Slovak music

[jowcol]

Thanks to jowcol for this Burlas upload! Burlas is, of course, Slovak and not Slovene. An easy confusion indeed! Both countries have no common boundary, their languages are not really mutually intelligible and have a different tonality, yet one has to be "initiated" to tell Slovenska filharmonija (Slovenian Philharmonic) from Slovenská filharmónia (Slovak Philharmonic).

Here are a few more details I found on the Hudobné centrum website about the two symphonies.

Symphony No. 1 was composed in 1984. Its original title is "Stretnúť človeka". The performers for the premiere, who may or may not be the same as in Karl Miller's recording, were the following:
Viktória Stracenská (mezzosoprán), Pavol Mauréry (barytón), Slovenský filharmonický zbor, Slovenská filharmónia / Bystrík Režucha

Symphony No. 2 was completed in 1986. The four parts bear the following tempo indications:
Larghetto; allegro alla breve - Sostenuto - Allegro - Allegro con brio

Thanks for the educational input on my slip of terminology-- and the details on the Burlas!.  I'll add them to the downloads page.


, and the details on the two works.  I'll pose

[jowcol]

Birch Trees, by Stefan Nemeth-Samorinsky


Oops!  I posted this in the SLOVAKIAN downloads folder yesterday.
A Symphonic Poem
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava
Oliver Dohnanyi, Conductor

(BBC Broadcast, possibly Dec 14, 2009)

I've not been able to dig much on on the composer, but some of your out there are better than Google, and I'd love to see what you come up with.


A sketchy, machine translated bio:

Štefan Németh-Šamorín

(29 Šamorín 9th 1896 - 31 1st 1975 Bratislava)

Classical music: composition, choral conducting

1906 - 1914 High School for the Poor Clares convent, while municipal music school in Bratislava (piano - Alexander Albrecht, playing the violin - Vilhelm Antalffy)
1908 - 1912 violinist City Symphony Orchestra (conductor Eugen Kossow) and also member of the Boys' Choir (Feliciano Mócik) with whom he performed well in the Church Music Society - Kirchenmusikverein - at St. Martin (Eugene Kossow)
1914 Music University in Budapest (piano - Bela Bartok, playing the organ - Dezső Antalffy-Zsiross)
1915 had to enlist as an officer aspirant to the front
After returning from the war he studied at the Academy of Music School
1921 he studied piano and organ (Aladár Zalánffi) a study of the composition (Leo Weiner)

[Dundonnell]

Huge thanks to Amphissa for the upload of eight symphonies by Jan Zimmer

[eschiss1]

Amphissa- I recall reading on a Slovak site, I think, that one of the later Zimmer symphonies made LP at one point- (no.7?) - but it's good to have them. I only have tempo markings for two or three of them (I already have the broadcasts and didn't download yours- if yours have them I missed them...) They announced the movements during the broadcast of symphonies 7 and 9 on Slovak Radio a few days ago but I didn't quite catch that (I hope someone taped that and will upload it- it sounded like a new performance, not Thrlik's 7 and Lenard's 9- I didn't catch all of it either ... was good though, no surprise.) -

symphony 1:
*Andante sostenuto - Allegro con brio
*Adagio - Scherzo
*Allegro agitato

9 I think is
*Adagio - Allegro con brio
*Scherzo ?
*Adagio
*Vivace
but I'm not sure. This sounded like one of the movement listings on the broadcast (and since they were referring to a 4-movement work, which 7 isn't, that would apply to 9.)

Piano Concerto 1: (from APF, which has a different performance also with the composer as pianist)
*Andante con moto- Allegro vivace
*Adagio
*Allegretto capriccioso - Andante

If Rozhlas.sk - the Slovak Radio- has an Archive search service like Czech radio does- then more information may not be hard to find, since I found the listing for concerto 1 from the Czech APF - the Slovak APF may have more.

[oleander55]

Amphissa!   Oh, wow!  All these Zimmer symphonies!! You are a wonder!  THANKS!!

[shamokin88]

Yes, marvellous. There seems to be a problem with number 3, however. I get a message telling me that the server cannot be found. Could you check it out please? Best to all.

[Amphissa]

The link seems to be working for me and there have been 11 downloads so far. Maybe it was just a temporary glitch when you were trying to download. Could you try again? If it is still not working for you, I'll re-post.

[shamokin88]

Thanks for being willing to deal with this. The problem was exceeding subtle. If you look at the URLs for the various Zimmer symphonies you posted you will see that the http at the start of the URL for symphony 3 is preceded by a period. The others are not. My Mac choked on that mysterious little dot and refused to go look for the server. I pasted it into my browser absent the dot and had no problem. These are strange things, these computers and their whims.

[Amphissa]

Thanks for catching that curious error in the URL. I'm not sure how it got there, but I've removed it. So now the URL is correct.

[JimL]

A few odds and ends I'm trying to catch up on: Does anybody have the movement titles for the Schneider-Trnavsky symphony?

[Holger]

Here you are:

Mikuláš Schneider-Trnavský
1881–1958

Symphony in E Minor "Remembrance"
Composed in 1955/56
I. Con movimento
II. Andante sostenuto quasi adagio
III. Scherzo
IV. Con movimento. Allegro

[JimL]

Gracias, señor.  Any tempo indication for the Scherzo?  Maybe a website where I can peruse a score? 

[Holger]

It seems to be Allegro giusto. Actually, I just consulted the Slovak Music Information Centre. The strange thing is that the movement titles given there partly differ from then on the LP (the source I used above). According to them, it should be

I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante sostenuto quasi adagio
III. Allegro giusto. Scherzo
IV. Andante sostenuto. Allegro

[JimL]

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'll go with them.  LP and CD notes are notorious for inaccuracy.  Did you know the finale of Herz' PC 1 is Allegretto moderato (as it says in the liner notes) not Allegro moderato (as it says on the back of the CD and the booklet)?  And don't get me started on the first LP of Anton Rubinstein's PC 1 and what key it's in, again!

[eschiss1]

*sneaks in with a brief comment about CD labels that say "Symphony no.7 in E minor" by Bruckner and similar things or even less plausible ones but this topic has been covered in detail before... There is a subject of real substance within it though-sometimes the difference isn't a typo, but a question of which version - by the composer, not composer vs. edited by another - someone is using. Alas though ask someone their source for anything and they take it as a personal affront. ... Shutting up.)