Romantic Cello Concerto - Vol. 6

[FBerwald]

Hyperion has just announced a rather delicious 2015 release of Vol. 6 of its Romantic Cello Concerto series...

Henry Vieuxtemps & Eugène Ysaÿe



http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67790&vw=dc

Henry Vieuxtemps
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 46   
Cello Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 50   

Eugène Ysaÿe
Méditation in B minor 'Poème', Op. 16
Sérénade in A Major, Op. 22 

Ofcourse we have the excellent version by Heinrich Schiff, but this is a very welcome release 

Glad to see this series finally picking up speed!

[Alan Howe]

A nice release, agreed - but, since I have Schiff, would I buy it for the two Ysaye pieces? Dunno...

[FBerwald]

I have the Schiff too, but that wonderful record is over two decades old. A fresh reading is always welcome.

[Alan Howe]

True. I'd just like to see more unrecorded repertoire being done. But I'm undoubtedly being thoroughly ungrateful.

[Mark Thomas]

No, I don't think that you are. To my mind what has made the Romantic Piano Concerto series so successful is Hyperion's willingness to have whole disks of previously unrecorded repertoire. They have kept on doing so, so I assume that it has been a financial as well as an artistic success. For the life of me I don't understand why they don't replicate the model with the violin and cello concerto series.

[eschiss1]

me either. it used to be claimed that there weren't enough cello concertos out there for a cellist to perform, but there's a fair number of interesting-looking cello concertos from the (maybe slightly extended) Romantic era with full scores on IMSLP (e.g.) and/or scores and parts @ the Fleisher Collection (here I can only guess if they're interesting, admittedly, unless I've heard them myself, sometimes as downloads from this forum...) - that often haven't been recorded at all, or not in years, or once but not at all well, or ... &c. ...
for instance have the cello concertos of
(1) Jules de Swert (Opp.32, 38, sérénade Op.36, concerto no.2 pub.1878, full scores & parts (or just parts in one case, and reduction) @ Fleisher, reductions @ IMSLP)
(2) Daniel van Goens (again 2 concertos in reduction @ IMSLP but in full score and/or parts @ Fleisher)
(3) Jacques Rensburg concertstück (IMSLP has reduction) & concerto (Fleisher has score, parts to both works)
(4) Hugo Leichtentritt cello concerto (Op.24) (@Fleisher; but on the basis of his string quartet (@IMSLP) I'm interested in hearing more by this author (Busoni biographer (1916), music theorist, editor (of operas by Baroque composers, etc.)) and composer...)
(5) Dopper cello concerto (we already have a recording, but...)
(6) Leone Sinigaglia's violin concerto in A major (likewise, from RAI, and again... a nice shiny-new commercial recording played well (and hopefully of course that includes interpreted wonderfully well, hopefully leading to more music of his being performed and recorded, too) on, say, Hyperion, would be- nice. Good, even...  ... &c.  ...

[britishcomposer]

A recording of the Cello Concerto in A Minor by Daniel van Goens has been broadcast by WDR 3 in 2008. If this isn't a commercial recording I am willing to upload it.
At 15 minutes it is quite short.

The performers:
Orfeo Mandozzi, cello
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie,
Hermann Breuer, cond.

[JimL]

There is at least one other CD of the Vieuxtemps concertos besides the Schiff.  And what about the Cello Concerto in C minor, Op. 33 of Chopin's friend Auguste Franchomme?  The piano reduction of that is definitely at IMSLP.  Is there a full score available?

[eschiss1]

Fleisher has Franchomme's Fantaisie for cello and chamber orchestra, Op.36 (ms. score and parts) and ms. score and the Lemoine (publisher) parts of his first cello concerto also, yes.

[Gareth Vaughan]

There are certainly a plethora of Romantic cello concertos (and violin concertos, for that matter) that I feel Hyperion could more usefully explore before giving us some of the repertoire they have done. I suppose I might be called ungrateful, but I wish they were one tenth as adventurous on these two series as they have been with the RPC series which seems to go from strength to strength. Perhaps there is just a bigger market for PIANO concertos, than for concertante works for other instruments. I just don't know.

[FBerwald]

The release although very good good left me a tad disappointed [only a little!]. Both the concertos are very demanding [wonder why Steven Isserlis hasn't picked these up!?!] but I feel that Gerhardt sometimes barely manages to keep it together in the difficult passages [May be I am wrong]. Very enjoyable nevertheless. 

[FBerwald]

There is at least one other CD of the Vieuxtemps concertos besides the Schiff.

@JimL, Can you give some more details reg. this rec?

[Alan Howe]

This is probably the one Jim was thinking of;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cello-Concertos-II-Henry-Vieuxtemps/dp/B00005B82R/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1426665582&sr=1-8&keywords=vieuxtemps+cello
N.B. It's always worth a search on Amazon...

[FBerwald]

Dear Alan, Thanks.