Messages

I love Massenet's fluid approach to melody. It is so suited to characterisation in opera and is the main reason his characters come alive. The three earlier "oratorios" ( a word which isn't really appropriate for these works ) are full of lovely lyrical music some of which which wouldn't be out of place as love music in an opera. Try, for example,  "Aimons-nous! Aimer c'est vivre!" from "Eve", the duet for Jesus and Méryem in Act 2 of "Marie-Magdeleine" and, from the same work, Méryem's aria "O bien-aimé". From "La Vierge", Mary's aria "Ah! d'un charme inconnu je suis toute enivrée" is a particular highlight. Caballé sang it and made a DVD of the whole work though it doesn't show her at her best.

"La Terre Promise" is a much later and more austere work, using traditional forms associated with oratorio ( there are a couple of fine fugues ) although the second section which depicts the fall of the walls of Jericho is far more operatic in style. It's highly effective. It's almost as though Massenet had an eye to posterity when he wrote "La Terre Promise" and was concerned in particular to avoid any suggestion of sentimentality. Overall, it's a very fine work but neither the most attractive of them nor the one most characteristic of the composer.

You may not feel, though, particularly refreshed or inspired spiritually after having listened to a Massenet "oratorio". Elgar was better at that!

Massenet is much less unsung than used to be the case but his four large scale sacred works are hardly known. I have greatly enjoyed getting to know them lately. "Marie-Magdeleine", "Eve" and "La Vierge" are early works but have many characteristic pages while "La Terre Promise" is much later. It is a more austere work melodically but dramatically effective. Does anyone else know them?

For anyone interested in unsung French music drama....and that's most of it....there's an interesting channel on Youtube containing extracts from operas by Camille Erlanger and others, sometimes in synthesized versions. It's only a small channel so give him some support. So far he only has 5 subscribers!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYzaTqihnBl87x7YnOprNPQ/featured

Mention of Franz Lachner's Harp Concerto reminded me of the one by Anton Edouard Pratté, a composer and harpist who seems never to have been mentioned on this forum. He was born in Bohemia in 1797 and died in Sweden in 1875. There is even a festival and competition devoted to him. It began in 2019 and is held in Norrköping. If you've got 3/4 of an hour to spare, his harp concerto is well worth a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIEO7VZMR68&t=2050s

I've also always been curious about this work which is, surprisingly, the second of two harp concertos Lachner wrote.

Does that disc really last for 86 mins?!

Here's Zilcher's concerto in an ancient and very dim recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytOn6v8PHE

Very good news indeed....especially the Autumn and May symphonies which badly need a CD recording.

It's Joachim O.K. The first tune apart, they're all from the finale of Raff's piano concerto.

A disc which must be worth exploring. Bendix's piano concerto is superb and the symphonies are very fine too. A pity about the swimming pool acoustics on those Danacord recordings of the symphonies though. Can you give us some idea of the style of the sonata.

Sadly, the symphonies did not resonate with me.  If you are interested in owning this set, drop me a line and I'll send it to you.

By coincidence I've been listening to Gernsheim's symphonies a lot recently. On the whole, if you don't like Brahms's symphonies, you won't like Gernsheim's ....though some of the movements ( the tarantella from the second symphony, for instance ) couldn't have been written by Brahms.

Before you sell them, try the finale of the Symphony No 4 again. Its surging second subject may just convert you.

E# major and E# minor?! Only professors of mathematics would write music in those keys!

Here it is on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inIs3WE-kok

...and,as well all know, the horn call, the only melodic element from the Preschool Symphony, isn't Bruckner at all. It's Shostakovich.

"I don't think it is quite as easy as saying good music should be selected and played not on political grounds but on merit as some music has been ignored or judged bad in the past because of unconscious political bias. I don't give a fig for the colour, gender, class, or sexuality of a composer, but I am aware that some music is ignored or judged unfavourably because of the colour, gender, class, or sexuality of a composer."

These days some music is judged favorably ( or, at least, given undue prominence ) because of various immutable characteristics of the composer. Florence Price is, surely, an example. She was, as Alan says, a "minor talent".  Just because there may have been prejudice in the past that does not mean we should feel obliged to compensate for that now.  Where would that end? Should we pay reparations to Price's descendants?! Surely we should always judge a piece of music according its own merits. Apart from anything else, it is very condescending to a composer to imply that, when judging a composition, considerations other than its inherent worth have to be taken into account.