Sgambati Symphony no. 2 - a new recording

[adriano]

Respighi?? This would be a "pre"-echo, but I would forget this. The young Respighi was more attracted to Richard Strauss, some Russians and some French like Franck and Saint-Saens...

[Alan Howe]

A pre-echo, not an influence - as you suggest.

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

Many thanks for this upload (and all those whose efforts got it to that stage).  I had previously purchased the download version by 'Amadeus' a year or so back and, as memory serves (I hope) greatly enjoyed that version so I look forward to playing them both to 'listen and compare' (not my forte, I hasten to add).

Also my thanks for the Halvorsen - I find downloads so much easier to listen to as and when I want to than 'live' on a streaming basis (which is always  prone to interrupts etc).  I also find I listen better without the visuals, although there is no doubt that adds to the atmosphere of a performance.

Best wishes

Richard

[Alan Howe]

My goodness, Rudner's interpretation of Sgambati's fine 2nd Symphony is a weighty one - more so than the Amadeus one. The work seems to acquire a greater stature in such a performance. Many, many thanks to Roz for preparing the score and to Adriano for making the (splendid) recording available to us.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree. Let us hope we get a commercial recording with these forces soon.

[Alan Howe]

What absolutely gorgeous colours the orchestra conjur up in the slow movement here. And what melodies there are everywhere. I loved this work when I first heard it. I love it even more now. Wonderful. Do download and enjoy this lovely performance.

[jasthill]

It is interesting that the CD Booklet in the download mentions the premier of the "improved second edition" by L'Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma on February 17, 2014.  That would have been just a few months before that orchestra was disbanded, re-raising the question if Naxos recorded them playing this symphony - awaiting future release.  Of course, this is made moot by the possibility of a forthcoming CPO release.

[Gareth Vaughan]

And what of the 3rd symphony? I would be interested to know more about that.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I enjoyed the Amadeus recording of the symphony, but I agree that Ruders is considerably better. The performance of the PC on the Amadeus disk was a bit disappointing, I thought. Anyone have similar,  or other, views?

[Alan Howe]

re-raising the question if Naxos recorded them playing this symphony - awaiting future release

I'd've thought Roz would have told us...

[Alan Howe]

Having listened again to Rudner's performance I am still of the opinion that it's better than Attardi's on Amadeus. However, it's not all one-way traffic: for example Rudner seriously underplays the whooping horns in the finale as well as the glorious central section of the second movement. Now this may be a matter of orchestral balance which will be corrected on the cpo release, but I'm not 100% sure we've heard an ideal performance - yet.

[rosflute]

I'm able to get wifi only occasionally at the moment, so apologies for any slowness of reply. To answer a few points raised:-
The Rudner Wurttembergische recording was made last September. It is intended to be released as a CD in 2017.
I attended the Orchestra of Roma First performance of the work, conducted by La Vecchia, which was not recorded [although the orchestra management told me that it had previously been recorded, I was never convinced that this was the case]. Attardi's subsequent performance was issued as a live recording. Both of these Italian performances drew heavily upon the interpretation that I created for the virtual performance issued as a CD with my edition. So I was delighted that Ola Rudner's interpretation shed new light on the symphony. It is interesting that his slower interpretation increased the length of the work by almost 10 minutes! I agree with Alan that the symphony is still awaiting a definitive performance.
Regarding the influence of Brahms and Liszt, you many be interested to read my long article on this matter which will be published in the Liszt Society journal shortly. I'll put a copy of the article on my website sometime in the future.
Anyway, thank you to everyone for your interest.

[Jonathan]

Good stuff Ros, I look forward to reading your article!

[semloh]

Coming back after a complete hard drive failure and the trauma (for a genuine technophobe) of setting up a new computer, I was sorry to have missed these exchanges.

Adriano, I do hope you are fully recovered, and thank you for giving us this marvellous symphony. I am sure it's beauties will become increasingly apparent as I listen again over the next few days. 

[Alan Howe]

Regarding the influence of Brahms and Liszt, you many be interested to read my long article on this matter which will be published in the Liszt Society journal shortly

I'll look forwarding to reading that very much. Thanks, Roz.