New World Composers

[Dundonnell]

I am uploading some music by Carlos Chavez, the prominent Mexican composer.

First up is his Violin Concerto, which is otherwise difficult to get hold of. This is a performance recorded for BBC Radio by Sidney Weiss, former Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and later the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Please note that the first minute of the concerto is missing. This is because my 40 year old trusty reel-to-reel machine-which has been in constant use now for over 5 weeks of continual playback and recording-decided to swallow the tape. It has taken me several hours to take the machine to pieces and extract the bits of tape wound round inside the mechanism

From the same concert the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Chavez play his Symphony No.4 "Sinfonia Romantica". It is the last minute of this work which is missing.....but that, at least, was a mistake made 38 years ago by yours truly.

Much as I dislike uploading incomplete works I still hope that these recordings may be of interest

[semloh]

...... my 40 year old trusty reel-to-reel machine-which has been in constant use now for over 5 weeks of continual playback and recording-decided to swallow the tape. It has taken me several hours to take the machine to pieces and extract the bits of tape wound round inside the mechanism

Sorry to hear that, Colin. I know exactly what you're up against! 

[Dundonnell]

...... my 40 year old trusty reel-to-reel machine-which has been in constant use now for over 5 weeks of continual playback and recording-decided to swallow the tape. It has taken me several hours to take the machine to pieces and extract the bits of tape wound round inside the mechanism

Sorry to hear that, Colin. I know exactly what you're up against! 

To be fair to the old machine it is an absolute miracle that it has performed so well in making it possible to digitise all this marvellous music(imo at least ) after lying around for exactly 30 years covered in dust, unattended and unloved

[Dundonnell]

Recently added is Camargo Guarnieri's Choro for Cello and Orchestra(1962) with Aldo Parisot and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Gustav Meier.

[Holger]

Atsushi, thanks for the González-Zuleta upload, about which I have a few annotations. First, Fabio González-Zuleta died exactly one month ago on November 17, 2011. Second, you can find the performers of Pineda Duque's Triple concerto (which you state as being unknown) here:
http://www.violin-concerto.de/database.html?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=1903&sobi2Id=13867
So, it's Hilda Adler (piano), Luis Biava (violin), Ludwig Matzenauer (cello) / Orquestra Sinfónica de Colombia / Olav Roots

[lechner1110]

  Thanks for information, Holgar
  I modified my upload now.

[semloh]

Atsushi - Alberto Williams' 2nd Symphony - terrific, thank you. 

Hopefully, his recent appearance on Chandos and Naxos will stimulate interest ... who knows, we may even get a set of the symphonies one day!

[lechner1110]

  Yes. Alberto Williams is quite interesting composer.
  Except first symphony, all of his symphonies have subtitle. Attractive symphonies...

  Symphony No.1 in B minor Op.44 (1907)
  Symphony No.2 in C minor "The Witch of the Mountains." (1910) Op.55
  Symphony No.3 in F major (1911)"The Sacred Forest."  Op.58.
  Symphony No.4 in E flat major  "Eli ataja-caminos (1935) Op.98
  Symphony No.5 in E flat major "The Doll's Heart."  (1936) Op.100
  Symphony No.6 in B major  "The Death of the Comet." Sixth Symphony (1937) Op.102.
  Symphony No.7 in D "Eternal Rest."  (1937) Op.103 
  Symphony No.8 in F minor "The Sphinx." Op.104 (1938)
  Symphony No.9 in B flat "Los batracios" (La humorística) Op.108 (1939)

[eschiss1]

recently discussed on Facebook in a group on North European (and other) lesser-known composers, too (Williams). Sym 7 is the only one I've heard (but I'll download 2 ) , from a broadcast years back of the Arte Nova CD. Recent appearance on Chandos and Naxos? I forget if I caught that. Good news.

[semloh]

recently discussed on Facebook in a group on North European (and other) lesser-known composers, too (Williams). Sym 7 is the only one I've heard (but I'll download 2 ) , from a broadcast years back of the Arte Nova CD. Recent appearance on Chandos and Naxos? I forget if I caught that. Good news.

Eric - what I carelessly called Naxos is actually two Marco Polo CDs of piano music - I thought they'd been re-badged as Naxos but I see they are still listed as Marco Polos. 
The Chandos is "Fiesta Criolla - Latin American Orchestral Works" (Wurttembergische Philarmonie Reutlingen, cond. Castagana) which includes Alberto Williams' Primera obertura de concierto (1889).

The Arte Nova CD is about the only other commercial recording I know of.... and although it appeared in 1996 it's probably still available. (Review at http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/Apr99/alberto.htm )

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

recently discussed on Facebook in a group on North European (and other) lesser-known composers, too (Williams). Sym 7 is the only one I've heard (but I'll download 2 ) , from a broadcast years back of the Arte Nova CD. Recent appearance on Chandos and Naxos? I forget if I caught that. Good news.

Eric - what I carelessly called Naxos is actually two Marco Polo CDs of piano music - I thought they'd been re-badged as Naxos but I see they are still listed as Marco Polos. 
The Chandos is "Fiesta Criolla - Latin American Orchestral Works" (Wurttembergische Philarmonie Reutlingen, cond. Castagana) which includes Alberto Williams' Primera obertura de concierto (1889).

The Arte Nova CD is about the only other commercial recording I know of.... and although it appeared in 1996 it's probably still available. (Review at http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/Apr99/alberto.htm )

I just ordered the Chandos with my Christmas gift card - I'll be happy to report once it arrives.

[gabriel]

Many thanks, shamokin88, for your wonderful uploads of the neglected works of Jacobo Ficher. Is there more of them, mainly his symphonic pieces?

[jowcol]

Alberto Ginastera may not really be an "unsung composer " but I've posted the premiere  original  Harp Concerto  , which is a pretty wining blend of his early style (which I like a lot) and his later, more avante garde style (which I need to be in the mood for.)



The following program notes  are from: http://www.floridaorchestra.org/pdf/May14-16GinasterasHarpConcerto.pdf.   If nothing else, Ginastera's comments on the union of the emotional and cerebral goals of art in the second paragraph are very enlightening, and I think this concerto does fit this goal more than some of his other later works.

The Harp Concerto marked a significant turning point in the development of Ginastera's musical style. The composer categorized his works before the mid-1950s as "Nationalistic," drawing inspiration and material forthem from the rhythms and melodies of the Argentine folksongs and dances known as musica criolla, though he seldom used literal quotations. This nationalistic music is imbued with the symbolism of the pampas and the "gauchesco" tradition, for which Ginastera became the leading musical spokesman.

His second style("Neo-Expressionism") began around 1958, and encompassed most of his later compositions, works in which he employed such avant-garde techniques as polytonality, serial writing, quarter-tones and other micro intervals, and an extension of instrumental resources. The Harp Concerto stands at the threshold between Ginastera's two musical idioms, blending the vibrant rhythms and characteristic melodic leadings of indigenous Argentine music with the expanded harmonic, textural and coloristic resources of his gestating later manner. The strongest thread tying together his old and new modes of musical speech is not technical, however, but expressive, as he indicated in writing about his 1961 Piano Concerto: "A work must produce a feeling of comprehension, a flow of attraction between public and artist, independent of structural implications.... Art is first perceived by our senses. It then affects our sentiments and in the end awakens our intelligence. A work which speaks only to the intelligence of man will never reach his heart.... Without sensibility the work of art is only a cold mathematical study, and without intelligence or technique it is only chaos. Thus the perfect formula would be sensitive beauty plus technical skill." The Harp Concerto is such a work.

The Concerto follows the traditional three movements, though the form is amended by the inclusion of an extended solo cadenza as the bridge to the finale. The opening movement follows the usual sonata-form pattern: a close-interval main theme is presented by the harp to the accompaniment of whirring figures in the strings and sharp punctuations from the winds and percussion; the second theme, marked in its first measure by a wide-ranging arpeggio from the harp, follows after some soft timpani taps, a brief silence and a sentence of simple prefatory chords from the soloist. The middle of the movement contains a passage of dynamic energy exploiting the rhythmic ambiguity inherent in the movement's meter (and calling for "collegno" — tapping with the wood of the bow — from the strings) and a development of the main theme initiated by string tremolos and flutter-tonguing on the flutes. The main theme and second theme in abbreviated versions (separated by a brief cadenza) round out the first movement.

The second movement consists of a large central section framed at beginning and end by strongly contrasting music. A lugubrious imitative passage rising from the low strings, a timbre and texture reminiscent of the fugue in Strauss' Zarathustra, opens the movement. The harp and woodwinds trade expressive comments on the strings' opening statement. The principal part of the movement is given over to a paragraph of "night music" in which the harp's snapping figures are set against an eerie, rustling background, a quality perhaps indebted to the slow movements of several of Béla Bartók's orchestral compositions. The return of the tiny string fugue and the harp's comments upon it close the movement. A dramatic and virtuosic cadenza serves as the gateway to the finale, a rondo whose structure is marked by the sharp reports of the tom-toms heralding the appearances of the main theme.

NOTE:  Upon further discussion, investigation, the Concerto was apparently written in 1956, and there may be as many as six versions, although we may never know to degree to which they vary, or which one was performed at the premiere.  If there is a Ginastera specialist in the house, we'd welcome your input! 

[TerraEpon]

"Original version"? Something different about it from the one recorded a couple times (for instance on Chandos)?

[jowcol]

"Original version"? Something different about it from the one recorded a couple times (for instance on Chandos)?

My source had included "Original Version", and I passed it along-- I've not heard the ones that have been recorded. (But I did check to see if this version was available on Amazon)

So, in short, I don't know.  If anyone who has listened to other "versions" can't tell a difference, I can remove that part for the posting.