Théodore Dubois Violin Concerto

[Alan Howe]

One of my longest-standing wishes is about to come true - the release of a recording of the Violin Concerto in D minor of 1896 by Théodore Dubois (1837-1924). Details here (ignore MDT's own notes - they have the wrong Dubois!!)...
http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_April11/BNL112964.htm

[albion]

Hi Alan, in my ignorance I'm afraid that I don't know any of Dubois' music (or much French unsung music generally) - can you explain why he's so special to you?

[Alan Howe]

He's a composer of great craftsmanship and wonderfully romantic melodic flair. Try some of these excerpts at jpc...

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/home/search?fastsearch=theodore%20dubois&rubric=classic&pd_orderby=score

[jerfilm]

His Seven Last Words of Christ for chorus, soli and organ is a very lovely work.  Tge very first stereo reel to reel tape I ever purchased.

Jerry

[petershott@btinternet.com]

And both thumbs stuck up high for the three Atma discs of chamber works included in Alan's list of discs above. Some lovely and very well crafted works here - and the discs are finely produced.

[Mark Thomas]

Oh, great news, Alan, and I'm sure that it'll be a rewarding work. Gift horses and mouths, I know, but what a shame that it is coupled with yet another performance of Lalo's old warhorse. I understand why this is done, the label doesn't have the confidence that the Dubois will sell if coupled with something else obscure, but how many Symphonie Espagnols does the world need? If Hyperion can make a success of a series of dozens of recordings which make a virtue of works which are  (one or two excepted) completely unsung then surely others can learn from their example? I don't want another copy of the Lalo, so I'll probably wait until I can find a download site where I can download the Dubois' tracks instead, which will put a lot less money the label's way. Silly.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Exactly!

I wonder just how carefully record companies undertake their 'market research'? I'm absolutely convinced that a CD containing recordings of two rare (or previously unrecorded) works by an unsung will sell more than a CD with one rare / unusual work plus a warhorse. After all, folk like us will rush out to buy the former. As will libraries, university music departments, and other institutions. But when times get hard there is far less incentive for any category of buyer to add yet another recording of a warhorse to a collection even though riding on its back might be an unfamiliar work. It is not just Mark who keeps the plastic card in the pocket for there have to be limits to expenditure however tempting it is to acquire Dubois. Is it actually worth buying that if I'm then saddled with the 13th recording of Lalo is the question that faces us.

I fear this factor may well influence sales of the Dubois Vn Concerto disc - and the Hans Gal symphonies mentioned on another thread. And that would be a great pity, for the grey-suited ones in the record companies then think 'Huh, Dubois / Gal doesn't sell well - so no more CDs of their works'.

I guess the situation is perhaps asymmetrical when it comes to planning concert programmes. If you want to fill a concert hall, then maybe there is good sense in coupling Dubois with Lalo, or Gal with Schubert. And it might be harder to sell tickets for a concert whose programme was made up solely of rarer items (that's just a crude and uninformed guess).

If I'm right then record companies should never pretend that a record is a kind of concert that you can hear at home without the inconvenience of putting your hat on. A record isn't like a concert programme or recital at all. That's why I never buy a CD made up, for example, of string quartets by Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven (but I'd be quite thrilled to attend a concert of a highly regarded quartet giving these works).

[JimL]

...I guess the situation is perhaps asymmetrical when it comes to planning concert programmes. If you want to fill a concert hall, then maybe there is good sense in coupling Dubois with Lalo, or Gal with Schubert. And it might be harder to sell tickets for a concert whose programme was made up solely of rarer items (that's just a crude and uninformed guess).

That is precisely the point I've been trying to make about how to introduce unsung works to the general public.  Make sure they can't get their Beethoven 7th without some unsung concerto, or arrange the program so that if you want to get your Rach 3 you have to sit through some unsung symphony first!

[eschiss1]

Apologies for paraphrasing Alan Walker and Franz Liszt as though I find them to be unassailable authorities on every, all and each sundry subject - hardly - but Walker does mention some interesting to me thoughts of Liszt's, about this particular long-ongoing discussion about how best to program challenging music (and Liszt's orchestral music, for example, qualified for conductor, orchestra and audience- critics too.) Unfortunately placement in the program really didn't seem to work either way, in the end- not sufficiently...

[Mark Thomas]

FWIW the Dubois  Concerto is already available from iTunes. I'm listening to the piece now. Unfortunately you have to buy the whole CD to get the first movement but at £7.99 against £12.65 it's a steal unless you're lost without the booklet. Isn't it odd, though? The label couple the Lalo with the Dubois because they fear that otherwise the CD won't sell and yet iTunes reckon that the only way they'll sell the whole CD's worth of tracks is if they make the Dubois' opening movement "album only".

The music? I'm midway through that big (14 minute long) first movement, so it's too early to be definitive, but my main impression is one of grateful lyricism in the violin line, coupled with quite a robust orchestral accompaniment. It sounds a little old fashioned for 1896; wouldn't be out of place in the 1860s. Think Saint-Saëns or Godard VCs. Pretty much what I'd hoped for. Lovely. My only criticism is that the violin is recorded rather too much to the foreground for my taste, but the music's the thing.

[Alan Howe]

I'd say the VC sounds rather too chromatic for the 1860s, but otherwise Mark is spot-on. It's absolutely gorgeous stuff!

[JimL]

This is one of the reasons I don't load up on warhorses.  I have no Symphonie Espagnole that I can recall.  So I'm going to load up on this.  I wonder if I can get the Lalo Concerto in F Major and the Concert Russe somewhere else?

[Alan Howe]

This is a work which is both immediately attractive and yet also has enough substance to reward careful listening. I would certainly recommend it to any lover of substantial Romantic VCs (rather than of fripperies written by composer-violinists).

[Mark Thomas]

Hear, Hear! (On both counts)

[febnyc]

This is one of the reasons I don't load up on warhorses.  I have no Symphonie Espagnole that I can recall.  So I'm going to load up on this.  I wonder if I can get the Lalo Concerto in F Major and the Concert Russe somewhere else?

I have a Chandos (9758) recording of both which does the trick for me.  The disc also includes a Scherzo and Lalo's Overture to Le Roi d'Ys.

Trouble is, although I love the Dubois chamber music discs I have, my Perlman recording of the Symphonie Espagnol is so good that I really don't want another.  However, I guess I'll have to suffer the usual problem of warhorse couplings to hear Dubois' VC.  C'est la vie!