Hyperion has just announced its planned October Release in the Romantic Cello Concerto Series that seems to be finally picking up speed.
(http://i57.tinypic.com/106x8vo.png)
The Romantic Cello Concerto - Vol 7 - Fitzenhagen & Tchaikovsky
Wilhelm Fitzenhagen
Cello Concerto No 1 in B minor, Op. 2
Cello Concerto No 2 in A minor 'Fantastique', Op. 4
Ballade 'Concertstück', Op. 10
Resignation 'Ein geistliches Lied ohne Worte', Op. 8
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Variations on a Rococo theme, Op. 33 [arr. Fitzenhagen]
Alban Gerhardt (cello), Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Stefan Blunier (conductor)
Looks quite interesting. If the manuscripts survive, I hope they get around to the other 2 concerto's as well
It'll be well done, I'm sure. Question is - is the music any good? (I didn't think much of No.2 on Oehms - very small beer.)
Excerpts here:
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68063 (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68063)
Are there any romantic-era cello concertos of substance that ought to be recorded?
does anyone know what exactly is Fitzenhagen's arrangement in the Tchaikovsky? i just wondered because the original is already for Cello and orchestra.
regards,
ewk
Once you get past Dvorak and Saint-Saens, I think the best cello concertos are all 20th century products.
I'd love to hear the Foote Concerto with a 1st class soloist and orchestra. And I adore Cadman's A Mad Empress Remembers, though I've only heard it in the cello and piano version. I remember Douglas Moore telling me there were severe balance problems between solo and orchestra...something that could perhaps be addressed in the studio.
David
What about Emanuel Moór?>>
Cello Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.61 (1905) - pub. Siegel
Cello Concerto No.2, Op.64 (1906) - pub. Siegel
Rhapsody in G minor, Op.78 (1908?) - pub. Mathot
Largo, Op.105 (1914) - pub. Mathot
Rhapsody No.2 in A major (1911), no opus no. - MS
Ballade in E major (1914) - no opus no. - pub. Mathot
Seconded!
@ewk, The "arrangement" is that Fitzenhagen rearranged the sequence of the variations and omitting Var. no. 8 altogether + some added passage-works I think..
Alan - it was No.2 on Oehms - not No.1
http://www.oehmsclassics.de/%28X%281%29S%28vpxgjftemo2a5yto5hg4qegb%29%29/artikel.aspx?voeid=1876 (http://www.oehmsclassics.de/%28X%281%29S%28vpxgjftemo2a5yto5hg4qegb%29%29/artikel.aspx?voeid=1876)
Concerning the Moor pieces: You're probably aware that there already is a recording available of Cello Concerto No.2 op.64 coupled with his Concerto for two Celli op.68 and the Prelude for Cello and Orchestra op.123. It was released last year on the Hungaroton label. See here for more details:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/moor-cello-concertos/hnum/5300137
I think this release has been covered here in another thread sometime before it was available.
QuoteAlan - it was No.2 on Oehms - not No.1
Thanks - can't have been focusing properly. I have the CD on my desk next to me! Duly corrected!
QuoteConcerning the Moor pieces: You're probably aware...
Indeed I am aware of this. My point was simply that there are surely more substantial CCs around than these Fitzenhagen pieces - certainly enough for a CD featuring one composer's works.
The recent recording of Reinecke's CC is proof that there is much hidden which is yet to be properly explored. Draeseke's
Symphonic Andante would be another piece far more worthy of recording than these much slighter virtuoso pieces...
I forget- how did people find/regard the B minor cello concerto by JB Gross on a recent CD on which the other two works were by Rietz?
You may find a short summary about the Tchaikovsky/Fitzenhagen version here:
http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Variations_on_a_Rococo_Theme (http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Variations_on_a_Rococo_Theme)
also with Moór a fair number of double and triple concertos :)
(Op.105- 1914 is the publication date of an arrangement. The work in its orchestral form is not published, and its composition date is not, I think, known. For all -I- know, the cello/piano version might be the original, perhaps the ms orchestral version could be the arrangement and dating from after 1914, and the matters the other way around... though the Stiftung worklist suggests otherwise... but in any case that should also say "ms", not Mathot. I don't think Mathot or anyone else publishes the Ballade in E- stiftung has it as "manuscript" and Worldcat agrees.
The Prélude pour violoncelle et orchestre on that CD mentioned, was someone's - not Moór's, I'm guessing- orchestration of the cello and piano prelude of the same opus no.)
as to Fitzenhagen, is there a recording of his string quartet?
The Gross, as I recall, was in B-flat minor, not B minor. The biggest problem you are going to find is that a great number of 19th Century cello concertos are one-movement works in various formats, along the lines of the Volkmann. Apparently, the cello concertos of Franz Neruda are fairly typical. I believe the concertos (or at least the one I know of) by Franchomme are a representative example. There are, however more substantial works by Adrien-François Servais, but the first two (the second of which is a one-movement Morceau de Concert) have been recorded (there is a YT video of the Op. Posth. A minor Concerto by Seeli Toivio). Unrecorded is his very substantial Concerto Militaire in C minor. Very often, if they are 3 movement works, the first movement is truncated, as in the Servais works or the 1st Concerto by Karl Davydov. The Fitzenhagen 2nd follows the same general outline, although a case can be made that it is a one-movement work with new material mixed with recapitulations from previous sections in the final one.
But there are some (already recorded) by more substantial composers, e.g. Raff, Rubinstein, Herbert, Gernsheim, Dietrich, etc. So, are there any others, i.e. not by cello virtuosos?
QuoteThe Gross, as I recall, was in B-flat minor, not B minor
The CD says 'h-moll', i.e. B minor - not B flat minor, Jim. It's the best piece on the disc, but that's not saying much.
Ah. I saw it mentioned as B-flat minor. Thanks for the heads up.
OK, but it's easy enough to check by clicking on images of the rear inlay of the CD.
In part I was asking because @ IMSLP we have parts of another concerto of his (Gross...), in D minor (early Romantic.) ( & another, in G minor, in arrangement, though perhaps the score & parts are somewhere - FLP, elsewhere?...) But if the B minor was unpromising... ah well!!!
The Hungarian Jewish composer, Jacob Gyula Major, about whom I have written before on this forum, wrote concerti for piano, violin and cello, one of each. Fleisher has a copy of the full score only of the cello concerto , no parts. I don't think there are recordings of all of Klengel's cello concertos, and I certainly think the Foote should be investigated. Hans Sitt wrote two, Thierot wrote at least one, as did Molique and Svendsen, both of which are IMHO extremely beautiful. Godard also wrote a piece for cello and orchestra but it's not a concerto. Can't remember what it's called now. Oh, and a Konzertstuck by Ferdinand Hiller.
That's the sort of list I meant - thanks, Gareth.
And a piece I sadly miss... It used to be a favourite in French concert halls until the 60's, then it has disappeared. There used to be recordings, one by Paul Tortelier that can be found on youtube.
It's Boellmann's "Variations symphoniques". About 12 minutes . Beautiful and ideal for filling a CD.
I second the Boellmann. Should have mentioned it in my post.
Even better - thanks.
I'm curious too about Ropartz's Adagio for cello and orchestra, score @ IMSLP (http://imslp.org/wiki/Adagio_%28Ropartz,_Guy%29), score and parts @ Fleisher. (Both sources also have his rhapsody for cello and orchestra, published 1928, again score at IMSLP, score and parts at Fleisher...)
I note that Thieriot wrote four cello concertos, but I do not know how many of these are extant.
Walter Zielke has edited and published Thieriot's 12-minute Concertstück...
http://www.lulu.com/shop/ferdinand-thieriot/concertst%C3%BCck-f%C3%BCr-violoncello-hrsg-walter-zielke/paperback/product-22015083.html (http://www.lulu.com/shop/ferdinand-thieriot/concertst%C3%BCck-f%C3%BCr-violoncello-hrsg-walter-zielke/paperback/product-22015083.html)
Prof. Zielke may have a good idea as to the answer to that question in any case (of course, some may be extant that he doesn't know about, but he's edited into- I presume- playability many of Thieriot's works and might be considered an expert on the composer. I think he can be contacted @ IMSLP on the discussion page of "Wiki03", or in other ways...
Yes, I noticed Zielke's edition of the Konzertstuck. As far as I can make out I think the University of Hamburg Thieriot archive has full scores, and maybe parts for two of his cello concertos. I think they have only piano scores for the others, but Zielke is an expert on Thieriot and may know where the performance material for the others can be found.
Ropartz's "Rhapsodie" is performed by Henri Demarquette on a Timpani CD (with other orchestral works).
Just re-auditioning Fitzenhagen CC2 on Oehms. I'm afraid it's no great shakes as a piece of music: there are some powerful moments, but they sound rather incongruous in the context of a virtuoso showpiece. Certainly worth recording, but there must be better stuff than this...
Americans - in addition to Foote, G F Boyle, C M Loeffler and Henry Hadley all apparently wrote cello concertos......
J
Hadley, I believe is a one movement concertpiece (I have the piano/cello score). Loeffler, as I believe we have discussed before, seems to be lost...
David
I would be curious to hear Fritz Kauffmann Op. 29, score available at IMSLP. I would expect some Brahms influence there.
The Frederick Stock Cello Concerto would be a fantastic entry, as would George Frederick McKay's Concerto.
QuoteI'd love to hear the Foote Concerto with a 1st class soloist and orchestra
Hear, hear! And played with élan.
Personally I would like to hear the Vassili Zolotarev concerto. Allegedly it has been recorded on a 78 in 1943 on a Soviet label called Radio Tower - Alexandr Stogorsky with the Moscow Regional Symphony Orchestra under Grigori Gamburg....
Do you know the whereabouts of the Mckay and Stock concertos? They are not in Fleisher.
The manuscript score and parts for Stock's cello concerto are in the Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (http://cso.org/about/History/Default.aspx).
Thanks. That's good to know.
By McKay I assume we mean G. F. McKay. His music, though excellent, would be beyond UC's remit - as would, say, Walton's or Barber's. The test: would Hyperion consider his music for their RCC series? I can't see it...
McKay's music is firmly within the Walton or Barber/Flagello order. Much of his music is published, but many larger works are not, though they are readily available from the family publishing firm. I have the material for the Cello Concerto, and will be happy to forward a score.
Thanks. Very good of you. But, as I said, this won't be suitable for Hyperion's Romantic Cello Concerto series. Let's hope they might record it anyway.
Returning to the RCC series...
I think it would fit right in, and so would Walton and Barber. McKay's concerto was written in 1942, a year before Pfitzner's last cello concerto.
Pfitzner was from an entirely different generation - that of Richard Strauss, etc. He counts as a relic of late romanticism who survived beyond his time. Walton, Barber and McKay, on the other hand, take elements of romanticism (lyricism, melody) and combine them with levels of modernist dissonance that lie outside this forum's stated remit - which is why we don't include them here. This is a subject which we have touched upon countless times since the re-casting of the forum three years ago, so let's not go down this road again, please.
Hyperion may choose to record McKay, but it won't be as part of their RCC series - any more than his VC would be a candidate for their RVC series, fine work though it is.
Moving on...
A performance of Stock's concerto can be found on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj5KNKM4S-c (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj5KNKM4S-c)
It would be great to have a better recording, but it is certainly not suitable for the RCC series.
I would love to see the Molique concerto op. 45 in that series, a three movement concerto full of memorable tunes, and considered one of the best of its kind by von Bülow and Riemann. It exists in at least two radio recordings (Ina Joost and Angelica May), but has never been published on disc.
As a coupling, I would suggest, although already recorded, the works for cello with orchestra by CMv Weber, Variations J. 94 , Grand-Potpourri op. 20 and optional the transcription of Weber's second clarinet concerto by Cassadó.
If I understand these archive descriptions (http://specialcollections.vassar.edu/collections/findingaids/r/ritter_frederic.html) right, there's ms scores and parts and reduction for another cello concerto of the 19th century (by a composer who emigrated to the USA), Frédéric Louis Ritter, in Vassar's special collections. (Also of at least one of his symphonies and his piano concerto.)
The Cello Concerto in A minor of Alexander Gretchaninov would be a good candidate, but it's a short work (1 movement, 4 sections) and would need a substantial companion or two.