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I believe they are on Hyperion's long-term list - or so Mike Spring told me about 18 months ago.

There is absolutely no chance of Hyperion recording the Bortkiewicz 2nd & 3rd PCs. They weren't on Mike Spring's list before, and they certainly won't be now. Get the Netherlands Music Institute disk - it's very good indeed; you won't be disappointed.

Thanks, Amphissa. I had a strong suspicion that a Soviet recording had existed at one time.

The English composer, Dora Bright (1863-1951) [see the British musicologist and champion of British music, Lewis Foreman's request for information about her at: http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2002/May02/bright.htm] wrote 2 piano concertos, the MS of one of which (No. 1 in A minor) is in the RAM. This has a superb Tarantella finale. I do wish someone would record it. This and her Variations on an Original Theme for piano & orchestra seem to be the only concertante works of hers to have survived. As well as the Fantasia in G (1892) mentioned by Lewis, there is a Suite of Dances for piano & orchestra, the second piano concerto in D minor and the Variations for piano and orchestra on a theme by MacFarren - all, apparently, lost, though the MacFarren Variations was published in a version by the composer for two pianos. The latter is extant and it is known that Dora Bright sanctioned performances of this version.

David Wright is a distinguished, if somewhat eccentric, British musicologist (a great champion of the music of Ruth Gipps and William Wordsworth). I do not believe "The Sirens" has been recorded before and I'm sure David must be referring to a live performance he has heard somewhere. There may, however, have been a Soviet recording which never found its way to the West - that would not surprise me.

I'm glad you say that about the booklet notes, Mark. When we originally discussed this recording I suggested Rob Barnett be asked to write them, as he is very knowledgeable about Holbrooke's music - and CPO agreed. That idea seems to have got lost on the way, but Franz Groborz (Dramaturgie und Presse für Kultur und Wissenschaft in Brandenburg) has done an excellent job. When I sent Howard Griffiths some Holbrooke scores initially, Franz got very interested in the composer and spent days at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin researching his life and works: he seems to have become a valuable convert to the cause, which is all to the good.

I'm very glad you enjoyed it. All the team are very happy with it. Let's hope the critics are too - and, of course, that sales are good. Then we may get more.

Thanks very much, Alan. I suppose they'll record the overtures with the PC. There wouldn't be much advantage (at least, not to us) in yet another recording of the Schumann.

Fascinating news, Alan. Do you know what other works are being performed that season?

May I just make clear that I do not find (nor did I imply) that minimalist music is vapid or naive. My comments were directed solely at Gorecki's 3rd symphony and they are my personal opinion.

The CPO CD of orchestral music by Josef Holbrooke has now been released. It contains the early tone poems, The Viking and Ulalume + the late overture Amontillado (in effect, another tone poem based on E.A. Poe, a perennial source of inspiration for the composer) and the delicious orchestral variations on "Three Blind Mice", a tour de force of invention. The orchestra is the Brandurburgisches Staatsorchester, Frankfurt an der Oder, under Howard Griffiths, and they play superbly. The booklet notes by Franz Groborz are excellent. My only quibble is that one of the music examples is incorrectly printed: instead of the love theme from The Viking, which is what is being referred to, the printer has duplicated a theme referred to earlier from Amontillado! A pity. But it is marvellous to have these works available in good modern sound and splendidly committed performances.

Hear, hear! I'm not saying you shouldn't like the Gorecki - just that I don't, approachable though it is, AND I don't think it is worth trying to like, whereas the Messiaen might be.

Just to make it clear that Gorecki's 3rd is not naive - it is vapid. There's a big difference.
Rufinatscha's music, on the other hand is neither.

The Messiaen is rather difficult. It needs work on the part of the listener - I can't say I've really given it the attention it probably deserves. People speak highly of it but I don't find it appealing.

The Gorecki Symphony is a con-trick. As I said on the old forum, it is one of the great musical emptinesses of our time. That is expressing trenchantly what Mark has written more politely.

I'm particularly fond of Ries' piano chamber music.