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Today Records International listed the new CPO recording for $34 - that's the price of two disks. So I checked and sure enough the new recording is spread out over two, coming in at over 88 minutes. Are the tempos that much slower than the two previous recordings? Were they cut in some way? i'm a sucker for new recordings of odd repertoire, but in this case I'll pass. I did notice that JPC offers it for the price of one disk, but the shipping charges would make up for that. It hasn't shown up at either Presto or Amazon.

On April 30 and May 1, 2022, the Southern Arizona Symphony will be giving the Moszkowski Piano Concerto no. 2 along with much more familiar Dvorak.
https://sasomusic.org/2021-22-season/

Oh I'd like to be there so much, but travel this year what with Covid and all is so difficult. Looks wonderful from the promo. Wouldn't it be nice if video release was possible?

Anderson within the remit? Yippee!

I love his music and it isn't as well known as it was once and should be, save for the ubiquitous Sleigh Ride. My story: three years I was invited to conduct a pops concert with the understanding I could choose the music. So I programmed some favorite unsungs (Chadwick, Gottschalk, MacDowell) some light Americana (marches, etc) and then a Leroy Anderson Suite: Belle of the Ball, Sandpaper Ballet, Forgotten Dreams, Typewriter and close with Bugler's Holiday. The positive response and comments from the audience were heartening, but what really struck my was how few orchestra members had ever played any of those works. No one had played the Sandpaper Ballet or Forgotten Dreams. Band members had played Bugler's Holiday. Players were certainly receptive and I think the sense of nostalgia the works bring with them made a difference. There were the grumblers, that this music was corny, hokey, old-fashioned, cheesy and not worth the effort. Can't please everyone. The hit of the evening was Night in the Tropics.

Anyway - the Typewriter. Those things are hard to come by, especially the one specified in the score with the settings to get the bells and such in exactly the right spot. So we updated: the Word Processor. The typewriter sounds were managed by a desk bell and drum sticks on a wood block: an alternative Anderson wrote. We wheeled out a computer terminal and got a good laugh. At the end when the typewriter goes crazy, suddenly a bloom of white smoke and a bang came out the terminal - a stage tech had removed the old computer guts and replaced it with stage props to make smoke and a bang. Worked great!

Well that's nice - but I'm more intrigued with the Bassoon Concerto. I didn't even know Lachner wrote one. Must buy.

Good to know another pianist and record company are exploring these wonderful, too much ignored works. Let's nudge Bis to give us a complete set of Rubinstein concertos!

I sure hope this downloading only is the way we're heading. I really want to hear this new recording, but I want a physical disk. There's a new set of Rachmaninoff symphonies on Sony that's supposedly dynamite - but alas, it's only available for download, for now anyway.

"Note spinning at its best" But not at it's worst, ala Rubinstein's lowest moments. In the Grimm, the continual use of sequences gets tiresome quickly. It's common and easy to use technique that lesser composers (and some majors) gave in to. Every movement makes use of it. Kind of like Robert Volkmann, whose symphonies were also widely praised in their day...

What a fine realization of this score.  I had resigned myself to never hearing it but what do you know! It's been discussed so much that it seems like something CPO should have picked up a long time ago. Having heard it, well, now I must admit being somewhat disappointed. The first three movements are just textbook German routine. Although around 8 minutes in it sure sounds like Bruckner - those bass lines! Only in the finale does Grimm exert some energy and keep the music moving. But melodically, most of the symphony is pretty inert. Harmonically predictable. No real insights in the orchestra - although I like the use of the horns in the finale. Note spinning at its best. When you consider that only one year after this symphony came out Brahms would dazzle the musical world with his First, the Grimm seems pretty pale. I'm very glad to have finally had a chance to hear it, but like so many other symphonies of the era, perhaps its obscurity is understandable. Grimm was no Raff, no Bruckner or Brahms.

That was great! Very enjoyable. I have no idea what was going on, but the music was sure fine!  Cesar Franck remains the least-known of the great composers. Thanks for posting the link.

Rarity doesn't do it justice. Wish I could get it here. On Arkivmusic's site they don't even list Opera as a composition type of Franck. Has this ever been recorded?

Good news - I like the Banowetz recordings, too, but new ones are always welcome. Now if pianists would enliven the repertoire and start putting these back in live concerts!

I think this is a good idea for one of those budget Brilliant boxes: the Wittenstein Commissions.

Recently I ran across a Classicfm article about 30 of the Greatest Composers. Period. https://www.classicfm.com/composers/greatest-classical-music-history/. Two women: Hildegard von Bingen and Amy Beach. No Florence Price.

As much as I love the Beach symphony, I really have trouble putting her in that august company (of course, I wouldn't put Philip Glass their either). As far as Price goes, she had talent and face difficulties many white, male composers didn't. But in music, only the best survives and if she wasn't black and/or female I doubt her music would draw any interest. I sat through a live performance of her First Symphony two years ago and wasn't impressed - it got worse as it went on. My feelings then - as I told several orchestra players and the conductor - were that there are many much better symphonies that await rediscovery or performance. But since they were written Dead, White, European Males, we'll never hear them. The conductor, to his credit, did say someday he wants to play a Raff symphony!

I've been enjoying these symphonies from a download. Earth-shattering - not even close, but quite enjoyable. The Musicweb review tells it all. I can think of a lot worse way to spend 71 minutes of my time! There are times, especially in the 1st, where the string writing sounds so much like something you'd hear in Melachrino or even Mantovani. I'm looking forward to the next four symphonies.