Xaver Scharwenka's Symphony in C minor Op.60

[Martin Eastick]

Following on from Jonathan's post of earlier today under 2022 Unsung Concerts, and having investigated further, I came across this recent performance of Scharwenka's Symphony in C minor, with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra conducted (and presented) by that ever-present advocate of Polish romantic repertoire, Lukasz Borowicz! The performance is certainly exciting, as one might expect; and perhaps a new recording may be on the cards? One can only hope so!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBC1EaAbbYc

[britishcomposer]

Martin, you are right: Lukasz Borowicz said in a recent interview with Deutschlandfunk Kultur that he will record the Scharwenka symphony for cpo. He was very enthusiastic about the work.

[Alan Howe]

Can anyone download this, please?

[Mark Thomas]

You'll have the mp3s tomorrow...

[Alan Howe]

Cor! That'll make my day!

[Sharkkb8]

Can anyone download this, please?

Off-topic of Scharwenka (and I'll start separate thread if anyone thinks it's warranted), but I just downloaded this from Youtube using a site which may (or may not) have been mentioned here sometime along the way, mp3-now.com.  Have used it before for this very type of thing, but increasingly, one has to navigate around all manner of scammy-phishy-looking pop-ups, and I'm getting increasingly nervous about using it.  Anyone have any other suggestions?  I was going to post my mp3 here of this Scharwenka work (I did manage to get one), but if Mark is going to do so, it will very likely be better quality than mine would offer.

[Mark Thomas]

You can download mp3s made from the YouTube video from our Downloads Board here. I haven't compared this performance with the one conducted by Chris Fifield on Sterling, but I see that the first movement lasts only 11 minutes, compared with Fifield's 14 - is it really that much quicker, or is a repeat not being observed? The other movement timings are broadly similar.

As for scammy/fishy YT download sites Sharrkkb8, I'd shy away from anything which is based purely online and try out one of the several programs which can be downloaded to do the job. FWIW I use 4K Video Downloader, which has always done an excellent job.

[Alan Howe]

Brilliant. Very many thanks, Mark.

[matesic]

Thanks for the tip Mark, 4K Video Downloader seems to work very smoothly. Of course you have to make sure you download the app itself and not some other geegaw they try to foist on you in a green square.

[Ilja]

If you're on the fruit-based side of computing, I can heartily recommend the ill-named Downie for the same task.

The Borowicz recording makes for interesting comparison to Chris Fifield's version on Sterling. It shaves about five minutes off the playing time, and is played solidly. However, I still think I prefer Fifield's; he adds a certain brooding gravitas that I find essential in this repertoire. Borowicz's recording is perhaps a bit too lean and transparent. In addition, the percussion, which Scharwenka uses sparingly but effectively, is placed too far to the back for my liking. It's a very good performance, though.

Still, it's not only great that we have two really good recordings of this piece, but two that have chosen quite different approaches.

[Martin Eastick]

I remember speaking with Chris Fifield shortly before his recording sessions for the symphony, and mention was made of the rather small number of strings he had at his disposal in Sweden. This new perfromance with the Poznan Philharmonic has also a rather sparse allocation of string players in this performance, although it has to be said that in both cases they give a good account of themselves, but I can't help thinking that this work requires a larger string contingent to get the best results. It may well be that the Poznan performance is using a reduced force due to covid restrictions, further evidenced by the spacing and partitioningof the players

[Sharkkb8]

(thanks very much to Mark & Ilja for the Youtube-to-mp3 suggestions, I've downloaded both and so far they look much safer to use, and easier to boot!)

[Martin Eastick]

Having compared the recording of the Symphony with the two excerpts from "Mataswintha", I'm convinced that the latter certainly appear to have more strength in the string department - can anyone confirm this perhaps! Also I had forgotten that the Naxos recording of the 4th Concerto also has the Overture as a filler, and together with  "König Wichiti's Werbungt", highlight the definite need to hear more of this opera! Although i have a piano score of the complete work, this in no way gives any indication of the finished article! Perhaps this may be in Lukasz' plans for the future - we can only but hope!