New Juon chamber and orchestral releases

[Alan Howe]

How kind of you to point that out, Alan

I was only briefly at home at the time and did not have the time to check the meaning of the word.

You are welcome, I'm sure.

[Leea25]

Thank you all! 

[FBerwald]

Hasn't  he written 3 Violin concertos? are they in pipeline?

[rkhenderson]

Hi,
  You can listen to Juon's 2nd Violin Concerto at this website:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/culture/Swiss_Violin_Concertos.html?cid=31813852

  Regards,
  Robert

[minacciosa]

Listening to Juon's 2nd Violin Concerto again after a couple of years I find it much more beautiful and engaging than I did formerly. My introduction to Juon was Episodes Concertantes, which is a very intense work; perhaps I've (wrongly) expected his other works to reflect that character. I do find his chamber music to be excellent. With proper exposure Juon could be a household name, but that's unlikely to happen in America.

[Alan Howe]

I don't know how easy it would have been to check since it's one of those fun German compound words, I think (starting with mit- with ...) and translator programs just love those.

The answer, Eric, is that it is dead simple. Try using Linguee:
http://www.linguee.com/english-german/search?source=auto&query=Mitglieder

[eschiss1]

Thanks indeed!

[Alan Howe]

It's the best resource for me as a professional translator on the web.

[kyjo]

I still see no sign of the Juon orchestral CDs on the Naxos web site . Does anybody know when (or if ) these CDs will be released?

[Alan Howe]

No news yet. Guess we'll just have to be patient and wait. You could try contacting Naxos to find out...

[Alan Howe]

The conductor in the Juon/Naxos project is Christof Escher:
http://www.interclassics.ch/Christof-Escher-conductor.html
No news as yet about when the recordings might be released, unfortunately.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Might I return to this almost deceased thread? Is anyone any wiser on the issue?

In the last few days I've revisited recordings of Juon's 4 String Quartets and 3 Violin Sonatas. Wonderful works, and not for nothing is Juon sometimes called 'the Russian Brahms' (although I dislike these always crude labels because, in this case, both Medtner and Taneyev might also with some justice have the same label attached to them. But no matter, and that's not the point of my post.)

Looking along my rather bulging shelves I have a considerable number of Juon's chamber works (and each time I hear them my admiration and enthusiasm for Juon are renewed). The chamber works account for very approximately one third of his 99 opus numbers. There is a reasonable amount of works for piano (which I confess I don't know), and a mere handful of vocal works. As far as I know there aren't any large scale choral works, operas or whatever.

And thus (again approximately) another third of those 99 opus numbers are for orchestra, including 2 symphonies, 3 violin concertos, orchestral suites, symphonic poems etc.

But do we ever hear them? And are they ever recorded? I can't answer the first question because I don't know what happens elsewhere in the world. As for the second question, the answer is 'hardly ever'.

And that I find rather odd. Given my obstinate preference for chamber over orchestral music I'm often in the position, when it comes to composers largely in the 'unsung romantic' category, of being a little dismayed by having available recordings (and sometimes at least one) of key orchestral works and hardly any of their chamber works. With Juon it is almost the reverse: just about all the principal chamber works have recordings (and if you hunt around a bit even second or third recordings), but of the orchestral works we have hardly anything. An anomaly! Are the orchestral works (and especially those 3 violin concertos) duds or no good at all? I can't for a moment believe that. So why the neglect of Juon's orchestral works in concert hall and recording studio? And, to get back to the question of the thread, wouldn't a Naxos series of recordings be almost like manna from heaven?