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Topics - kolaboy

#1
Recordings & Broadcasts / Songs of Wintter Watts
Thursday 10 August 2023, 23:26
Somehow missed this one when it came out two years ago. Poor WW has fallen into obscurity, but one hopes this release will amend that (a bit). Now if only some enterprising bunch would tackle his opera, 'The Pied Piper"...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P29DCJK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

"Born in 1884 in Cincinnati, Wintter Watts, a prolific yet largely forgotten early twentieth-century composer, wrote music filled with beauty, warmth, and depth. This recording of his songs shows just what has been missed through performances of his music being so rare. American tenor John Carlo Pierce enjoys an international reputation for beautiful sound and incisive acting. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Connecticut. He was recently assistant professor of voice at New Mexico State University, and director of the Doña Ana Lyric Opera, the university's educational opera program. He has directed productions of Dido and Aeneas, Serse, Orphée aux enfers, and Suor Angelica. In his current position as associate professor of voice at Colorado State University, he teaches lyric diction, opera history and literature, and has directed Serse and Die Zauberflöte. He is joined by fellow Colorado State professor, Joel Bacon."
#2
Composers & Music / Auguste Vaucorbeil 1821 - 1884
Saturday 27 May 2023, 13:41
Came across this gentleman in a collection of Massenet's published letters. Seems to have been primarily a composer of art songs, but I see from Wikipedia that there are three operas, some sacred works, and a smattering of keyboard and chamber compositions. I was hoping for a taste on youtube, but so far, nada.

Works for the stage:

Bataille d'amour
La Mort de Diane
Mahomet
#3
Recordings & Broadcasts / Lalo's Namouna
Saturday 06 May 2023, 02:33
Has the complete score of Lalo's Namouna ever been recorded? All I've managed to come across are the suites...
#4
Composers & Music / Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin 1821 - 1910
Friday 29 January 2021, 00:31
Came across him in a Felicien David biography (Dorothy Veinus Hagan), where his ode symphony "La Poems de la Mer" was mentioned in conjunction with David's "Christopher Columbus" - by which he was apparently influenced. Not a lot to be found about him, web-wise... apart from a very modest wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Weckerlin
#5
Composers & Music / Ludwig (Louis) Benedictus 1850-1921
Wednesday 13 March 2019, 21:36
Came across this fellow while reading the Tobias Churton book "Occult Paris - The Lost Magic of the Belle Epoque." Found the following works:

Dark Hellespont , words of Judith Gautier (Paris 1845-1917)
Vilanelle , with Judith Gautier
Epiphany , Lyrics of Leconte de Lisle
The Merchant of Smiles , drama (Japanese play in 5 acts and 2 parts). Odeon Theater, Paris April 21, 1888, libretto by Judith Gautier and Pierre Loti
A tear of the devil . Mystery. Salle Barbaganzes, Paris jun1910, libretto after Théophile Gautier (Judith's father)
Musiques bizarres , Composed for the Universal Exhibitions of Paris 1890 and 1900, published in 2 volumes by Hartmann, Ollendorff, editors. 1889 and 1900
Sonata of Clair de Lune , opera (with Beethoven as hero), libretto Judith Gautier, for the Opera-Comique in 1903.

Doesn't seem to be a lot about him biography-wise out there...
#6
Composers & Music / Little known Kalkbrenner (the irony)
Tuesday 11 December 2018, 01:17
In view of the upcoming RPC release (mentioned in the new releases thread) I'm just wondering why Kalkbrenner's Concerto for 2 Pianos, Op.125 has yet to be considered for recording.  Not only that, FK wrote three operas - one of which is titled "Bluff (op.36)." I hope by some miracle that I live long enough to experience "Bluff." I just can't imagine a Kalkbrenner opera, anymore than I can imagine a piano concerto by Sibelius, or a bolero by Mendelssohn... all the more reason it should be explored.
#7
I've had "In The Gloaming" in my head all morning....

From Wikipedia: 
Annie Jessie Fortescue Harrison (30 December 1848 – 12 February 1944), also known as Annie, Lady Hill and Lady Arthur Hill, was an English composer of songs and piano pieces.

She was born in Calcutta, British India, the daughter of James Fortescue Harrison, MP of Kilmarnock. In 1865, they moved to Crawley Down, Sussex, where her father built a mansion called Down Park. In 1877, she married Lord Arthur Hill, who had been a widower. They had one daughter.

Two of her piano instrumentals are:

"The Elfin Waltzes"
"Our Favourite Galop"
Two of her operettas are:

The Ferry Girl
The Lost Husband
Her most popular song was "In the Gloaming" (1877), with lyrics by Meta Orred.

Wonder if any of her piano works have been recorded?
#8
Composers & Music / Thalberg: Songs and Chamber Music
Friday 07 October 2016, 22:09
Do any of you folks have an opinion of this particular recording? I'd like to know how it holds up, performance-wise:
https://www.amazon.com/Thalberg-Songs-Chamber-Music-Raschka/dp/B006VCITGI

Apologies if it has been previously discussed.
#9
Composers & Music / René Lenormand (1846-1932)
Monday 15 August 2016, 01:56
I've just heard his Piano Trio op.30 and am smitten. It seems to be the only piece of his that has been recorded, however. There's only a brief blurb about him on Wikipedia. Anyone here familiar with him - and with other works of his that may be hiding out there... somewhere?
#10
Composers & Music / La Neige
Friday 10 June 2016, 23:58
Has anyone here ever attended a performance or come across a recording of Auber's La Neige? I absolutely love the overture... Rossinieties, and all.
#11
Composers & Music / Thalberg / Berlioz
Thursday 31 March 2016, 02:53
Does anyone know if Thalberg's op.58 Fantasia on the Apotheose from the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale has ever been commercially recorded?
#12
Composers & Music / Les Francs-Juges
Saturday 19 March 2016, 02:26
Have the extant bits of this Berlioz Opera ever been recorded? (apart from the overture, of course). According to this website: http://www.hberlioz.com/Libretti/Francs.htm  there was at least a partial performance in 1970. Ironic in that Berlioz late masterpiece Les Troyens was often - to his great chagrin -  performed with not a few cuts...
#13
Composers & Music / Interesting site
Sunday 27 December 2015, 22:55
Just wondering if any of you folks had ordered cds from this site before:
http://www.romana-hamburg.de/

They have some fascinating titles (especially the Hugo Kaun releases)....

So, are these cdr's, and do they come in jewel cases with liner notes? Curious about the quality before I commit. I'd be willing to forgo jewel cases, but if the cds are so-so in quality it hardly seems worth the bother.

Thanks, and a belated Merry Christmas/Holliday to all :)

Danny Malboeuf
#14
Composers & Music / A requiem by Massenet?
Thursday 10 December 2015, 22:22
I'd not been aware that he'd written one until Demar Irvine's very fine biography (which I've recently begun). Just wondering if it still exists, incomplete or otherwise - or was it perhaps incorporated into other works...?
#15
Composers & Music / Macdowell's Op.35
Saturday 24 October 2015, 20:21
Listening to Macdowell's wonderful Romance for cello and orchestra makes me wish he'd composed a concerto featuring the same instrument, just as an adroit rendering of the orchestral suites causes me to wonder what his symphony - had it been completed - would have been like. "Absolute" music, or a rendering of some theme ala Raff's seasonal symphonies? I've read all I can find on the subject and can find no indication of the direction in which he was leaning...
And there are a fair number of his piano pieces that await a first recording...  :(
#16
Composers & Music / Chausson's sacred choral works...
Wednesday 23 September 2015, 22:09
Have all of Chausson's sacred choral works been recorded? There aren't that many, and they would surely fit onto one cd. I've just read  the Barricelli & Weinstein biography and came away more curious than satisfied...
#17
Composers & Music / Mortimer Wilson
Thursday 09 April 2015, 22:59
Reading through a book entitled "Epochs In Musical History" (Clarence G. Hamilton) I came across a name I wasn't familiar with... Googled it, and found a Wikipedia blurb:

Mortimer Wilson (August 6, 1876 – January 27, 1932) was an American composer of classical music. He also scored several musical and dramatic films in the 1920s.

Wilson was born in Chariton, Iowa in Lucas County, a rural area in the south-central portion of the state. He studied organ, violin and composition with Frederick Grant Gleason at the Chicago Music College. He then studied in Leipzig, Germany with Max Reger. Upon return to this country in 1911, he taught at the Atlanta Conservatory and conducted the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1916, he moved to Brenau College in Gainesville, Georgia.

In 1918, Wilson took a job as consulting editor for the National Academy of Music in New York City, where he remained until his death at the age of 55. Today, his works are mostly in manuscript and includes five symphonies and a great deal of chamber music. The suite From My Youth, Op. 5 was published in 1911 and premiered by the Sitting Trio.

Films he scored:
1920 The Mark of Zorro - music composer
1924 The Thief of Bagdad - music composer
1925 Don Q, Son of Zorro - music composer
1926 The Black Pirate - music composer
1928 The Good-Bye Kiss - music composer
1928 Night Watch - music composer

But what jumped out at me was the mention of FIVE SYMPHONIES.
Any folks here familiar with this gent, or his work (apart from the film scores)?
#18
Composers & Music / Wintter Watts symphony
Saturday 28 March 2015, 23:13
I had thought him only a composer of songs, but apparently there's a symphony out there... somewhere...
According to Wikipedia:
"He won the Morris Loeb Prize in 1919 for his symphony Young Blood and the Prix de Rome in 1923."
And:
Incidental music for The Double Life (M. R. Rinehart), 1906
Alice in Wonderland, opera (R. B. Butler, after Lewis Carroll), 1920
Two Etchings for Orchestra, 1922
Bridal Overture
Pied Piper, opera
The Piper, symphonic poem, 1927

I wish some enterprising label would take these on - if any are still extant.
#19
Composers & Music / George Alexander Osborne
Sunday 07 December 2014, 18:31
George Alexander Osborne: 24 September 1806 - 16 November 1893. Irish chap.

I've come across his name numerous times in 19th century composer biographies. Berlioz has a few kind words for him - but then Berlioz usually had kind words for those who. were well inclined towards himself...
Anyway, there's a disc of his piano/chamber works on Amazon, titled "Shower of Pearls", and I was wondering if anyone here had purchased it or has any opinion on Osborne's merits as a composer. The audio samples did not bowl me over, but sometimes audio samples can be deceiving. Is this a disc I'll take down perhaps once a decade? I have lots of those  :D
#20
Just treated myself to this 5-cd set on Tactus (TC 771960). Price is rather prohibitive, but I can't resist any release with Spontini's name on it.

1. Considering the price you would think that the set would come with texts/translations. It does not.

2. Considering the price you would think that the packaging would consist of more that 5 individual cardboard sleeves (that contain the cds) housed within a rather lightweight box. It does not.

3. Considering the price you would think that tenor Alessio Tosi would take a bit of care with his erratic intonation. He does not.

Had I known all of this beforehand would I have made yes purchase? Yes. The music is undeservedly neglected, and quite beautiful - and perhaps this release will, in some small way, help to restore the reputation that GS once enjoyed.

One unexpected bit of information I learned from the notes was that Spontini and Thalberg enjoyed a friendship in Paris in the late 1840s. Which is pretty cool.
Wagner/Berlioz/Thalberg cannot be wrong. Now here's hoping that Nurmahal, Alcidor, and Pelage are resurrected - at least to disc - soon.