Fuchs Serenades from Naxos

[Mark Thomas]

I don't think that this new issue has been reported here before. Robert Fuch's first  two Serenades plus a couple of other works make for rather short measure, though. Availabe in Euroope at the end of the month. Full details here.

[eschiss1]

and no.2 isn't a premiere  (I'm not saying they claim it is, just that it might have been nice to have a recording of no.4, which has not been recorded yet - for the price of two horn players, anyway.) Admittedly the 1999 ebs CD of nos. 2 (15 and a half minutes in that rec., only slightly faster than in this new one) and 3 (21 min), with - again - the lovely Andante grazioso and capriccioso (17:23 on the ebs, again, practically the same), may be no longer available commercially.
Hrm. Naxos takes longer and longer to load for me. Is it ok to link to classicsonline.com, they're not quite the same but also reproduce the program notes and timings and seem to be faster?... (this link... if ok)
Eric

[Alan Howe]

We discussed the rather 'slim pickings' available on the CD a while back. I'll be passing on this one, but perhaps anyone who buys it can persuade me otherwise...?

[febnyc]

I have the ebs CD of the Second and Third Serenades, plus the Andante grazioso.

The timings for the tracks as shown on the booklet all appear to be wrong.  Has anyone else noticed this?

[M. Henriksen]

Serenades nos. 3, 4 & 5 to be released soon!

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.572607


Morten

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I thought the first Naxos disc (with the same forces) issued towards the end of 2011 of Serenades 1 and 2 was absolutely gorgeous. So I'm already wired up to order Serenades 3, 4 and 5.

True, that first disc was somewhat short measure at around 55 minutes. But with such music, and such performances, and at Naxos price, I don't complain. Besides I wouldn't dare NOT buy the new disc just in case Naxos got the idea that Fuchs doesn't sell. The more Fuchs the better - but a wise man wouldn't proclaim that loudly in the market place.

[M. Henriksen]

And on this forthcoming disc you can enjoy almost 69 minutes of Fuchs!


Morten

[eschiss1]

I -really- should consider getting that disc I still haven't heard serenades 4 and 5, I think, and no.3 maybe once at most.

[Alan Howe]

I changed my mind and greatly enjoyed volume 1, so volume 2 is a must-buy!

[Paul Barasi]

For me, Serenaden-Fuchs is a big disappointment in his own genre. The two serenades are anti-gravitas music.

[Alan Howe]

For me, Serenaden-Fuchs is a big disappointment in his own genre. The two serenades are anti-gravitas music.

That's precisely why they're such marvellously refreshing music - in my view, of course.

[Paul Barasi]

More than anything I was struck by the incongruent timing. For this was when Fuch's Conservatory colleague Bruckner wrote his symphonies 3-5 (and Dvořák likewise). It was just after Vienna had been filled with all the excitement of the Great Exhibition, with the Hofoperntheater's opera balls in full swing, and at the height of the raging controversy invoked by Wagner's Vienna concerts which were fundraisers for the inaugural Bayreuth Festival with its Götterdämmerung premiere. And Fuchs brings out this muzak!

[Alan Howe]

Well, they are what they are - serenades. Nothing wrong with lighter music, especially of this quality. Remember also that this was the period of Johann Strauss; Die Fledermaus - perhaps the greatest Viennese operetta of all - was written around that time too...

[eschiss1]

He was soon to follow the last of his serenades, to some critics' displeasure, with a- hrm, not serious (not in the sense of "solemn", anyway) - thoughtful?  - hrm... well, with the first two of his string quartets, anyway... the first of which has a quiet and calm opening movement that I anyway am very taken with (well, I'm taken with all four of them, as played by the Minguet Quartet on MDG, but the opening and third movements of the first, and the whole of the 1916 4th quartet, are all real treats of a more substantial order in my opinion, as is the 6th violin sonata- but those last are rather later things.)

Eric

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Hum, think I'll declare war on anyone who doesn't respond favorably to the second Naxos disc containing Serenades 3, 4 and 5.

So there!