Help needed for: Unsung violin concertos 1894-..

[violinconcerto]

Hello fellow readers,

I am running a website dedicated exclusively to the works for solo violin and orchestra composed between 1894 and 2006 - you can find it at www.violinconcerto.de. One part lists the recorded works in my archive and now I added another part with "unrecorded works", i.e. missing recordings. Finally both parts together should present the whole oeuvre for the time between 1894 and 2006. I already added around 1000 works to this "unrecorded list" but I would like to ask kindly for a favour: If you have the time please stop by at my website and check if I list the works for violin and orchestra you know of. If works are missing please drop me a line! Do the same if you find mistakes, additonal information or if you know a recording of any of the "unrecorded works" of course!

I especially ask here in this forum because the time between 1894 and around 1940 is more difficult to research than the time thereafter. And I think many here in this forum know that specific time much better than me! Proove me right! 

I would be grateful for your help and looking forward to all of your answers!

Best,
Tobias

[violinconcerto]

I missed one important aspect of my inquiry which I have to add here:

The goal of my site is *not* to list every possible recording of the works! My goal is on the one hand to list all works I know of and on the other hand to find at least one recording of it! So please don't look for missing recordings of for example the Sibelius concerto, because the 12 or so recordings I own of it are more than enough (and there are surely more than 100 recordings of it missing)! So please just look through the lists if you know works for violin and orchestra which are totally missing! Any composer of a violin concerto is completely missing? Or a specific work by a composer is not mentioned neither in the "recorded" nor in the "unrecorded" area?

Thanks and best,
Tobias

[edurban]

Hi Tobias, I'll go over and have a look.  But why does your list start in 1894?

Best, David

[violinconcerto]

But why does your list start in 1894?

Because I wanted to focus on 20th century (I personally prefer the music there a lot over the other periods of time - but its only personal taste!), and in 2006 I realised that I have to make some restrictions otherwise I would run after the new works a lifetime and cannot focus on the time before. So I put everything in that was composed before 2006 and - to make it symmetrical - after 1894. Its that easy and that arbitrary.

Best,
Tobias

[chill319]

That's an impressive resource, Tobias!

I note that you include unfinished works, such as the late Janacek concerto. Do you mean to include works known to have existed but whose source/s either have been destroyed or are currently of unknown provenance?

On a side note, I would urge you to consider merging the two alphabetical composer lists and adding a column to the result denoting the existence of one or more recordings. For myself that would make your site more user friendly. And you might save yourself a substantial amount of time since new recordings become available regularly.

[violinconcerto]

Dear chill319,

yes, I am including and will include every work for solo violin and orchestra that I come across! That also mean works that are withdrawn or destroyed. Just everything.

Thanks also for the hint about the website! I can understand your wish of putting the two lists into one. But on theother hand you can now browse through a list and be sure that everything listed there is unrecorded. For some search reasons this is good too. But I will have that in mind!

Best,
Tobias

[Ilja]

Hi, I see you have Henk Badings' 1st Concerto from 1928 listed. I know of at least one recording of that work. Can't remember the soloist and ensemble, but it was from the 1950s and conducted by Jan Koetsier. Next time I'm in the Dutch Radio Archives I'll check.

A small misspelling I noticed: Marius 'Floithuis' is actually 'Flothuis'. Also, you don't mention the Hyperion Hagai Shaham / BBC Scottish SO - Martyn Brabbins combination in the Hubay concertos 3 & 4.

An impressive effort as far as I can see. However, it would be useful if we could download a list of works in, for instance, an Excel or Access format. I would make checking a lot faster.

[violinconcerto]

Hi Ilja,

Hi, I see you have Henk Badings' 1st Concerto from 1928 listed. I know of at least one recording of that work. Can't remember the soloist and ensemble, but it was from the 1950s and conducted by Jan Koetsier. Next time I'm in the Dutch Radio Archives I'll check.

I would be pleased if you can do that. I you are able to get a recording, I would be interested of course!

A small misspelling I noticed: Marius 'Floithuis' is actually 'Flothuis'.

Thanks and already corrected!

Also, you don't mention the Hyperion Hagai Shaham / BBC Scottish SO - Martyn Brabbins combination in the Hubay concertos 3 & 4

As I mentioned above the goal of the website is not to mention every possible recording of the work, but every work for solo violin and orchestra written between 1894 and 2006. And a personal side-goal is of course to find at least one recording of it.

An impressive effort as far as I can see. However, it would be useful if we could download a list of works in, for instance, an Excel or Access format. I would make checking a lot faster.

I have at home the whole data in an Excel list of course, but did not know that this could be included in a website. So the website was designed the way it is. I know it has some disadvantages. But if you need some special information, which can be found out easily with the Excel list, just let me know and I will check for you!


Thanks for the comments and I have my fingers crossed for the Badings 1!

Best,
Tobias

[chill319]

In your entry for Robert McBride, you could add a closing 2007 to his dates.
Speaking of whom... if you like Korngold's VC, you'll probably enjoy McBride's (written, I believe, just before Korngold's).  The slow movement is a marvel. The brief outer movements contrast with the kind of energetic American music (Gershwin's Second Rhapsody, for example) heard under 1930s film titles while second unit shots of a big city set the story's place.
And speaking of Gershwin's Second Rhapsody, I believe that was the work for which the publisher had McBride redo the orchestration.

[Marcus]

Hello Tobias,
Your list of Violin Concertos & other works is the most comprehensive I have seen. A fantastic effort !
I have two very good lists for Piano works : "Music for Piano & Orchestra-Maurice Hindson, (IUP)", and "Piano Music One Hand - Theodore Edel, (IUP)", so I am hoping that some time in the future, you might produce a similar work of Violin repertoire ?, but failing that, the list will suffice.
There is an excellent resource for Australian composers on the Australian Music Centre web-site,which lists the details of over 500 Australian composers. The title "Australian" is a loose term (we usually claim them as Australian if they have spent considerable time here.):
For instance, Eugene Goossens (English) is listed, but Edgar Bainton (English) is not. George Dreyfus, (b.Germany) is listed but Fritz Hart, (English) is not. But having said that, it remains a valuable resource tool, and there are many Violin works listed. (Too many for me to list)
I note on your list of recorded works, a Violin Concerto(1960) by Margaret Sutherland,but there is an earlier concerto listed 1956 in my book. Perhaps the 1960 work is a revision of the 1956 work ? I will have to investigate.
Sutherland's Fantasy for Violin & Orchestra (1960) is not on your lists. Neither is the Violin Concerto by James Penberthy. (1964). The Felix Werder Violin Concerto op72 (1966) is on your list, but not the Violin concerto no1 op19 (1956). Raymond Hanson's Legende for Violin & Piano is not on the lists, neither is Hellgart Mahler's (b1931),Solo Violin work Scherzo Quatro (1989). Alison Bauld's (b1944) Piece for Solo Violin (1971) is missing.That is a sample.
The AMC site will keep you busy. If you have any trouble accessing the site, please don't hesitate to conact me. I will help in any way I can.
Finally, I  have 18 CDs of music by New Zealand composers, including 14 Symphonies, but would you believe, not one violin concerto. ? There would obviously be some, probably under fancy titles,and I have not checked your list for them. However a New Zealander recently wrote a Concerto for Contrabassoon, so there is hope !
Cheers!
Marcus.

[Marcus]

Apologies,
In my previous post, I forgot to give the web-site details :
www.australianmusiccentre.com.au  (note English spelling of centre)
When the home page comes up click on "represented artists"
Marcus.

[violinconcerto]

Hello Marcus,

thank you very much for your detailed answer!
Of course I already know the Australian Music Information Centre and its website and it has been a good source in the past, but I never compiled a list of ALL works mentioned there. But that is the work I am doing right now and at some time in the future I will go there, search their database and add all the missing information (and you mentioned a few so there is work to be done!) What I have listed so far, was a list I made sporadically over the years but not with the same elaborateness that I displayed for the recorded works.

But the main problem is - and that was the reason for my posting here - that these databases mostly cover composers and works from the time 1950-2000. A few major works are listed from the time before but a lot of "unsung" composers from that time are missing. Of course I am not sure, but when I compare the amount of violin works I know from the second part of the century, then the first part only contains a "handful" of works. So there most be more and the Music Information Center around the world don't list such works in the totality I am looking for.

So if you know databases, books or just names of composers that could fill the gaps in the period of 1894 to say 1940/50 I would be pleased if you let me know!
An example: cpo just lately released a recording of the Violin concerto by von Herzogenbach (?). I never heard that name before! I checked and found out that the work is from 1889, so not my interest, but anyway I should have heard this name before - but I didn't.

Best,
Tobias

[Marcus]

Herzogenberg I think Tobias ? Yes there are so many works from the 19th & 20th centuries not on any lists, and yet to be revealed. When you finish the current catalogue, (and that may never happen), will you consider listing pre- 1894 works ? That would complete your fantastic work.
Unfortunately, there was not alot of serious music being written in Australia pre 1930.Any musician with talent, (& money), usually left for England or Europe for better opportunities.
Marcus

[violinconcerto]

Yes, it was Herzogenberg!
As you already said, my work is never finished and thats fine, because it will never become boring and secondly I don't have to extend my catalogue! I don't like the music before 1900 not that much, thats the reason for my focus on the 20th century and I will keep that focus!
OK, maybe Australia is a bad example for violin concertos before 1930, but in other countries a lot of violin concertos were created that time. One just have to find out the names and work titles...

Best,
Tobias

[eschiss1]

The work of listing 1894-2006 violin concertos is complicated in my opinion by all those concertos that were written for doctoral dissertations, stored in libraries and never performed or recorded (perhaps a few are worth rediscovering, I do not doubt; Prokofiev's first piano concerto and Myaskovsky's first symphony were doctorate works too, of course. So I don't mean to imply otherwise. But a cursory scan with a clever search, of, say, the New York Public Library catalog at http://catalog.nypl.org reveals a ... lot... of violin concertos written in the inter-war years, for example, by, I think, completely unfamiliar names.)

Eric