Cleve Piano concertos

[Rob H]

According to the Grand Piano 2017 catalogue a new (i.e soon to be released) release will be Cleve's 3rd and 4th piano concertos; the 3rd in its version for sextet.
It doesn't mention volume 1 that I can see do not sure if the other concertos will follow. Would love to hear more of the solo piano music as well. There is only to my knowledge the old Norwegian LP which coupled the sonata and a couple more pieces with the 4th concerto - an excellent disc and I have a couple more pieces on a Scandanavian collection but that's it.
Rob

[Alan Howe]

Here's the entry in GP's catalogue:

GP757 NEW
CLEVE
PIANO WORKS
JOACHIM CARR • NORWEGIAN RADIO ORCHESTRA • LEO McFALL
As  a  pupil  of  the  great  Scharwenka  brothers,  Halfdan  Cleve  was  renowned  as 
a  pianist  as  well  as  a  composer  and  wrote  a  sequence  of  five  concertos  for  the 
instrument. Piano  Concerto  No.3  in  E  flat  major,  Op.9, heard  here  in  its  sextet 
version, evokes  Robert  Schumann's  influence  not  least  in  its  beautiful,  sorrowing 
slow  movement  whilst  Lisztian  virtuosity  and  unifying  techniques  course  through 
the Piano Concerto No.4 in A minor, Op.12.

[Ilja]

For those wishing a sneak peek: all of Cleve's concertos can be heard on YouTube, albeit mostly in rather old and rickety performances.

[Wheesht]

The GP757 disc is no longer in the catalogue as I write this on 7 May 2021, and there seems to be no trace of this release anywhere. Could it be a rights issue?

[Mark Thomas]

I suspect that the Concerto No.4 tracks on Spotify are a mistake and shouldn't be there. I haven't figured it all out yet, but track one certainly begins with the first movement of Concerto No.4, but then moves into the second movement of Concerto No.1 and then into another movement which I haven't identified (I have, mostly poor, recordings of all five concertos). Despite what's advertised on Spotify, overall the track length is 27 minutes. The second and third movement tracks are the same track, 26 minutes long and ending with the finale of Concerto No.4. I haven't analysed yet which other concerto movements are recorded there. There's a lot of hiss and background noise on the recording of the first movement of Concerto no.4, which is missing from the rest of both tracks, and I wonder if that's why the recording hasn't been released. It all feels to me like work in progress.

[Alan Howe]

Oops! A bit of a mess, then...

[eschiss1]

tangentially? Cleve is also represented in the CD catalog by some chamber music (I don't know if this disc also contains the sextet version of the 3rd concerto; it might, would have to look further.) (It doesn't - oh, wait. Simax Classics CD/emusic, released 2018, does contain his violin sonata, piano quintet (this is the quintet version of Op.9), some other violin/piano works.)

I didn't so much not "forget" the NKF recordings as discover them using Worldcat. Says nothing as to their availability anywhere outside libraries.

[pianoconcerto]

Although the Grand Piano recording of Cleve's pc4 is no longer available, it was released complete and in perfectly fine sound.  I don't know what happened to whatever is (or was) on Spotify or why this recording has disappeared.  Perhaps it will be reissued as part of a set on Naxos.  Let's hope. 

[eschiss1]

How do the sextet version of Op.9 and the quintet version of Op.9 (piano concerto no.3 in E-flat - the quintet version was issued as Piano quintet in E-flat, op.9) differ?

... besides the obvious.