Unsung concerts redux

[ewk]

Hi all,

In Freiburg (Germany) there is going to be a great concert by the »Holst Sinfonietta« (they for instance recorded the »Stumme Serenade« by Korngold for cpo and performed Vivier's »Kopernikus« last year). It is a »birthday celebration« for Shakespeare.

20 March 2014:


WILHELM KILLMAYER (*1927)
Shakespeare-Lieder (1955)
für Tenor, Klarinette, Violine, Fagott, Klavier und Schlagzeug
   
DOMINICK ARGENTO (*1927)
Six Elizabethan Songs (1958/62)
für Tenor and Barockensemble

ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD (1897-1957)
Shakespeares »Viel Lärm um Nichts« op. 11 (1918/19)
Vollständige Bühnenmusik für Tenor und Kammerorchester
Uraufführung der Fassung mit Zwischentexten von Cornelius Bauer

I hope to be there, especially the entire Korngold incidental music for "much ado about nothing" is very interesting i think.

Sebastian

[eschiss1]

Looks like quite a few Shakespeare-themed classical concerts this year (probably not many with unsung music, of course, Classical-era or earlier or Romantic or E2c(entury) or Modernish, as with concert-scheduling in general; but anyway.) There's another I notice in Kuhmo, Finland with Shakespeare-themed songs and chamber works etc. by Chausson, Beethoven (an arr. of the Coriolan overture), Piazzola, Kim Borg, Sibelius, & others, on July 19th - I'm nowhere near, but that could be interesting...

[eschiss1]

(And Bachtrack.com lists 3 different concerts with works by Albéric Magnard (the piano quintet 2x - in April and August, different performers, + Hymne à la Justice - in November in Cincinnati Ohio!...) - this gives cheer. ... anyhow.

[edurban]

American Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Botstein will not dust off many Romantic rarities next year, but they will present Max von Schillings' famously lurid opera Mona Lisa at Carnegie Hall on 2/20/15 and their 4/19/15 Carnegie program includes Horatio Parker's cantata The Dream King and his Love...a novelty if there ever was one.

David

[eschiss1]

Tonight:
concert with piano works by Clara Schumann, Joseph Jongen, Czerny, Field, Fauré, etc. (@St James's Church, Piccadilly, London. Partially unsung, partially not. Pianist is Daniel Grimwood.) (Other Jongen works, including his Symphonic Movements, later in the year, I see.)

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Also tonight: a concert in Dublin at the National Concert Hall with (copying-and-pasting from bachtrack.com - sorry!...)

"Stanford, Song of the Soul (European première)
Elgar, Enigma Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, Op.36
Coleridge-Taylor, The Song of Hiawatha, Op.30: Hiawatha's Wedding Feast
David Hill, Conductor
Kim Begley, Tenor
RTÉ Philharmonic Choir
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra"

The Coleridge-Taylor is by far his best-known work but the Stanford is hardly a mainstay, so, there's that to recommend it...

[Amphissa]

When I was living in NY, I loved going to the CMS concerts. There were often unsung composers on the programs. Dohnanyi seems to be a constant, with music by him every season. I just wish they would play more American composers, like Arthur Foote.

[eschiss1]

BTW the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players (NYC) season finale is this Monday (works by Chausson, Reicha and Franck). They do have a summer season with concerts including e.g. Eggert's string sextet in F minor (July 14th, with works by Kraus and Schubert). (Jupitersymphony.com.)

[ewk]

Even more Korngold in Freiburg!

Though it seems to be on its way to be rediscovered, performances are still not very regular:

The Freiburger Stadttheater will take up Korngold's "Die Tote Stadt" next season. Furthermore, they have "Die Königin von Saba" (the Queen of Sheba) by Karl Goldmark in upcoming season's schedule.

In their philharmonic concerts, Freiburg's opera orchestra will perform

Dukas' symphony on 28 April 2015
Goldmark's Violin Concerto and some of Goldmark's Chamber music  on 19 May 2015
Atterberg's Horn Concerto on 27 January 2015

Quite a season for lovers of more or less unsung romantic stuff!

ewk

[eschiss1]

Big "Medtner Day" concert early afternoon (1pm local time?) at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Lecture Recital Room, London on May 22nd, I see. (If Medtner is no longer considered within our boundaries, apologies...)

[eschiss1]

Some others: ...

(1) Szymanowski's early, "Straussian" concert overture in E major Op.12 (December 3, Royal Festival Hall, London. With Szymanowski's Stabat Mater and works by Lutoslawski)
(2) The same concert overture (May 23 2014? 2015?, Concertgebouw: Main Hall, Amsterdam, with Beethoven symphony 5 and a new work by Francesconi) (... ah. Bachtrack says May 23, Concertgebouw.nl says May 23 2015. One really ought to try, not to rely, on just one source and one only, Eric chappie. - Hrm, poetaster much?... Ouch.)
(3) Pierné piano concerto (February 26 2015, Maison de Radio France, Paris) (with well-known works by Bizet and Saint-Saëns)
(4) Interesting, interesting, intriguing looking Enescu/Rachmaninoff program at Royal Festival Hall, London (February 7 2015) - Enescu symphony 3, Rachmaninoff Cantata "Spring" and his 3 Russian Songs. Probably also at the edge of our new circle at best, though I plead the weak "I seem to recall that a number of people here besides me _really_ admire/enjoy/are enthralled by the Enescu" (that's not exactly an, erm, iconic phrase...) excuse... (I hope it's broadcast on BBC R3

[eschiss1]

ewk:

actually, there's several performances of Korngold chamber works upcoming soon... - the piano quintet (Dresden, June 5 and Worcester (Three Choirs Festival), July 30), piano trio (St. John Smith Square, London, July 5), string sextet (S.J.S.S., London, July ... also the Sinfonietta (in Bergen, April 2015), a single movement () from the Symphonic Serenade (several times, several places in several countries (aka "on tour") within several days, in September 2014, Candida Thompson/Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Janine Jansen plays violin solo in Vivaldi and, if there's a violin solo in the Korngold movement, I presume in that too...)

[eschiss1]

BTW the Enescu 3 in London concert (Feb.2015) is mentioned as being a London premiere at the Romanian Festival website. Didn't know that. Given how much is required for the work, not too surprised, but interested. I think a fair number of his other works have been performed in London even fairly recently- the 2nd symphony iirc?- and this is of... "academic interest" to me since I've only been to London twice in my life (for a week apiece, 1993 and 1999- though I mean to go again. I did mean to go a couple of years ago.) - but - anyway... hrm!... hope it's a good performance, anyway; I don't listen to the piece often, I admit, though I'm always glad I do.

[chill319]

"I seem to recall that a number of people here besides me _really_ admire/enjoy/are enthralled by the Enescu"

In at least one case, you remember correctly! There's an interesting photo of Bax, Szymanowski, and Roussel sitting together at a contemporary music festival in the early 1920s (somewhat beyond the period of this forum, so apologies). I can easily imagine Enescu joining them. Bartok (then in his thorniest period) went on record as admiring Bax's 1924 Piano Quartet. He must surely have enjoyed also Enescu's most mature works, dating from the 1930s and later.

[chill319]

Horatio Parker's cantata The Dream King and his Love...a novelty if there ever was one.

Yes, and one can't help wondering if IMSLP might have something to do with Botstein's knowledge of the score.  For this reason, Eric, I hope someone will be stimulated to upload what some consider Foote's best choral work, The Wreck of the Hesperus, opus 17.