Forthcoming recordings of violin concertos

[edurban]

I saw that Hyperion's Romantic Violin Concerto series has the first installment of a new Vieuxtemps cycle coming out in May.  Concertos 4 & 5 along with the noisy little Fantasia appassionata.

I can't say really I need another version of 4 & 5 to sit on the shelf alongside the Perlman versions...

David

[Alan Howe]

I agree. This series is looking pretty unimaginative - whereas Dutton and cpo are leading the way...

[edurban]

Archiv Music list 15 other versions of #5 currently available, (and that doesn't even include the Perlman.)  Many are cheaper.

If this is filling a niche, I don't know what it is.

David

[JimL]

With Naxos having already done the entire cycle for cheaper, what were they thinking?  Still, in the interest of completionism, at some point or other these would have been indispensible.  Might as well get it over with now.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

A little bit of information for eschiss1 or Eric(?).

Yes, MDT have been advertising for release the Boris Tchaikovsky Vn Concerto (splendid work!) recording by Victor Pikaizen and Odense SO cond. Edward Serov. I think you're right in that the disc was released in 2006 - I got mine directly from the USA in 2008. My American sourced disc bears the same number - PMA9946 - as the one advertised for release by MDT. So one and the same disc. I guess all that has happened is that, with a change of distributor or whatever, MDT have now acquired the right to distribute / release Northern Flowers CDs within the UK. The same has happened with the Northern Flowers CDs of the string quartets of Myaskovsky, Taneyev and Tchaikovsky himself along with a few other things such as the 'Dante' symphonies of Tischenko.

Good news I suppose that these Northern Flowers discs can now be obtained from the very reliable MDT. The 'downside' is that the MDT price is a hell of a lot more than I've ever paid for a Northern Flowers disc directly (or via Amazon) from the USA.

Hope that helps resolve the minor puzzle.

Peter

[Gareth Vaughan]

Sadly, I must agree with Alan. The RVC series began well, but seems to have got stuck in a rut. It's especially disappointing when you think how adventurous the RPC series has been. There doesn't seem much point in producing recordings of VCs that are already well represented in the catalogue - however splendid these works may be - when there are so many Romantic Violin Concertos of merit completely unplayed and unrecorded. We've rehearsed the principle contenders more than once on this forum: Becker, Gernsheim, David, Bazzini, Litolff, Scharwenka, Molique, Stor, etc., etc. The list is a long one.

[Marcus]

Didn't Hyperion lose an expensive court case a few years ago ? Perhaps that has affected the program ? although the RPC program still flourishes. Same story with the Cello concertos - slowed to a trickle. (I read somewhere (Gramophon ?), that a Romantic Cello series was well underway .(- the last I saw was the Gernsheim Concerto vol2))
Marcus.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, they lost a court case, but I can't see the RVC release of the two Vieuxtemps concertos helping them pay their fees. They'd surely make more money for the same cost by producing previously unrecorded works (Gareth's list is a good starting point) than duplicating repertoire which is still hardly mainstream but which is already available in umpteen other places. It seems as pointless a release as the Tchaikovsky piano concertos for RPC #50. What a shame, they are such an admirable company usually.

[Alan Howe]

If Hyperion keep to the known repertoire for their RVC series, the performances will have to pretty special for anyone to buy the CDs. Who wants to buy an unknown violinist with a less than top-flight orchestra when you can get, say, Perlman, with the Paris Orchestra under Barenboim? On the other hand, a couple of Gernsheim VCs recorded by such forces would be a sure-fire hit...

[petershott@btinternet.com]

They lost the court case, not because they were in any way 'at fault', but, as least in my view, someone else's quite unreasonable greed. However.

I groaned when I read about the forthcoming Tchaikovsky release. I'm sure it will have considerable merits, but why release something whose rivals could already fill an entire record shop?

I was very much hoping that they would reach the wonderful 50 mark with something that might surprise and delight us all. Something rather special. And if Hyperion do any kind of 'market research' then couldn't they, with both musical and commercial profit, consult this site?

Peter

[eschiss1]

Offtopic: I'm probably the only one here who does think Hyperion was at least partially "at fault" - failing to recognize the editor's reasonable copyright claims on his work realizing the delaLande (if they want an edition without paying for one, create their own from the publicly available manuscripts, imhonesto; it does involve a degree of creative work to realize continuo, which was one of the issues, and creative work in Britain is where copyright at least begins. I think the consensus as I understood it was however that Hyperion's failure to consider even negotiating with the editor, though, was their undoing.)

[JimL]

If I'm not mistaken, Eric, the editor was employed by Hyperion, and he wasn't working for free.  True, he was a freelancer, IIRC, but he should have been satisfied with what they paid him, since, as you pointed out, he was working with "publicly available manuscripts", which was the sum total of Hyperion's argument.  Just how were they going to "create their own" without hiring someone to do it?  Which is exactly what they did, unfortunately to far greater expense than they anticipated!  And if the editor wasn't happy with the flat fee he was probably offered initially (I'm not that familiar with the details of the case) he should have declined to do the job, and Hyperion should have found someone who would do it for what they were paying.  However, the bulk of the damage done to Hyperion wasn't from having to pay for copyright infringement, but from punitive damages (again, I'm not quite sure of this.  It did happen a while ago).   

[eschiss1]

Ah. I was under the impression Hyperion was using a published edition, not an in-house prepared edition. Should have done my research. However, a worldcat.org search "delalande sawkins" reveals only articles and internet resources (musicological work by and mentioning Mr. Sawkins) and Harmonia Mundi CDs, nothing else.  I was mistaken!

[JimL]

Well, now that everyone is up to speed on Sawkins v. Hyperion, how's about talking up some violin concertos?

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Jim. I really don't want us to get back into debating the rights and wrongs of the Hyperion/Sawkins case. We did so exhaustively on the old Raff Forum and none of us have more than second hand knowledge of the rights and wrongs of it.