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#21

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Henselt/Bronsart Piano Con...

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 10 May 2024, 22:26

Well, I've been doing some comparisons (using headphones at Presto) between this new release and the two Hyperion CDs which feature the piano concertos involved - and I have to say that I really don't think the Swedish Chamber Orchestra are up to the job, especially in the slow movements where the strings in particular sound (to me) undernourished by comparison to the BBCSSO. Mind you, Paul Wee is an astonishing pianist and I can certainly see what Revilod means by his treatment of the finale of the Bronsart.

Anyway, for me this would be a pointless repeat purchase. But maybe piano-fanciers will feel differently. And to be honest, I don't think this was ever going to be a release for me as I tend to avoid HIP-influenced recordings if alternatives are available. A sign of my age and prejudices, no doubt...

#22

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Henselt/Bronsart Piano Con...

Last post by Revilod - Friday 10 May 2024, 21:22

Excerpts available here. The finale oF Bronsart's concerto is taken at quite a lick. The orchestra sounds lean but perhaps more on its toes than a full symphony orchestra might be.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9615307--henselt-bronsart-piano-concerto

#23

Composers & Music / Re: Ferdinand Thieriot

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 10 May 2024, 20:20

To return to Thieriot: as far as I can tell no-one of his generation was writing symphonies (nine of them) over a comparable 46-year period (1872-1918). They're crying out for an enterprising label to take them up.

#24

Composers & Music / Re: Ferdinand Thieriot

Last post by Maury - Friday 10 May 2024, 16:12

I saw the old thread but missed the bio reference. So he was another Brahms! It's interesting how intimidated Austro Germanic composers were by past symphonies. I am trying to think of a similar example elsewhere in music history but can't off the top of my head. And yet composers outside of Austria and Germany were writing all kinds of symphonies without any cares. 

#25

Composers & Music / Re: Ferdinand Thieriot

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 10 May 2024, 12:17

Becker was primarily a composer of songs and choral music. Please see this thread:
https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3817.0.html

As a symphonist he was a very late starter; his biography suggests that he carried the music for his 1st Symphony around in his head for a long time before considering himself ready to begin the composition process.

#26

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Meyerbeer's L'Africaine

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 10 May 2024, 11:48

Spyres has been taking on a lot of heavy repertoire in recent times - I believe he's about to sing Lohengrin, for example. I'd be prepared to give the new set a try if I thought the rest of the cast was up to the considerable demands of L'Africaine, but the excerpts at Presto sound very 'average' to me - in an opera in which world-class vocalism is required.

I won't be abandoning my Blu-ray with Domingo and Verrett (two of the greatest singers of their era) anytime soon, but I appreciate that I'm very picky- and always have been: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCFw51kdApg

#27

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Recording of Raff's Samson

Last post by Alan Howe - Friday 10 May 2024, 11:24

Great. It's a date!

The sight of that consignment of CDs is almost too much to bear...

#28

Composers & Music / Re: Ferdinand Thieriot

Last post by Maury - Friday 10 May 2024, 09:03

I get it that the harmony was more along Wagnerian lines. This is of course an initial impression but there was a kind of solid warmth occasionally to the orchestration that was characteristic of Brahms but more rarely of Bruckner. By solid warmth I mean a rather close integration from bass to treble of the orchestral sections.  Anyway I thought it was a good effort along with the Theriot Sym 5. I wonder why Becker did not write more symphonies.

#29

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Recording of Raff's Samson

Last post by adcsound - Friday 10 May 2024, 09:00

That's very good news, Fred. Could you please let us know when the CDs can be ordered? Thanks!

Dear Alan,

I asked Graziella and it should be around the 20 of May...
Fred.

#30

Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Meyerbeer's L'Africaine

Last post by Mark Thomas - Friday 10 May 2024, 08:50

Thanks, Alan, that's helpful. Amazingly the whole thing has been uploaded to YouTube by Naxos here, so one can judge for oneself, I suppose. I asked because I found the cpo Vasco da Gama (interesting that Naxos have reverted to Meyerbeer's original title) a disappointment after so much hype. I must say I thought Spyres sounds pretty good in what I've heard of it so far, but my expectations are notoriously low compared to yours .