Schmidt-Kowalski from Querstand

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Gareth, one of the frustrations of reading postings on this site is that there are frequent enthusiastic shoutings about CDs that people have acquired from JPC which are not yet available in the UK. The explanation seems to be that many labels - such as CPO - have release dates in Germany (and possibly other European countries) at least a month before the UK. I guess that's true of Querstand.

I don't know why this is the case and the UK should sit at the end of the queue. MDT or Amazon UK will not list anything that is not 'officially' released in the UK, despite the fact that the item is available over the other side of the North Sea and will be available - at extra postage cost - from Amazon.de (or indeed JPC).  One of life's many frustrations! I tend to note such things down on a 'future release' list, and then spend a month curled up like a well-fed cat purring quietly at the thought of their future acquisition and at a lesser cost than the JPC price.

My current largest 'gripe' is over the release (last October in Germany) of the Decca recording of Braunfels' Jeanne d'Arc. After repeated e-mails to Decca I finally got a grudging reply from them telling me "there were no imminent plans to release the set in the UK". This is sheer craziness, especially since Morten (from Norway) tells us that the set contains an English translation of the libretto. I'm still dithering over this one. Scouting around websites it looks as if I could get it from a German source at between £24-28, plus a few pounds for shipping. Whereas, if Decca released it in the UK, one might be able to buy it from MDT at (probably) around £17 - and free postage if it was included in an order with a couple of other CDs.

Moral? Be patient, and save yourself valuable pennies - and those could be devoted to the purchase of yet more CDs!

Peter

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks for the encouraging advice, Peter. According to Naxos, their Schmidt-Kowalski disks have never been officially released in the UK!!!

[DennisS]

I have again this evening listened to this newly released S-K 3 -works cd. I particularly liked the PC but was mulling over what I thought of it when I read Alan's latest review." Stormy" was used initially to describe the opening movement and I think that summed up the first movement very well. I was going to add "dramatic", "highly charged" even "powerful" as adjectives describing the first movement. Then listening to the other two movements, I was struck by the same adjectives when searching for words to describe them. The same adjectives kept coming back, even for the slow middle movement, in spite of passages of lyrical beauty! Then, as I said at the beginning of this post, I read Alan's latest review and he describes the work as "full-on" and I think that describes the PC perfectly. I don't dislike works that are full-on, quite the contrary, and I do like this PC. Listening very carefully, I was also aware of some particularly effective orchestral scoring in the work, which was very pleasing. I also liked the other two works on the disc but my preference goes to the PC. I too got my copy from Jpc.de - a very efficient company I must say.

Cheers
Dennis

[Mark Thomas]

I have just been listening a couple of times to these three new S-K pieces. For me the stand out work on the CD is the beautiful Viola Concerto, which is intensely lyrical and deeply felt. The first movement began life as an Elegy for Viola and Orchestra and the two additional movements only serve to intensify the mood it sets, although the Andante finale ends on a more affirmative note. Not that it's really a mournful work; the mood is of looking back on a life well spent, rather than one cut short by tragedy. It's very impressive and I'm delighted to know it.

The Symphonic Fantasy Das Lied von der Glocke has got quite some substance to it too, although I suspect that it would benefit from a more gutsy performance than it gets here. S-K's use of a recurring motif for the bell  itself, which is only revealed in full at the very end of the work, is very effective and the orchestration, as usual with S-K, is nicely restrained whilst having plenty of textural variety.

The work I'm not sure about is the Piano Concerto. One is thrown straight into the first movement which, as Alan has written, continues to be pretty "full on" throughout. Despite the arresting beginning, it didn't hold my attention any better at the second hearing than it did at the first and I felt that there was quite a bit of note-spinning. The Adagio which follows is generally lovely, and the reflective passages in the Allegro finale are similarly gorgeous, with the faster material properly exciting and providing a good contrast. Overall, though, I was a little underwhelmed by it all.

All that said, for dyed in the wool romantics such as me, to have music of this quality written in the romantic idiom in the 21st century is an absolute joy.

[Alan Howe]

To those new to the forum who have never seen this thread, I'm resurrecting it because of the über-Romantic Piano Concerto featured on the Querstand CD. Audio samples are available here (tracks 1 - 3):
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Thomas-Schmidt-Kowalski-geb-1949-Klavierkonzert-g-moll-op-108/hnum/4982609

[kyjo]

Schmidt-Kowalski is certainly a light in the dark when it comes to contemporary music. Long may he continue to compose !

[Mark Thomas]

Many thanks to Ilja for putting a recording of Thomas Schmidt-Kowlaski's First Violin Concerto in our Downloads Board, The Second Violin Concerto was amongst several major works of his that were once available commercially and it's such a shame, if understandable, that no more of his music has been recorded since his untimely death at the age of 63 ten years ago.

[Ilja]

Unfortunately, the recording is clipped just seconds before the end; it is somewhat jarring. 

For me, this work confirms how Schmidt-Kowalski was successful in crafting works that clearly took inspiration from romantic music yet remained identifiably of his time and individual. It is regrettable how he never came to experience the more recent return of "art music" to forms less alien to us - and him.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, it's a shame about the abrupt end and the recording is rather brass-heavy, but we're still lucky to have it. The Concerto itself proves to be a very likable, immediately accessible piece, if arguably lacking the depth of some of Schmidt-Kowalski's later pieces, but with plenty of surface charm. It could easily have been written in the late 19th century but is, like all S-K's compositions, quite free of pastiche.

[CelesteCadenza]

Some info on Schmidt-Kowalski's First Violin Concerto including movement titles:
op. 50: 1. Konzert d-Moll für Violine und Orchester (1994)
UA: 02.05.1997, Beningaburg, Dornum, in einer Fassung für Violine und Klavier mit
Kathryn Krueger, V., und Matthias Veit, Kl.
UA mit Orchester am 05.03.2002, Forum Hasetal, Löningen, mit dem
Oldenburgischen Staatsorchester, Wolfgang Mertes als Solist, Leitung GMD
Alexander Rumpf.
Druck: Partitur 1998, Kryptos-Verlag Hamburg, Philipp Buddemeier. Klavierauszug
2004, Christian Meyer, Oldenburg. Kennzeichnung mit unterschiedlichen
Großbuchstaben in beiden Drucken (etwas die Orientierung erschwerend).
CD-Einspielung der Fassung mit Klavierbegleitung während der UA, und Live-
Mitschnitt der UA mit Orchester.
Sätze:
1. Moderato, d-Moll, Allabreve-Takt, 254 T. (bzw. 250 T. im Klavierauszug)
2. Adagio, F-Dur, 4/4-Takt, 93 T.
3. Finale, Allegro con brio, d-Moll, 6/8-Takt, 325 T.
Autograph: Das Autograph war ein Geschenk an den Sponsor und Widmungsträger
Dieter Holzapfel. Für die Bearbeitung stand daher lediglich eine Fotokopie des
Klavierauszugs zur Verfügung. Danach umfasst das Autograph 28 durchnummerierte
Seiten.
Anmerkungen: Die UA des Konzerts in der Fassung für Violine und Klavier kam
durch eine kuriose Verkettung von Zufällen zustande. Bei einer Sightseeing–Tour
durch Dornum war die hervorragende Akustik des Ahnensaals im Hotel der
Beningaburg aufgefallen. Ein guter, fast 100 Jahre alter August-Förster-Flügel, einige
Jahre zuvor auf der Insel Baltrum erworben, war auch vorhanden. So entstand der
Plan zu einem Konzert, das dank der Initiative von Geschäftsleuten, die ihre
Verbindungen nutzen, schließlich auch aufgeführt werden konnte91. Ohnehin hatte
sich die Fertigstellung dieses Werks krankheitsbedingt einige Zeit hingezogen,
sodass die UA erst 1997 stattfand.
Der sinfonisch angelegte, erste Satz enthält eine Solokadenz. Ein erster
thematischer Einfall, der gleich zu Beginn des ersten Satzes mit dem Einsatz der
Solovioline erklingt, kam Schmidt-Kowalski im März 1994, daher möglicherweise die
Verknüpfung mit d-Moll, das für ihn mit Vorfrühling und Märzstimmung verbunden ist.
Abschnitte mit thematisch-motivischen Verarbeitungen sowie zahlreichen Tonartund
Taktwechseln enden am Schluss dieses Satzes in einem für Kopfsätze
ungewöhnlichen Andante in D-Dur. Das zur Hauptonart des Werks parallele F-Dur
wird im zweiten Satz, wenn auch nur kurz, in das entlegene Fis-Dur moduliert. Dieser
Satz wirkt mit seiner ausdrucksvollen Gestaltung romanzenhaft beseelt. Einen
großen Kontrast dazu bildet der dritte Satz, ein lebhaftes Rondo mit zahlreichen
Taktwechseln und unterschiedlichsten Ausdrucksweisen. Harmonisch kehrt er wieder
zu d-Moll zurück, endet jedoch, mittlerweile erwartungsgemäß, mit der Reprise in DDur.
Im Zuge seiner pädagogischen Tätigkeit stellte Schmidt-Kowalski dieses Werk kurz
vor der UA Schülern des Copernicus-Gymnasiums in Löningen vor. Ein kurioser
Zufall will es, dass die beiden Violinkonzerte die Opuszahl 50 bzw.100 tragen.

from: Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski, ein romantischer Komponist an der Wende zum 21. Jahrhundert
by Ursula Eisfeld, geb. Rodens
Inaugural-Dissertation 2010
Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität zu Münster (Westf.)

[terry martyn]

I am trying to work out why I am delighted by the Hans Franke Piano Concerto and Symphony, but am not warming to the Schmidt-Kowalski Piano Concerto. It's harmless enough,I grant you,but maybe just a bit selfconsciously neo-Romantic. I don't think I am a believer!

(Maybe I have been spending too much time today, trying to find something worthy of merit in the Alfredo d'Ambrosio Violin Concertos, and have overindulged in sweetmeats!)

[Mark Thomas]

Many thanks for the info on S-K's Violin Concerto, CelesteCadenza.

[Alan Howe]

You can't really compare Franke (b.1882) with Schmidt-Kowalski (b.1949). The latter's music is late-late romantic in style, whereas Franke draws on styles which pre-date S-K. It's rather like comparing, say, Richard Strauss with Carl Reinecke. So, if you favour Franke, you're probably not going to like S-K very much.

[terry martyn]

I have been giving your wise words some thought,Alan, and it is not the harmless style that isn't to my taste, maybe a trifle film-music at times (but then I like the Warsaw Concerto). I have concluded that I like the Franke for its heartfelt simplicity, but,whereas you say that the Schmidt-Kowalski is "full-on", i would say it is "trying too hard" and I am not convinced by it.

[Alan Howe]

They're very different - hence your differing reactions to them.