Johann Georg Kastner's Symphony "Les Cris de Paris"

[Mark Thomas]

In another post, Hadrianus wrote:

A sensation: Next thursday, Johann Geortg Kastner's Symphony "Les Cris de Paris" will be performed and broadcasted from Montpellier. Kastner was a teacher of Berlioz; he lived from 1810 till 1867.
https://unsungsymphonies.blogspot.com/2010/10/impossible-symphony-kastners-les-cris.html

This is really intriguing and it's well worth following hadrianus' link. The only online recording I can find of anything from Les Cris de Paris is this one of the march referred to in the article on Kastner's symphony. It certainly sounds like the whole work might be a fascinating listen, although I can't discover when it will be broadcast by Radio France.

[matesic]

Not quite the Marche au Supplice, is it? It's hard to imagine why Berlioz should have sought lessons from a man 7 years his junior.

[matesic]

Aha - I read in New Grove "The treatise.."(Kastner's Traité Général d'Instrumentation) "..certainly influenced Berlioz (1843) and the two men were good friends".

[adriano]

Here it is, Mark:

http://lefestival.eu/evenements/251-207-LesCrisdeParis

Will also record it :-)

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks on both counts, Adriano.

[eschiss1]

.. btw, is the idiosyncratic spelling of his name a thing or a typo?

[Mark Thomas]

Geortg? He was an Alsatian, and that's how they spell George in Alsace...  No, it was a typo which I've corrected, Eric!

[Alan Howe]

Check out the proximity of t and g on a keyboard...

[adriano]

He was Alsatian, born in Strassburg, and became pupil of Anton Reicha at the Paris Conservatoire. He married a rich French girl and never had monetary problems, so he could enjoy his profession as a teacher, musicologist and composer. Berlioz had studied his book on orchestration before writing hos own. He wrote an opera ("La Maschera"), an Oratorio ("Le dernier roi de Juda") and various orchestral works, among which a "Danse macabre". In his native town, there is an "Allée Kastner".

[adriano]

I just realize that, unfortunately, this concert is on the Festival's program, but not broadcasted directly, so let's find out when it will be - and on which station... :-(
Since Hervé Niquet will be conducting and this is an important premiere, I suppose they will do a CD anyway.