Referring back to this topic thread (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3132.0.html), several members will be pleased to learn of this work's forthcoming release - the feature item on Volume Four (https://toccataclassics.com/pipeline/) of Toccata Classics's ongoing 'Orchestral Works' series.
MORITZ MOSZKOWSKI: ORCHESTRAL MUSIC, VOLUME FOUR
Symphony in D minor (1873)
Laurin: four episodes from the ballet
Sinfonia Varsovia
Ian Hobson
First recordings
Best wishes to all.
4c
Thanks for letting us know. It's good news.
Great. I tried several times but never survived that midi rendition. That just sounds too lightweight. With a real recording I can have a real impression on this work.
Excellent news!
As has been said, it's worth checking out this previous thread on the Symphony:
https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3132.0.html
In the meantime, here's the computer rendition to be going on with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR65lHPvzE8
This splendid release, together with Toccata's continuing promotion of Ferdinand Thieriot, gives us cause to hope that the latter's symphonies might now be considered candidates for recording.
I've been waiting for this for a long time. And yes, I survived the NotePerformer (not MIDI, not sorry for the nitpick) rendition and actually liked it enough to be really excited for this release. Hobson falls into the "safe hands" category as far as I'm concerned, although sometimes I wish he'd give in a bit more to romantic excess in repertory such as this..
I'm not yet convinced about the work - yet, much as I applaud the ambition here (and I genuinely do). I have yet to hear a major work by the composer that I've thought to be really significant musically or historically. However, I admit that being highly entertaining is enough and I'm hoping that the recording will change my mind.
Quote from: Ilja on Tuesday 23 January 2024, 20:12And yes, I survived the NotePerformer (not MIDI, not sorry for the nitpick) rendition and actually liked it enough to be really excited for this release.
I didn't know not all virtual sound libraries can be called midi :-\
midi- musical instrument digital interface- I think may refer to a very specific kind of thing.
Looking forward to the recording too. Glad both this and his first concerto will now have been recorded, if only once each.
Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 23 January 2024, 22:15I have yet to hear a major work by the composer that I've thought to be really significant musically or historically.
Alan's spot on here but, whilst I don't look to Moszkowski for profundity or daring, I do find evidence of plenty of craft and get a lot of simple enjoyment from his music.
I suppose I'm saying that I expect a lot from a symphony. On the other hand, there's Bizet's Symphony in C which is a masterpiece of its kind - hardly profound, but profoundly satisfying in its own way. However, this is in D minor and the competition's pretty hot (and earnest) in that key...
J.B. Priestley took great delight in Moszkowski's music, as he made clear in an essay.
Oh, I certainly take delight in his compositions too. So perhaps I'm asking too much. But am I really wrong in thinking that a Symphony in D minor is not to be taken merely de-lightly...? ;)
4candles,thanks for the heads up. I like Moszkowski's Concertos and solo piano music, so this will be a treat.😊
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Wednesday 24 January 2024, 12:12J.B. Priestley took great delight in Moszkowski's music, as he made clear in an ess
"If I pass him by, who will praise Moritz Moszkowski? The musical scholars and critics are eternally busy - and quite right too - with their Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Brahms. Little Moritz has no place among the great. No music of his will ever disturb or challenge the soul. Neither I nor anybody else has ever come away from a composition of his, reeling and enraptured. His symphony, his opera, his concerto and concert studies are forgotten, and, although stranger things have happened, it is unlikely that any of them will be rediscovered and reviewed. In his day he had his triumphs, but now every garland has been dust these many years. Yet here and now, ignoring the giants who are always willing to take another bow, I crook my finger and, to the astonishment of the company, cry "Maestro Moszkowski, forward!" For has he not given me delight, hours and hours of it, glittering like the Carnival at Nice and yet as innocent as a baby's birthday? And all those who, like me, have pounded away at his "From Foreign Parts" and his Spanish Dance duets, should join me in this place, clapping the hands that still seem to ache from his "Bolero", and shouting "Bravo, Moritz Moszkowski, Bravo!"
- J. B. Priestley, chapter seventy-nine from "Delight".
I have much to be thankful for in both Moszkowski and Priestley, two brilliant artists in their crafts, both of whom one would wish they could listen to and read more of, though in their own times both were heralded as among the modern greats. Priestley, for his wondrous spiritual writings of time, the soul, and social justice; and Moszkowski, for his tuneful and colorful works for the orchestra, piano, and chamber ensembles. I am very happy to see that Moszkowski's Symphony will finally receive a proper recording, and for just this once, I believe we can happily prove the great Priestley wrong!
By the way, I'll also be keeping an eye out for a recording of his Piano Quintet - that piece seems like it should be very interesting...
It's great to have the Priestly quote verbatim - and I agree with most of it. But a Symphony in D minor following hot on the heels of Schumann 4, Volkmann 1, Dietrich and Grimm? I'm not so sure he had it in him. But we'll see...
This symphony was an early work for Moszkowski. That Moszkowski was a fast learned in his musical studies is evident if one looks at the scores of his earlier incomplete Piano quintet and the Overture in D, for example. The leaps of ambition and progress he took on with the Piano Concerto op. 3 and this symphony is a marvellous thing to witness.
Though the manuscript seems neat and well written on the surface, there were numerous technical inconsistencies and other issues stemming from his lack of experience in writing symphonic works at that point in time. When I wrote the typeset score and parts for Mr. Hobson several years ago, I still regret how difficult producing the notation turned out to be. On the positive side many, many issues were ironed out and fixed since after the preliminary Noteperformer audio that vesteel had posted on youtube. That video doesn't really represent what the symphony is about or how it should sound at its best. My best to Mr. Hobson and others working on this project: they've done some astounding work already with Moszkowski's music, and personally this has been my most awaited release in the series yet!
EDIT: Corrected reference to the piano quintet.
That's very helpful - and encouraging, thanks. We greatly look forward to this release.
Moszkowski's piano quintet probably predates anything else that we know of, and is incomplete - lacking a last movement. This in itself should not be a problem, though, if one considers the number of works that survive in varying stages of incompleteness| It is hoped that the quintet will feature in a chamber music CD at some stage in Toccata's Moszkowski edition. Although the original works for violin and piano have all now appeared on CD at least once ( a very early Stücke for violin and piano is indicated as lost), there are also the three pieces for cello and piano Op29, which have never been recorded!
Has anyone noticed that the promised CD of Moszkowski's Symphony has disappeared from the Toccata Pipeline page, along with other adverised recordings, like the piano concertos of Curiel. I hope this does not mean they have been cancelled.
That page has unfortunately been unreliable (or out of date?) as far as forthcoming recordings are concerned for a while now. We'll just have to monitor it, I suppose.
Ah. I thought it was too good to be true!
I've no real idea what the disappearance of the Symphony from the Pipeline page means, though. I trust that Toccata weren't advertising something that was planned but never actually recorded - but it could easily mean that the release is forthcoming.
Not long ago volume 3 of the Thieriot chamber music series wasn't on the Pipeline page at all (although it was being advertised by retailers) while volume 2 was still listed as forthcoming. So...
The "pipeline" page is much briefer now but at least no longer seems to be filled with CDs that have already appeared on Toccata? Just Erb organ works vol.2, Nicodé piano music vol.1, Robert Simpson chamber music vol.1, Stevenson vol.7, Flury opera "Casanova e L'Albertolli" (after three other operas by Flury have appeared on Toccata, apparently- good on them...), Kouvaras piano music, songs and chamber works v.2 and- that's it.
As Gareth says, though, it's worrying that the Moszkowski Symphony has simply disappeared, having been flagged up as forthcoming...
Don't worry: the Moszkowski symphony is in the can. We're just not sure when the album will be ready for release.
Oh, great! Thanks so much for letting us know. Much appreciated, Martin.
Yes, thanks for that reassurance. Very much appreciated, Martin.
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Saturday 14 September 2024, 22:53Yes, thanks for that reassurance. Very much appreciated, Martin.
Yes, indeed. This is a wonderful series. If any UC members are not familiar with it, I can say that it is full of beautiful and enjoyable music and can be wholeheartedly recommended. (DH obviously has nothing to fear! ;D )
Can anyone tell me whether there's a release date for this already?
I don't have any further information - apologies. Maybe Martin Anderson can tell us?
It's back up on Toccata's pipeline:
https://toccataclassics.com/pipeline/
Personally, I'd prefer to have it on the Releases page, but it's good to know that it's still alive.
I don't think there was any doubt about its existence - just about when it might be coming out (as you suggest!)
I think this will be worth waiting for. I have enjoyed all Toccata's releases of Moszkowski's orchestral music.
You can't really go wrong with Moszkowski (although the rediscovered Piano Concerto would have benefited from a compositional Rasputin).
And the whole of the Toccata offerings have been a joy.
Does anyone have news on this front (ehm, Martin?...)? This is one of the releases I've most been looking forward to lately, and it's been crickets for a while now...
It's coming out on August 7th！
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9877245--moritz-moszkowski-orchestral-music-vol-4
Excellent news.
Great!
It seems, we will get to hear the Symphony finally by August.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9877245--moritz-moszkowski-orchestral-music-vol-4 (https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9877245--moritz-moszkowski-orchestral-music-vol-4)
Presto showcases the 4th Vol. of Moszkowski's Orchestral Music in pipeline for release on Aug. 7th. Looking forward to this. Moszkowski's music rarely disappoints.
https://toccataclassics.com/product/moritz-moszkowski-orchestral-music-volume-four/
Interesting that when listed on Toccata Pipeline the disk included the "Cortege" (which is not part of Laurin, but a separate standalone piece). This, however, is missing from the actual release. Perhaps there just wasn't time in the recording sessions to set it down. Doubtless it will appear on a later disk in this marvellous survey of Moszkowski's orchestral music.
Judging by the excerpts, this is a sort of prequel to the subsequent suites. And the Larghetto begins—and sounds—almost like the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth, doesn't it?
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Tuesday 07 July 2026, 22:30Interesting that when listed on Toccata Pipeline the disk included the "Cortege" (which is not part of Laurin, but a separate standalone piece). This, however, is missing from the actual release. Perhaps there just wasn't time in the recording sessions to set it down. Doubtless it will appear on a later disk in this marvellous survey of Moszkowski's orchestral music.
Are there other unrecorded works left to make a CD recording worth of Orchestral pieces?
Redownloading Assenov's dissertation from here (https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/items/4a191890-51dc-448b-98e4-1ae7f3ec31d6)- unless they're going to give us a recording of Boabdil (which I don't know of a recording of?) a good-sized suite from it, or perhaps the ballet music from it, would be nice...
My order from CPO, with the vol. 4 of Moszkowski and vol. 4 of Potter is on the way.
This morning I was finally able to download this recording. Before I go further, I must add that I have had a long-standing infatuation with this work, ever since I heard "Im Walde"'s digital rendering in 2018. It was in fact the first such rendering that I succeeded in actually enjoying. So let's say, I knew I was going to like the music, but I also had already formed an opinion on what I would like this first recording to have sounded.
As to the recording, I'm not one hundred percent sold - yet. The main issue for me is that Hobson sounds quite rushed in the first and, albeit to a lesser degree, third movements. The second and fourth are fine in terms of tempo, and he shines particularly in the finale which (for once) may be the strongest movement. But I would have liked the music to breathe a bit more in the opening; particularly the "switch" from the solemn entry to the exposition of the first theme is rather sudden and a bit jarring. Moreover, the sound of the recording isn't ideal, and I suspect (without any evidence at all) that this might have been why we've had to wait ununsually long (for Toccata) for this release. It's not that the sound is bad per se, but it does get tinny in places and it's just a touch too reverberant for my liking. But I'll perhaps revise my view after a few more listens.
Having said that, I am exceedingly grateful that we finally have a decent recording of this fine symphony, and I'll enjoy many more occasions of listening to it.
Edit: The Laurin Suite is great. It is what you expect from a ballet suite, but still has surprising on the one hand while tickling that Hall of the Mountain King sense as well. Fabulous stuff.
My copy arrived yesterday, I won't have a chance to listen this weekend though due to a family emergency.
After a few further listens, I must confess that I apparently needed a bit of time grow into a different interpretation from the one I'd grown used to. It's not even THAT different; timings are overall a bit swifter than in the digital rendition by "Im Walde", except for the finale which is almost identical in length. Hobson's approach is anything but idiosyncratic, which, for a first recording of a piece, is always commendable. But keeping in mind that this is young man's symphony, I think his decision not to dawdle seems sensible.
Yes, it's not particularly profound music - the B minor concerto, written only a year later, demonstrates how much he was still growing as a composer at the time. And the Johanna d'Arc symphony of 1879 shows greater depth and ambition; but at the expense of losing the dynamism that makes the D minor symphony such an attractive work. For me, it falls in the same camp as (most of) Brüll's roughly contemporary music, Gouvy's early symphonies, or Bizet's C major (as the still much-missed Alan Howe pointed out some time ago).
I agree with Ilja!
Ilja describes (quite rightly,in my view) the Joan of Arc as a "symphony". It was so described ,back in the 50s, in the sleeve-notes to an old Eclipse LP, featuring the Spanish Dances.