Albert Dietrich: symphony, violin concerto and overture, forthcoming from Naxos

[Alan Howe]

Thanks once again, Martin. This is late-ish Dietrich and shows what a powerful composer he remained. A really wonderful discovery.

[FBerwald]

Won't the Violin concerto benefit from another fresh recording. I absolutely love the piece.

[Alan Howe]

I agree 100%. Another recording (there have been two, I think) would be most welcome.

[FBerwald]

Which is the other one? I only know of the CPO version.

[Gareth Vaughan]

There was one on Koch Schwann, coupled with the Notturno for violin and orchestra by Joachim.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, the earlier release featured Hans Maile in a rather swifter performance with purer legato; however, the slower cpo performance makes the piece sound rather 'bigger'and certainly more passionate.

It's a wonderful piece, fully the equal of, say, Bruch's VC1. As has been said, it could really do with another recording.

[eschiss1]

The following CD is apparently to be released by Naxos in late July: Naxos 8.574507 - Dietrich symphony, violin concerto and overture in C (confirmed by Presto Classical), with Christoph König conducting the "Solistes Européens Luxembourg" (?) and violinist Klaidi Sahatçi.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks very much for this news, Eric. Fascinating.

[Justin]

Looking forward to hearing the symphony. A great recording of it exists on CPO.

[eschiss1]

Both works are on the cpo disk, and the violin concerto was recorded on a Koch Schwann LP (later CD) 40 years ago (wait, ... yes, I was alive then, too.) The overture in C _may_ be new to recording? But I'm guessing it's neat to have new recordings of the first two works- it's not like they're over-recorded.

[Ilja]

Considering that we know these forces from Farrenc's symphonies, it is to be expected that their interpretation of this piece will be backward- rather than forward-looking. Which should provide some contrast with the existing recording by the Oldenburgers under Rumpf.

[Alan Howe]

Let's hope it won't be too HIP-influenced to be enjoyable. After all, this is post-Schumann and 'on the way' to Brahms.

[Ilja]

It isn't that far post-Schumann, though (1869-70), and I always find terms such as "pre-echoes" or "on the way" problematic since they suggest knowledge of future developments that the composer obviously could never have. A somewhat leaner performance than the one we have would be interesting from that perspective, and I'm guessing that's what we're going to get. Moreover, since we have a fairly decent first recording I would have no issues with a variation of approaches in subsequent recordings. In the case of Dietrich, however, we know the musical language and performance preferences of his and Brahms' circle (including Gernsheim, Fuchs, Scholz, Herzogenberg et al.) quite well and this should - in my view at least - curtail the urge to make the work sound much earlier than mid-Brahms.

[Alan Howe]

You may well be right, Ilja. I'll certainly be buying this anyway - and the violin soloist sounds really fine from the various excerpts available on YouTube. Speaking purely personally, I like lean and muscular Schumann and Brahms, but not scrawny and small-scale. Just saying...

Rumpf's recording on cpo is pretty standard stuff (well done, though), so there's certainly room for a more muscular alternative.

[Alan Howe]

According to their respective websites, the orchestra on the forthcoming release is approx. 60-strong whereas the orchestra on the cpo release is 70-strong, so the major difference will surely be to do with matters such as string vibrato, tempo and general articulation. Muscularity shouldn't be an issue - however, listening to excerpts of the Luxembourg orchestra's Farrenc symphonies, some of the tempi chosen make for less clear articulation than is ideal.