After a rather ..... Vol. 53 it seems Hyperion is finally going to release Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 54 - Somervell & Cowen. Cant wait for it!!!!
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67837 (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67837)
(http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/jpegs/034571178370.png)
Oh joy! Oh rapture! Oh bliss! ;D
A great combination of soloist, orchestra and conductor too - the RPC waggon lurches back onto the tracks! ;)
This really is great news. As you can see from the link, it's a September release...
I look forward to this release very much, and I am extremely grateful to Hyperion for resurrecting these lovely works. The Somervell PC was never published and the Full Score and orchestral parts for the Normandy Variations (published by Augener) were also lost by the publisher (!), so both these pieces had to have scores and parts made up from the MSS. That's a lot of work and expense. Well done, Hyperion, for such dedication.
Yes - clearly a great deal of thought and effort has gone into this eagerly-awaited release. Premiere recordings are what many people look to Hyperion for, and here they have come up with a great programme!
I'd also like to express my gratitude to Hyperion for going to the time, trouble and expense of creating entirely new performing material for the Somervell works - it is fortunate that the manuscripts for both were still extant. A reduction of the Normandy Variations for two pianos can be downloaded from IMSLP - http://imslp.org/wiki/Normandy_%28Somervell,_Arthur%29 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Normandy_%28Somervell,_Arthur%29).
Mention should also be made again that the full orchestral score of Cowen's Concertstuck, written for Paderewski and premiered in 1900, is also available - http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_%28Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen%29 (http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_%28Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen%29). :)
I'm looking forward to this one too. I've always been curious about the "Normandy" variations since Tovey included it in the "Concerto" volume in his "Essays in Musical Analysis". The release of this disc will mean that all the works discussed in that volume have now been recorded..
For those unfamiliar with Frederic Cowen's Concertstück, Lewis Foreman has given a very useful summary in the latest BMS Newsletter -
The music of this near-20-minute movement plays continuously, but falls into several sections. A clarinet opens the proceedings with a lamenting theme punctuated by solemn chords. The scoring of this introduction is delightful, soon coloured with horn tone. The piano takes up the theme and quickly introduces a falling dotted motif that reappears throughout and returns in triumph at the end. Cowen, no mean pianist himself constantly leaves his soloist with little accompaniment. The music works up to a climax. Eventually with a cadenza the soloist takes us into a 12-bar linking section A Tempo moderato, which Cowen scores with the light touch for which he was celebrated, the harp prominent and the violins reduced to just four players. The following Molto Allegro takes us to a contrasted piano idyll - tempo tranquillo - all rounded by cadenza and coda in which both themes appear.
Cowen now uses the triangle to colour a L'istesso tempo section (ie the time signature changes, to 2/4, but the tempo apparently does not). This is in G minor and again is introduced by the solo piano. The music proceeds in high spirits and much piano display, the strings eventually finding a lyrical version of the falling motif and the orchestra.
The recapitulation starts with the piano repeating the 2/4 theme and there follows a succession of short sections, effectively contrasted variations, notably three delightful episodes in which both piano and orchestra are treated with the greatest delicacy. A gossamer piano cadenza muses upon what has gone before the orchestra gradually increase the tempo and take us to closing headlong Presto - becoming Prestissimo - and the grand final statement of the theme by the orchestra, the piano sailing commandingly over it with chords and then a final dash to the end with brilliant passage-work which goes on and on as if neither side is willing to give up.
Thanks, Albion. Something to look forward to, then.
Indeed! And looking forward momentarily beyond this exciting release, at least three more volumes are already specified by Hyperion -
Volume 55 Widor
Volume 56 Kalkbrenner
Volume 57 Wiklund
- does anybody have further information about these planned recordings, and what might possibly constitute volume 58? ???
More Kalkbrenner? Do want.
Ditto. Now maybe I'll find out whether it is the 2nd or 3rd Kalkbrenner concerto that is in F# minor.
Quote- does anybody have further information about these planned recordings, and what might possibly constitute volume 58? ???
Nothing for certain, I'm afraid - but I'm fairly sure the Concerto and Concertino by Pixis will make an appearance in the series before too long.
As I've said before, I'm so eager to hear that the Pixis volume is a reality. Whoever here first learns of its release, please return to this thread to give those of us interested in it the glad news. Thank You!
Mention of Kalkbrenner concertos 2 & 3 still leaves Op.125 for two pianos and orchestra to be recorded. Any thoughts for an unrecorded coupling?
Besides the two two-piano concertos he composed on his own, is there not a two-piano concerto collaboratively composed by Mendelssohn with his mentor Moscheles? Stylistically very compatible, one would think, with Kalkbrenner.
opus 87 (or 87a, or 87b- will have to check?) in the work catalog of one or the other of them -yes.
I'm not so sure about that. I think Moscheles' Op. 87 is his own 5th PC. And I'm pretty sure that the concerto was never published, and is an early work for Mendelssohn, like the pair of two-piano concertos and the various works for string orchestra. If it had an opus number in his catalog it would be low, not up in the 80s. Unless, that is, he withheld it from publication for 15 years and then put it into his Opera.
P.S. I must have been posting while you were modifying. Yes, it's possible it is in the Moscheles catalogue under an Opus 87a or b listing.
The Moschles collaboration is apparently Fantasy and Variations on Weber's La Preciosa, and I have it listed for piano and orchestra, not two pianos and orchestra -- I assume I got this instrumentation from Mendelssohn's themematic catalog. Interestingly, the book I have puts the piece under two pianos ALONE....so I dunno.
Different work, I believe. There is a concerto as well, for two pianos and orchestra, apart from the concertos that Mendelssohn composed by himself. I've seen references to it from more than one source. I don't make stuff like that up off the top of my head, you know. ;)
Well it's not in the thematic catalog from just a couple years ago. So...
It might be in Moscheles' ;D
hrm. according to Todd (Mendelssohn: A Life in Music) Moscheles' opus 87b (published and I believe also composed 1833) is the Moscheles/Mendelssohn variations. Not denying there might be a concerto too but perhaps without opus no. or with a different one. (Moscheles appears, Todd writes, to have edited the final product heavily, or one guesses so as Mendelssohn complained he hardly recognized a measure of the final version.) (Link. (http://books.google.com/books?id=j2Pf2yQipyUC&pg=PA275))
Quote from: eschiss1 on Sunday 29 May 2011, 16:35
hrm. according to Todd (Mendelssohn: A Life in Music) Moscheles' opus 87b (published and I believe also composed 1833) is the Moscheles/Mendelssohn variations. Not denying there might be a concerto too but perhaps without opus no. or with a different one. (Moscheles appears, Todd writes, to have edited the final product heavily, or one guesses so as Mendelssohn complained he hardly recognized a measure of the final version.) (Link. (http://books.google.com/books?id=j2Pf2yQipyUC&pg=PA275))
I have the Preciosa Vars. listed in my online discography of music for piano and orchestra. It's been recorded commercially at least twice:
Mendelssohn, Felix and Moscheles, Ignaz (1794-1870)
Variations on a Theme from Weber's "Preciosa" for 2 Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 87b
Schwann VMS 2088: Anthony and Joseph Paratore/RIAS Sinfonietta/Uroš Lajovic (arr. by Hans Priegnitz)
Turnabout TV 34821: Martin Berkofsky, David Hagen/Berlin SO/Lutz Herbig (said to be the "first recording based on the original version", but I'm not sure about this based on Michael Cooper's claim below. A hand-copied score was found in the Otillie Sutro collection that also yielded the Bruch 2-Piano Concerto. Supposedly Martin Berkofsky then located most of the orchestral parts at the Library of Congress and copied the missing ones from the score).
According to Cooper, the manuscript of the orig. version played on May 1, 1833 is in the Scientific Music Library of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. See other details in <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Knowing+Mendelssohn%3A+a+challenge+from+the+primary+sources.-a0122914505>. Cooper arranged for the 2009 world premiere of this at Southwestern Univ. and this can be seen on youtube <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54HMxZDzlJ8>. See also the story at <http://www.southwestern.edu/newsroom/story.php?id=619>. The orchestration here is similar to that on the Turnabout recording; Jonathan Bellman reconstructed the piano parts.
Perhaps some of the confusion regarding a 2-piano concerto composed jointly by Mendelssohn and Moscheles stems from the fact that Mendelssohn's 2-Piano Concerto in E survives in autographs by both composers. Stephan Lindeman has written about this.
...that's even more odd. The thematic catalog (again) puts it squarely in the concerto section.
Funny. I could have sworn I saw in a Mendelssohn bio somewhere that there was a full-blown concerto collaboratively composed by them after Felix completed his two works. I mean it could have been a liner note or something, but there was no mention of variations, or Weber. However, nusuth. Said work would still be stylistically compatible with Kalkbrenner if a recording of his two-piano concerto is in the pipeline.
I dont know if members ever seen it.
I uploaded a time ago the Kalkbrenner PC no.2 on youtube with the score.
A broadcasted recording. Performers are shown in my video description.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MCGXkRqQPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXybZoZYMko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7hufyMIFz4
All best,
Tony
Thank you Tony. You've answered a lot of questions. The 2nd Kalkbrenner concerto is in E minor which means the 3rd is the one in F-sharp minor so playfully mocked by Schumann in the NZM.
Just to alert members to the fact that this much-anticipated release is now available to pre-order from amazon.co.uk, the price currently being £10.54 with free delivery -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romantic-Concertos-Concertstuck-Symphonic-Variations/dp/B00570JX24/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313066957&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romantic-Concertos-Concertstuck-Symphonic-Variations/dp/B00570JX24/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313066957&sr=8-1)
:)
Whilst impatiently waiting for the actual disc to arrive in the post, I downloaded Cowen's Concertstuck from the Hyperion site and have listened through several times following the IMSLP full score (strongly recommended) -
http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_(Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen) (http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_(Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen))
This is a lovely piece which, for all the surface attraction of the orchestration and pianistic fireworks, really repays some close attention in terms of structure and melodic variation - a very soundly constructed multi-sectional format allows for enough variety within the whole but (unlike the Indian Rhapsody) the piece does not seem like an amalgam of disjointed 'bits and pieces' thrown into a melting pot.
Oh, and it receives a superb performance too!
;D
Is it possible to find the score of Highlands Concerto by Somervell?..About this CD it is the only one not founded on IMSLP
Andrea
The score of the Highland Concerto is unpublished and exists in MS only. Parts were made up specially for the Hyperion recording. The same had to be done for the Normandy Variations, for although Augener published a 2-piano score and was supposed to have published a full score and a set of parts neither of these latter can now be found. Somervell's MSS (including the Highland Concerto) are in the Royal College of Music.
thankyou Gareth, I'll try to learn by ear after buying the cd :'(
bye, Andrea
Has it even been published? A scan of the manuscript is probably permissible under what's called editio princeps (far as I understand these things...) since it was first performed, not in 2010 for those concerts, but in the 1920s (as is easily checked). - Gareth: thanks, sorry, didn't see your response... (I shouldn't say easily checked, sorry... I did do a Google Books search and came upon a report that seemed to say that the Highland concerto had been performed- but must look closer. And even so, it could have been performed from whatever was at hand or from parts that don't exist now. Not being sarcastic.)
The Highland Concerto is YUm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sure the RCM would be prepared to make you a photocopy of Somervell's MS if you asked nicely. They'd want to be paid something though - but probably not much.
I do so agree with John about the merits of Cowen's piece. I've downloaded both it and the Somervell, but haven't listen to the latter yet, so struck was I by the Cowen that I just had to play it through again. If I'm honest, knowing the two Cowen symphonies which are available, I was surprised how good it is. None of that running out of steam which characterises them for me. This work starts purposefully and has a real sense of both momentum and direction. It's melodically and harmonically attractive and superbly orchestrated too. Well done, that man!
The disc and the two works on it, get an excellent review in this month's IRR, by the way.
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Sunday 04 September 2011, 17:29
I do so agree with John about the merits of Cowen's piece.
This disc was always going to surprise a good many people. Yes, the music is fluent and urbane and no, it plumbs no great emotional depths. However, it is an expertly crafted and ultimately very satisfying showcase for the piano - melodically strong and, as Mark says, it moves with a real strength of purpose in it's intention to entertain. It is no surprise that the
Daily News (29th June 1900) reported of the premiere that "Time after time the audience recalled the pianist [Paderewski], who came on hand in hand with the composer".
What is needed now are first-rate recordings of the Symphonic Poem
A Phantasy of Life and Love (1901), another of Cowen's strongest purely orchestral works, together with the Symphony No.5 (1887) and the exquisite Overture
The Butterfly's Ball (1901).
:)
And the Indian Rhapsody, of course. ;D
David
Quote from: edurban on Monday 05 September 2011, 01:03
And the Indian Rhapsody, of course. ;D
David
I second that.... even though many members in the forum seem to dislike it so much.
Quote from: FBerwald on Monday 05 September 2011, 06:32
Quote from: edurban on Monday 05 September 2011, 01:03
And the Indian Rhapsody, of course. ;D
David
I second that.... even though many members in the forum seem to dislike it so much.
Oh, go on then - if it was a first-class performance of the
Indian Rhapsody I would welcome it without reservation. Add the exuberant 1902 Coronation March, the compact 4th Symphony (1884) and the
Suite of Old English Dances, Set 2 (1905) and you'd begin to have the makings of a second great disc!
;)
My copy of the Cowen Concertstuck has come, and I'll add my surprise and delight to the chorus. It's a regular barnburner! Who would have guessed that the author of the pale, staid Scandinavian Symphony was keeping such slavic fire in reserve? Give me more of the unbuttoned Cowen, please, he of the (I'm speculating) jolly after-dinner-speeches-at-the-club-that-have-gone-unrecorded-by-polite-history. I'm beginning to like the man for more than his Jamaican birth. And the Indian Rhapsody, of course.
On to Somervell...
David
Berkshire Record Outlet just put up about 125 Hyperion cutouts including a large number of the Piano Concerto series - about half price if you missed them the first time around.
Jerry
Quote from: edurban on Saturday 10 September 2011, 02:54Who would have guessed that the author of the pale, staid Scandinavian Symphony was keeping such slavic fire in reserve? Give me more of the unbuttoned Cowen, please, he of the (I'm speculating) jolly after-dinner-speeches-at-the-club-that-have-gone-unrecorded-by-polite-history.
I agree - even with a better recording than the dismal Marco Polo offering, the
Scandinavian Symphony (1880) is unlikely to impress very much: it belongs very much to Cowen's 'early' period and seems uncertain, repetitive and 'under-cooked'. His increasing experience as a conductor through the 1880s and 1890s (Covent Garden Promenade Concerts, Liverpool Philharmonic, Bradford Festival Choral Society, Scottish Orchestra, London Philharmonic Society) widened his outlook and helped to bring his musical technique into sharper focus.
Although Cowen was perceived by many to be a rather colourless character (often described as 'kindly' or 'genial') largely due to his reticence in press interviews, he
had a keen sense of humour, and was an uncommonly good story teller. As he had an immense fund of stories always on hand, I found by experience that it was important to get the rehearsal completed before Cowen got launched, or the rehearsal might last for hours.
(A.M. Henderson,
Musical Memories, 1938)
Volume 54 will be included in the discussion of new releases on tomorrow's edition of CD Review (11.00 Radio 3) - I wonder if it will find favour ...
???
as to future RPC releases I have heard that also ctos by Rozycki and Zelenski were taken into account
Quote from: Albion on Friday 23 September 2011, 15:38
Volume 54 will be included in the discussion of new releases on tomorrow's edition of CD Review (11.00 Radio 3) - I wonder if it will find favour ...
???
Well, they were very enthusiastic...especially about Cowen's "Concertstuck" and Somervell's "Highland Concerto" but surely Cowen's piece isn't "Brahmsian" as they said. The piano writing is very much in the tradition of Liszt/Saint-Saens and the orchestration doesn't sound remotely like Brahms. Cowen was, apparently, famed for his light touch as an orchestrator and the "Concertsuck" is full of colourful effects (e.g. those little harp touches) which aren't really part of Brahms' style. The melodic material isn't Brahmsian either. It's just too quirky! Could anyone confuse Cowen's piece with a Brahms Piano Concerto? Isn't the word "Brahmsian" carelessly used?
QuoteIsn't the word "Brahmsian" carelessly used?
I agree completely - far too carelessly used. There is very little (at least, that I can hear) Brahmsian about Cowen's Concertstuck. I'm afraid many reviewers (and I include here, many whom I respect) just don't seem to listen properly and seriously when it comes to non-mainstream repertoire. One suspects they bring to it the prejudice that it's not worth taking seriously so why give it proper attention?! Sorry to be so cynical.
Just realised that this post, added to the thread about F.H. Cowen, should better have been placed here:
"I listened today -in the car actually- to the new Hyperion coupling of the Cowen Piano Concertstuck and the Somervell Piano Concerto 'Highland' and Normandy Variations.
I am always (I hope ;D) more than happy to admit when I am wrong about music :) I confess to expecting some subfusc, sepia-tintented, cobwebbed relics from the tailend of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th which would confirm my expectations.
I was more than pleasantly surprised, indeed delighted to hear three such vibrant, tuneful and such confident pieces. Had tremendous fun listening to them and found myself tapping along on the steering-wheel(wretched bad practice, I know ;D), particularly to the Highland Concerto. (Helps being Scottish myself, I suppose :)"
Yes, I was (strangely enough) more than pleased to hear that the reviewers were greatly taken with Cowen's effervescent Concertstuck, and I also agree that some of the comments were a little off-beam as regards listener-orientation (certainly no Brahmsian intellectualism here, thank you very much).
However, they did rightly pick up on the individuality of the style - "couldn't possibly be German", etc. - to our satiated ears, an amalgam of Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak (i.e. the prevailing melodic and harmonic idiom of the 1880s-1890s), but handled in such a fresh and attractive way that really is Cowen's own (as greater exposure to his best music will show).
I also agree that Somervell's Highland Conceto is more immediately appealing that his Normandy Variations, but I nevertheless felt that they were more than a little harsh on the latter piece, which repays repeated listening to appreciate just how skilfully it is constructed.
All in all, a very positive response which will have (no doubt) encouraged many listeners to purchase the recording.
:)
Actually, to be fair, on listening again, the word "Brahmsian" wasn't used although Brahms was described as "clearly the man for people like Cowen" and, in the "Concertstuck", "you hear a bit of Brahms". Contradicting this, though, "it couldn't be German;it's definitely English". Tchaikovsky and Dvorak are also mentioned but, curiously, not Liszt. (If anything, it's the "Normandy" Variations which show the influence of Brahms.)
The main thing is that, concerning Cowen's piece, "you hear a lot of something quite fresh" and it's "a very, very fine piece indeed". A slightly confused review, then, but certainly an enthusiastic one and that's the main thing!
As with the reviews of Rufinatscha 6, when a genuinely good unsung piece comes along the reviewers are often stumped. Unsung music, it appears, has to be defined in terms of the known repertoire instead of being heard first and foremost on its own terms. After all, if it's unsung, it must be derivative, mustn't it?
Quote from: Alan Howe on Sunday 25 September 2011, 09:34
As with the reviews of Rufinatscha 6, when a genuinely good unsung piece comes along the reviewers are often stumped. Unsung music, it appears, has to be defined in terms of the known repertoire instead of being heard first and foremost on its own terms. After all, if it's unsung, it must be derivative, mustn't it?
Do you think that perhaps it's because the "great" composers are such cultural icons that they have evolved into adjectives?
or concepts, and I think only sometimes well-understood ones at that (Brahms at his best and most Brahmsian does not sound "Brahmsian" and they can chew on that until they understand that if ever they do)- a byproduct of our being concept/tool-using creatures, ok, but...
following the earlier post on more or less possible upcoming inputs to the RPC series
all interested can find the link to the Piano Concerto by Wladyslaw Zelenski - in the download section/Polish Symphonics.
Well, the Concertstück is certainly the best major piece by Cowen that I have heard so far - and by some distance. I wouldn't call it earth-shattering or particularly original, but it is what it is - a thoroughly engaging, well-crafted, colourful piece that certainly deserves an occasional public airing. Bravo to Hyperion for recording it!
I own, with satisfaction, the CD since about ten days and, through the forum, I could read in advance a lot about the three works performed.
Therefore I was disappointed to read in November BBC Music (available to me today) a review (pag.99 "Brief notes"), albeit positive, of the size of a stamp, long as a cheap telegram.
Unfortunately, that's an example of the dumbing down of journalism in this field. It has happened (to a lesser extent) to the Gramophone magazine too. Reviews the size of a postage stamp are worse than useless...
Quote from: alberto on Wednesday 12 October 2011, 17:56I was disappointed to read in November BBC Music (available to me today) a review (pag.99 "Brief notes"), albeit positive, of the size of a stamp, long as a cheap telegram.
I gave up on that tuppence-coloured rag (along with
Gramophone) several years ago. Now I only get
International Record Review or read reviews on informed sites such as Musicweb,
Unsung Composers (or Amazon!).
:o
There is an enthusiastic review of RPC 54 today on musicweb (by John France )- http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Oct11/Somervell_Cowen_CDA67837.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Oct11/Somervell_Cowen_CDA67837.htm)
:)
On the March release of the French review Diapason (page.100) there is a substantial review (no "brief notes") about the Cowen-Somervell recording. Works and performances get high (if not quite full) marks. The composers get space enough to be put on the British (if not world) musical map, in order to allow the possibly unaware French reader (or reader in French) to understand. BTW one or two months ago "Diapason" dedicated a substantial appreciative review to Hyperion Brian Gothic Symphony (even if not so enthusiatic, detailed and well argued like the later one on "Classica").
I would say that since at least 10-20 years British Music of, say, years 1880-1950 is almost never object of condiscendence by the main French reviews. I would say that no one on those magazines has doubts about the worth of at least Britten, Elgar, Delius, Tippett, Vaughan Williams, Bax, Walton. I have read a lot of praising reviews about, let'say, Bridge, Holst, Scott, Brian, Stanford, Parry, Holbrooke, Bowen, Bliss, Ireland, Finzi, Warlock....the list could go on.