Johann Peter Pixis

[Martin Eastick]

Just to clarify re Pixis' Op99 - this is a Piano Quintet (dedicated to Thalberg) in D minor - I have just checked my copy!

[Gareth Vaughan]

(IMSLP does seem to have the solo and orchestral parts of JP Pixis' piano concertino opus 68, that said.)

Yes, Mike Spring got the Sibley Music library to scan this work in preparation for its being recorded by Hyperion. Whether Mike arranged for it to be uploaded to IMSLP or not, I don't know.

[eschiss1]

If something's uploaded to Sibley and is in their publicly-available section, generally it's been IMSLP policy that after checking the relevant copyright policies (it may only be PD-US, since Sibley is on a US server - while IMSLP is on a Canadian server, though it has a US server) IMSLP editors can mirror it on the latter site (after attempting to provide some information Sibley doesn't always, however.)

[Steve B]

Re the Vox Turnabout Pixis Double Concerto, i contacted musical Concepts(ex Vox), who have fab customer service,re re-issuing the Rachmaninov complete piano solo works by Ponti; ok it probably wasnt just because of me lol; but they re-issued it within a year or so; so, this is a possible route; Todd landor, Boss of Musical Concepts is very helpful(they have re-isssued-again!-LOTs of the Vox/turnabout/Candide catalogue, and now seem to be issuing more wholly new releases; or you could ask him to give the rights to Archiv Music who do individually made cd-rs of Vox recordings(licensed by Musical Concepts). Worth a try!Musical Concepts also run Alto records, so that is another possibility(budget too!)Steve Benson

[Gareth Vaughan]

I have written today.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Have just received the following response from Todd Landor:

Code Select Expand

This sounds like a good idea, it will certainly be made available as a download soon,
having read your email I will try to see if it can be issued on a CD as well.

Best regards,


[Steve B]

Wow, Gareth; a result!Steve

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, you did say Todd Landor was helpful - and it seems you were dead right.

[JimL]

Just to clarify re Pixis' Op99 - this is a Piano Quintet (dedicated to Thalberg) in D minor - I have just checked my copy!

A Pixis Piano Quintet sounds yummy!  Any chance of a performance/recording? 

[Martin Eastick]

I have mentioned that I have the score & parts to Mike Spring of Hyperion in the past, although there seem to be no concrete plans at present! If anyone else wishes to perform/record the work, I will be more than willing to make a copy available!

[eschiss1]

According to HMB, the Pixis Op.99 was published in or by 1829 by Farrenc, Paris and by 1830 by Häslinger (in which edition/printing it was reviewed briefly in the 11 December 1830 issue of the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.)

[Steve B]

Yes Todd Landor is sitting on  treasure trove of some still un re-issued(on cd) stuff, eg Schumann the rare Intro and Allegro , op.134 for piano and orchestra; with its poignant slow second subject, written when Schumann's mental health was failing; Ponti is pianist. And Alto has some interesting stuff in its catalogue.I love VOX(now Musical Concepts/Alto); they started the whole thing off to a large extent; unsung pieces:)Steve

[Robin]

I have searched for this Concerto for the last ten years! To no avail, though, nobody seemed to know anything about it, including Pixis' German biographer. Maybe 7 or 8 years ago a friend in Mannheim (Pixis' home-town) scoured all likely civic and other possibilities there, but - nothing. I then tried to contact the pianist, only to discover that she had recently died, and a director at Vox [Todd Landor?] was unable to assist with information. The orchestra who recorded the piece no longer exists, having merged with another more than 20 years ago, and no record seems to be available for a minor recording session in the 70s...  I tried the conductor, who did not respond to emails, and who might also be deceased by now. Could not get hold of the violinist, but - astonishingly - a member of his family did eventually respond to an email! To say that Mary Louise Boehm took care of all the business, and that after his wife died, Kees Kooper began suffering from loss of memory [Alzheimers?] and eventually had to be cared for; a house-move at about that time resulted in crates of music being stored in the garage of a neighbour (or family-member, I forget the specifics, now...) and that had subsequently been destroyed in a flood. There was no record of what was in the crates... Sounds familiar?

Along the way, I began to wonder if the Concert was, in fact, an original composition, which might account for the lack of Opus number; all this sort of information is scrupulously avoided in the LP sleeve note. That put me on a different track and I eventually discovered the original source in the British Library: it is Pixis' Grand Trio, Nº 6 [in f#-minor] for Piano, Violin and Violoncello, dedicated to Mademoiselle Clara Wieck. This is a 4-movement work, of which the second ('Capriccio') was jettisoned for the Concerto arrangement. I fear I created a disturbance in BL when I found it - I was boisterous for a moment or two!

I still do not know who made the Concerto arrangement - it might have been the composer, but it might as likely have been the recording soloists themselves (the recording company have no records) - or anyone else, who is content to remain anonymous.  I have still not found the score / parts used in the recording (probably destroyed).  So, I am working on my own reconstruction of it; it's too good a piece to simply disappear!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Robin, this is a splendid piece of musicological research - immensely valuable. I strongly suspect that the arrangement was made by Boehm and Kooper, which might explain Kooper's reticence whenever approached about the score - as I had occasion to do more than once.  The piece works as a concerto (I thinkl!), though I have always felt the last movt. was weak compared to the preceding movts.  I would now love to hear it in its original conception as the 6th Grand Piano Trio.  In fact, I'd like to hear a lot of Pixis' trios.

[thalbergmad]

A fabulous bit of musical detective work. Well done that man.

Thal