Unsung Composers

The Music => Composers & Music => Topic started by: EarlyRomantic on Thursday 31 March 2011, 11:29

Title: CPO: Again!
Post by: EarlyRomantic on Thursday 31 March 2011, 11:29
 CPO are releasing Symphonies by Gluck(Did we really know they existed?!) as well as  Die Winzerbraut  by Nedbal. Truly, is there anything NOT possible from them? I celebrate their exhaustively generous, catholic approach to music. Each month, we truly can believe that nearly anything we wish for  has the chance of becoming real!  I guess next we insert a remark about what they have given to us, which release meant so much to us, or how much we value them!
Title: Re: CPO: Again!
Post by: TerraEpon on Thursday 31 March 2011, 20:50
Symphonies....or "sinfonias", aka overtures? My book has listings of nine of them ("of unidentified works") but no actual symphonies.
Title: Re: CPO: Again!
Post by: khorovod on Thursday 31 March 2011, 22:24
Although I can't speak for the Gluck, I think you are applying a distinction that simply didn't exist in such clear cut terms in the Classical era.  I have seen facsimiles of numerous symphony title pages that use the term "Sinfonia". Italian was the lingua Franca of musical Europe at this time as far as terminology is concerned. It pays to best in mind that the absolutes and distinctions that became codified in the 19th C did not exist then so we should be careful of being revisionist in our approach.
Title: Re: CPO: Again!
Post by: EarlyRomantic on Thursday 31 March 2011, 22:47
 I understand sonata form, as it specifically denoted the 19th Century symphony in its consummate form. I'm well aware that these are not 30-40 minute symphonies. The salient point is that these may be previously unknown or unrecorded orchestral compositions. It is noteworthy to me because Gluck was not an extremely prolific composer.Furthermore,  what he did compose has been  known for a long time. My astonishment  derived from the fact that CPO excavated possibly new material, AND  offered it to us.This is simply what they do, and, eventually, they're going to make ALL of us elated, most of us many times over.Some of these works are designated by names of cities. Some are signified by "Chen" numbers, presumably a chief cataloguer  of his works.So, pedantic arguments about form aside, as I began by saying, why don't we celebrate what they are giving us, and  the extent to which they are  willing to go in order to do so?
Title: Re: CPO: Again!
Post by: TerraEpon on Friday 01 April 2011, 06:41
Right, but it's almost certainly a disc of overtures (akin to the fantastic 2CD set of Haydn's released by BIS not too long ago) rather than a set of Haydnesque/Mozartian symphonies that one might expect from the info.