Landscape redux - Hanson, Loeffler etc.

[jasthill]

Browsing backwards through the Presto future releases I found this interesting future release.  https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9247209--americascapes. Realizing Loeffler and Hanson might on the edges of the remit of this group and Cowell and Ruggles well beyond it leads me to ponder <here insert sarcasm> a release of unsung (obscure) Americana on a Danish record label recorded by a Basque orchestra lead by a American - might we expect a reciprocal release of the Isasi tone poems recorded by an American orchestra on a German label lead by a Basque? <sarcasm end>.  Ah! the mysteries of record labels and their repertory selections.

[Mark Thomas]

The mystery is often solved by discovering that a third party sponsored the release and so got to choose the repertoire.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Exactly so.

[Alan Howe]

I think the answer is less arcane.

Robert Trevino is an American - hence the repertoire; he is currently music director of the Basque National Orchestra in Spain - hence the orchestra; and Trevino is signed to Ondine (they're Finnish, by the way) - hence the label.

Nothing unsusual about this at all. Typical of the modern recording landscape, I'd say.

[Gareth Vaughan]

You're explanation makes perfect sense, Alan.

[jasthill]

For the record let me state that I am delighted that Ondine has chose to release this disc - I know I will thoroughly enjoy it.  Ondine, as well as Chandos, Naxos, CPO, and Capriccio as examples seem to be willing to explore more of the unsung than some of the other labels.  Perhaps instead of injecting sarcasm into the post I should have used irony or amusement, and I confused the Ondine of myth with the little mermaid in Copenhagen harbor hence the Danish association. Always excited to see adventurous programming whatever the source rather than yet another reiteration of one of the warhorses in what critics will call a uniquely nuanced and distinctly articulated reading. Plenty of unsungs awaiting exposure like this.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, it's an attractive release. I was just surprised at your surprise!

[eschiss1]

The only recordings I've seen so far of Isasi's music were on Naxos, and the Isasi Quartet which performed them didn't consist solely of people from the same country as the composer, -- and it occurs to me this happens often already (I remember a review of a cpo recording where it was pointed out that where the repertoire on the CD was maybe once mainly the domain of Swedish orchestras, labels, conductors, etc., more and more recordings of that composer's music were on a variety of labels with a variety of orchestras, conductors, etc. and especially as that particular composer wasn't a "Nationalist" (?) one anyway, there was something to be said for that )

[jasthill]

Actually a recording of the Isasi tones poems is available (download services now - CD's wherever) as Vol. IV of the Basque Music Collection presented by Claves Records featuring the Basque Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfonia De Euskadi).  The series of 15 CD's cover a wide range of Basque composers from classical era to modern - I'd say most of them unsung but quite interesting music.  So now we can add the Swiss to the multi-national consortium of orchestras and labels crossing nationalistic boundaries.

[Alan Howe]

Although half of this new CD is beyond the scope of the forum, half isn't - so I'd like to recommend it in particular for the spectacular performance of Howard Hanson's hyper-romantic 'Before the Dawn' (1920):
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9247209--americascapes

The idiom? Somewhere in the neighbourhood of Bax (think 'Tintagel'). 6:44 of spine-tingling magnificence!

[Mark Thomas]

It is indeed a glorious little nugget of full-blown romanticism. Thanks for the heads up, Alan. Odd, though, that so soon after its release the orchestra has uploaded the full CD to YouTube - surely that'll hinder rather than help sales?

[Alan Howe]

Strange, yes. I imagine the purpose is to raise the profile of a rather obscure orchestra....

[Wheesht]

Would it make sense to merge this thread with the earlier one from September about the same release?

[Merged, as you suggest. Mark]

[TerraEpon]

Those YouTube uploads are automatic, done by a bot controlled by Naxos (who is Ondine's distributor).

[Mark Thomas]

Ahh, that's interesting. Thanks.