Has anyone here mentioned Jaromir Weinberger? When I was a kid, I was hooked by the Polka and Fugue from 'Schwanda the Bagpiper' - deliciously noisy upbeat stuff - but was never able to locate anything else by him on record. As time went by, a few more works trickled through, most significantly two complete modern recordings of 'Schwanda' and historic recordings of the Czech Rhapsody, the Variations on Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree and the Christmas Overture (the latter conducted by Barbirolli with the NY Phil, an unhappy association as I recollect). This could hardly be described as a feast, and even in these days of independent labels determined to unearth and record everything, Weinberger remains terra incognito so far.
The poor guy had to flee Europe to the USA to escape the Nazis and eventually, in 1967, ended his life with a bottle of aspirin tablets after suffering depression at the neglect of his works and a terminal illness.
What little I have heard convinces me that it's high time that some of his works (other than 'Schwanda') received modern recordings. This is surely prime Naxos or cpo territory.
The poor guy had to flee Europe to the USA to escape the Nazis and eventually, in 1967, ended his life with a bottle of aspirin tablets after suffering depression at the neglect of his works and a terminal illness.
What little I have heard convinces me that it's high time that some of his works (other than 'Schwanda') received modern recordings. This is surely prime Naxos or cpo territory.