Dutch Music

[JimL]

Dunno what the problem was but it seems to have cleared up.  Am listening to it now.  And it is indeed in F Major, not F minor.

[JimL]

This is an odd problem.  The first movement of the van Gilse Symphony 1 lasts about 13 minutes and 10 seconds.  My splitter program, for some strange reason, insists on splitting it at 9 minutes 23 seconds.  I'll admit that the music seems to stop at that point, but it isn't a real end, just a pause before the recapitulation proper begins.  I've tried to get the file splitter to ignore it but it seems to have a mind of its own.  Any suggestions?

[Ilja]

Thank you , Ilja, for Smulder's Rash Hasana, an unexpectedly gorgeous piece of rhapsodic  late-romanticism. For some reason I was constantly reminded of the slow movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto, no bad thing in itself, but a little bit perplexing in a Franck-influenced Dutchman of Belgian nationality! Still, a lovely work.

Glad you like it! It's a real pity he wrote so little - partly because he was also active in other fields (as a novelist, mainly), and partly because he was extremely shy. But mostly, I guess, because he operated from the periphery (Maastricht) and saw little opportunity of having his works performed. His emigration to Belgium didn't involve much more than move the twenty miles or so from Maastricht to Liège.

The Chant d'Amour is a wonderfully elegiac piece, but the highlight of his orchestral oeuvre is probably the gorgeous Piano Concerto (coming up) - arguably the best one ever written by a Dutchman.

[Mark Thomas]

Smulder's PC is indeed gorgeous - I've known it for a few ears. Thoroughly recommendable.

[Christo]

for a few ears.

[Mark Thomas]

Oops!

for a few ears

Definition of an Unsung, I suppose!

[JimL]

OK.  I think I've got a solution.  I'll separate out 0:00 to 9:23.00 and 9:23.00 to 13:10.  Then I'll splice those together.  I've never used the joiner function before.  Wish me luck.

[Peter1953]

What a most lyrical piece of music Rash Hasana (or Rosch-Haschana) is! Thanks for the upload, Ilja. I've never heard anything by Carl Smulders before, but I wonder how his PC in A minor (1886) sounds... Must be quite something for the connaisseur.
For the students in the Dutch language, see http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Smulders 

[black]

Smulders' PC can be heard on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__tPNT50tY4

[Peter1953]

Thanks, Black.

[Peter1953]

What a wonderful concerto, including a brilliant cadenza in the first movement. Smulders's PC is a hidden gem under the dust, very unjustified neglected.
Can you imagine, a CD coupling Smulders's PC with Brandts Buys's PC in F major, op. 15? An opportunity for Chandos in their series of Dutch music?
Brandts Buys's PC is also an impressive concerto, just listen here.

[JimL]

Well, it didn't work.  I can't accurately split the movements of the van Gilse Symphony 1 and I can't figure out why.  I try to do it by the times of the movement endings, but either the file, or the splitter has a mind of its own and doesn't follow the guidelines I've set.  I may contact ManiacTools about this.

[eschiss1]

About the Gilse symphony 2, by the way- is one at all sure about E-flat -minor- for the key of the work? The first movement sounds very major-mode to me.  Even if the finale is in E-flat minor (I've had to put aside listening to it for the moment but will get back to it very soon), that doesn't signify.

[JimL]

I'll get to the bottom of this!  When I get home I'll download it and give it a spin.  And I still haven't tried to split the 2nd DL of the 1st yet.

[Dundonnell]

Sydney Grew has kindly uploaded a Double Violin Concerto by Henk Badings composed in 1969.

For the sake of absolute clarity, this is the Double Violin Concerto No.2 and should not be confused with the Double Violin Concerto No.1 of 1954(available on a Pristine cd).

Reference:

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=2055.0

Badings wrote twenty concertos in total, of which I have only four Just 16 to go then