RPC Vol. 54

[FBerwald]

After a rather ..... Vol. 53 it seems Hyperion is finally going to release Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 54 - Somervell & Cowen. Cant wait for it!!!!
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67837

[albion]

Oh joy! Oh rapture! Oh bliss! 

A great combination of soloist, orchestra and conductor too - the RPC waggon lurches back onto the tracks! 

[Alan Howe]

This really is great news. As you can see from the link, it's a September release...

[Gareth Vaughan]

I look forward to this release very much, and I am extremely grateful to Hyperion for resurrecting these lovely works. The Somervell PC was never published and the Full Score and orchestral parts for the Normandy Variations (published by Augener) were also lost by the publisher (!), so both these pieces had to have scores and parts made up from the MSS. That's a lot of work and expense. Well done, Hyperion, for such dedication.

[albion]

Yes - clearly a great deal of thought and effort has gone into this eagerly-awaited release. Premiere recordings are what many people look to Hyperion for, and here they have come up with a great programme!

I'd also like to express my gratitude to Hyperion for going to the time, trouble and expense of creating entirely new performing material for the Somervell works - it is fortunate that the manuscripts for both were still extant. A reduction of the Normandy Variations for two pianos can be downloaded from IMSLP - http://imslp.org/wiki/Normandy_%28Somervell,_Arthur%29.

Mention should also be made again that the full orchestral score of Cowen's Concertstuck, written for Paderewski and premiered in 1900, is also available - http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_%28Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen%29. 

[Revilod]

I'm looking forward to this one too. I've always been curious about the "Normandy" variations since Tovey  included it in the "Concerto" volume in his "Essays in Musical Analysis".  The release of this disc will mean that all the works discussed in that volume have now been recorded..

[albion]

For those unfamiliar with Frederic Cowen's Concertstück, Lewis Foreman has given a very useful summary in the latest BMS Newsletter -

The music of this near-20-minute movement plays continuously, but falls into several sections. A clarinet opens the proceedings with a lamenting theme punctuated by solemn chords. The scoring of this introduction is delightful, soon coloured with horn tone. The piano takes up the theme and quickly introduces a falling dotted motif that reappears throughout and returns in triumph at the end. Cowen, no mean pianist himself constantly leaves his soloist with little accompaniment. The music works up to a climax. Eventually with a cadenza the soloist takes us into a 12-bar linking section A Tempo moderato, which Cowen scores with the light touch for which he was celebrated, the harp prominent and the violins reduced to just four players. The following Molto Allegro takes us to a contrasted piano idyll - tempo tranquillo - all rounded by cadenza and coda in which both themes appear.

Cowen now uses the triangle to colour a L'istesso tempo section (ie the time signature changes, to 2/4, but the tempo apparently does not). This is in G minor and again is introduced by the solo piano. The music proceeds in high spirits and much piano display, the strings eventually finding a lyrical version of the falling motif and the orchestra.

The recapitulation starts with the piano repeating the 2/4 theme and there follows a succession of short sections, effectively contrasted variations, notably three delightful episodes in which both piano and orchestra are treated with the greatest delicacy. A gossamer piano cadenza muses upon what has gone before the orchestra gradually increase the tempo and take us to closing headlong Presto - becoming Prestissimo - and the grand final statement of the theme by the orchestra, the piano sailing commandingly over it with chords and then a final dash to the end with brilliant passage-work which goes on and on as if neither side is willing to give up.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Albion. Something to look forward to, then.

[albion]

Indeed! And looking forward momentarily beyond this exciting release, at least three more volumes are already specified by Hyperion -

Volume 55 Widor
Volume 56 Kalkbrenner
Volume 57 Wiklund

- does anybody have further information about these planned recordings, and what might possibly constitute volume 58? 

[TerraEpon]

More Kalkbrenner? Do want.

[JimL]

Ditto.  Now maybe I'll find out whether it is the 2nd or 3rd Kalkbrenner concerto that is in F# minor.

[Gareth Vaughan]

- does anybody have further information about these planned recordings, and what might possibly constitute volume 58? 

Nothing for certain, I'm afraid - but I'm fairly sure the Concerto and Concertino by Pixis will make an appearance in the series before too long.

[EarlyRomantic]

As I've said before, I'm so eager to hear that the Pixis volume is a reality. Whoever here first learns of its release, please return to this thread to give those of us interested in it the glad news. Thank You!

[giles.enders]

Mention of Kalkbrenner concertos 2 & 3 still leaves Op.125 for two pianos and orchestra to be recorded.  Any thoughts for an unrecorded coupling?

[JimL]

Besides the two two-piano concertos he composed on his own, is there not a two-piano concerto collaboratively composed by Mendelssohn with his mentor Moscheles?  Stylistically very compatible, one would think, with Kalkbrenner.