Hyperion RPC vol.76 Scholz & Rheinberger

[FBerwald]

Having just finished hearing the Scholz Concerto I must say I rather disagree with the general opinion here - true the 1st movement isn't as ear-catchy as the other 2 but on repeated listening I feel it's a really well thought out and beautifully constructed movement. I do agree that had this movement been played a tad faster it would have gained a bit more 'identity'.

[Alan Howe]

I think that's the issue here: the first movement of the Scholz just doesn't take off in this performance. It sounds too careful, too studio-bound.

[Ilja]

That has been an issue elsewhere in the series, I think. I'm specifically referring to the Widor disc.

[Alan Howe]

In a way it's amazing that this doesn't happen more often. It's a tribute to the ongoing quality of the RPC series.

[Alan Howe]

Of course, repeated listening is a must for unfamiliar music such as the Scholz. And I now find myself feeling more positively towards the first movement. I find it quite a varied movement - with some obvious 'big moments', yes - but also with some interesting side-steps into subtler, more reflective passages. Perhaps the piece is growing on me...

[eschiss1]

Scholz wrote two other piano concertos, one of them incomplete, I think. The complete one, in D minor, is in a manuscript dated 1897. (There's also a violin concerto in ms dated 1894.) Mostly at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. These later works might be more interesting than the B major concerto.

[FBerwald]

The pianist Simon Callaghan informed me last year that the other concertant works [2 unpublished Concertos in manuscript in G Major & D minor in addition to an unpublished Concert-Fantasie in C minor] by Scholz are much on his radar...

[eschiss1]

Neat. I had the impression from the description @ RISM that the 1856 G major was at least slightly incomplete (missing 4 pages of its finale), but maybe only that one particular source of it is, or maybe not even that bad...