Unsung Composers

A year or so ago, Alan started a thread that touched on "late-romantic monsters" in general, and Novak's "Pan" in particular.  Within the thread, the Granados "Dante" symphonic poem was mentioned but was not, I don't think, pursued there or elsewhere on this forum.  Naxos has a new release on the way:   http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/26949 (http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/26949)

Re the composition itself (but referring to a different recording), a blurb at gramophone.co.uk:  "Granados writes fluently, using luscious post­Wagnerian chromaticism which even brings voluptuous hints of Scriabin and early Schoenberg. The music itself, scored with unexpected flair, moves forward with growing intensity."

David Hurwitz at classicstoday.com:  "There's a reason his 30-minute tone poem Dante has managed to avoid appearing on CD before now. It's lousy."

Any comment from the UC cognoscenti?

Gregory

I have the ASV recording (which I assume is the only one). It's pretty good, I would say 'post-Wagnarian' works pretty well. I could see a complain about it being over-long, but lousy? Maybe....not overly memorable but enjoyable for what it is.

Being called "lousy" by David Hurwitz is a point in Dante's favour!

Hurwitz finds my Fritz Brun project "a lost cause"  8)

Hurwitz is the lost cause. He couldn't find anything memorable in Rufinatscha's 5th (formerly 6th). Strange, that: I can recall the whole thing...

Anyway, I'm about to order the Granados CD, so...

[hee hee]   OK....I confess that, by including Hurwitz's comment, I feared it might be like waving a scarlet-red cape in front of the UC bull - and would thus likely get more than a bit of honest and justified reaction.  He's the kind of critic who, it seems to me, is rather embarrasingly infatuated with his own, um, opinion typing.

But the "Dante" piece remains the topic at hand - I was about to order this myself as Alan did...but perhaps I'll wait for additional input & independent assessments?  Do others have additional opinions about the composition itself, as realized in the aforementioned ASV recording?

Gregory

And just for the record, and to provide a bit of additional opinion, here is the gramophone.co.uk article which I briefly quoted (and, to repeat, was written about the previous ASV recording of the Granados "Dante", with that album's additional pieces - not about the upcoming Naxos disc):

One does not really think of Granados as an orchestral composer so Dante is something of a find. Written between 1895 and 1910, it is a two­part symphonic poem, the first section emerging in a mood of sombre despair to depict Dante's journey with Virgil into the 'black malignant air' of the Inferno, while in the second we meet Paolo and Francesca, their love already anticipated in a sadly yearning theme in Part 1 (not quite Tchaikovskian, but nearly so).
Granados writes fluently, using luscious post­Wagnerian chromaticism which even brings voluptuous hints of Scriabin and early Schoenberg. The music itself, scored with unexpected flair, moves forward with growing intensity. When Francesca tells her story (a straight­forward setting of Canto V of Dante's poem) there are even hints of Puccini. The vocal entry, beautifully prepared, is longingly and entreatingly sung by Nancy Fabiola Herrera (her fully coloured mezzo darkening the lower notes tellingly). The whole performance exudes a simmering intensity.
Adrian Leaper has already proved his versatility in previous recordings, and so have the excellent Gran Canaria Orchestra, who create a rich body of sound and respond with ardour to his languourous grip. How beautifully and atmospherically they introduce the bewitching highlight of Goyescas, 'La maja y el ruiseñor'! It is simply and beautifully sung by Frances Lucey, and they follow warmly and vibrantly with the opera's Intermezzo. Anselm Ferrer's orchestration of five of the Piezas sobre cantos populares re­creates the music in orchestral terms, sultry and sparkling. They are most vividly presented (Leaper's rubato is congenial) to make an entertaining centrepiece in a first­class collection, richly recorded.

I am intrigued - and just ordered the CD. Conductor Adrian Leaper was also working for Naxos-Marco Polo for a while, and I like him.
In the Amazon.co.uk reviews on this disc, Hurwitz is a theme as well :-)

Perhaps he's one of those folks who just can't wait to hear what's going to come out of his mouth next.

I had a friend like that........we probably all do, come to think of it.

J

Adrian Leaper was in the year above me at school. He started off as a very fine horn player, performing in our school orchestra alongside Michael Thompson who was the same age as me. Ah, memories...

The main problem with Hurwitz is that after classifying something as a masterwork or a failure (and rarely something inbetween) he rarely ever explains why it is either. So there's little to do apart from agreeing or disagreeing with the verdict.


Having said that, Granados' Dante clearly doesn't speak to me in the same way it does to others here. Although I like most of Granados' works very much, this one lacks much of the liveliness that usually makes his music so appealing. It all seems a bit one-dimensional. Still, I'll give the new recording a spin.

I agree with you

My first listen to this work is neutral. Not an unpleasant experience but there is nothing that stands out.

I just got volume one of the series that Naxos is doing on Granados. For a man who is known for his piano work he certainly has a fine selection of orchestral music! His March of the Defeated is a very good work.

... and I've got the ASV CD just 2 hours ago in my letterbox :-)
I quite like this piece; without having a bad conscience, I would place it alongside symphonic pieces on the same subject by Liszt, Tchaikovsly and Maurice (which all three have occasional flaw moments). The fact that it includes a soprano in the "Francesca" movement is original, although Granados must have been quite a phlegmatic character. There is not much wind in that Inferno department as Dante describes. And, once Francesca curses the author of that "Lancelot and Guinevere" book, which caused her to get fall in love with its reader, Granados has the soprano reporting this just lyrically, almost indifferently. In the accompaniment nothing dramatic happens either. She sings "Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse" ("Our Galeot was the book; and he that wrote it, a Galeot!") a double-sense for the book's character Gallehault (Dante took him at the same time for the author?) and the expression "a cursed man, a rogue, or a pandar". Apparently, Granados did not fully understand this...

Excuse me, Hadrianus. "Galeotto" (not Galeazzo) "fu il libro e chi lo scrisse".

Yes, of course, thanks alberto :-)
I know these Italian "endecasillabi" by memory, but whilst writing, I mixed up those names. My inability to recall a single note of the Requiem may reflect nothing more than my own ignorance and/or inattention

I've decided that March of the Defeated is going to go on a compilation CD that I'm in the process of compiling.