Never-released unsung recordings

[Mark Thomas]

Interesting diversion though this has been, perhaps we can now return to the thread's topic: never-released unsung recordings.

[Alan Howe]

OK, maybe I shouldn't have responded re. the dumbing down of education. I know what I think, however, and I have plenty of evidence in my own field of expertise (modern languages).

So let's not go down that path - back to never-issued recordings, please.

[chill319]

...particularly former soviet regimes who deemed it necessary to record ALL their 'cultural' music - good, bad and worse (MELODIYA etc)...

In the case of Melodiya, in the Soviet days they had more than one tier for their published recordings. Tier one would stay in print indefinitely (Mravinsky, David Oistrakh, Gilels, etc.).Tier two would stay in print five years, at which point source materials would be destroyed. Unless the performer were one of the very top names in Soviet music, tier assignment depended on the mood of the (non-musician) party apparatchik overseeing the project. Typically, tier assignments were made in batches, with items near the top of the stack having an advantage. I take this information from Dmitry Paperno's engaging 1998 memoir, "Notes of a Moscow Pianist," which I heartily recommend (along with its companion CD) to anyone interested in the so-called Moscow piano school.

[chill319]

I don't think of the US as particularly fertile soil for the promotion of unsung composers

That's a fair generalization. I knew a conductor explicitly let go by his orchestra's board for consistently programming approachable but lesser known works -- Kodaly's Te Deum, for example (which was thrilling to perform). Others on this forum no doubt have more war stories. It really depends on the individuals who control the politics behind the scenes, and not infrequently they are superannuated, as Wilde might say, representatives of the world of commerce, or their wives.

That said, this season the local orchestra has performed Elgar's "In the South (Alassio)" and in May will be performing Stanford's "Concert Piece for Organ and Orchestra." Even names more common in American concert programs will be represented by works that not too long ago were hard to hear live: Strauss by "Ein AlpenSinfonie," Debussy by "Le Printemps," Saint-Saens by the Egyptian concerto (with Hough). In other words CDs are having a broadening effect on concert programming, and this forum surely intensifies that effect.

Because U.S. orchestras have been recording their performances for many decades, there must be a trove of recorded but unpublished performances of American music slowly fading away as magnetic tapes age. But that's a topic for another forum.

[Jor]

The italian national radio (first EIAR then RAI) executed or aired from theatres many Operas now forgotten which were never released commercially.

Here an example:
http://orfeovedovo.weebly.com/20th-century-italian-opera-catalogue.html

[Collrec]

Back in 2002, or maybe 2003, Gergiev recorded Rubinstein's "Demon" from a live Kirov performance. This version contained the often omitted final scene of Act 2 taking place after Tamara is sent to a monastery and containing the revenge for the murder of Prince Sinodal choral finale. This scene has always been omitted in all of the commercially released recordings of the opera including the Melodiya one (MEL CD 10 02102). The problem with Gergiev's recording is that the exciting act 2 ballet was omitted. I contacted the Kirov staff at that time and they told me that supplementary recording sessions were in progress to restore the ballet music in its proper place and when this was completed the now uncut performance would soon be released on the Philips label. Well, this never happened, probably because of the demise of Philips. The master tape of this uncut "Demon" still exists in the Kirov vaults (so I was told by them) and is awaiting for an enterprising record company to release it on CD, but the chances of this happening are very slim.

I remember that back then, Gergiev brought the Demon to the Paris Opera and I think it was broadcast on Radio France but I don't know if the ballet was included since the reviews did not mention that. Any comments from UC members, who may have recorded the Radio France broadcast, would be appreciated.

[eschiss1]

Re the Herbstsymphonie it was only a decade ago that this was posted to the composer's fan-site- it may be surprising in a way that there are recordings at all...

[hyperdanny]

Now, I know of a case that I find very peculiar and puzzling.
Back in 2014, I really enjoyed the release of Johann Nepomuk David's symphonies 1&6 by CPO..especially the 1st is IMHO a fine piece: very roughly, sort of a Hindemith with what Hindemith's music usually hasn't , at least for me: heart , soul, rhythmic lift and even some wit.
So, later on I was very surprised to see that in the German issue of the invaluable, impeccably researched "National discographies"  that Robert Herman compiles for Musicweb International, 3 more cd's were displayed, the complete symphonies.
I was like, wow, this one I really missed.
Well , to my disappointment I could find no trace whatsoever of them,  starting from the CPO (jpc) website..... looks like they were never released.
We know that CPO often keeps thing in the can for a long time (Urspruch, anyone?) but I can't recall another case like this..catalogue number, release dates and all........and no cd's.
This is the listing from mr.Herman's list:
Symphony No. 2, Op. 20 (1938) Johannes Wildner/ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna ( + Symphony No. 4) CPO 777 577-2 (2015)
Symphony No. 3, Op. 28 (1941) Johannes Wildner/ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna ( + Symphony No. 7) CPO 777 964-2 (2015)
Symphony No. 4, Op. 39 (1948 Johannes Wildner/ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna ( + Symphony No. 2) CPO 777 577-2 (2015)

[Gareth Vaughan]

Symphonies 5 & 8 appear to be missing, unless there is an error in your post above.

[Alan Howe]

Just a gentle reminder: J.N.David's symphonies fall outside UC's remit.

[hyperdanny]

I stand corrected.. I got a little too carried away by my dismay about the disappearance, of rather neverappearance, of these cd's.
I apologize.

[Alan Howe]

No problem. I understand your frustration - I might well be interested in those releases myself.

[eschiss1]

Quick note to Mr Herman though- No 5 -has- been recorded

I know of some recordings in the can (announced fairly publicly in Gramophone iirc) but they too are not in our remit- and not likely to be released (the label was at least temporarily defunct and the music - certain works by Rubbra - was released under different performers by Chandos in the meanwhile.)

[dhibbard]

Yes... just to follow up on Christophers' original note,  I recently found several videos on YouTube of Roman Simovych  Ukrainian composer posted by  Collegium Musicum .  It appears that these recordings were made in the 1950s and 1960s by the Ukrainian Radio Symphony but never released by Melodiya
(they don't sound like they are from an LP ..and I can't find them listed in any Melodiya publications, so I have to assume the recordings are from the master tapes).      I know that back in the 1990s,  ERR was making available recordings of the ERSO from their library, many were in fact used by Melodiya.  I bought several recordings they made onto CDR and paid cash USD!! 

I am curious if the vault has been opened and will see more Soviet era recordings from the RTV orchestras of Ukraine and perhaps Belarus??  Look for this YouTube channel.

[Mykulh]

I regret that my discography  listing of CPO CDs of Symphonies by J.N. David that have not as yet appeared has caused some consternation, I saw these recordings (as well as some others) listed in an official CPO catalogue a couple of years ago. I naively assumed that these releases were about to be released  so I added them to my  discographies. Should they languish in CPO's vaults indefinitely, I will remove them from the discographies. CPO is a wonderful label, but it often drives collectors (and discographers!) crazy.

Michael Herman