Oscar Straus Piano Concerto 1870-1954

[Mark Thomas]

Will.i.am and Jesse J. (see - aren't I trendy? )

Nah, you just watch The Voice!

[Alan Howe]

For me that's amaaaaaaaaaazingly trendy. Fantabulously dope too . Anyway, Tom Jones still sings 'em all off the stage.
Meanwhile back at the Oscar Straus ranch...

[jerfilm]

As I think we've noted before, tons of classical music being used in television commercials.  Unfortunately, no identification is  made for those who may think, Gee, that's great background music.......

J

[JimL]

Again, I mention that even the unsungs get some love in the biz.  Remember that movie with Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?  I could swear that at some point the opening of de Beriot's 8th Violin Concerto is used in there.

[eschiss1]

Well, I expect Elgar's "3rd" was mostly unknown to the viewing audience for the movie An Education. (And entirely anachronistic to the time, the 1960s, in which the orchestra in the movie was supposedly playing it. I still liked the movie.)
Sometimes - not often enough - one can get identification of background music from some online sources (which are often either too easy or too difficult to edit with the correct information if found and correct mistaken information- etc.- but - etc. etc.)

[giles.enders]

Poor old Oscar, he is already lost in this thread.  I live in London and I can say that the Arts Council have done so much damage over the years where classical music is concerned.  They killed off the D'Oily Carte opera company which was an entree for many people to opera and similarly with the move of the Sadlers Wells opera to the Colosseum and some very bazaar productions, they managed to alienate at even more people.

Back to Oscar, if there were to be a new recording, what would be an appropriate coupling

[Gauk]

Back to Oscar, if there were to be a new recording, what would be an appropriate coupling

A good question - there are plenty of unrecorded piano concertos to choose from, but one from an equivalent figure with a light music pedigree? I'm not immediately able to find one.

[Mark Thomas]

How about Eduard Künnecke's Piano Concerto No.1 in A flat Op.36, which dates from the 1930s? Künnecke (1885-1953) was a similar figure to Straus, a writer of operattas and music for the theatre. The concerto has slight tinges of Gershwin about its otherwise thoroughly romantic, very tuneful idiom. It was available at one time on a Koch Schwann CD with Tiny Wirtz as the soloist, but I have a non-commercial recording of a broadcast performance by Ernst-August Quelle and the Munich Philharmonic under Heinz Geese, if anyone is interested.

[semloh]

Maybe Mackeben's Piano Concerto in B flat minor (1945) might also be a contender? Mackeben was another composer who concentrated on stage works, including at least half a dozen operettas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Mackeben), but produced a single piano concerto in a rather different style to his other works. I seem to recall that I downloaded his concerto from UC.

[Gauk]

That said, if I won the lottery and was going to sponsor the next Hyperion piano concerto CD, Straus would not be anywhere near top of my list.

[Alan Howe]

That said, if I won the lottery and was going to sponsor the next Hyperion piano concerto CD, Straus would not be anywhere near top of my list.

Nor mine. But that has probably applied to most of the RPC series - and it has been an encounter with the unexpected that has so often been such a great source of joy.

[eschiss1]

my hope is that a few more companies (besides Hyperion, perhaps Naxos, Dutton, presently...) will take up the torch/flame/whatever so that when the occasional RPC relative-dud comes out there is less pulling-at-the-hair about ... well, anyway. A happy prospect of under and undiscovered country out there. I think I would never have expected those Widor piano concertos to be recorded, let alone twice, for instance. But yes. Apologies again. Thanks for uploading the Straus, I shall download it soon and look forward to it!

[Gauk]

That said, if I won the lottery and was going to sponsor the next Hyperion piano concerto CD, Straus would not be anywhere near top of my list.

Nor mine. But that has probably applied to most of the RPC series - and it has been an encounter with the unexpected that has so often been such a great source of joy.

Of course - but I mean that with the benefit of having heard it, it still wouldn't be near the top. It's a nice piece, but not one to return to repeatedly.

[Alan Howe]

Come back to it in 12 months and see whether you think the same. I'm conscious that first impressions, while important, are the ones most subject to subsequent revision.

[thalbergmad]

This is true. I did not care for my first pint of Old Peculiar, but 12 months on, I cannot get enough.

I would certainly rather listen to the Straus PC again than the Grieg which was incredibly played for about the millionth time on Radio 3 this afternoon.

Thal