New from cpo in 2010

[Alan Howe]

The 2010 catalogue from cpo reveals some interesting recording plans in addition to those we already know about:

Natanael Berg Symphony No.3
Carl Davidoff Cello Concertos Nos.3 & 4
August Enna Symphony No.2
F. E. Fesca String Quartets vol.1
J. B. Foerster String Quartets 1-5
Jan van Gilse Symphony No.3
Gounod La Nonne Sanglante (opera)
Théodore Gouvy Iphigénie en Tauride (oratorio)
Humperdinck Dornröschen (opera)
Edvin Kallstenius Symphonies Nos.1 & 2
Joseph Marx Lieder
Eduard Marxsen (1806-1887) piano works, incl. Piano Sonata, Op.8
Molique String Quartets (2 further CDs)
Onslow Piano Trios, vols.3 & 4
Dora Pejacevic (1885-1923) two CDs of chamber music
Pfitzner Die Rose vom Liebesgarten (opera)
Raff String Quartets Nos.2 & 3 (Mannheim Quartet)
Röntgen Piano Concertos Nos.2 & 4 in F (1906)
Heinrich Kaspar Schmidt (1874-1953) chamber music
Franz Schmidt Piano Concerto (left hand) & Beethoven Variations
Weingartner String Quartet No.5 & String Quintet

[mbhaub]

Wow! What a treasure trove. And I'm sure there are thousands of other unknown, obscure composers and music just waiting for a chance at the microphones. I long ago passed a point where I realized that most of the cds I own will never be heard by me again -- maybe if I live to 100. All of these enticing cpo releases just compound the problem. But I'm not complaining.

[wunderkind]

I long ago passed a point where I realized that most of the cds I own will never be heard by me again -- maybe if I live to 100.

I am in the same predicament - and probably a lot older than you, so fewer years available to hear some of this music a second or third time.  One wonders, though, what is the value of owning unending repertoire - say all the Molique Quartets - lovely music but hardly masterworks.  Simply to hear them once and then have the CDs moulder on the shelf seems a waste of money.  Nevertheless I, like most travelers down the musical byways, will gobble up these things just to satisfy curiosity and perhaps hear them only once.

The Kallstenius Second Symphony already exists on CD and it, like all his other music I have heard, is quite beautiful.  However, the old conundrum - do I buy the CPO disc for the First Symphony and thus own two recordings of the Second? - really unnecessary.  Hmmmm...

[Alan Howe]

Depends how good Kallstenius 1 is. Luckily, I don't have No.2.

[TerraEpon]

Yeah wunderkind, it makes me wonder how the hell people can keep buying up Beethoven and Brahms symphony cycles...

Personally I make it a point to listen to something three times before it goes into the 'collection'. I'm less concerned about relistening than I am about space for it all!

[Alan Howe]

I love Brahms, so do tend to collect new issues - but not without discrimination. Can't stand what Gardiner or Norrington do to Romantic-period music, so I avoid them - and their disciples - like the plague. But Ivan Fischer has just done a wonderful Brahms 1 with his Budapest Festival Orchestra, so I couldn't resist...

[Pengelli]

Hooray! Humperdinck! I keep banging on about the quality of his
other opera's. I wonder if 'Donroschen' is the recent performance?

[Jonathan]

Judging by that list from CPO, I shall need to take out a loan to buy all the ones I would like!! 

[Alan Howe]

The cpo Dornröschen is indeed the performance recently broadcast - conducted by Schirmer in Munich.

[Mark Thomas]

How irritating that to get the catalogue you have to fork out €1.99. It's no incentive to get a "free" Telemann CD which I certainly don't want, and which presumably they couldn't shift in the first place! What would it cost cpo to make a pdf of the catalogue downloadable for nothing? This is marketing from the 1980s!

Thanks to you, Alan, for summarising the juicy bits...

[peter_conole]

Hi Mark (and Alan)

I agree. It will be hard to shift a lot of Telemann, but sorry - really sorry - two of his violin concertos at least are going to be around for a very long time. Reason: they are masterpieces, and monuments (silver statues - perhaps not gold) of Western Art. That brings me to the real monuments. Alan, any word of the Herzogenberg violin concerto recording on CPO? My heart is inditing.

regards
Peter

[Alan Howe]

Nope - no news about the Herzogenberg VC/Odysseus Symphony release from cpo. Sorry! (Nor about the Urspruch Symphony/PC or Klughardt VC/Symphony 3.)

[Ilja]

The time it takes cpo to release some recordings is really, really irritating. They CAN do it when they have to, though: see the Badings and Van Gilse releases which typically take only a couple of months to be released.

[Pengelli]

I expect they've got their favourites! No news on The Dopper
either,I suppose!?

[TerraEpon]

The time it takes cpo to release some recordings is really, really irritating.

Yeah, it took almost ten years, I think, for them to release Villa-Lobos #10.