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I used to own a Genesis (?) recording of the second concerto back in vinyl days.  I remember the performance as more exciting than the Hyperion, but maybe that was my youth...  At any rate the coupling was a nice overture, Richard III, perhaps?  It would be good to have that piece back in the catalogue...

David

Marvelous Ethel Smyth!  Anyone who has been fortunate enough to hear The Wreckers will attest to its brilliance.  It is the work of a true dramatic composer, a woman born to write operas of the most heaven-storming sort.  Oddly, most of Dame Ethel's other operas are rather light in tone, although the Mass is certainly in her h-s mode.  The only complete recording of the Wreckers is still available as a reissue from Archiv--and it's a good one, Sir Charles Grove and Dame Ethel herself recorded the overture, and there are excepts from a staged performance (a reduced orchestra version) on Youtube.  The rather irritating New York Times review of American Symphony's concert performance a few years back is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/arts/music/02wrec.html
The audience reaction that day was overwhelming; I had tears in my eyes at the composer's triumph.  Writing effective operas is not quite the same thing as writing great music (or Zandonai and Giordano would be great composers) but the Wreckers is tremendously effective and very often great.
David

I woke up this morning with a burning desire to hear Spohr's overture to Faust, so I slapped on the CPO overtures disc.  Marvelous stuff, bracingly played...I had to listen to the whole thing.  I recommend this disc to those who might be looking for entry-level Spohr.  The overtures find Spohr at his best: concise, bracing & inspired.  They are, in my experience (limited to Faust, Jessonda & Pietro von Albano), much more dramatic than the operas that follow them...the composer's weak feeling for characterization doesn't matter here.

This is not to slight the composer's other satisfying works: 8th & 9th violin concertos, the clarinet concertos, quartet concerto, certain chamber works, etc....but it's a great way to sample Spohr at his best.

Gave mine away, too.  She seemed not quite up to working in large forms.
David

Wonderful composer, one of the few Berlioz pupils!  The set is marvelously played and recorded, hopefully it includes the Requiem which was the original coupling of the 7th symphony.  Unquestionably the greatest symphonic legacy to come out of Baltimore, Maryland...(although that might be like saying Rheinberger is the greatest composer ever born in Lichtenstein )

Order, post haste!

David

For those in the NYC area, next Wednesday is the American premiere of D'Indy's Fervaal at Avery Fisher Hall.  I imagine there are plenty of tickets available, many probably at discount prices.

http://www.americansymphony.org/concert.php?id=42

The old French radio recording, btw, turns out to be about 55% of the whole...all minor characters, non-heroic scenes excised, as well as numerous micro-cuts.  The orchestra called for is enormous: strings, 4 flutes, 2 piccolos, 3 oboes, cor anglais, 4 bassoons, 4 saxophones, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 clarinets, bass clarinet, double bass clarinet, 8 saxhorns, 4 tenor trombones, bass tuba & 'cornet a Bouquin' (a folk instrument, je pense.)  The orchestral price tag alone means we won't hear this one often, & the title role is murder on the tenor...
David

Thanks, Alan, this sounds yummy.  Hope the recording/performance does the work justice.  I've always had a soft spot for 'The Queen of Sheba' and yearned for 'The Cricket on the Hearth' (wouldn't that make a nice Christmas alternative to the endless 'Hansel and Gretel's?)

Can't wait.
David

I like the music of the Mexican composer Arturo Marquez (b.1950), whose Danzon No.2 (1994) for orchestra is getting a lot of exposure via the conductor Gustavo Dudamel.  It's colorfully orchestrated and full of good tunes.  The latin rhythms are fantastic.  The same applies to his 'Conga del Nuevo Fuego' and the cello concerto 'Espejos en la arena' (Mirrors in the Sand) in three movements all based on dances: the son, the danzon, and the polka.  The last has been recorded by Carlos Prieto, who commissioned it.  There are at least 8 pieces in the Danzon series, some for chamber group, some for orchestra.

David

Did I write "really beautiful memories"?  Ha!  It should read "melodies"....

David

Just wondering...why is the Barton-Pine Hungarian Concerto looking for a new home?

David

Some fine music from this very short-lived pair (neither made it out of his 30s.)
Fesca fils' 1st septet far and away the best of their recorded works, with excellent scoring and really beautiful memories.  The symphonies by Fesca, pere, remind me of Vorisek's lone symphony, but not as assured in form or distinctive in content.  Pleasant, though.  There used to be a Turnabout lp of the 1st septet with Hummel Grand Military as its b-side, but the curently available cpo disc is much better played.  Those who like Hummel might well investigate the younger Fesca's disc.  The older Fesca, I think, is more for Fesca family completists.

David

Hola, that's the spirit mbhaup!  Where, pray tell, are you celebrating? 

The Gomezando pieces are not in the Brilliant collection, by the way.  They were on a Koch-Schwann all-Gomezando collection conducted by Jorge Velazco.  Not sure if it's still available...

David

I should mention that Brilliant classics has released a huge 8 disc set of these and many other fine Mexican pieces , played mostly under the direction of the late Enrique Batiz from the old EMI and ASV catalogues.  The price is low and the chance to sample so many fine composers is, as they say, priceless.  The Ponce Violin Concerto, played by Szeryng, is to die for, then there are all the Chavez symphonies, plenty of Revueltas...it goes on and on....

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=186346

David

Tomorrow, Sept. 16th is Mexican Independence Day, so I thought I might suggest a little appropriate music.  All of these pieces are 20th century, but none are terribly 'modern'.  The composers are not particularly unsung in Mexico, but few are household names outside their homeland.

Carlos Chavez: Chapultepec "Republican Overture"  Such fun, full of popular tunes and high spirits.

Blas Galindo: Sones de mariachi.  Speaks for itself.

Manuel Ponce:  Piano Concerto. Very Romantic, not too Mexican

Ponce: guitar sonatas (Segovia)  So lovely...

Ponce:Ferial (tone poem?)  Big and gorgeously scored

Antonio Gomezando (d. 1964)  Seis Danzas Mexicanas and the Fantasia Mexicana, both for piano and orchestra.  A total riot, Lecuona meets Waldteufel meets the mariachis.

A glass of Xtabentun, anyone?

David

I just saw that all the American Symphony Orchestra tickets for next season are on sale(for the moment) for $25 apiece.  Fervaal for $25, the Goetz/von Hausegger/et al programme, also $25.  Good orchestra seats, too.  The concerts are at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center.  Details:

http://www.americansymphony.org/

Enjoy, David