Emile Jaques-Dalcroze - New CD

[adriano]

No, they wanted - and needed - a conductor for these works, but I was generous enough to withdraw myself after the soloist said that he wanted to record with his friend... Once the recording was published, the sponsor actually was not very happy with this decision...

[adriano]

Regarding that deleted CD with Martin Scherber's 2nd Symphony, I have arranged that the remaining stock is being offered till end of July by Music Web at a special price:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Jun/Adriano%20special%20offer.htm

I am in charge of the deliveries.
Take this opportunity, the music is great!

[M. Yaskovsky]

Thanks very much, ordered today at Musicweb, looking forward to it!

[Alan Howe]

Thanks. Please could all messages regarding the Scherber CD be posted on the dedicated thread, here:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6525.msg68958.html#new

[adriano]

This is the link to my promo video of the new Dalcroze CD, which will be issued in August-September:

https://vimeo.com/226476645

[Alan Howe]

Wonderful music. A must-buy for me - although to my ears Elena Mosuc doesn't sound too secure in her highest register...

[minacciosa]

Bravo, Adriano!

[adriano]

@Alan: that has nothing to do with being insecure. She is very secure. It's her vibrato, which perfectly suits the operatic character of this cycle, becoming more and more dramatic as this murderous love story proceeds: A young woman has a fiancé, but his rival kills him - and she takes revenge by extracting the knife of the beloved's breast, lures the rival to a rendez-vous giving him the impression that she now loves him - and kills him with the same knife.

[Alan Howe]

I'm afraid I have to disagree. Her vibrato doesn't simply become more and more dramatic, but wider and looser in her higher register, making for a listening experience that is a bit of a trial. It won't stop me buying the recording - the music sounds magnificent - but we'll have to agree to disagree on the quality of the singing.

As evidence, which I reluctantly adduce here, is an excerpt from a review of her Maria in Maria Stuarda (Donizetti) in Genoa in May this year:

Elena Moşuc is considered a leading bel canto soprano in Italy, and here she displayed some familiar diva stereotypes – hands quivering dramatically in "Ah! se un giorno da queste ritorte", she swooned precariously and staggered down a central block of stairs. Maria is a role that sounds best spun in a lustrous legato, but Moșuc's lumpy delivery, comprising wayward vibrato and clumsy scoops, had the consistency of clotted cream... (emphasis added)
https://bachtrack.com/review-maria-stuarda-mosuc-santafe-carlo-felice-genoa-may-2017

[adriano]

OK, Alan, you are guru of belcanto in here and no chances are left... 
Will think it over more seriously before daring to post something about singers nest time.

[Alan Howe]

I'm no guru*, that's for sure. But I'll be buying the CD, thus expressing my immense gratitude for your expertise and achievements in the realm of unsung music. You are a hero to us!

*My guru as far as standards of singing are concerned was the late, great John Steane...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Steane
...I grew up with his seminal book, The Grand Tradition, and, of course, his quarterly contributions to Gramophone magazine. While conceding the greatness of singers such as Callas, Hotter, etc., he was never afraid to highlight the problem of vocal insecurity, e.g. uncontrolled vibrato, aspirated runs, etc.

[adriano]

Thanks, Alan
Also the remaining orchestral pieces are absolutely wonderful and beautifully orchestrated. The Overture to Dalcroze's opera "Sancho" (Panza) could become a nice concert-hall discovery. In the Suite "La Veillée" there are higly atmospheric descriptions of sunset/night impressions and how country people experience them.

[minacciosa]

That song-cycle is just gorgeous! You have struck gold here and you have caused me to search IMSLP for other treasures by Dalcroze. I just downloaded the two Violin Concertos and I'm amazed at how different they are. The previous cd of orchestral music (Impressions Tragiques, etc.) had many beautiful things, but this present one surpasses it. The performances are wonderful and idiomatic. I very much like the singer; she has a firm grasp of the ebb and flow of the drama.

Bravo for a tremendous accomplishment! How has this music been silent for so long?

I'm listening to the Impressions Tragiques again as I write.

[adriano]

Thanks, minacciosa :-)
Dalcroze was shocked, reading a bad review of the 1906 première, so he did not care anymore. He was a very modest and extremely self-critical personality. The music is not too modern at all, even having some harsh dissonances, but the fact that a woman was singing about her stabbing the rival of her murdered lover, did most probably not please audiences of the small and petit-borgeois city of Neuchâtel, where ist was presented.
The reviewer wrote that the work totally lacks of melody and harmony (!!) and that it's a too brutal and dark affair. And, finally, too tiresome (29 minutes for 7 songs)!
Incidentally, in another concert of that same 1906 Swiss Music Festival, Fritz Brun's symphonic poem "Aus dem Buch Hiob" was premièred. That caused excellent reviews. And it was the first orchestral work by Brun ever performed in his own country - and conducted by himself. The premiere of his First Symphony had been 4 years earlier in Arnhem - and it would take another 5 years after "Hiob" to the Second Symphony to be premiered.

[M. Yaskovsky]

Jacques-Dalcroze CD's aren't very cheap.......... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Emile-Jaques-Dalcroze-Impressions-Tragiques-Tableaux/dp/B01G7OJ4J0/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1500746728&sr=1-1&keywords=dalcroze
I think I pass for the moment, never paid 527 GBP for a CD