CD of Swiss orchestral music

[Mark Thomas]

The Swiss Fonogram label is planning to record a CD for release later this year featuring Johann Carl Eschmann's Concert Overture, orchestral songs by Raff and the rather fine Symphony of August Walter, for which Reverie recently made such a good electronic realisation. Artists are the Swiss Orchestra, conducted by Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, with the mezzo Marie-Claude Chappuis as soloist in the Raff songs. This is a crowd-funded project - full details here.

[FBerwald]

It's completely in German. No translation available

[Alan Howe]

Doch! It's also available in French and Italian...

[sdtom]

I guess we'll have to ask Adriano for the story behind it. I have the suspicion he was involved!

[Joachim Raff]

Nice project, but they are missing a massive market of potential English speaking donors

[eschiss1]

This is where OCR technology and translating software, though easy to laugh at for their deficiencies (I don't!! I can just guess how hard they are to program at all), come into their own

[Mark Thomas]

Just copy & paste into Google Translate - it's perfectly understandable then. Adriano will tell us if he's involved, I'm sure, but I know that the Swiss Raff Society are quite heavily involved in the project.

[Alan Howe]

Indeed: it's soooo simple - use Google translate!

I'm pretty sure Adriano's not involved.

[Joachim Raff]

Indeed: it's soooo simple - use Google translate!

I'm pretty sure Adriano's not involved.

Simple for some, but maybe not for others. I have questioned if they are really serious about wanting English speaking donations. Maybe its a project not wanting donations from this source?

[FBerwald]

I'm sorry but I feel like if they want, they can make an English page as well. I know it's simple to translate via google but if they want donation then the least they can do is make an English page. I'm certainly not going to go through the task of translation myself to make a donation. I agree with @Joachim_Raff

[Kevin]

Indeed: it's soooo simple - use Google translate!

I'm, and it looks like I'm not alone, not comfortable using Google translate - why is that so hard for people to understand?

[Alan Howe]

I can see the point about about attracting English-speaking donors; however, if it is a just matter of understanding, then Google translate is extremely simple, extremely quick and completely free. I use it all the time for translating from languages I don't know and I'm hardly a whizz with technology.

This particular issue has now been discussed to death. Let's now return to the music involved here.

[Justin]

This particular issue has now been discussed to death. Let's now return to the music involved here.

Alan, I was going to jump in and keep beating the dead horse about the translating, but if you insist. 

Have the two Raff songs (Op. 66 & Op. 199) ever been recorded in a concert or realized electronically? Or would this be the first time the public would be able to hear a recording?

[Mark Thomas]

It will be recording premieres for all three songs (Op.199 comprises two songs), which makes this release an important one for Raff aficionados. Together I estimate they'll last around 20 minutes. Of course, I'm making the assumption that all three will be recorded, but there should be plenty of room on the CD for them and Eschmann's Overture, as Walter's Symphony lasts around 40 minutes. There are actually two other, very short, orchestral songs by Raff which I discovered a few years ago, pieces written in the mid-1850s as additions to another composer's stage work. They remain in manuscript and I doubt whether there's enough time now to add them to this recording, although I have now suggested that. We'll see.

[adriano]

This is just a crowd funding advertisement; the producers are looking for money to finance this project. Curiously enough, the contributions should be paid to Raiffeisen, a Bank woth enough billions in its vaults, able to finance hundreds of such projects in full... One should not forget that we are probably the richest country of the world. On the disturbed realtionship of Swiss Culture Funds regarding forgotten music we discussed already in earlier threads.

Adriano is definitely not involved in this project. This joung lady conductor is being promoted since a couple of years over all media as a discoverer of forgotten Swiss music... Of course, Mrs Wüstendörfer has a Conservatory diploma and has been an assistant of Claudio Abbado - both things which I have not, so after all, who am I?

(I am promoting less-known/forgotten Swiss music since over 30 years, but Swiss media were never interested to write about it... Of all my Sterling, Guild and Marco Polo CDs with Swiss music I've got just a miserable handful of reviews over here - compared to the dozens fron the rest of the world.
An example: My Fritz Brun box has been reviewed so far in Switzerland only twice: a guy from Lucerne found my conducting uninspired and dull, another one from Berne spent no words about my interpretations - and both did not even mention that there is a 164-page booklet available online. On the first review, two foreign musicologists wrote protestation letters to the responsible magazine; they were scandalised and said that the author probably had not even listened seriously to the music.
And years ago, when a couple of Swiss Radio presentors announced my old Guild recording of Brun's Fourth in a "new CDs" transmission (what an honour!), the lady asked her male companion: "Adriano?? Is he still around??" and giggled softly).