The Romantic Violin Concerto, Vol. 14 – Glazunov & Schoeck

[Alan Howe]

Agreed. Hyperion's standards are uniformly high - so much so that almost any release in any category is worthy of consideration. I feel the same about Chandos.
However, to return to the RVC series, I do feel that there is a problem - not one of quality of performance or choice of repertoire, but one which concerns the availability of violinists. Given that there are far fewer solo violinists of international calibre than there are pianists, it would seem that, in effect, the classical labels are exploiting a much smaller pool of soloists who might be interested in learning and recording neglected or forgotten concertos. Thus it is probably unreasonable to expect Hyperion to dominate the unsung romantic violin concerto market in the same in which they have cornered the market in unsung romantic piano concertos.
Does this make sense?

[TerraEpon]

And one certainly can't begrudge Hanslip, who recorded two Godard concerti as well as two Hubay concerti (and two other pieces), not to mention a disc of Bazzini music (for violin and piano, but still)...and even Corigliano and Adams. Hell, the other other popular concerto that's listed on Arkiv for her is the Bruch 1.

[jerfilm]

Guess we need to keep in mind that we all have our own reasons for collecting and individual criteria for doing it.  I'm not a collector of different performances and just don't buy additional copies of a given piece unless there is something I just can't live without coupled with it.   Or unless someone here, for example, sez it's a blockbuster performance that one shouldn't live without. 

In this case, I have both concertos - several of the GLazunov as it's probably my favorite - but as a retired old guy, I do have to limit my music spending.  Sad but true.

Jerry

[Mykulh]

I was very pleased to read Gareth's post on this subject. As someone who has collected beyond the basic repertoire since the 1960s, it is so obvious to me that collectors are now living in a golden age of availability. When I started, the record market was basically dominated by the major labels who usually gave us multiple recordings of everybody's favorite masterpieces and sometimes threw a few bones in the direction of out-of-the way works. These "bones" were usually deleted in a relatively short time. I remember in those years compiling lists of unrecorded symphonies and concertos that I fantasized might be recorded some day but knew I was probably only daydeaming. Looking back on these lists, I'm pleased to say that the vast majority of these works have not only been recorded (often in multiple versions), but remain available over the course of many years. So guys, let's do less carping about occasional repertoire duplication that one doesn't like, and express more appreciation for what these wonderful independent record companies have offered us in recent years.

[Alan Howe]

This is going to be a lovely release...
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67940&vw=dc

[eschiss1]

Mykulh - I agree.

(I need to be less lazy and see if anyone's mentioned that either the late Ted Perry or someone else at Hyperion claimed in re the violin concerto series that it was - by nature ?? - more performer driven when it came to repertoire, so that they needed to choose works based on what violinists and orchestras already had under their fingers (embouchures-etc.-etc.) So besides additional factors, much as I'd like to see a disc of the 2 Huber violin concertos for example in this series, it would have to be in the concert hall first before it ever showed up here.)

[Mykulh]

Glad you agree. I wish the "tribe" of collectors (to which I've long belonged) would just sit back and enjoy the bounty of repertoire that has come our way in recent years. Of course we could also keep wishing for more and, undoubtedly, more will come, but not all at once!

[eschiss1]

Slightly off-topic?...
Several times back when I had a portable radio (I think I may still, but I don't use it anymore- no good classical radio stations in broadcast range up here, I think- TV station, yes- anyway... ...)  I'd tune in to the middle of a violin concerto, half-recognize it, but only right a minute or so from the end of the finale, when that happened (if you know the piece, no further explanation will be needed; if you don't, hear or read the score once and no further explanation will be, I do think...) - and I would think "Oh! The Schoeck!" - ...

I seem to be suggesting that otherwise it's a sort of thematically undistinguished piece. No , if I heard it a few more times I think that problem for me will be rectified. it's more that my memory is an on-and-off thing, but that surprise is simple, effective, very memorable (and neat. )

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I also agree (wholeheartedly!) with Mykulh's well expressed point. There is no reason at all for failing to celebrate the enormously variegated bounty of repertoire provided by a large number of record labels. When I started to collect records there were few labels (just about all my early LPs were produced by EMI, Decca and Philips, and Chandos, Hyperion, CPO, Dutton, Nimbus etc didn't even exist), and in those early days of LPs that small number of companies were intent (for obvious enough commercial reasons) on churning out mainstream works. Once in a blue moon something 'unusual' appeared, and was promptly deleted a few months later after its initial run was exhausted (hence the number of shops specialising in S/H and 'deletions' in which I guess some of us oldies spent many happy hours searching through the racks and, on a good day, emerging with a whoop of triumph).

Compare that with the situation which prevails now! True, each of us has a long list of works that we'd love to see recorded. But that doesn't cause me any despair, for the joy that comes about when you read that a company has decided to record such and such can be immense. And to be honest, each month seems to produce at least 3-4 items sufficient to produce in me exclamations of excited gratitude. On top of that there is a regular supply of works by composers who I've never previously encountered, whether it is Georg Schumann or Henry Cotter Nixon or whoever. Little wonder I go about with a smile on my face. Besides, imagine that if on each occasion you wished that such and such was recorded the clouds promptly parted and a brand new Hyperion fluttered down and landed safely in your outstretched hands......well, in such circumstances I guess we'd all expire with boredom.

So celebrate and do not complain! What especially makes my teeth grate are those 'completists' who suggest that a record label is somehow actually at fault (and perhaps even liable to ligitation!) for failing to record a work or to complete a series it has previously started. Let us remember any record label is a commercial enterprise, and sadly its function is not to meet the needs or cravings of a particular collector. To forget that is to indulge in a kind of egotism.

To return to the thread: yes, the Hyperion disc of the Glazunov and Schoeck concertos is happily awaited (especially since it is after all a Hyperion disc and will thus undoubtedly be good). I don't know the Schoeck concerto, but given all the other Schoeck works I do know I'm very confident I shall enjoy it. And yes, I already have two (good) Glazunov violin concertos on my shelves. But that's no cause for complaint at all - anymore than would be refusing to buy a ticket for a concert where the work was going to be performed on the grounds that I'd heard another performance of it by a different soloist, orchestra and conductor at a different concert sometime last year.

[Alan Howe]

What especially makes my teeth grate are those 'completists' who suggest that a record label is somehow actually at fault (and perhaps even liable to ligitation!) for failing to record a work or to complete a series it has previously started.

Quite so. It seems to be the sole occupation of certain list-compilers who no longer frequent this forum.

[Christianv12]

I'm not a list-compiler. That's Leslie Howard!
And sorry for complaining, but I'm German.

[Alan Howe]

I most definitely did not have you in mind!

[Christianv12]

Ok 

[Alan Howe]

If this release doesn't win new friends for the lovely Schoeck VC, I'll eat my proverbial hat. Sounds as though Hyperion have done it again. Worth buying for the Schoeck alone. Glorious!

[giles.enders]

To continue a point made by Alan in November.  Hyperion have used in their piano concerto series some far from top notch pianists.  It would be unkind to name them. Similarly they seem to have the same problem with violin soloists.  They are out there but are frequently not given the opportunity.
One has to be very big indeed or to get a recording made these days.  I know of a number of big names and orchestras who either pay for or subsidise their own recordings.