Hi all
A state of play posting. Alan, I think you in particular may be able to supply answers to a couple of things.
Previously news was filtering through about recordings of concertos by Frederick Cliffe, August Klughardt and Herzogenberg. Correct me if I am wrong Alan , but as I recall the latter has been recorded by CPO but not released yet.
The above works count as very desirable 'core' material for the romantic era, but I also understand concertos 17, 18 and 19 by the late classical master R.Kreutzer are about ready for release by Naxos. Any further news on that? A recording of numbers 9 and 13 has just been released on another label.
regards
Peter
OK, Peter, here goes:
1. The Herzogenberg VC (coupled with his Wagnerian/Lisztian Odysseus Symphony) has been recorded by cpo, but there is as yet no confirmed release date. The performers are Ulf Wallin and the Saarbrücken Radio Orchestra conducted by Frank Beermann.
2. The Klughardt VC (coupled with his 3rd Symphony) has also been recorded by cpo - but I imagine it will take a while to appear. The performers are Mirjam Tschopp with the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau conducted by Golo Berg.
3. The Cliffe VC has not yet been recorded and probably won't be for a while. The issue is the coupling, but I'll pass on more news when I have it.
4. No sign of the Naxos/Kreutzer release, but it doesn't really interest me all that much. As I've said so many times before, I just can't see the point of recording this very marginal repertoire when so much more important stuff remains unrecorded. At least cpo balance their earlier 19thC recordings (Lipinski, etc.) with later, more interesting stuff, e.g. Reinecke, Herzogenberg, Klughardt.
Chris Fifield, who is to conduct the Frederic Cliffe VC for Sterling, has been considering the Holbrooke VC "The Grasshopper" as a possible coupling. Another possibility is the VC by Frederic d'Erlanger. I'll try to find out from Chris if any decision has been made yet.
Hi all
Thanks Alan, for the frank explication.
As you know, I am very much in tune with your point of view. The high romantic era (c1860-1890, with up to c1900 often within the same sound world) is still poorly represented re the recording of major concertos by composers who were composers in the broadest sense, not just virtuoso operators.
There is till plenty of room for the latter of course, Mr Kreutzer included, and it is fair to say that the work of late classical composers who produced a lot of fine compositions in the early 1800s has also been badly neglected.
But the key point is as discussed. Thanks for the reminder about the Cliffe possibilities, Gareth. May I also mention the Brull concerto? I suspect solid progress has been made in preparing an acceptable text revision to enable a full recording of the work.
Whatever, scores of works are still circling our music world waiting for an invite. I need only mention the great Reinhold Becker violin concerto...any whispers at all?
regards
Peter
Sorry, Peter, I forgot to reply!
I'm afraid I have no info at all about the possibility of Becker's VC1 being recorded. Although I sent the score to a well-known violinist with the permission of the label associated with this particular person, I have unfortunately had no reply. Not a sausage.
Not a forthcoming recording I'm afraid, but how would Draeseke's VC in E minor WoO 15 sound, premiered in a version for violin and piano at the June 2009 Internationale Draeseke Gesellschaft Conference? See http://www.draeseke.org/essays/violinconcerto.htm (http://www.draeseke.org/essays/violinconcerto.htm)
Good question - I have the score (a photocopy of the manuscript of the piano/violin version from the SLUB Library in Dresden) and it looks intriguing.
The VC by Draeseke is unfortunately only extant in this form: the orchestral score seems to have been lost before or during World War 2 and has not yet been rediscovered.
Nevertheless, being a member of the Draeseke Society, I should have some news for you about the premiere in a week or two...
I hear from cpo that the Herzogenberg CD should be out in late autumn.
The Klughardt VC has also definitely been recorded - but no release date yet.
Having now heard a dub of the radio performance of the Klughardt VC which will form the basis for the cpo release, I can honestly say that I believe this to be a major addition to the late-19thC violin concerto repertoire.
The concerto is 42 minutes long, making it just a bit longer than the Brahms VC. It consists of a long, mainly serene first movement which is connected to the glorious slow movement by means of a dramatic declamatory section for both soloist and orchestra. The finale marries fanfare-like material with what sounds like folk-inspired themes. The overall mood is one of relaxed lyricism and contentment.
And the idiom? Well, the breadth is definitely Brahmsian and the idiom is conservative for the mid 1890s, but overall it is a most beautiful and memorable work. Certainly a missing gem.
This a mouthwatering in prospect, Alan. Do you know how cpo will couple their symphonies/violin concerto CDs? Presumably Nos.1&3 that we already know about, another pair of symphonies and then the final symphony plus the Violin Concerto?
I don't really know anything apart form what I've already posted. I don't even know whether there will actually be a Klughardt cycle - although I hope there will be.
If you want me to guess: I believe that Dutton will record the Cliffe VC with Philippe Graffin and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, although the English Music Festival programme which includes details of the performance on May 23rd at Dorchester Abbey doesn't give any hints that this is the case. As I said, just a guess...
Yes, I saw the Cliffe/Delius concert reviewed in The Times and it certainly had "Dutton" stamped all over it didn't it? Looks like Sterling might have missed out on that one...
I 'm very much looking forward to the release of the Klughardt VC. Alan and Mark, do you know Klughardt's Cello Concerto in A minor? Is it in the same Brahmsian style?
I wouldn't so much say Brahmsian as generic middle-period German romantic. A very attractive work, it is melodically rich and well worth investigating. The Sterling CD (http://www.sterlingcd.com/catalogue/composers_e-k/generic_page_3.html) which features it, together with the Concert Overture, Könzertstück for Oboe & Orchestra and the Auf der Wanderschaft Suite is a rewarding investment.
Wondering if anyone had any new news on this front. I do notice that there's a new recording (available rather than forthcoming, I think) of the early classical violin concertos of Touchemoulin, a composer who I know from his flute concerto sometimes broadcast over BBC. And (again assuming I'm not the only one here interested, but not quite sure) a check at MDT reveals that a recording of Boris Tchaikovsky's violin concerto (or a reissue??) is listed as forthcoming. (Actually this CD may have come out in 2006 according to Worldcat. I'm not sure!)
(I forget, what was the consensus on Weingartner's violin concerto released a couple of months back? Was there any mention of Knipper's recently released, or of Jaques-Dalcroze's? Memory's not so good, seriously. Or of Ferdinand Ries', at that.)
MDT also shows Danacord's Danish violin concerto series continuing with Enna's and Lange-Muller's violin concertos in volume 3, among other works. Anyhow, attempting to restart an old thread, possibly to little point (apologies) but it did seem worthwhile subjectively...
Eric
I saw that Hyperion's Romantic Violin Concerto series has the first installment of a new Vieuxtemps cycle coming out in May. Concertos 4 & 5 along with the noisy little Fantasia appassionata.
I can't say really I need another version of 4 & 5 to sit on the shelf alongside the Perlman versions...
David
I agree. This series is looking pretty unimaginative - whereas Dutton and cpo are leading the way...
Archiv Music list 15 other versions of #5 currently available, (and that doesn't even include the Perlman.) Many are cheaper.
If this is filling a niche, I don't know what it is.
David
With Naxos having already done the entire cycle for cheaper, what were they thinking? Still, in the interest of completionism, at some point or other these would have been indispensible. Might as well get it over with now.
A little bit of information for eschiss1 or Eric(?).
Yes, MDT have been advertising for release the Boris Tchaikovsky Vn Concerto (splendid work!) recording by Victor Pikaizen and Odense SO cond. Edward Serov. I think you're right in that the disc was released in 2006 - I got mine directly from the USA in 2008. My American sourced disc bears the same number - PMA9946 - as the one advertised for release by MDT. So one and the same disc. I guess all that has happened is that, with a change of distributor or whatever, MDT have now acquired the right to distribute / release Northern Flowers CDs within the UK. The same has happened with the Northern Flowers CDs of the string quartets of Myaskovsky, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky himself along with a few other things such as the 'Dante' symphonies of Tischenko.
Good news I suppose that these Northern Flowers discs can now be obtained from the very reliable MDT. The 'downside' is that the MDT price is a hell of a lot more than I've ever paid for a Northern Flowers disc directly (or via Amazon) from the USA.
Hope that helps resolve the minor puzzle.
Peter
Sadly, I must agree with Alan. The RVC series began well, but seems to have got stuck in a rut. It's especially disappointing when you think how adventurous the RPC series has been. There doesn't seem much point in producing recordings of VCs that are already well represented in the catalogue - however splendid these works may be - when there are so many Romantic Violin Concertos of merit completely unplayed and unrecorded. We've rehearsed the principle contenders more than once on this forum: Becker, Gernsheim, David, Bazzini, Litolff, Scharwenka, Molique, Stor, etc., etc. The list is a long one.
Didn't Hyperion lose an expensive court case a few years ago ? Perhaps that has affected the program ? although the RPC program still flourishes. Same story with the Cello concertos - slowed to a trickle. (I read somewhere (Gramophon ?), that a Romantic Cello series was well underway .(- the last I saw was the Gernsheim Concerto vol2))
Marcus.
Yes, they lost a court case, but I can't see the RVC release of the two Vieuxtemps concertos helping them pay their fees. They'd surely make more money for the same cost by producing previously unrecorded works (Gareth's list is a good starting point) than duplicating repertoire which is still hardly mainstream but which is already available in umpteen other places. It seems as pointless a release as the Tchaikovsky piano concertos for RPC #50. What a shame, they are such an admirable company usually.
If Hyperion keep to the known repertoire for their RVC series, the performances will have to pretty special for anyone to buy the CDs. Who wants to buy an unknown violinist with a less than top-flight orchestra when you can get, say, Perlman, with the Paris Orchestra under Barenboim? On the other hand, a couple of Gernsheim VCs recorded by such forces would be a sure-fire hit...
They lost the court case, not because they were in any way 'at fault', but, as least in my view, someone else's quite unreasonable greed. However.
I groaned when I read about the forthcoming Tchaikovsky release. I'm sure it will have considerable merits, but why release something whose rivals could already fill an entire record shop?
I was very much hoping that they would reach the wonderful 50 mark with something that might surprise and delight us all. Something rather special. And if Hyperion do any kind of 'market research' then couldn't they, with both musical and commercial profit, consult this site?
Peter
Offtopic: I'm probably the only one here who does think Hyperion was at least partially "at fault" - failing to recognize the editor's reasonable copyright claims on his work realizing the delaLande (if they want an edition without paying for one, create their own from the publicly available manuscripts, imhonesto; it does involve a degree of creative work to realize continuo, which was one of the issues, and creative work in Britain is where copyright at least begins. I think the consensus as I understood it was however that Hyperion's failure to consider even negotiating with the editor, though, was their undoing.)
If I'm not mistaken, Eric, the editor was employed by Hyperion, and he wasn't working for free. True, he was a freelancer, IIRC, but he should have been satisfied with what they paid him, since, as you pointed out, he was working with "publicly available manuscripts", which was the sum total of Hyperion's argument. Just how were they going to "create their own" without hiring someone to do it? Which is exactly what they did, unfortunately to far greater expense than they anticipated! And if the editor wasn't happy with the flat fee he was probably offered initially (I'm not that familiar with the details of the case) he should have declined to do the job, and Hyperion should have found someone who would do it for what they were paying. However, the bulk of the damage done to Hyperion wasn't from having to pay for copyright infringement, but from punitive damages (again, I'm not quite sure of this. It did happen a while ago).
Ah. I was under the impression Hyperion was using a published edition, not an in-house prepared edition. Should have done my research. However, a worldcat.org search "delalande sawkins" reveals only articles and internet resources (musicological work by and mentioning Mr. Sawkins) and Harmonia Mundi CDs, nothing else. I was mistaken!
Well, now that everyone is up to speed on Sawkins v. Hyperion, how's about talking up some violin concertos? ;D
Thanks, Jim. I really don't want us to get back into debating the rights and wrongs of the Hyperion/Sawkins case. We did so exhaustively on the old Raff Forum and none of us have more than second hand knowledge of the rights and wrongs of it.
Hi all
Glad tidings for romantic violin concerto lovers. Both concertos by the early romantic Norwegian maestro Ole Bull have been recorded. They are no 1 in A (1834) and no 2 in e (1841). They are available in disc form or as downloads. Let's hear it for the bold folk of 2L musikonline.
regards
Peter
Where can we obtain them in disc form? Also, weren't there 4 Bull concertos? Or have I confused him with someone else?
jpc...
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/SESSIONID/fb2168f227aec203db41480801eeeed3/classic/detail/-/art/Ole-Bull-Violinkonzert/hnum/9612706 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/SESSIONID/fb2168f227aec203db41480801eeeed3/classic/detail/-/art/Ole-Bull-Violinkonzert/hnum/9612706)
As you'd expect, they are highly virtuosic, but do have worthwhile orchestral parts and boast what promises to be memorable melodic material. As one might also expect from a virtuoso-turned-composer of his era, there is more than a whiff of the opera about them; they're both very melodramatic. I downloaded the tracks, rather than buy the CD, but to me the recording is good and the performers certainly seem well up to the music's demands. Brahms (or even Joachim) they're not, but I'm pleased to have these two concertos.
No word yet, unfortunately.
Is the Emil Hartmann Violin Concerto worth a listen?
http://www.amazon.com/Emil-Hartmann-Concertos-Hybrid-SACD/dp/B0009SQC3C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279381244&sr=8-2
Yes, definitely. It's pretty Mendelssohnian, but also very attractive - though not on a par with, say, Gade's VC. Try the first three excerpts here:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Emil-Hartmann-Violinkonzert-op-19/hnum/4707846 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Emil-Hartmann-Violinkonzert-op-19/hnum/4707846)
Emil Hartmann, unlike his august father, was definetly a second-rater, but the Violin Concerto, like most of his music, is divertinglylyrical. It's well orchestrated in the beefed-up Mendelssohn style typical of such composers.
Mark is absolutely right. Emil is in division 2 of the unsungs; his father, JPE, is definitely in division 1. Try his wonderful two symphonies if you don't know them.
Quote from: Alan Howe on Saturday 17 July 2010, 22:09
Mark is absolutely right. Emil is in division 2 of the unsungs; his father, JPE, is definitely in division 1. Try his wonderful two symphonies if you don't know them.
From an LP of JPE Hartmann's G minor that I heard a few times (I haven't heard the more recent recording of both of them) I can "third" that- excellent. (Score also published I think in that really big series of classical and Romantic series produced by what was then Garland Publishing.)
I understand that the Hyperion recordings of VCs by Cliffe and d'Erlanger will be released in February 2011.
Excerpts from the Cliffe/d'Erlanger CD can be found here:
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67838 (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67838)
Very lovely. Can hardly wait for the release.
Here's some ideas to hear: Violin Concertos by:
William Orchard
Cornelius Rybner
Friedrich Hegar
Julius Roentgen
August Adelburg (more than 1?)
Nicolo d'Arienso in a
John Alden Carpenter
Conrado Campo
August Pott 1,2
John Powell in E
Emile Sauret in g, in e
Camilio Sivori 1,2
Julius Weismann 1,2
Georg Jacobi 1,2
Hubert Leonard 1,2,3
Heinrich Noren in a
To name just a few.
So help me, these were all gleaned from 1956 Grove; sadly over half of which cannot be found in later editions. I have a monster want list of works that I spent many hours "finding" in that edition......
Please can we keep this thread to the topic of forthcoming recordings - not wishlists!
Quote from: jerfilm on Friday 22 October 2010, 16:21
Here's some ideas to hear: Violin Concertos by:
(..)
Julius Roentgen
(..)
August Pott 1
J(..)
Julius Weismann 1,2
(..)
To name just a few.
So help me, these were all gleaned from 1956 Grove; sadly over half of which cannot be found in later editions. I have a monster want list of works that I spent many hours "finding" in that edition......
Recordings of all these works exist!
Best,
Tobias
www.violinconcerto.de
Yes, I can locate available recordings of the VC by Pott, Op.10 and that in A minor by Röntgen, but the Weismann VCs...? And there are other VCs by Röntgen too.
Yes, I find those two also. But no sign of the Weismann. Are they out of print, maybe??
I have the Pott VC, but I can find no currently available commercial recordings of any of the Weismann VCs - he wrote 3, I believe. I'd be interested to obtain them.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Friday 22 October 2010, 22:19
I have the Pott VC, but I can find no currently available commercial recordings of any of the Weismann VCs - he wrote 3, I believe. I'd be interested to obtain them.
Somewhat to my surprise, a horn concertino of his (and chamber music, songs, and that string orchestra arr. of string quartets CD on cpo) is/are recorded...
But no VCs....
Quote from: Alan Howe on Saturday 23 October 2010, 23:45
But no VCs....
not to my knowledge alas. I don't know if I'd heard of him before he started showing up on IMSLP, that sort of thing- maybe, I'm trying to remember! A Rheinberger and Thuille student. But the Wikipedia article gives tales of involvement with the Nazi regime that I don't doubt were usual of course... (submitting incidental music to A Midsummer's Night Dream to possibly replace Mendelssohn's which had fallen out of favor, etc. I apologize, not relevant to what's at hand- and as with other such cases, not decreasing my interest in the music.)
Eric
about the Noren though, it could be recorded with Gliere's the Sirens - they were given their US premiere in the same concert by the Chicago Symphony, Dec. 5 1913. Anyway. Back to topic.
How about it, Tobias - are there recordings of the Weismann or aren't there?
OK, I'm off topic here but someone brought it up. '56 Grove sez he wrote 2 violin concerts. I have cassette tapes of all three of his piano concertos along with Symphonys 2 & 3.
Hello, yes I have recordings of all three Weismann concertos. Obviously no commercial ones, but recordings of broadcast performances. The No.1 was aired just some weeks ago.
Best,
Tobias
Are the Lipinski Concertos on CPO worth investing in?
Yes - if you like the more restrained classically-minded contemporaries of Paganini...
But let's keep to the topic, please.