"Safe bets" in unsung repertory

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Gareth.

[Revilod]

Ponti does not cut either D'Albert's concerto or Bronsart's though I can't guarantee he plays absolutely every note! The enormous timing discrepancy between his and Piers Lane's recordings of D'Albert's concerto is entirely due to interpretation. There are, of course, other performances which follow a middle path. Siegfried Stockigt takes just under 18 mins and Joseph Banowetz 19 1/2. I do think that Lane makes very heavy weather of it. Of course, unsung repertoire will not have a performing tradition attached to it so extremes of interpretation are more likely to occur. The Jarvi recording of the "Lenore" symphony was certainly a surprise!

[Alan Howe]

Of course, unsung repertoire will not have a performing tradition attached to it so extremes of interpretation are more likely to occur. The Jarvi recording of the "Lenore" symphony was certainly a surprise!

Agreed - in principle. Although Järvi's Lenore may well be closer to whatever tradition existed in the 19th century than its rivals...

[eschiss1]

Re Dubois' chamber music: just started listening to an older recording of his string quartet no.1 in E-flat. At least as of the end of the first movement: Seconded. Memorable, enjoyable, harmonically clever/fluid/unsquare but _also_ uncramped and very "open-air" in quartet-"instrumentation"... (no, not boring! Turn of the 19/20th-century "French chamber music" virtues, I guess, but I like those* (done well- as here!)- reminded me of Vincent d'Indy's also very fine (and underrated) first string quartet, in places.) Glad to have a chance to hear this piece. Between d'Indy, Dubois, Magnard and some others (including especially the late works of Saint-Saëns and early works of Roussel**) 1890-1910/20 or so was a good time for French chamber music... (of course)
The remaining 3 movements of the Dubois quartet give me no reason to lower my opinion- the elegiac third movement is especially fine.

I'll seek out the ATMA CDs l'un-façon-l'autre...

Given my druthers I'd mention other works that have - ... "earwormed me" of late?... oh- eh...

for example I've had trouble getting Nikolay Medtner's violin sonatas (especially the first, and I thought least of the three...) out of my head (yet again!!) ... - and Furtwaengler's 1944-6 symphony in E minor, which I've now heard in performances conducted by Barenboim and the composer too, is one of those late-late-Romantic works from the heart and soul (and drawing on a composer-conductor's experience of Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorak, and many others, very occasionally quoted but more often filtered) that just keeps growing on me (and I was already listening to it very often as it was, iTunes' counter was telling me, especially considering its great length!)
(Though this latter is, given its very variable critical reviews, probably not quite a safe bet. Of course, that depends on a lot too...)

*(not those virtues -exclusively- , though the "done well" part remains important in any case)
**(early works. His later works aren't suitable for this forum - and some here will dismiss their merit out of hand- but his earlier works are within time period and musically speaking appropriate- or so it seems to this writer, who is now getting another headache but that's tangential anyway.)

[FBerwald]

I would also like to add [and I can't believe I forgot this one] -

Eyvind Alnæs - Piano Concerto in D Major.

A superbly crafted example of an ultra romantic piano concerto. The Last waltz movement [are there any other examples of a la Viennese Waltz for Piano & Orchestra?] anticipates Rachmaninoff's Paganini Variations - 18th Variation, by about 34 years [or am I the only one to notice this similarity?].

[Ilja]

When it comes to chamber music, I'd go with Gernsheim, particularly the 2nd String Quartet. But really, everything is excellent.

[Alan Howe]

Seconded, Ilja!

[eschiss1]

FBerwald- there was a popular tune around at the time, I think, which might have inspired the Alnæs, the Medtner (Op. 25/1 slow movement opening, also in Eflat), and the much later Rachmaninoff themes which all sound so similar...

[JimL]

If I'm not mistaken, the 18th variation in the Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is the one in D-flat that turns it into a love song.  It's the Paganini 24th Caprice theme in inversion and augmentation (upside-down and with extended note values).