Sterndale Bennett & others

[Gareth Vaughan]

Somewhere on this forum (perhaps on the old site) I waxed vituperative about the refusal by the owners of the MS of Sterndale Bennett's 6th PC to allow anyone to see it, let alone perform it. I heard fairly recently - and I think it was here - that the MS was now in the Bodleian Library. I regret to say that their Music Librarian informs me this is not the case. It is still with the odious owners who continue, odiously, to refuse access to it. Poor Sterndale Bennett!

On a happier note I can report that Hyperion have scheduled recording sessions for this summer for Somervell's "Highland" concerto + the "Normandy" Variations + Cowen's Concertstuck. Following that, plans are afoot for the Pixis Grand Concerto Op. 100 + the Concertino + something else. The "something else" should have been the 2nd Grand Concerto by Carl Eduard Hartknoch, but we cannot find the orchestral parts (all we have is the solo piano part), so an unsung PC written around 1830 is needed, preferably by someone who wrote only one concerto (or has only one concerto extant).
Czerny is a possibility, or Aloys Schmitt. I also thought of Kuhlau, but at 1810, that's a bit early. Thalberg would do, but it's been recorded before, a few times. The Sterndale Bennett 6 would not have been out of place, but we can forget about that for the foreseeable future.
So - suggestions on a postcard please...

[peter_conole]

Hi all

Gareth. Throw in a another unrecorded Kalkbrenner concerto. They are ALL  available (ie, published with scores and parts, I believe) and always dependable in terms of quality and broad appeal. You cannot go wrong with Mr K paired with Pixis. In this instance, he is the obvious solution. Surely.

regards
Peter

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree that Kalkbrenner would fit the bill, but Mike says it must be someone who wrote only one concerto, or who has only one concerto extant, because the two remaining Kalkbrenners will fill another Hyperion CD. Similarly, I suggested Herz 2, but Mike has vague plans to do another Herz disk with No. 2 and some of Herz's sets of Variations for piano & orchestra - maybe even Herz 6, even though it is utterly banal (finding the orchestral material for that could be difficult). So, one PC composers only please.

[EarlyRomantic]

Gentlemen/Ladies, Hi, I'm new to this forum of apparent soulmates! Your scholarship and deep love of music sleeping in castles and belfries from once upon a time is exhilarating and eloquent.Like so many, I've embraced Hyperions RPC series.I couldn't resist joining this post, then, about a project that has brought so many of us joy, and so many neglected composers vindication.What about Carl Loewes one REMAINING piano concerto, is it in A-minor? For those of you who know his D-minor symphony, no more urging will be needed.Didn't Parish-Alvars write a piano concerto?What about Voriseks compositions(2?) for piano and orchestra? A tragically short-lived composer of the highest order, surely irrefutably.Although he doesn't fit the established criteria of one concerto, may I ask, as an aside, why Daniel Stiebelt has been utterly ignored?I believe he may not have been an attractive figure personally, but I can't help but wonder about a body of work including 8 piano concerti.Thank you for the chance to contribute, and for your learning and love of and for bypassed music.

[Syrelius]

Swedish composer Ludvig Norman wrote a Concert Piece for Piano and orchestra (Op 54). It was composed in the 1870:s, so I guess it is too "modern" here. However, I have read somewhere that he also wrote a piano concerto in his early teens (1846). Don't know anything about the quality of either piece, though. The Concert Piece was played at a concert last year at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Berwalds PC is another suggestion.

[Peter1953]

How I love to see the Pixis Grand Concerto for Piano and Orchestra op. 100 coupled with his magnificent Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Orchestra in F sharp minor...

This gorgeous work was previously released by Turnabout – not a surprise – and performed by violinist Kees Kooper and his wife Mary-Louise Boehm on the piano, together with the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra, Recklinghausen under the baton of Siegfried Landau (1975). Mary-Louise Boehm passed away on 29 November 2002.

Gareth, is there any change that Kees Kooper is willing to cooperate? If he has the score, maybe he is willing to give it to Mike Spring? His interesting notes on the LP sleeve are still valuable and can be used for a booklet... Music lovers will be very grateful...

[EarlyRomantic]

Peter, I can and  sincerely will endorse Pixis, the Turnabout LP( I have it), and the concerto for piano and violin.In truth, haunting this forum before registering, the pending recording/ release in the RPC series which excited me the most was the Pixis.I've learned from the forum that the Pixis was " in the recording studio" for what seems the last year or two. So  frustrating to learn that it hasn't even been recorded yet, and that that may not even take place until next summer or later. I was so tantalized by the Turnabout LP when I acquired it, that I investigated Pixis.If my information is accurate, he also penned  an Overture in F-major, and a Symphony!But, back to your main assertion: The Piano/Violin concerto is beautiful, thrilling, and moving.Its absence and invisibility is another sad injustice, to the work, the composer, and to music lovers.I wish what you wish.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree wholeheartedly that the obvious choice as filler on the Pixis disk is the double concerto, but Kees Kooper doesn't answer my emails and I have heard that he is unwilling to countenance another recording while the Vox/Turnabout performance remains out of the catalogue. Certainly the Turnabout recording should be issued on CD - it was a fine performance of a delicious piece of music.

[Mark Thomas]

A couple of suggestions from the 1850s: Eduard Franck's sole Piano Concerto and Emile Prudent's Concerto Symphonique op.34. I have no idea about the quality or availability of either work.

[Gareth Vaughan]

They're both a bit late. The Pixis Op. 100 dates from 1828 (that was when it was published in the UK by Chappell's of London). The Hartknoch would have fitted well, making its appearance in 1830. So ideally, one is looking for something in the window 1825-1835. I don't know the date of the concerto by Aloys Schmitt. It's his op. 76, so it may be too late.
Berwald's PC appeared in 1855.
Czerny's Grand Concerto Op. 28, which was dedicated to Hummel, was published in 1825. What he called his "Premier Grand Concerto" Op. 214 was published by Hofmeister in 1830 (according to the BL).
Almost all of Steibelt's concertos appeared well before 1820. Also, they really are not very good.
Parish-Alvars' Concerto in G minor for piano and orchestra, Op. 90 dates from after 1844, so it's a bit late. Also, I'm not sure it exists any more.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I've been looking for the score and parts of Franck's PC for a long time. It hasn't turned up yet. RAM has a 2-piano score of Prudent's Concerto Symphonique (1850). I haven't seen it. There is, however, a good chance that the Full score may be in the BNF. But both rather late to companion the Pixis.
I must just put you right, Early Romantic: the Pixis was not reported as being in the studio, merely on the list of concertos Hyperion intended to record. You can blame me, if you like, for holding it up. It would probably have been done instead of the Benedict concertos if I hadn't located the solo piano part of the Op. 45 in time! Sorry!

[Mark Thomas]

There must be some good reason why George Macfarren's 1835 Piano Concerto is not in the frame, especially after brother Walter's Konzertstuck graced the Benedict CD.

Otherwise, assuming Carl Filtsch's Konzertstuck of 1843 is tool late, all I'm left with is the sole Piano Concertos of Camille Stamaty (1832) and Theodore Doehler (1833).

Good hunting, Gareth.

[EarlyRomantic]

Gareth, I take your correction.I think I knew, even as  I typed, that what I really meant was the correction you made.I'll also say that maybe that's how frustrated I was to know something so desired  was in sight, but out of reach.If the Benedict superseded Pixis, thats just as well:I've heard excerpts, and the idiom is alluring, just what I like, all the more so for being in a minor key.Another composer who I've been beguiled by is Conradin Kreutzer. I've never understood why we don't know beyond Das Nachtlager von Granada and the septet, as beautiful as they surely are.His other greatest hit, the opera Der Verschwender contains the beggars song, "Ohort des armen Mannes Bitte", famously  described by another  for its "haunting, melancholy  beauty, not unworthy of Schubert".I love composers such as Kreutzer for suspending their era  in music, for all time, and for another time- like ours.Biedermeier in the best, most fragrant way.Accordingly, he wrote 3 piano concertos, an early one in 1819, and a C major, op.50, from 1822, plus an E flat major, op. 65 from around 1825. Would the more accomplished scholars here be able to illuminate   these works more for us?If they are extant and of substance, could they be revived, and possibly partnered?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well done, Mark. Unfortunately, I think the MacFarren concerto is lost. Filtsch and Stamaty are wonderfully obscure. Filtsch is poorly represented in the national collections of Germany and Austria. There may, of course, be an archive somewhere, but right now I don't know where that is. The Stamaty may be in the BNF, but as their catalogue is not online, it means a letter or email tio a librarian and they are hopeless at replying. Doehler may be coupled later with Thalberg. Herold wrote 4 piano concertos but we cannot find the orchestral parts! If someone came up with the parts to Moscheles No. 8, that would be perfect.

[Mark Thomas]

Gareth, I have a radio recording of the Filtsch Konzertstuck, so a score must be in existence. This web site says that one is available for purchase here for $21.95 as an Ebook. It also posts a link to a PDF here of Filtsch's own manuscript. The work, by the way, is very pleasant, if not exactly earth shattering in the performance I have.