Halvorsen Violin Concerto

[Alan Howe]

...as Eric indicated elsewhere, forthcoming from Naxos:
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naxos/8573738

Henning Kraggerud (violin), Malmö Symphony Orchestra, c. Bjarte Engeset

[Mark Thomas]

I'm afraid that I can't get too excited about this. It's good that the Halvorsen concerto has been rediscovered, but it didn't strike me as anthing more than a competent piece of work by an experienced composer.

[Alan Howe]

I agree. But it's cheap, so...

[FBerwald]

My disappointment is with the pairing. Else I'm looking forward to this release..

[semloh]

My disappointment is with the pairing.

They aren't exactly 'pot-boilers' so I think many would see them as useful pairings, but maybe you are disappointed because you would have preferred something else by Halvorsen?

[eschiss1]

I seem to recall there are concertos by Borgstrom and Haarklou out there, but preparing just one unpublished rarity of violin-concerto length for performance first from manuscript to readability and then from rehearsal to under-the-fingers readiness is one thing, asking for two would probably be something else ...

[Alan Howe]

Quite. That's the problem. Still, Hyperion seem to manage it for their RPC series.

[violinconcerto]

I have a large amount of scores of forgotten violin concertos on my website. Just needs to be downloaded and the first hurdles (find manuscript, typeset manuscript) are already done. One just has to do it...

[eschiss1]

Parts as well as scores?

[violinconcerto]

I can easily create parts if someone is interested, but I don't want to flood my site with tons of documents. They just have to drop me a line and there we go.

[Alan Howe]

The Borgström's been done, of course:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hjalmar-Borgstr%C3%B8m-Violin-Concerto-Symphonic/dp/B003AI2JN0/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1485004242&sr=8-8&keywords=borgstrom

[violinconcerto]

yes, but that Borgström recording and release was years ago. Time for something new, I guess.

[Alan Howe]

Agreed. But not another recording of the same piece!

[eschiss1]

I wasn't aware of the earlier recording of the Borgstrøm, but a new recording of it, if feasible at the price, might actually have been preferable to what we have as the coupling, I think... Or a new recording of the recently-premiered Sinding 3rd. (Which I haven't heard the existing recording of yet, but I'll make a point to soon- was curious about it...) Is there much else by way of Norwegian works for violin and orchestra in the freely-viewable digital archives of the Bergen Music Library* or similar sources (I think some of those works can be found there, I forget...- one of Borgstrøm's concertos can, iirc, e.g. ...)

*I may be thinking of the Norwegian National Library? Sorry. IMSLP has a few downloads from this source which in turn seems to have thousands more scores, sketches and bits of correspondence by various Norwegian composers.  Another municipal/national library that looks like a treat to browse online, yet again...

[Alan Howe]

Well, we don't actually need the Borgström or Sinding VC3. Time for something really new. If we stretch the geography a bit, perhaps the substantial and rather beautiful VC by the Dane Ludvig Holm might be a candidate. It's only ever been recorded once - in rather dim mono - by Kai Laursen and could do with a recording in which we can hear everything that's going on...