Hubay Viola Concerto

[Alan Howe]

Hungaroton are about to release Hubay's Viola Concerto...

http://www.hungaroton.hu/en/node/4796?destination=genres%2F61%3Fpage%3D19

[Mark Thomas]

According to Jeff Joneikis at RecordsInternational "Hubay's 1884 concerto was only orchestrated as to its first movement and this was later published as a Morceau de concert. Lajos Huszár (b.1948) orchestrated the remaining two movements for this recording, giving us a 33-minute concerto". Still good to have, of course.

[Peter1953]

That makes me wonder how the Adagio non tartando sounds, because the slow movements of all Hubay's 4 VCs are IMHO ever so lyrical and beautiful. I will therefore certainly order the CD, although I had preferred a more substantial unrecorded work, like one of Hubay's Symphonies (BTW, are the complete scores available for recording?), than all those short viola pieces.

[eschiss1]

That makes me wonder how the Adagio non tartando sounds, because the slow movements of all Hubay's 4 VCs are IMHO ever so lyrical and beautiful. I will therefore certainly order the CD, although I had preferred a more substantial unrecorded work, like one of Hubay's Symphonies (BTW, are the complete scores available for recording?), than all those short viola pieces.

I'm curious about them too; and I've seen the vocal scores of a few of the operas and am particularly impressed by them (the opening of The Venus of Milo is stylistically very far away from his usual Romanticism, but given the conjectured setting, it's appropriate - more like imagined old Greek music, in whole-tone scales.)  I hope the full scores and parts of at least one of his operas, and the will to produce it, can be found somewhere.
Eric

[Alan Howe]

Friends can now begin to judge for themselves. Try the first three gorgeous-sounding excerpts here...

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Jen%F6-Hubay-Violakonzert-op-20/hnum/8599662

[Alan Howe]

Having now received the CD, I can reveal that this is not great music - it's probably not even Hubay at his best (after all, it's been stitched together, as Mark Thomas pointed out), but it is enjoyable. And who wouldn't welcome a new viola concerto from the 1880s...? Especially with such a gorgeous slow movement!

[eschiss1]

That makes me wonder how the Adagio non tartando sounds, because the slow movements of all Hubay's 4 VCs are IMHO ever so lyrical and beautiful. I will therefore certainly order the CD, although I had preferred a more substantial unrecorded work, like one of Hubay's Symphonies (BTW, are the complete scores available for recording?), than all those short viola pieces.

The score of symphony op. 93 (nicknamed Sinfonie 1914) is listed by WorldCat as being at a Marburg library (apparently full score, not reduction).
Eric

[Peter1953]

Thanks, Eric. Now there is some hope that we can listen to this symphony in the far, far future. Or is this wishful thinking?
Now it's time to listen to the Viola Concerto, although it is only partly Hubay's creation.