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Messages - Droosbury

#1
I have it on order from Amazon UK so hopefully will know something about it soon!

#2
Agree with Terry; this is a fascinating  analysis, Ilan. Where I differ is that this release was a must-buy for me before I even read it. 😏 Ordered just now alongside the new Weigl String Quartets disc and, somewhat blind, the Oscar Strauss symphonic poem & ballet.

I always found the Martinez recording g a little too stodgy: looking forward to hearing this new reading.

#3
That's great news indeed, Weesht: thanks for letting us know. It's high time this marvellous piece got a commercial recording. If interested, there's a very good 1988 performance from Vienna on YouTube (soloists, Arnold-Schoenberg-Chor, Wiener Symphoniker / Peter Gülke):

https://youtu.be/EvXhVGf6nlE?si=bRrqP0lMUsoPNd-y
#4
They are – here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bBd7CUVGlw&list=OLAK5uy_kRWpxA4gRR1Mp1hm1AlsPshVjB7RBXYts&index=2

Not anything particularly exciting, I feel, but certainly nothing to frighten you, I hope!
#5
Suggestions & Problems / Re: Alan Howe
Wednesday 07 January 2026, 20:25
Very sad news. Like us all, I had hoped the news might be more positive. Thoughts and prayers with him and his family.
#6
CPO released a recording of his String Quartets 2 & 3 back in 2013 (no longer available, but is here on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0uGb8i4hyc&list=OLAK5uy_lI5NvxrHeQ2eIktehnx-ga9Fvn-exTnaw&index=2).

Conservative stuff (esp considering their date - 1915 and 1918, I think), not too far from that of his famous forebear, but a pleasant listen.
#7
Composers & Music / Re: Richard Mandl (1859-1918)
Tuesday 16 December 2025, 10:02
Here he is on German Wikipedia – complete with a photograph showing his extraordinary barnet (Eng. slang, hairstyle). But we're still none the wiser about what terrible ailments he suffered from (nor what his intriguing melding of French and German symphonic sensibilities might have sounded like).

https://www.karl-may-wiki.de/index.php/Richard_Mandl

#8
Seems rather odd to me to celebrate the history of Pleyel's unique pianos and feature composers so closely associated with them such as Haydn, Chopin and Debussy - and use an instrument (restored) from the time of Poulenc or Messiaen!
#9
Just to heap praise on Olivier Lalane, the driving force behind this project (and who commented above). He and the artists here have brought vivid musical life to an earlier academic thesis by Wolfgang Behrens and his excellent booklet notes do a magnificent job of turning Pisa from an obscure footnote in the biographies of Schoenberg and Zemlinsky into a pivotal figure in Viennese music c1905 - and one whose creativity was cruelly tested by history. It's all fascinating stuff and an exemplary way of bringing an Unsung to wider notice.
#10
I bought mine via jpc. As Alan says, the book it comes with is exceptional so I thoroughly recommend getting on CD if you can.

Only played through once so far, but the music is undeniably strong - the string quartet and Lieder in particular - the latter, as a critic said at the time, being like virtuoso piano pieces with vocal accompaniment - a really striking approach. Fascinating to hear his setting of Schliesse Mir die Augen Beide, better known as one (or rather two!) of Alban Berg's loveliest songs. I would love to hear his orchestral works: perhaps this enterprising release may soon prompt some adventurous conductor.
#11
The earlier one was in English; this is in the original German. Intriguing.
#12
Composers & Music / Re: Ostrcil: The Legend of Erin.
Thursday 18 September 2025, 20:44
Oooooooo (or whatever Czech equivalent is), that sounds very interesting. His conducting career curtailed his composing career, sadly, but pretty well everything I've heard of his is very rewarding, operating in the same general area as Suk and Novak but, unlike them, a composer with a natural affinity for the stage. Sadly I won't be going to this, but surely Czech radio will broadcast it, particularly if it's getting a prestigious outing at the National Theatre? Let's hope so.
#13
A shame to dismiss the Klussmann disc on the basis of that admittedly acerbic scherzo as the rest of the Piano Quintet – the adagio in particular – is rather beautiful in a Brahmsian manner (not what you'd expect from its 1925 date), and despite being later (1928-30), the accompanying String Quartet has nothing to be scared by. I recommend (and the short scherzo lasts just the right amount of time to go off and make a pot of tea).

The complete disc is on YouTube here.

I see from the [German] Wikipedia entry that he was taught by Worysch and Joseph Haas and conducting by Hausegger. Unfortunately, it also tells us that he lost no time in joining the Nazi Party, on 1 April 1933 (more fool him, I suppose).

#14
Composers & Music / Re: Robert Gound/Gund
Monday 28 July 2025, 19:15
Looks to me remarkably like the young Gustav Mahler!
#15
I don't know Koechlin's string quartets, but the symphony was his own orchestration of his second quartet, not that that per se excuses the symphony's odd, aimless construction. I quite like the accompanying symphonic poem Au Loin and the 3 Mélodies on this new disc, but this isn't first-rate Koechlin, to be sure.

Another disc of French music that has disappointed me in recent weeks. I had some hopes that Reynaldo Hahn's Le Dieu Bleu might offer something in the vein of Daphnis et Chloé, but it turned out to be turgid stuff. C'est la vie ...