgrow it and there is no trace of it in the concertos. In the way melodic fragments fly by in a dazzling array of colours, "Paris" is not unlike Debussy's "Jeux", for example.

Thing is, I find his music all kind of mushy and vague and indefinite. It's pleasant while it is happening, there is nothing offensive about it, but I never really care about it. I get bored and start reading or putzing around, looking for something else to listen to.

I'm a bit of a fan of Delius although I have to agree that he seems to have dropped off the radar recently. In fact, I regard the three string concertos (especially the Violin Concerto) as amongst the greatest music of the last century. The seemless yet tightly organized flow of exquiste lyrical invention is pretty much without parallel ....and for an antidote to the "mushy, vague and indefinite" Delius,  try "Paris-Song of A Great City"....one of the great virtuoso orchestral showpieces and a million miles away from that springtime cuckoo!

...and Gustave Charpentier, composer of one of my favourite operas, "Louise" and its virtually unknown sequel "Julien" and practically nothing else though he had enough time, dying at 96 in 1956. Does anybody know "Julien"? There is a video recording of it around.

As regards, Howard Ferguson, I know the Piano Concerto. It's an excellent piece and has always been very highly regarded....quite deservedly so.

Apparently there was also a recording by the Odeon Trio of Taneyev's piano trio (to distinguish it from his numerous string trios, I will write that out in full ) with one by Alexander Tcherpenin. Has anyone heard that recording?...
Eric

Yes. I've got that LP. It was made by RCA in 1977 and has never, I think, been transferred to CD.  Unlike in the DG recording, the exposition in the first movement is not repeated ...a  mistake given the scale of the scherzo. The performace is a fine one, though, as you might expect, the players play with less character than do the "Allstars". The first thing I noticed, however, was that it is recorded in a totally different acoustic. The sound is, perhaps, a little more detailed because the strings produce a far thinner tone as recorded and so do not overwhelm the piano as happens a little with the "Allstars". It's a good disc but the DG disc makes far more of an impact.

The Tcherepnin coupling is a miniature (its three movements together last a little over 7 minutes.) It's a not unattractive folky neo-Romantic piece.

Liszt, Jonathan, is listed as a synesthete on wikipedia and a convincing anecdote, with a reference, about how he asked the Weimar orchestra to play according to colours is given.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_synesthesia#Franz_Liszt

Yes, they were all synesthetes. I hadn't been aware that Raff may have been one. That's what prompted me to post.

What do these composers have in common?  Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov, Liszt, Amy Beach and.....probably (it's not known for certain) Raff. Googling not allowed!

According to the notes with the CPO disc of Goetz's 1st and 2nd piano concertos, the third concerto, which is in D minor, exists only as a "fragmentary sketch" so I don't suppose it can be salvaged.  I do hope this is not the case, though, because the Bb concerto really is an outstanding work (I've reviewed the CPO disc on Amazon.co.uk) and if the third concerto were anywhere near as good....

I don't know whether I'll buy the disc just for the sake of the Wieniawski. The issue I'm really looking forward to is  the two Widor concertos.

Those are very well written reviews, Jamie.  As Alan, says, it's important to write positively.  How that reviewer of the DG Taneyev disc could describe the music as "bland", "completely uninteresting" and "pretty boring" and give the disc just one star is beyond me.  He's entitled to his opinion of course but thank goodness for you and the other reviewers who stepped in with what is, surely, a more considered view.