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Anyone up for music IDing?

Started by TerraEpon, Tuesday 08 September 2009, 21:03

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TerraEpon

This may or may not be by an 'unsung' composer, but it's been bothering me for a long time.

http://www.geocities.com/terraepon/WhatIsIt.mp3

This is a track from the VOX set of Rudolf Firkusny Plays Czech piano music.
(http://www.amazon.com/Rudolf-Firkusny-Smetana-Tom%C3%A1sek-Vorisek/dp/B000001K36)

This track is listed as a 'supplement' to Dvorak's Mazurka's Op. 56, however all research points to there there being only six of those. It's not anything else by Dvorak, as far as I can tell crosschecking with my (as far as I can tell complete) Brilliant box of piano music.
It's almost surely by a Czech composer, and probably got mislabeled somewhere along the way. I don't recognize it.

Any help?

Mark Thomas

The answer may be here. Presumably the piece being played by Firkusny is the original Op.56 No.4 in D minor, which was not published in the original edition and was replaced by one of the Eclogues - B.103 No.1. See also here under B.111/4.

TerraEpon

Huh, weird. I wonder where that info came from -- it's not on the main Dvorak worklist site (http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/4586/aldfr.html),. And comparing the scores, the Mazurka #4 and the Eclogue #1 are completely different (the later isn't even in 3/4), and both are played as written on my recording.

Mark Thomas

Dunno, it's not really my area I'm afraid...

TerraEpon

If anyone happens to care, I think I figured this out.

I got the Burghauser from Interlibrary Loan (it's a biggie) and he says similar stuff about the Eclogues/Mazurkas connection, though it's actually quite confusing.
However, he also mentions the fact that B 406, a sketch of what would have been the set set of Scottish Dances, was used for it. Now again, they don't seem to be the same, but it IS a thematic catalog, and it happens to have the beginning of the sketch -- which, though different in rhythm is indeed almost the same as the recording.

So I'm still left wondering exactly what the version played on the recording is -- is it some sort of completion by another hand, something not listed for some reason...or maybe Firkusny himself did some tinkering.