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Messages - CelesteCadenza

#46
The same pianist and orchestra as in the new recording can be heard with Ondrej Lenárd conducting in a live performance recorded on 30 April 2018 in the Rudolfinum (Prague). In the Downloads section:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7926.0.html
#47
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Tchaikovsky PC2
Tuesday 25 August 2020, 18:54
Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 25 August 2020, 09:54
It's not usung, in my view. ArkvMusic lists 33 (!) recordings of this glorious piece:
I had not realized that  there are quite so many! Though, if one is deducting reissues, the number of individual recorded performances is somewhat lower; the Biret/Tabakov/Bilkent recording alone accounts for 3 of the 33.
#48
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Tchaikovsky PC2
Monday 24 August 2020, 19:21
There are actually several recordings of this concerto:
Fedoseyev/Philharmonia/Pletnev,
Ormandy/Philadelphia/Graffman
Rozhdestvensky/USSR/Zhukov
Vänskä/Minnesota/Hough [+ alternate 2nd Mvmnts /part of The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 50]
Weller/BBC Wales/Lill

There may certainly be more, but these are those in my collection (in addition to a few live broadcast performances). No matter, it deserves to be heard more often.
#49
Composers & Music / Re: Max Steiner: new book
Friday 21 August 2020, 18:37
At the risk of veering off topic, an interesting program on the 'Wizard of Oz' - including the music - aired on US radio in 2005 and is archived (with audio downloadable) here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/studio/episodes/american-icons-wizard-oz
#51
The above cited article "Whatever Happened to William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony?" JASM 6:633-56 (2012) reveals a fascinating moment in the piece's history and its title in a pair of telegrams between Dawson and Leopold Stokowski in early November 1934:

On 2 November 1934, Stokowski sent the following message:
HAVE JUST CONDUCTED NEW VERSION YOUR SYMPHONY IN REHEARSAL AM
VERY ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT IT PLEASE WIRE ME TITLE OF SYMPHONY ALSO
TITLES OF EACH OF THREE MOVEMENTS WHAT WOULD YOU THINK OF TITLE
FOR SYMPHONY AFRICAN AMERICAN SYMPHONY OR NEGRO SYMPHONY WISH
TO GIVE IT TITLE THAT WILL EXPLAIN ITSELF TO LISTENER SAME WITH TITLES
OF INDIVIDUAL MOVEMENTS FEEL THAT INDIVIDUAL TITLE SUCH AS ALLEGRO
ADAGIO MEANINGLESS CONGRATULATIONS ON WONDERFUL SYMPHONY
YOUR FRIEND
Leopold Stokowski

Dawson replied from Tuskegee two days later:
Following is information requested about symphony:
TITLE - Negro Folk Symphony.
1st Movement - The Bond of Africa.
2nd Movement - Hope in the Night.
3rd Movement - O Lem-me Shine! [sic]


So had Stokowski not made this inquiry, would the composer have left his work titled simply Symphony No. 1? The article continues:

Much later, in a 1982 interview on National Public Radio, Dawson stated that the programmatic title had already been part of his plan:
"The Detroit Symphony came to Chicago during the World's Fair in '33. . . . And they played the "New World" Symphony of Dvorak and I was there. And this is what the commentator said: "This symphony is based on Indian themes." And I cried and I got up and walked out. That hurt me. 'Course I knew, I know what's in the symphony. And America doesn't know these folk songs. And I said to myself, I said if I'm successful to complete a symphony based on the music of the Negro I'm going to title it Negro Folk Symphony. Can't remove that title."


A live performance of the symphony with the Atlanta Symphony conducted by Andre Raphael Smith is now in the download section:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7869.0.html
#52
Emil Nikolaus Von Reznicek ‎– Five String Quartets (nrs 1-6, except nr 2! with the Minguet Quartett; recorded various times from Oct 2015 through May 2018) are now available on cpo ‎– 555 002-2: https://www.discogs.com/Emil-Nikolaus-Von-Reznicek-Minguet-Quartett-Five-String-Quartets/release/15175456

According to the cpo booklet "Reznicek himself did not number his string quartets or his symphonies. The conventional numbering of 1–4 in the older literature is attributed to Wilhelm Altmann, who introduced it in his Handbuch für Streichquartett-Spieler (Handbook for String Quartets), where he naturally only took into account works already in print at the time. Just as in the case of Dvorak's symphonies, this numbering is misleading, so in the meantime they have been replaced by new numbers. When taken chronologically, the following list results:

String Quartet in C minor 1881 (printed by E.W. Fritzsch in 1883) [former No. 1]
String Quartet in C-sharp minor 1905 (with alternate final movement) (printed by Editio Reznicek in 2013)
Quartet Fragment in C-sharp minor 1920 (three movements) (printed by Editio Reznicek in 2017)
String Quartet in C-sharp minor 1921 (printed by N. Simrock 1921) [former No. 2]
String Quartet in D minor 1921–22 (1st version with final movement Allegro alla Polacca) 1921 (printed by Editio Reznicek in 2013); 2nd Version 1922 (printed by R. Birnbach in 1923 [former No. 3])
String Quartet in E minor 1928–30 (1st version with original final movement 1928; 2nd version with new revised final movement 1930) (printed by Editio Reznicek in 2013)
String Quartet in B-flat major 1931 (printed by R. Birnbach 1932 [former No. 4])"

The booklet discusses Quartet nr 2, even though it doesn't appear on this 2 CD set.
#53
A short, but thoughtful, notice of this work, Fagen's new recording, and Dawson's activity in Tuskegee was broadcast on NPR in the US last Friday (26 Jun 2020); the sound clip and transcript are available here under the title "Someone Finally Remembered William Dawson's 'Negro Folk Symphony'":
https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2020/06/26/883011513/someone-finally-remembered-william-dawsons-negro-folk-symphony
There is also a link to an article "Whatever Happened to William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony?" appearing in The Journal of the Society for American Music (2012). https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-society-for-american-music/article/whatever-happened-to-william-dawsons-negro-folk-symphony/AC26FD837CD5DB2EC63B5872C423454D
#54
Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony (listed with that title) appears occasionally in concerts of American orchestras, often in January in programs connected with ML King Jr commemorations, or in February which is designated "Black History Month." I have listened to the new Fagen/Vienna RO in .m4a format on NLM and found that it offers little to recommend it over Stokowski's classic recording, or even Järvi/Detroit's more modern - but sounding like a sight reading - effort. The companion pieces by Ulysses Kay on Naxos would not be appropriate for discussion in this group but, FWIW, I did not find them particularly attractive.
#55
 Re: Osip Kozlovski - Theatre Overtures and Dances in Downloads

I was looking forward, and always appreciate the hard work involved in digitizing LPs and tapes, however, in these the music is being interrupted by a female voice with a British accent saying "AVS [or Avis] media demo".
https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Music-interrupted-by-quot-avs-media-demo-quot/td-p/830209
#56
QuoteAre there any other recordings of this opera on LP or CD?   I would be interested in comparing it to those.
I am unaware of another commercial release but a performance from the Finnish National Opera (Helsinki, 2010) was broadcast and off-the-air recordings have circulated. The cast:
Jaakko Kortekangas
Tove Aman
Jorma Silvasti
Riikka Rantanen
Maria Kettunen
Ilkka Hämäläinen
Finnish National Choir and Orchestra
Kari Tikka, conductor
Finnish National Opera (Helsinki) 4 December 2010
#57
Quote
I don't suppose anyone has been able to make an mp3 out of this mp4?

Or, alternatively, does anyone know of any sites which convert LARGE mp4 files, such as this one, to mp3?  All the ones I have tried have a 100MB max limit.

I presently use ffmpeg https://www.ffmpeg.org/ a cross-platform utility which allows stripping the video from an audio/video container like the mp4 file The Demon. It is completely configurable and, best of all, allows retaining the audio without any transcoding that always leads to degradation. I routinely us it for youtube derived files which results in very small audio-only at exactly the same audio quality of the original. Since most of the audio in such files uses the aac codex, if you really want mp3 files they can be converted to that codex, but with an inevitable (though often imperceptible) loss in quality. The aac codex is used for the .m4a files (audio only version of mp4) and are playable on most computer platforms. There is a learning curve with ffmpeg but worth the effort.