Unsung Romantic Cello Concertos

[Peter1953]

Thank you all for your good suggestions so far!

Peter, please go to the thread "A true modern-day Romantic composer", started by Alan. It's all about Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski. His Symphony No. 3 is coupled with his Cello Concerto in A minor, op. 84. I think it's nothing less than a gorgeous, very romantic concerto. The slow movement is utterly lyrical, and the 3rd movement has a lovely main theme which keeps singing around in your head for a long time. Very pleasant. Mind you, this concerto was written in...2002! You will love it, I'm sure.
Mark has given in his reply #6 a link to a review of this concerto.

[JimL]

What about the pair of Cello concertos by Victor Herbert? The second is said to have impressed Dvorak!!!!

I would be most impressed if somebody, anybody, anybody at all would re-record the 1st, which is supposed to be just as fine a work as the 2nd!

[FBerwald]

What about the pair of Cello concertos by Victor Herbert? The second is said to have impressed Dvorak!!!!

I would be most impressed if somebody, anybody, anybody at all would re-record the 1st, which is supposed to be just as fine a work as the 2nd!

I think The 1st has been recorded (couples with the 2nd)by a female Cellist with Academy of St. Martin (a very old record!!)

[Peter1953]

The recording is from 1988, I think. Quite old but it's still acceptable. I've just listened to a sound sample at ArkivMusic, http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=5306&name_role1=1&bcorder=1&comp_id=213266

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I've ordered the Klengel 1 & 4 (cpo) for only EUR 5.99 together with the Klavierwerke by Brüll (www.jpc.de).

[peter_conole]

Hi all

General thanks from me, especially to Peter1953. I will be ordering two Naxos discs of music by Schmidt-Kowalski next week.

I agree that the Herbert cello concertos are about on a  par with one another - good candidates for a new recording, say by Hyperion or Albany.

Other unsungs to consider:

Wilhelm Fitzenhagen's concerto from the 1870s - by a virtuoso cellist, and no harm at all in that. Still available on CD.

Hans Pfitzner youthful but impressive a minor concerto of 1888. A more attractive work then his later cello concertante works, IMHO.

Five concertos by Franz Neruda, a luminary of Danish musical life and a very influential, versatile artist in his day. The works were all composed in 1887-1888 and are single movement concertos in sonata form. Not earth-shattering, but attractive and well crafted enough to get the composer some key jobs he seems to have been after.

regards
Peter

[JimL]

I think Lynn Harrell would be quite disturbed to find out he's now a female after spending all these years as a man!   (Lynn isn't exclusively a woman's name - just ask Lynn Swann, the old USC/Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver.)  And I'd certainly like to see the Herbert CC 1 coupled with something other than his 2nd.  There have been enough recordings of the 2nd already.

[FBerwald]

I think Lynn Harrell would be quite disturbed to find out he's now a female after spending all these years as a man!   (Lynn isn't exclusively a woman's name - just ask Lynn Swann, the old USC/Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver.)  And I'd certainly like to see the Herbert CC 1 coupled with something other than his 2nd.  There have been enough recordings of the 2nd already.

Oops! Sorry! I had a feeling I was laying an egg!! 

[Peter1953]

Dear all, the Klengel CD (EUR 5.99, jpc.de) is certainly worth buying. Lovely cello concertos, as long as you don't compare these works with the Dvorak or Elgar. Julius Klengel (1859-1933) wrote in a lyrical Romantic style. In the 2nd movement of his 4th you can immediately recognize Raff, for Klengel uses the wind instruments exactly the way Raff does. In this, Klengel imitates Raff. The orchestration is reminiscent of Bruch, but never mind, this doesn't make his concertos less enjoyable to hear. Strongly recommended!

[Lionel Harrsion]

There's a gorgeous VC by American composer Arthur Foote written in 1893.  It's not been recorded so far as I know but Patrick Meadows has loaded onto IMSLP the full score of the edition that he and I recently prepared  for anyone who's interested.  http://imslp.org/wiki/Cello_Concerto,_Op.33_%28Foote,_Arthur%29

[FBerwald]

Speaking of Romantic Cello concertos. I downloaded the two Cello Concertos of Anton Rubinstein some months back. Lovely works ....No great fireworks ... just pages and pages of beautiful Lyrical dialogues between the cello and orchestra. The fact is I don't quite have the tracklists... so if anyone here has the cover scans (if possible booklets!) I'd very much appreciate it. I'm really curious about the origin of these concertos.

[Peter1953]

I have these lovely concertos performed by Werner Thomas-Mifune with the Bamberger Symphoniker (on VMS), but the booklet notes, very short, superficial thus disappointing, doesn't give any information about the origin or whatever.

[FBerwald]

Dear Peter Id settle for the cover scans. As I said i have no track listings. Anything is better than listening to track 01 - 06...as  titles!!!

[JimL]

As I recall, the first movement of the Rubinstein CC 1 is marked Moderato assai - a rather often used tempo indication by Rubi.  The finale is Allegro con fuoco.  I don't recall the slow movement, but it may be Andante non troppo.  The first movement of the CC 2 is Allegro moderato, and I believe the finale is simply Allegro.  The slow movement of this one may be the Andante non troppo.  I'll have to dig up that CD from the mess my collection has become since my move.  In any event, I consider the 1st work nice but flawed in some ways.  The second is repertoire material from start to finish and should be recognized as such for its formal innovation and melodic inspiration.  I believe that VMS is a reissue of an old Koch-Schwann CD that I have in my possession.

[Peter1953]

Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, op. 65
1.   Moderato
2.   Adagio
3.   Allegro con fuoco


Cello Concerto No. 2 in D minor, op. 96
1.   Allegro moderato
2.   Andante
3.   Allegro

The concertos are recorded in 3Q1989. The VMS release is 2005.

[JimL]

I'm positive the first movement of 1 is Moderato assai.  I'd have to check, though.

P.S. How much do you want to bet that at least one of these works was composed for Karl Davydov?  I'd have to check the dates of composition.