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A wonderful piece of music and an excellent performance.   Hearing the composer himself talk about the music is icing on the cake.


A caveat - While the sound is quite good for 1940 broadcast acetate technology, it can be hard going for those used to modern sound.

Composer Eduard Franck (1817–1893) also wrote 2 String Sextets, one of which can be heard on the Audite label.

The Rubenstein D Major Sextet has just become available at the IMSLP.

http://imslp.org/imglnks/usimg/5/5d/IMSLP63228-PMLP129041-Rubinstein_-_String_Sextet__Op._97__score_.pdf


Looks very interesting so far.

Also available as an MP3 download (with all of the other Zweers symphonies) via iTunes for $9.95 US

Actually I was able to access and download this from the USA.

Goood Music...

I would love to hear any of Josef Holbrooke's large choral/orchestral works.  His  Op. 51 Second Symphony "Apollo and the Seaman" or his Op. 48 Choral Symphony particularly come to mind.

"Music seems to be understood best by its proximity to other music that is
more familiar. We do not hear what we hear... only what we remember."

Morton Feldman - "Give my regards to 8th street" (p209)

I have found that one of the major prerequisites of listening to so called unsung composers in general is to try to "check ones ears at the door", so to speak, and just listen to the music.

In the case of Herzogenberg, I have found his work so compelling that the fact that it might at time inhabit a sound world similar to that of Brahms' music seems secondary at worst and actually a plus. I get to hear some new music in the vein of music that I like, as opposed to the umpteenth run through the Works of the "master".

Brahms never used the orchestra the way that Herzogenberg does in his two symphonies (the new CPO CD is on its way from GErmany as I write this). In fact his treatment of the brass as fully chromatic  (vs. Brahms treatment of trumpets and horns as if they were still valveless) gives Herzogenbergs symphonies a color that Brahms never had in his orchestral work.


Just my two cents.

The Chandos recordings once out will indeed make these works more widely available and Halvorsen could have no better champion than Jarvi.  I simply couldn't wait to hear the music!

P.S. You are in for a treat when your copy of the  Alf Hurum Simax CD arrives!

The two Simax CD's of the Halvorsen Symphonies and the Hurum Simax CD are all available from Amazon.com  both as Physical CD's and as MP3 downloads.

For those who like to follow in score, the full score of the Halvorsen Symphony #1 is available for download from the IMSLP at:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.1_%28Halvorsen,_Johan%29

I'm listening to the Halvorsen first as I type this and I find the performance quite good. Recommended for those who cant wait for the chandos set to be completed.

The garofalo symphony can be found at

http://www.emusic.com/album/Sergei-Stadler-GAROFALO-Romantic-Symphony-Violin-Concerto-MP3-Download/10873002.html

It definitely sounds promising.

While doing some internet searches, serendipity led me to an on line copy of the score to Joachim Raff's 4 Shakespeare Overtures.  For those who have interest in this, the URL is


http://books.google.com/books?id=iV8RAAAAYAAJ&oe=UTF-8


Enjoy.

Any who don't mind not having the physical CD's can download the enesco Olympia CD's and more at:


http://by-legend.info/artist161655/enescu-george/


Update: I just checked a litte further - the site is a front for an outfit in the Russia. You have to give them a credit card in order to download the albums. Unfortunately the quoted cost $.05 US per download seems a little too good to be true. I'm going to forgo this one myself. Others proceed with caution!

Santa guided me to www.emusic.com, where I found for sale a selection mp3 downloads from the Sterling label that cost me only a fraction of the $19.95 @ I would have had to pay for them elsewhere elsewhere. As a result I have a Christmas feast of the music of the music of Paul Buttner, Hans Huber, Ludwig Norman, Elfrida Andree and Frederick Cliffe.

A nice years end IMHO.

Don't forget Alice Mary Smith(1839-1884)  Her two symphonies are available on Chandos. Very Pleasent music IMHO.

I have to second the IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library
(http://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page) as one of the best score libraries that I have ever used. It is chock full of  Scores by unsung composers, including a gold mine of scores by Raff, Holbrooke, Boehe(all the full scores for the compositions on the 2 cpo albums), Gade(including manuscript copies of scores!).

Check it out!