Unsung orchestral piece by Stenhammar

[Syrelius]

Naxos is releasing a new Stenhammar CD in september with the Gävle S O and Hannu Koivola. The main attraction on the CD is Stenhammar's Serenade. However, it also includes a piece from Stenhammar's youth, Prelude and Bourree. It is probably far from a masterpiece, but it is the only purely orchestral work by Stenhammar that has not been recorded before. A must for a lover of Stenhammar's music like me! 

[Mark Thomas]

Odd. I downloaded these pieces from the Naxos affiliate classicsonline.com on 27 January!

[Alan Howe]

Presumably there's a time-lag between Naxos offering certain items for download and their appearance on CD...

[TerraEpon]

Presumably there's a time-lag between Naxos offering certain items for download and their appearance on CD...

Yes, unfortunately. They are waiting a whole 10-11 months to release the new Debussy for Piano Duet that I dearly need, for instance.
I guess they figure if they release them digitally first, they make more money on the 'want it now' crowd who may otherwise buy a CD.

[Mark Thomas]

Yep, that's me. One of the "want it now" crowd!

[Delicious Manager]

I would be interested to hear these little pieces - might take a peek on the Naxos site.

I have been a staunch advocate of Stenhammar's music since Edward Downes introduced me to it nearly 20 years ago. The Serenade is a wonderful piece, as are his two symphonies. There is 'another' serenade by Stenhammar; this one is a chamber work for string quartet plus double bass in C major op 29. I have a lovely recording by members of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra which also also includes Stenhammar's Chitra Op 43, the Intermezzo for quartet and Ture Rangström's Notturno nella maniera di ETA Hoffmann. Anyone else familiar with these gems?

[chill319]

I'm interested in this potentially pseudo-Grieg addition to the repertoire simply because the restored orchestration (to which one of this forum's members contributed [apologies to Winston Churchill]) of Stenhammar's opus 1 is so well done.

[eschiss1]

I would be interested to hear these little pieces - might take a peek on the Naxos site.

I have been a staunch advocate of Stenhammar's music since Edward Downes introduced me to it nearly 20 years ago. The Serenade is a wonderful piece, as are his two symphonies. There is 'another' serenade by Stenhammar; this one is a chamber work for string quartet plus double bass in C major op 29. I have a lovely recording by members of the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra which also also includes Stenhammar's Chitra Op 43, the Intermezzo for quartet and Ture Rangström's Notturno nella maniera di ETA Hoffmann. Anyone else familiar with these gems?

The other serenade is an orchestration for full string orchestra of the composer's string quartet no. 5. I forget if the orchestration was done by the composer. All 6 string quartets are wonderful pieces; the third and fourth are among my very favorite pieces by anyone, end sentence.
Eric

[chill319]

Like yourself, Eric, I consider all six of Stenhammar's quartets to be works of high (in some cases, the highest) distinction. If only a group like the Zehetmair Quartet would take up one of them.

[eschiss1]

Like yourself, Eric, I consider all six of Stenhammar's quartets to be works of high (in some cases, the highest) distinction. If only a group like the Zehetmair Quartet would take up one of them.

The Yggdrasil quartet was performing many of them in concerts that were being broadcast over Swedish and British radio, and I was hoping, forlornly, that this BIS-associated group would be recording them for that label sometime. Or that Klaus Heymann would reconsider signing up a good group to record the set for Naxos at some point.  I heard their performances of the 3rd and 4th a few times (if I'm remembering) and they were at least as good as the Gotland Qt. (now Zetterqvist, I think) on Caprice.  Also broadcast by the BBC at one point was a Borodin Quartet performance from a live concert (or from the LP from years back- I'm not sure!) of quartet no. 3. Also really good...

A friend (I think it was someone here... ) sent me the poem and original folksong on which the 4th quartet's variations were based. This was very good to know and have...
I was disappointed and in a way upset for so long that the only way I could find scores or parts of any Stenhammar quartets (except for nos. 2 and 5 which the local university library had;- not to deprecate those two!) - was by interlibrary loan, because of copyright restrictions, in-and-out-of-print-ness and other reasons. (Edition Silvertrust is now bringing the quartets back in print. Good for them!) And my access to ILL was erratic.  Now IMSLP has more scores and parts of works first published before 1924 than I would have imagined, and I'm a much happier camper. Erm. Pardon ramble.

I'm sure I mentioned this, but I was looking through Stenhammar's published journal awhile back, and he mentions playing, as pianist with Tor Aulin's quartet, Raff's piano quintet, at one point... just saying. I forget if it was publicly- I don't think so, and I didn't write down the reference.
Eric

[JimL]

Like yourself, Eric, I consider all six of Stenhammar's quartets to be works of high (in some cases, the highest) distinction. If only a group like the Zehetmair Quartet would take up one of them.

The Yggdrasil quartet was performing many of them in concerts that were being broadcast over Swedish and British radio, and I was hoping, forlornly, that this BIS-associated group would be recording them for that label sometime. Or that Klaus Heymann would reconsider signing up a good group to record the set for Naxos at some point...

I mentioned this to Klaus on FB, and he responded that a Stenhammar SQuar project is on his ideas list, provided a group can be found that knows them.  Then it would only be a matter of logistics.  First things first.  Anybody know of a quartet that has the entire set in their repertoire?

[eschiss1]

Like yourself, Eric, I consider all six of Stenhammar's quartets to be works of high (in some cases, the highest) distinction. If only a group like the Zehetmair Quartet would take up one of them.

The Yggdrasil quartet was performing many of them in concerts that were being broadcast over Swedish and British radio, and I was hoping, forlornly, that this BIS-associated group would be recording them for that label sometime. Or that Klaus Heymann would reconsider signing up a good group to record the set for Naxos at some point...

I mentioned this to Klaus on FB, and he responded that a Stenhammar SQuar project is on his ideas list, provided a group can be found that knows them.  Then it would only be a matter of logistics.  First things first.  Anybody know of a quartet that has the entire set in their repertoire?

Sigh. Except that I think they're signed up with BIS, again, the Yggdrasil seems to have (or have had???) most of the 6 in theirs - I think they've performed (in concerts that have been broadcast) nos. 2-5, ... not positive about 1 or 6. The Zetterqvist (that is, ex-Gotland, I think) quartet recorded no. 6 a decade ago I think, but basically the answer to the question is I have no idea... wish I did.
(Oddly, Myaskovsky's quartets - or at least no. 13, and a new recording of no. 1 too - seem to be picking up performances and recordings that I was not at all expecting... anyway. Erm.)