Composer of the Year

[thalbergmad]

Dussek was writing sonata movements that have much of the scope, sweep, and turbulence of Beethoven's opp. 13 and 27/2 as early as the late 1780s (opus 10/2 and 10/3). 

I can hear a connection with Beethoven, but i must admit that the first time l listened to the Op.77 sonata, I thought someone had put the wrong CD in the box as i was convinced it was Schubert. I have no idea why these sonatas are not part of regular concert repetoire.

Have not really looked at the concerti yet, but i anticipate finding works of similar quality.

There must be something special about these Bohemians. I am becoming rather attached to Tomasek as well.

Thal

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Very interested to note Pengelli's nomination of the Tournemire symphonies. However composer of the year? 'Most interesting / fascinating / delightful discovery of the year' isn't the same thing as 'composer of the year'. (My discovery of the past year has been Bacewicz, and especially the chamber works - but I'd hesitate to nominate her as composer of the year).

Nonetheless an interesting if eccentric suggestion. I've heard (via CD only, and never in live performance) all the 8 symphonies bar No. 1. And in many ways they are magnificent works. But we badly need decent recordings of them. Most are available on Marco Polo, but here they range from barely adequate to fair (just!). As far as I know Pierre Bartholomee (on Auvidis Valois) never got round to Nos 1, 2, and 4, and those that he did record when they pop up s/h on somewhere like Amazon are so lunatically priced that I do not want to line the pocket of a greedy seller.

Perhaps that's one reason for the quite unjustified neglect of this quite unsung cycle of symphonies.

And Tournemire is yet another (cf Rheinberger & Vierne) whose reputation for composing for organ has covered up the other works that need to be, as it were, urgently non-unsung.

Peter - and with no disrespect to Pengelli!!

[Pengelli]

I must concede that you're probably right there. To be honest I think I was just giving them a plug,because there is very little,if anything,about  Tournemire's symphonies on the internet,and maybe someone might be tempted to try one! As to the Auvidis Valois recordings. I managed to get them all in the end at reasonable prices,but it took a while. The Marco Polo recordings are,in my opinion,not quite as bad as the Gramophone critic suggested,but still what might be termed,politely,as 'pedestrian' run throughs. They also suffer from that strange cramped acoustic that Marco Polo cd's always seemed to suffer from. When you put on the Auvidis Valois recordings it's as if huge vista's seem to open up. The mind boggles at the thought of what Chandos could do for these works. Now that their main champion is dead maybe Timpani could do them? CPO certainly aren't interested at the moment. I note that he also wrote a 'massive' trilogy of oratorio's,lasting some three hours & still unperformed;namely,''Faust','Don Quichotte',and 'Saint Francois d' Assise'. Whether I live to hear any of those (or will still be alive after hearing them?),is open to question. Yet,as someone pointed out, if you had told anyone,only 25 years ago that such mammoth works as Bantock's 'Omar Khayyam' &  Fould's 'World Requiem' would be available in state of the art recordings,on cd.they would have probably have thought you were some kind of anorak or in dire need of a padded cell!  As to 'L'Orgue mystique', I think I will have to sell a house first. He certainly kept himself busy! A French Havergal Brian,perhaps? Anyway,back to 'Composers of the Year',and apologies to all for my intrusion. ( By the way, I reckon I could have popped in some paragraphs here!!!).

[eschiss1]

I can hear a connection with Beethoven, but i must admit that the first time l listened to the Op.77 sonata, I thought someone had put the wrong CD in the box as i was convinced it was Schubert. I have no idea why these sonatas are not part of regular concert repetoire.

Have not really looked at the concerti yet, but i anticipate finding works of similar quality.

There must be something special about these Bohemians. I am becoming rather attached to Tomasek as well.

Thal

I'd agree about quite a few of them, Vorisek too of course, Reicha and Vanhal and a gratifyingly long list, even Kozeluch and (even? well, of course) Krommer/Kramar. (Three of Kozeluch's piano concertos, to my surprise, have been recorded; from what I've heard of the disc, over the radio, sounds good. Tangent, though...)
Dussek's concertos, that I've heard, seem to bear out someone's contention that Dussek was at his best the fewer instruments he had at his disposal. (A spectrum from solo to duet to trio etc. - he wrote for many combinations, sometimes for many alternatives not obligatory!) ("Someone" may have been William Newman in his excellent Sonata Since Beethoven, a book that has regrettably - shamefully! - gone out of print.)  But I may only have heard Dussek's earlier concertos (op. 17 for example, which is broadcast fairly regularly on Radio Swiss Classic; though then again one of the later two-piano concertos is broadcast from time to time on Cesky Rozhlas, excellent station!) and despite what I just said, I am glad to have heard them, that they have been recorded - etc.! Good music. Would be glad to have more of them, indeed.
I was for some reason surprised to learn Dussek had written string quartets. I imagined that, like Medtner and moreso than Sorabji, every last work of his involved the piano in some fashion (or in Dussek's case, piano or harp!) Which leads to a train of thought that whether or not it belongs in another thread, doesn't belong in this one...

Eric

[chill319]

There's a rather good discussion of Dussek here: http://members.klosterneuburg.net/handerle/COMPOSER.HTM
including this re the piano concerto opus 49:

The piano concerto in g-minor op. 49/50 was probably composed in Germany, after Dussek's departure from England, between 1799 and – at the latest – 1801. ... Performances on February 2, 1802 in Hamburg and on November 18, 1802 in Leipzig were met with favorable praise; the composer seems to have played the work regularly in his concerts from 1801 on.

... Mozart's c minor piano concerto had ... just appeared in print (parts only) for the first time already in 1799 by André. Possibly this was enough encouragement for Dussek to compose a concerto in minor for himself. All speculation aside, the result is a completely successful concerto for piano and orchestra characterized by a unity and consistency rarely encountered. It can unreservedly be said that the work represents – in its expressive content and in the development of the genre – a milestone in the transition from late classical style toward that of the Romantic era, and that its Wertherian touch ... makes it truly the first romantic concerto. 

[JollyRoger]

Julius Rontgen (9 May 1855 – 13 September 1932) is finally getting his due via CPO and wins hands down..
Brahms spoke very highly of Rontgen, but he was not Brahms disciple.
His music is well-crafted, clever, accessable and unique.
He needs to be played by the best, and played often.
According to Wikipedia, he was quite prolific:
Julius Röntgen's works include 25 symphonies, concertos (7 piano concertos, 3 violin concertos, 3 cello concertos, other concertos), as well as numerous chamber, piano and vocal works.

Bring it on!!