Rubinstein Piano Concerto 5: and works whose poignancy have GROWN on you

[Mark Thomas]

I take your point. No, I don't think that Raff s considered a "major" by the big concert halls and their orchestras, but there are certainly many more performances around the world of his music than there were, particularly in Germany and Switzerland, and that indicates significant movement. More to the point, I think that there's a strong case for the argument that the focus of classical music has changed from live performance to recorded. I'm not saying that's how it should be, but it think it true nonetheless. The concert hall repertoire of the major orchestras has ossified over the last 50 years to the degree that there are probably no more than 250 works being played with any regularity anywhere. In contrast, the market for recorded music is very much more diverse now than it was and, dare I say it, educated. That's where the Unsungs are scoring their successes. The big classical labels now aren't Decca, Philips, EMI and DGG of old, they're Chandos, Hyperion, cpo and Naxos and their catalogues are chock full of Unsungs. I do believe that this is slowly feeding through to broadcasting and will eventually lead to a liberalising of the live repertoire. There's also a clear willingness in academe to be more open-minded about "unknown" composers and a disinclination to parrot the judgements of previous generations, which can only be healthy. Finally, I've found performers much more interested in this repertoire than they were 10 years ago. Indeed, there's often an astonishment that such good quality music has been buried.

I didn't mean to sound smug or complacent, and maybe it came across that way. There has been significant movement, but there's also a very long way to go.

[Alan Howe]

If we go by mere appearances in the concert hall, hardly any unsungs are actually being performed on a regular basis. But what we can say is that a very large proportion of Raff's output has now been recorded - which certainly wasn't the case 20 years ago. In this respect Raff is leading the way...

[eschiss1]

Somewhat defensively - I was just addressing myself to the exact question posed, not a broader one, regarding Raff.  What orchestra will Järvi be recording with anyhow, any idea?

[edurban]

 "...There's also a clear willingness in academe to be more open-minded about "unknown" composers and a disinclination to parrot the judgements of previous generations..."

And thank heavens for it.  Now if we could only grant the new music mafia at the New York Times and the New Yorker similar enlightenment...

David

[eschiss1]

The Nation used to have some thoughtful music writers once, even though John Leonard once in passing (in an article not, I think, primarily about WW2- I mean, music (yes, that's a Tom Lehrer reference)) referred to too much of Stenhammar's Second Symphony (or words to that effect) and Edward Said described Roger Sessions' (Bminor/C minor 1930) 1st piano sonata as a "period piece". (I don't think I agree, but I do agree opinions should differ and he was a thoughtful writer generally.) Not sure offhand if they have a writer who has much to do with classical music at this time, though.
As to the New Yorker, is Alex Ross all so bad?... I disagree with him about a number of things when I read him but I don't think of him as I used to think of Donal Henahan (sp?) and others at the NYT. (It was so amusing to read a review decades back by Henahan of a Bacewicz work where he criticized her music for lacking exactly the qualities, I think, he would later excoriate composers and music for having...)
Eric

[edurban]

"...As to the New Yorker, is Alex Ross all so bad?..."

He's wonderful on the standard repertoire and music after WWI.  But you can generally say that about the Times, as well.  Actually, on last season's Met Opera revival of Thomas' Hamlet, the Times had an excellent, intelligent article & a fine review, though Ross had the usual knee-jerk reactions.  The recent (and politically-correct?) Times review of Fanny Mendelssohn's murkily orchestrated Cantata was complementary, while the much finer and better orchestrated Letzten Dinge of Spohr that followed it on the ASO program was felt to be 'too long' (at about 70 minutes!)  Absurd.  Completely unfamiliar music, even old completely unfamiliar music is a strain on the listener's attention and not automatically to be blamed on the composer.  I can practically sing the Spohr from beginning to end, and I didn't find it a moment too long.

E. Said as music critic?!?

David

[eschiss1]

Re Said: e.g. http://www.mediamonitors.net/edward35.html (yes, I know Lehar was closer than Wagner to Hitler's heart, but just choosing this as an example and probably not the best one; I don't know. Was the first one that came up, and I'm feeling, I admit, logey to be mild about that ) I believe there's at least one, possibly a few, books by Said collecting his music criticism or even originally intended (not collections) for the subject, and hardly all from political angles by any means, but again I will have to check later...

[eschiss1]

"...As to the New Yorker, is Alex Ross all so bad?..."

He's wonderful on the standard repertoire and music after WWI.  But you can generally say that about the Times, as well. 

David

If one can say "wonderful on...music after WWI" about the Times, things really have changed since the days when Sargeant and Henahan variously were dispensing pithy one-liners in the guise of actual thought on the music of the day (Roger Sessions' 8th symphony was so disposed of by Sargeant, or so he thought; Henahan tried to do a better job by Schoenberg's piano concerto- not at its premiere, as with Sargeant and Sessions, but rather during my lifetime and hence many years after it instead, but could think of nothing better than to contrast the Schoenberg with Brahms' wonderful late piano works instead- an interesting thought but ... not as enlightening as could be.)

Eric

[Alan Howe]

Somewhat defensively - I was just addressing myself to the exact question posed, not a broader one, regarding Raff.  What orchestra will Järvi be recording with anyhow, any idea?

Reportedly, the Suisse Romande Orchestra.

[eschiss1]

Reportedly, the Suisse Romande Orchestra.

That seems a very good choice, a historic ensemble...

[giles.enders]

Does any one know if the four Marco Polo recordings of Rubinstein's music for piano and orchestra are to be re issued on Naxos?

[Mark Thomas]

When I last spoke to Klaus Heymann some years ago about their policy on reissuing the MP Raff symphonies on Naxos he said that they intended to do so only after existing stocks of the MP pressings had run out. In the meantime they have all become available both individually and as a "boxed set" as downloads and only two of the CDs have been reissued on Naxos. I suspect that the same thing will apply to other MP issues. From a different exchange only a couple of months ago with a senior HNH executive came the revelation that "our release schedule for the next 18 months is already full (with 25 to 30 new releases per month)." If the Rubinstein PCs aren't in the pipeline already, there might be a long wait...