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Messages - Darrel Hoffman

#1
Quote from: terry martyn on Friday 02 May 2025, 19:02And ,if I closed my eyes, I could have been listening to Howard Shelley..............
High praise indeed, much appreciated.  Now if only I could get a real chorus together that can sing actual words instead of non-verbal oohs and ahhs...  It's a possibility.  There are multiple avenues for either real or simulated voices - I have a few offers already in fact.  We'll see what pans out.
#3
Okay, so apparently "Le Retour a Francfort" has a chorus part in its 3rd movement, that makes it definitely distinct from the C minor concerto.  The name or a translation of it is also shared by several poems, in French, German, and English at least.  Most of them seem too recent to be Schmitt's inspiration, but not all.

From the bits I've seen in the score, the text is pretty unreadable, though it appears to be in French.  (I'm somewhat fluent in French, but the penmanship is very rough.)  If anyone here is well-versed in French poetry from this time period, that could be very helpful.

Not that I have the ability to simulate singing actual words in my transcriptions (which is relevant to my current project doing Henri Herz's 6th concerto), though it's possible I may be able to make a connection to a real choir.
#4
So this is where I think I got the Op.54 from:
https://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Aloys_Schmitt
It's possible that's incorrect as I believe it is all user submissions.  Sadly no score is available, so the year (1823/4) is the only thing we have to identify it.  It also mentions Andre for whatever that's worth.  I think we might be dealing with 2 or more competing catalogues, that have given different numbers to some works?
#5
I also have a Concerto No.3 Op.54 (1823) listed with no key given.  I don't have the score for that, but  it is not the same as the Op.60 A minor concerto (1824-25) I did last year (the one with "God Save the King" in the 2nd and 3rd movements) which was also labeled "Concerto No.3".  As I said, the numbering of these is very confusing.
#6
Yes, "Le Retour à Francfort" is indeed Op.75, that agrees with my notes.  But the question remains: Is that this piece?  That I don't know.  No key is given for the Op.75 so we can't use that for comparison.  The instrumentation is the same but that's true of all of his concerti.

And what, if anything, is the mysterious <12 minute piece mistakenly conflated with the Op.76?  I'm pretty sure that's not this piece either, as my rendition came out to almost 19 minutes, and I don't think speeding it up to play in under 12 would sound at all good.
#7
Yes, I just added that disclaimer in response to the question here.  I don't know if this is the "Francfort" piece.  It might make sense for this to be the Op.75, since a theme from it was borrowed and reused in the Op.76, which I did a few months ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnO9XcpLcxY
But if this one was indeed unpublished, it might not have any official opus number.
#8
There was no title page in the manuscript this time, so I wasn't sure what to call it.  One thing I have found (and confirmed through testing) is that I get far fewer hits on works that don't have the words "Piano Concerto" in the title of the video, so now even when it's something else like "Concerto Symphonique" or the like, I lie a little bit about the title to get more views.  I'll add a correction in the description, but I think I'll leave the video title the same to please the Algorithm.

The other factor was that my previous release of the Op.76 concerto was also labeled a "Concertino", and in fact the suggested runtime of the piece in the score was under 12 minutes for the whole thing, a suggestion which I found to be completely wrong.  It sounds impossibly fast when played at that speed.  (My rendition clocks in at over 32 minutes.)  I'm relatively certain that this suggested runtime was incorrectly copied from another piece.  I think there's just some overall confusion over naming in the Schmitt catalogue.
#9
Composers & Music / Re: William Henry Holmes 1812-1885
Thursday 24 April 2025, 02:57
Oh, sorry, I misunderstood you, I thought you'd found the Consuelo somewhere else and the Jubilee was in the BL.  Alright.  I know nothing about the composer myself, other than someone requested him.  But that's true of nearly all the composers I've covered, kind of the whole point of the channel is publicizing stuff nobody's ever heard of, including myself.
#10
Composers & Music / Re: William Henry Holmes 1812-1885
Wednesday 23 April 2025, 17:16
The Jubliee is apparently available at the British Library, but only for viewing and only if you go there in person with a valid library card.  Anyone in the London area (or Yorkshire?  Not sure if it's at both locations.) willing to help out with this?  I recently received a request for this piece on my channel.
#11
If it's not too much to ask, I'd appreciate throwing a "like" or even comment on the video itself.  I know it's become cliche and I even feel a bit dirty asking, but the engagement really helps the algorithm to suggest it to more viewers, which increases the chance that someone with access to an orchestra will see it and be inspired to arrange such a performance/recording, which was always the goal of my channel.
#12
Well, it took me almost a year before getting around to it, but I have remastered my old rendition of this piece, now using Sibelius and NotePerformer.  I hope this version is enough of an improvement to make up for the injustice I did to it the last time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WL_M9aRTY
#13
It came up in a discussion on my most recent video, of the Cipriani Potter #3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9HxbHn14kk).  Shelley recorded his #2 and #4, but the manuscript for #3 needed some cleanup, which may be why he didn't do that one.  (#1 I understand may be lost).  I may be spreading false rumors on that point, but the man is in his mid-70's at this point, so it wouldn't surprise me.
#14
I think there's also the issue of them needing new performers.  Howard Shelley, who performed the majority of those albums, is I'm pretty sure essentially retired at this point?
#15
Quote from: eschiss1 on Tuesday 08 October 2024, 19:00The full score of the capriccio is at FLP, I think, but no such luck with the piano concerto.
So my impression of FLP is they seem to only carry physical manuscripts, and mostly only loan them out to orchestras?  Every time I've looked there they don't seem to have digital copies of anything.  I'm not sure if I'm prepared to go that deep on these.  My process involves taking a lot of notes on the score, which you can do easily on digital, but obviously that kind of thing is not okay with a paper copy.  I suppose the other option is to get someone to scan it, but I doubt they do that for free, and I don't really have a budget for this project, at least until I get enough of a following that it actually earns me money, which probably won't be for a while.