Unsung Composers

The Music => Recordings & Broadcasts => Topic started by: eternalorphea on Saturday 18 October 2014, 14:44

Title: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Saturday 18 October 2014, 14:44
The article
http://mic.hr/news/violinski-koncert-frana-lhotke-u-majstorskom-ciklusu-simfonicara (http://mic.hr/news/violinski-koncert-frana-lhotke-u-majstorskom-ciklusu-simfonicara)


(quick and easy with Google Translator)

Fran Lhotka's Violin Concerto in the Master Cycle of the Symphonists
Published on: 2014-10-17
The second concert of the season Master Cycle, will be held on Thursday, October 23rd at 19:30 in the Lisinski Concert Hall. The Croatian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Maestro John Repušić, and as soloist will be performing violinist Marin Maras, in the first modern performance of the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Fran(tišek) Lhotka.

Mussorgsky: Night on a Desolate Mountain, symphonic poem
Fran Lhotka : Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor
Tchaikovsky : 1st Symphony in G minor , Op. 13

In the shadow of successful ballets such as 'The Devil in the Village' remained other works by Croatian composer of Czech origin, Dvořák's student who after his first year of professional activity in the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk sought and found livelihood in Zagreb, first as cornist and accompanist at the Opera, later professor at the Music Academy. Among Lhotka's works which with total unjust remained forgotten is too the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Though Lhotka composed it as thirty-year-old, at daybreak of World War I, 1913, nothing of the historical avant-garde and expressionist anticipation of global cataclysm ain't contained in it. The concerto overflows from flood of melodic abundance of a dvořákovian momentum; openly admits role models, classifying itself alongside similar works written by Tchaikovsky or Brahms. Revitalization of the work, a return to regular concert life it undoubtly deserves, is entrusted to the best: violinistic flagship in the younger generation Marin Maras and currently most propulsive Croatian conductor Ivan Repušić who with great success builds a career in European opera theaters.

Tickets: 40 and 60 kn

Direct broadcast of the concert on HR3 (Croatian Radio, third channel).
http://www.hrt.hr/streamf/PROGRAM3 (http://www.hrt.hr/streamf/PROGRAM3)

Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eschiss1 on Saturday 18 October 2014, 18:50
ah, good! I've noticed a few works by Mr Lhotka broadcast over Euroclassic Notturno/BBC Through the Night, including his string quartet in G minor...

By cornist do you mean hornist or cornettist? I assume you do not mean teller of corny jokes (that's my job, and I'm sticking to it. Yes, I now remember- darn senility-at-45... - quick and easy with Google translator, so I should ask if -they- mean that... :D )
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: Alan Howe on Saturday 18 October 2014, 21:32
Can anyone record this broadcast, please?
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: JimL on Monday 20 October 2014, 17:22
And, if you please provide more information on the work, i.e. key and movement titles/tempos, if possible?
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eschiss1 on Tuesday 21 October 2014, 15:24
They complain about it not being performed, but has it been published? Nooooooo... One step at a time, people. It's easier to get one after the other. Don't ask violinists and orchestras to read from (often illegible) manuscripts after two rehearsals...
His concerto for string orchestra has been published, though, I see.
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Thursday 23 October 2014, 14:25
Get ready to record! It's so unsung.. Who knows, we might not have the opportunity to hear it again ever

Direct broadcast of the concert on HR3 (Croatian Radio, third channel).
http://www.hrt.hr/streamf/PROGRAM3 (http://www.hrt.hr/streamf/PROGRAM3)

October 23rd at 19:30 in the Lisinski Concert Hall.

Pay attention to the time difference between two time zones
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Thursday 23 October 2014, 19:24
am listening to this rubish right now and cant belive I wasted my time on writing a post about this. The violinist's no good (He actually got the notes 2 monts ago, while having at the same time several other projects he was working on). The conductor I'm satisfied with

Violinists who performed the concert to this day:
Otilie Reiniger (premiere performance in Prague; second performance in Zagreb),
Josip Klima in 1970s?,
Tamara Smirnova in ~1980,
Marin Maras yesterday
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: Mark Thomas on Thursday 23 October 2014, 22:09
What a shame. Was it just the performance which disappointed you, or both that and the music itself?
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Friday 24 October 2014, 00:14
reply to Mark Thomas

Once upon a time, when I was a kid (~10y ago), I heard a portion of this concerto, and was sure the author's name falls among well-known ones, until the reproduction finished and radio-speaker said 'the violin concerto by Fran Lhotka'.. I knew nothing back then (no insight into theory, musicology), whilst today I know a good deal of what I have dreamt of knowing.. So, maybe my expectations were a little too high... I do no. About no Dora's (Pejačević's) work have I ever been faced with such dilemma, not a single exception, cause she's simply a great composer :)
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: Alan Howe on Friday 24 October 2014, 08:41
She is - agreed!
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Friday 24 October 2014, 15:01

Link to recording:
http://radio.hrt.hr/data/aod/3_Program/20141023_-_MAJSTORSKI_CIKLUS_SIMFONIJSKOG_ORKESTRA_HRT-A_(19922991).mp3 (http://radio.hrt.hr/data/aod/3_Program/20141023_-_MAJSTORSKI_CIKLUS_SIMFONIJSKOG_ORKESTRA_HRT-A_(19922991).mp3)
Concerto starts at ~00:17:00
Right-click and select Save as.. if you want to download

Cheers!
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: Mark Thomas on Friday 24 October 2014, 17:36
Thanks very much for this link.
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Monday 27 October 2014, 21:06
Recording of the concert on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLYRTbobX4&list=UUytPjPf9xC4OxWa9QiZSx4Q (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLYRTbobX4&list=UUytPjPf9xC4OxWa9QiZSx4Q)

Every opinion appreciated, of course
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: eternalorphea on Wednesday 11 February 2015, 06:43

Have listened to it again, and just kept repeating the ending minute and half for 5-6 times..

This is the link to the minute 29:51, if you wish to do the same ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLYRTbobX4&feature=youtu.be&t=29m51s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QLYRTbobX4&feature=youtu.be&t=29m51s)
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: Gareth Vaughan on Wednesday 11 February 2015, 15:11
I have just listened to the performance on youtube and, I must say, I rather like the piece - but the violinist is dire. Oh dear!
Title: Re: Fran Lhotka - Violin Concerto - first modern performance audio now on YouTube
Post by: JimL on Thursday 06 September 2018, 16:01
A few years back there was a link here to the modern premiere of the  D minor violin concerto by the Dvořak student Fran Lhotka. That link is gone, the YouTube video has been deleted, and so far as I know, any projected recording of the work has yet to materialize. Would it be possible to upload it here until such time as it becomes available elsewhere? Does anybody have a copy of it they can hurl into the cloud?