Unsung concerts 2017

[Ilja]

Philip Nones' Florent Schmitt newsletter just posted these works by Schmitt to be performed:

• August 2017 - The Cleveland Orchestra - Le Palais hante

• October 2017 - BBC Symphony Orchestra - Symphony #2

• June 2018 - Orchestre de Paris - Antoine et Cleopatre

[/list]

[eschiss1]

Another Langgaard work this year too- symphony 2 (Vaarbrud, Break of Spring, with soprano solo) (1912-14, revised 1933), April 22nd @ Konzerthaus: Großer Saal, Vienna.

Also, already mentioned the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players' program of April 17th (I'll be in NYC soon but will leave before I can catch this), but forgot to mention that the Pfitzner is accompanied by works of Dotzauer and Brahms- the latter his trio in A major (still "Brahms?" for some, I know; I agree with Malcolm MacDonald that it most likely is by Brahms) and the former Dotzauer's string trio in E-flat Op.52 (published ca.1819? by Böhme of Hamburg.)

[eschiss1]

Also, http://www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk/programme.html this, including maybe the 2nd ever public performance of Montague Phillips' symphony in C minor (1911) if I understand right (it says "world premiere performance, but of course since the work was premiered in 1912, that may have to be taken with a grain of salt- maybe world premiere of the new edition, since the holograph, according to the same link, was lost...)

Does anyone have more information about what "concert overture" by Stanford that is that's being premiered?

[Mark Thomas]

Presumably it's the Concert Overture in A minor, composed in Juy 1870 and, according to Dibble's biography of Stanford "unperformed? and unpublished, autograph in private hands".

[eschiss1]

The Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players have posted a bare outline of next year's season (also, there's one concert left in this season, on May 15. They have a summer session too, iirc.) Just the names of the concerts and dates for now, but surely among them the March 13 2018 one, "Reicha's Reach", is intriguing?

[ewk]

The merged SWR Symphony Orchestra announced its 2017/18 season:

Vaughan Williams, Symphony no 1. 3/4 March 2018 (Liederhalle Stuttgart)

Likewise, the Bamberger Symphoniker announced its 2017/18 season:

8/9/11 Feb 2018: Vaughan Williams, Symphony no 6 (Manze)

27/28 Jan: Bantok's orchestration of: Johann Sebastian Bach »Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme« BWV 140

29 Sep/1 Oct 2017: Ernest Chausson »Poème de l'amour et de la mer« für Gesang und Orchester

20/21 Sep 2017: Suk, Asrael Symphony

All these works are not totally unsung, but 1) seldomly played in Germany, 2) probably the most unsung one can get from the most orchestras...

Best wishes, ewk

[mjkFendrich]

Re: Magnard in Freiburg / Germany

The Freiburg Philharmonisches Orchester will continue its Magnard cycle the next season 17/18 with Magnard's 3rd symphony on 2018-03-20
and several smaller pieces (Hymne a Venus, Chant funebre) under the direction of Fabrice Bollon (intended to be recorded for Naxos).
In addition they will perform Moeran's g minor symphony on 2018-04-10 (to be conducted by Simon Gaudenz)
and Y.Stankovich's 2nd Symphony on 2018-05-15 (conducted by Oksana Lyniv).

[semloh]

>The merged SWR Symphony Orchestra announced its 2017/18 season...

That really is an adventurous programme, and great to see VW getting a good airing.

[tpaloj]

Medtner's piano concerto no.2 will be performed live by Nikolai Demidenko (I know he's recorded it, I have the recording) with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk, @ the Sibelius Symphony Hall, Feb. 23. The preceding concert there-- the week before - has Vieuxtemps' first cello concerto played by Jonathan Roozeman (Osmo Vänskä conducting)). (Yes, there's a new cpo recording of the Vieuxtemps concertos, no, he's not the soloist.)

I was there @ Feb 23. As an overture, they played a short orchestral fanfare by Einojuhani Rautavaara reconstructed from a recording, score being lost. Mesmerizing playing by Demidenko! Hall was barely 1/2 full, so got to stay in the front row with a tremendous view of the performance.

[Gareth Vaughan]

But that, alas, is the thing. With a hall half full, there is no incentive to be adventurous with programming again. Very sad. I bet the concert was wonderful.

[Ilja]

This year's Langgaard Festival (in Ribe, 31 August - 3 September) is given the theme "Gade and Langgaard", and has some interesting material:


- Gade's Elverskud in a new arrangement
- Langgaard's Violin Concerto
- Gade's Violin Concerto
- Langgaard's Third Symphony


More information here.

[eschiss1]

One of Dvorak's less often heard operas (that is, not Rusalka) - Dimitrij - is receiving 4 performances or so during the Bard Festival @ Annandale on Hudson , starting July 28th- seemed worth noting...

If OTOH you're in Jerusalem on September 6th I see a neat concert of Brahms, Janacek and Enescu (his early and stunning (coruscating...) octet) announced.

(A later Enescu work, his 2nd piano quartet, joins a piano quartet by Fauré and Debussy's violin sonata in what looks like a good program in Stockholm a few days later. And then Oedipe is being given in London on September 23rd. That used to not be given so often, I think...)

Anyone mention Raff's sinfonietta July 15th @ Nottingham? Probably, just checking.

[eschiss1]

Also, Rozycki's piano quintet in C minor in this program given by the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players on January 22 2018 in NY City.

[semloh]

I hope my fellow administrators will forgive an aside in response to half-empty concert halls, and as a sign of the times: I watch the UK quiz programme "Pointless" and I am always interested to hear what contestants will know when classical music questions come up. Last week they were asked to provide first names of seven or so famous composers - including Beethoven, Gershwin, Britten, and Elgar. To my amazement, some contestants knew none of the answers, and the only answer one fellow could muster was that Gershwin was called William. Interestingly, the best-known first name obtained from a randomly selected group of 100 people was that of Britten! Questions about the minute details of the personal life and music of 'boy bands', on the other hand, present no problems.

The level of knowledge about classical music is generally appalling. It gets no better on "Eggheads", with bright university students claiming never to have heard of Prokofiev or Brahms! No wonder classical concerts are so poorly attended. Classical music just isn't part of most people's lives. 

Grrrr.....

[eschiss1]

The situation is little if any better here- consider answers and questions and expectations (classical music, popular music, and outside of music) on the well-known American show Jeopardy.