The Romantic Cello Concerto, Vol. 4 – Pfitzner: Cello Concertos

[Christianv12]

Is Alban Gerhard a Geringas Impersonator? But he seems to play faster than Geringas. 

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67906

[FBerwald]

A very welcome release! The RCC has been stalled for too long!

[Alan Howe]

This is a disappointing choice of repertoire - especially as there is already a very fine cpo recording (already referred to):
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Hans-Pfitzner-1869-1949-Die-3-Cellokonzerte/hnum/5907901
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Hans-Pfitzner-1869-1949-Orchesterwerke-Konzerte/hnum/6683656
I'll be passing on this one, I'm afraid.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes me too. This series never really seems to have achieved lift off, does it?

[eschiss1]

Not really sure I agree with either complaint just taken-from-thin-computer-space, myself, though I might after hearing the disc

[Mark Thomas]

I'm not complaining, Eric. Hyperion, like any other commercial organisation, has to make money, and I imagine that there are financial as well as artistic and repertoire reasons why this series (and to a lesser degree the Violin series too) hasn't emulated the Piano Concerto series. Compared to that, though, there have been very few issues.

[eschiss1]

Oh, I just mean that this issue seems preferable by a good deal in concept even by our standards to the Tchaikovsky piano concerto disc - Pfitzner isn't in that class of familiarity yet, by a factor of (insert large number) - and as to the distance between instalments, I understand that complaint in conjunction with the other, though taken on its own, better done right and in patience than in hurry etc. ... - one hopes. The proof of the pudding is in the - number of typos in the program notes.

Actually- *goes to check aforementioned program notes, assuming they're up already ... *

(Interesting recording history for each one it seems- EMI has a recording of the duo with the composer conducting; the G major and one of the A minor concertos- presumably not the early one- appeared on earlier labels- maybe both on Colosseum LPs and CDs - etc. )

[Alan Howe]

The problem for me is simple: the repetition of not very interesting repertoire. So, I pass.

[JimL]

When is somebody going to give the Franchomme concerto a whirl?  Maybe with the two unrecorded Servais concertos (the Militaire and the A minor)?

[LateRomantic75]

Yep, this is a big disappointment to me also. I much prefer Pfitzner's VC (a work of epic proportions) to his CCs. I would dearly love to see the Bortkiewicz CC recorded-but what would be a suitable coupling for it?

[eschiss1]

Gliere's concerto? Recorded before but only once I think, they're both Ukrainian cello concertos. (We're talking Romantic cello concertos, or I'd suggest Prokofiev's very first effort (Op.58, 1933-38, later became the Sinfonia concertante) in the medium to round things out...)

[LateRomantic75]

Gliere's concerto? Recorded before but only once I think, they're both Ukrainian cello concertos. (We're talking Romantic cello concertos, or I'd suggest Prokofiev's very first effort in the medium to round things out...)

Possibly.....I've heard the Gliere and can say it's not one of his better efforts-it could have definitely benefited from some judicious trimming. I certainly wouldn't have anything against having a modern recording of it, though-perhaps a different performance could change my opinion of it!

P.S. Sergei Vasilenko wrote a Cello Concerto in 1945; I don't know for sure, but I believe Vasilenko's idiom remained grounded in a late-romantic aesthetic throughout his compositional career. From what little I've heard of his music, he seems like a very promising composer.

[eschiss1]

Well, the Abbiate cello concerto could use a new recording too in a proper context- hrm. New thread time, or else just time for me to close (my part in, I mean) this line of thought (depending on whether I think a new thread of Romantic Cello Concerto series-suggestions would last more than a New York minute, or whatever the expression is... Hrm... It's not that I'm out of concertos/concertante works, though sticking to ones I've heard would be the thing. Hrm. BTW, what's the latest work that's appeared in this series so far? The Enescu? The Dohnanyi? Ah! The 3rd Pfitzner, of 1945-or-so...)

(Which reminds me ever-so of Wittgenstein's notion of "family concepts", but I think I should..er... right. Shut _up_, Eric.)