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Dear all,
On Sunday 7th of October, we will be performing Robert Fuchs' second sonata for violin and piano in the Belgium town of Temse.
It is a very sunny, rhythmically joyful work, in which Fuchs has great fun with all kinds of polyphonic effects and echoes. Second movement, especially towards the end looks (and sounds!) a lot like Brahms on the page. Third movement is a rondo, quite "gemütlich" in style. All in all, we are having great fun in preparing the concert, and hope we can pass on our enthousiasm to the public. Also on the program : Beethoven's 8th sonata and Ravel sonata in G.
More details on
https://www.cultuurcentrumtemse.be/event/fedra-coppens-en-peter-verelst/
sincerely
peter

Hi everyone,
next week, march 10th, I will be performing the piano trio opus 14 by Georgi Catoire (1861-1926) in a concert also featuring the first of Johann Nepomuk Hummel's piano trio's and the Fantasiestucke opus 88 by Robert Schumann. I have studied like a maniac on this very difficult but incredible piece of music, and wish this music would be more known (and performed !). The piece is in three movements, the first opening with a broad and dark theme, giving way to a dreamy second subject. As in many of Catoire's chamber pieces, the use of sonata form is quite complex, but the handling of the architecture of the piece is second to none. the second mouvement, "allegretto fantastico" is in a A-B-A-B' form, where the B part takes the place of an (absent) slow mouvement. The finale has an enormous forward drive, and ends in a cataclysmic outburst before - typically for Catoire's modesty- he ends with four pianissimo notes in the piano.
I have time and again tried to explain what makes his music so appealing, but I end up in describing Catoire's excellence in every possible aspect of composition: beautiful elegiac and memorable melodies, very interesting harmonies and colors, nice orchestration between the instruments, complex but lively rhythmic patterns, and incredible command of structure and architecture.   
I really look forward to share this beautiful music with as many people as possible. The concert is held in my own living room by Fedra Coppens on violin and Lucie Stepanova on cello, two incredible musicians whom I am happy to call my friends.
Sadly this incredible piece of music has only known few commercial recordings, one in the '40s by Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovitch and Alexander Goldenweiser, and one by "room music" on the hyperion label. Room for some more I dare say !

Maybe just outside the scope of this Romantic music-oriented website, but nonetheless a very valuable recording is a new recording on the Dutch label "Cobra records" featuring Lucie Stepanova on cello and Ksenia Kouzmenko on piano, "whispering leafs". On this highly enjoyable disc they perform Janacek's "pohadka", Martinu's second cello sonata, a transcription of the second (" a blown-away leaf") of Janacek's 10 pieces "on an overgrown path" in a transcription by Sadlo, and the very impressive variations on the 17th-century chorale "O Haupt vol Blut und Wunden" for cello and piano by the Czech composer and pianist Josef Palenicek. This last work is written in 1942 in response to war crimes committed in Czechoslovakia, comparable in intensity and beauty to Messiaen's "Quatuor pour la fin du temps". Both musicians display an fastidious command of their instrument and easily rise to the challenges placed on them both, making this disc a real gem. The cellist, Lucie Stepanova, tells in the excellent booklet about her childhood memories of the composer Palenicek, sharing a bowl of soup with him as a 4-year old toddler, and meeting him again as a teenager, being a cello pupil of his eldest son Jan. Palenicek is nowadays mostly remembered as an excellent pianist (beuatiful recordings of Janacek's music are to be found on youtube), but this world premiere recording sheds a new light on his artistry. Lucie clearly has this music "in her blood" so to speak, and in the more famous (and more recorded) music by Martinu and Janacek can be placed among the best available recordings.
More details on the dutch website https://www.voordekunst.nl/projecten/6112-cd-whispering-leaves-1?#het-verhaal where both artists have a fundraising to sponsor the costs for making this disc...
Highly recommended !

The wonderful Russian-born, Germany-based pianist Anna Zassimova, who has already done so much for the works of Georgi Catoire, has recorded more piano works from this composer, along with the sonata reminiscenza opus 38nr1 by Nikolai Medtner and Scriabin's third sonata. The recording will include 3 pieces from opus 6 that Hamelin didn't record on his album of Catoire piano music. I believe Anna has also included the wonderful 4 préludes opus 17. The disc has been recorded, but is not yet available. Anna must be applauded for her work on this fenomenal composer: she recorded a splendid disc with the two violin sonatas and elegy together with Laurent Breuninger (a must-have if you ask me), the first-ever recording of some Catoire lieder, and a selection of piano works opus 12 and two world premiere recordings from opus 34) on her début cd "vergessene weisen". She has also recorded the piano trio with Boris Tsoukkerman on violin (cellist unknown to me), but this recording is also not yet out on the market. And last but not least, she has written a 400-pages long biography of him, sadly no longer available... more info on www.annazassimova.com
I am a big fan of Catoire's music. An earlier entry on this forum quickly diverted from the main topic and ended up in a discussion how to finance recordings of unsung music, but left a lot to be said about Catoire's (chamber) music. Therefore I hope this entry will (re)awaken interest in this composer, since he is very dear to me. Anyone else interested in his music?
cheers,
peter

On saturday 8th of july I will be performing the second violin sonata by Joaquin Turina, the so-called "sonate espagnole", together with the violin sonata of the Catalan cellist, composer and pupil-friend of Pablo Casals, Gaspar Cassadò. I believe that especially the Cassado is very unsung, although there is one video of it on youtube. It is a sunny, quite Spanish-flavoured piece in 3 movements, approximately 16minutes in duration, well written for the violin but horribly written for piano :-) But we are having a lot of fun with it. I bought the last copy of the score that universal edition had in stock, but got a reduction because the score had laid there on the shelf for so long that the colors on the front page were already faded... imagine how big the demand is for such a piece, maybe one score sold every ten years? Has anyone ever heard the piece? live or on broadcast?
the concert is in the small Dutch village of Tholen at 15h30, and entry is free. Apart from these two Spanish works we also perform Grieg's first violin sonata. All details in the link below
http://keldermansconcerten.nl/programma-20162017/?ai1ec_page_offset=0&ai1ec_active_event=1198
Hope to see you there !
pedrito

Hello everyone,
as a new member, I am happy to devote my first entry to the superb cello sonata of Alexander Gretchaninoff. I wonder how many of you know this beautiful work. Studying this piece and Brhams' first sonata for a concert in november, it struck me how many parallels there are between these two pieces: both in e minor, both have a rather slow first movement (although the Gretchaninoff steps up a gear after a long slow introduction), both have a menuet as its second movement, with the "'trio" section serving as a kind of (otherwise absent) slow movement, both use extensive counterpoint in its finale. Gretchaninoff must have modeled his sonata on Brahms's example. Both pieces sound totally different, but the resemblance is too obvious IMHO to be a mere coincidence... any suggestions from the other members?
I have one recording of the work, on Hyperion, but I have never seen it appear on concert programs...
greetings