Alnaes Piano Concerto and Symphony No.1

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming on Lawo:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eyvind-Aln%C3%A6s-Concerto-Symphony-Aadland/dp/B01MYVV9NH/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1481842115&sr=8-6&keywords=alnaes

Not unrecorded, of course, but welcome nevertheless...

[FBerwald]

Very interesting. I love this piano Concerto... in fact I had just mentioned this in ""Safe bets" in unsung repertory" thread a few days ago.

[eschiss1]

Now listed @ MDT. Release date tomorrow. (Had never heard of Lawo Classics but their other releases are intriguing too, in my honest opinion, if often outside of our orbit. Fans of a guy named Saeverud -may- want to look at one of them, for instance, if only because of a family connection... ;^) )

[JollyRoger]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLncqITCuGLVO06ynjGhy65CQ6ukefZYAC

[Alan Howe]

My copy's on its way. More details when it arrives...

[TerraEpon]

When was Symphony #1 recorded before?

Having gotten the other recording of the Piano Concerto recently (thanks to recomendation on another thread) this could be very interesting....

[Alan Howe]

On Sterling, with Symphony No.2:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Symphony-Nos-Latvian-National-Orchestra/dp/B002YCI09K/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1484319593&sr=8-9&keywords=alnaes

[Ilja]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLncqITCuGLVO06ynjGhy65CQ6ukefZYAC

... which has now been removed from Youtube.

[JimL]

Not on my computer it hasn't.

[eschiss1]

May be a matter of copyright zone. I do think posting it to YouTube when the recording's just been released - with credit to the orchestra, conductor and soloist but no purchase information unless I've missed something in my haste I guess (and even so.) - is at best a big mistake.

(And I mean purchase information @ the YouTube link. Providing it to me, right here, is missing the point. I know where to obtain it. But it undoes every rationalization I've -ever- heard for unofficially uploading complete recordings if one does it without even linking to a source for purchasing it directly...)

[Ilja]

Not on my computer it hasn't.

I think it has. The presentation page is still there, but try playing one of the videos. It looks like someone at the Oslo Phil forgot to tick the "private" box and accidentally allowed public viewing.

Having listened to the recording (on Spotify), I can confidently say that I think this recording is an improvement over both the extant Symphony (on Sterling) and Piano Concerto (on Hyperion) releases. Gimse's light-footed approach seems to fit the music much better than Lane's heavier (by comparison) treatment, and the Oslo Phil is on form. I find the differences in the symphony not as evident; Aadland is a bit quicker in nearly all movements, and while it does not really alter the experience as a whole, it gives the music a little more momentum. But interpretatively, they remain fairly close.

[Alan Howe]

I'd say Ilja's got it about right.

[TerraEpon]

This is an official upload -- you can tell because the artist name has "- topic" next to it. Any time you find that, the music has been supplied to the distributor for official upload on YT.

[eschiss1]

That's not what I took that to mean, actually- I thought the "topics" were organized in another fashion- but I suspect you're right and thanks for pointing that out.

[Alan Howe]

Returning to the CD itself, the symphony (in idiom) sounds somewhere between Svendsen and Tchaikovsky - heavier in general than the former, but without the neurosis exhibited by the latter. I was also reminded of Sinding's first two symphonies. Written in 1897, it's certainly not cutting-edge stuff, but richly satisfying nevertheless - and much more interesting than, say, Juon's two early symphonies. No, the CD is worth buying mainly for the exciting PC (which dates from 1914) - and then the symphony will come as a welcome bonus.