New Duttons for February

[Alan Howe]

I also tried 'Catoire' at HMV and found the Catoire/Sherwood CD - third item down. Again, simples!

[jerfilm]

Ah, at last - the Catoire is on itunes if you are a downloader......and a lovely piece at that......

Jerry

[Alan Howe]

Has anybody heard the Sherwood yet?

[jerfilm]

Oh yes, Alan.  It sounds, IMHO, like it could have been written at least 20 years earlier than it was.  Have not heard all of the middle movement as there was a download problem that is yet to be corrected.  Yes, I liked it.

Jerry

[Alan Howe]

Well, my copies of the Catoire/Sherwood and Foulds/Sainsbury discs duly arrived this morning and I am listening to the Sherwood (PC2) as I speak.
As has already been said, it's very backward-looking for 1932/3; in fact it could have been written forty or fifty years earlier. Its first movement is in heroic E flat mode, as one might expect, and the idiom is Brahmsian, I suppose, although there are occasional hints of Reger too (without ever becoming as restless harmonically); we should also recall his teacher Draeseke's PC which is in the same key. The slow movement is an absolutely beautiful reverie interrupted late on by a more turbulent passage; at times, as in the opening movement, my thoughts turn to Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. The final movement is an exciting, virtuoso Allegro molto. All in all, anyone who is a fan of, say, Hyperion's RPC series is going to love this. And I haven't even listened to the Catoire yet...

[markniew]

I have downloaded this CD. My expectations mainly as regards Catoire's cto were very high. I awaited more Russian/Slavic tastes. Well, it's very very lyrical concerto. I am interesting in opinions of other members. As to Sherwood I agree with Allan. It sounds as composed at the end of 19th century what is not disadventage, not. It sounds good, piano part is quite powerful.

[herrarte]

You can now also download the Catoire PC from Amazon.com and for a Dollar less. $8.99.

Cheers,

herrarte

[Alan Howe]

I have sampled the Catoire and it's probably more or less what one might expect in terms of idiom, i.e. very much late-Romantic Russian. What strikes me most about the CD as a whole, though, is the inappropriateness of the coupling. Not that I'm complaining. It's a must-buy!

[jerfilm]

Other good news for some.   Amazon US has the Foulds/Sainsbury download for $5.94!!  And if you only are in the market for one of the concertos, you can buy the individual tracks for 99 cents.

Jerry

[Mark Thomas]

These two works do make very strange bedfellows but I downloaded the tracks from Amazon and so once they're safely separated out into different folders the jarring clash of sound worlds is avoided.

The Catoire inhabits Rachmaninov's world. That's not meant as criticism because the work is convincingly put together and is never less than attractive, although I'm not sure how memorable it will prove to be. Given Catoire's reputation, I was expecting something rather more unconventional for its time, but it's always good to have another full-bloodied Russian piano concerto and this one certainly pulls out all the stops, especially in the committed performance it gets here. Similarly full-on is the treatment given Sherwood's 1880s-sounding piece. It really is astonishing that this work was composed as late as 1932; there really are very few clues that it doesn't date from 50 years earlier. Still, gift horses and mouths and 80 years on it shouldn't matter. It's date of composition aside, it's an another enjoyable work but this time very firmly in the grand German tradition, with a powerful opening Allegro and a gorgeous central Andante (in which the performers take the tranquillo qualification gratifyingly to heart). I feel that the tumbling final Allegro molto is a bit of a let down, its material trite and inconsequential by comparison with what has gone before. If more Sherwood appears I'll happily snap it up, though, on the evidence of this work.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Again, not wanting to carp, it is a very odd coupling. Given that there are two PCs by Sherwood, and the performance materials for both are readily available, why on earth didn't Dutton record the 2 on the same disk? There are plenty of unsung contemporaneous Russian orchestral works which could have been coupled with the Catoire PC. But, like Mark and Alan, I'm not complaining - just expressing puzzlement at the thinking behind this disk.

[Mark Thomas]

It smacks to me of sponsorship money or the pianist dictating the coupling. As I say, I downloaded the tracks so it's not really an issue for me but I do think that it's a commercially unattractive move which runs the risk of inhibiting sales of the physical product.

[albion]

I've really enjoyed listening through the new Dutton discs, especially the Edward German: his incidental music is always excellent and here the selection includes two further substantial overtures (Much Ado about Nothing and Henry VIII). Those who have both this new disc and the Marco Polo disc in their British Light Music series will find that Marco Polo list the Berceuse as coming from the incidental music to The Conqueror (1905), whilst Dutton correctly ascribe it to The Tempter (1893). The latter is definitely correct as I have the piano duet score on my shelf and the full score is on IMSLP. For authentic material from The Conqueror there is a sprightly performance of three extracts by the Northwestern College Orchestra in the archive.

The Foulds is not the novelty it would have been if we hadn't already heard Wallfisch's 1988 broadcast, but it is good to have such a strong work in excellent sound.

I already had all the re-issued Austin recordings, but got the new compilation anyway, to gather everything under one umbrella ...



The Catoire and Sherwood disc I have yet to really get into - I think I'll need to hear both several times before they lodge in the memory, but rewarding and enterprising repertoire nevertheless.

[Mark Thomas]

I've just been listening to Fould's Cello Concerto (which I didn't know) this afternoon and I found it a very enjoyable and rewarding work. It's clearly indebted to Dvorak in the writing for the soloist (not at all a bad thing IMHO) and has an epic feel to it which is matched by some very strong thematic material, especially in the first two movements. A welcome new acquaintance, to which I will return with pleasure I'm sure.

[Alan Howe]

I agree on the whole, Mark. For me, though, the biggest disappointment is the way the soloist enters in the first movement - sounds rather tentative to me. (That's not meant as a criticism of the performance.)