I've already ordered this attractive-sounding new CD...
http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=11793737a2d9&tpl=produktdetail.html&pid=14100&rid=261&recno=4 (http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=11793737a2d9&tpl=produktdetail.html&pid=14100&rid=261&recno=4)
Thanks for the heads up on this one, Alan. It certainly sounds like a worthwhile punt.
This is the reason I visit Unsung Composers several times a day. What a great source of information. Many thanks. By the way my new Asian Symphonies Discography has just appeared on MusicWeb International. If you're interested, go here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Asian_symphonies/Asian_Symphonies.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/Asian_symphonies/Asian_Symphonies.htm)
Michael
From the sound clips, this certainly seems worth a listen. We may have to dig up an old topic about conductor-composers and revise it. With all the ink spent this week about the Vivendi buyout of EMI, and that there are only three majors left, I wonder if the so-called majors would be in better shape if they had been as adventurous with repertoire as the smaller labels like Guild. For those of us who are rabid collectors, Chandos, Hyperion, Marco Polo, CPO, Dutton and Guild are the majors.
Quote from: mbhaub on Saturday 14 January 2012, 15:20
From the sound clips, this certainly seems worth a listen. We may have to dig up an old topic about conductor-composers and revise it. With all the ink spent this week about the Vivendi buyout of EMI, and that there are only three majors left, I wonder if the so-called majors would be in better shape if they had been as adventurous with repertoire as the smaller labels like Guild. For those of us who are rabid collectors, Chandos, Hyperion, Marco Polo, CPO, Dutton and Guild are the majors.
Problem is that you cannot support the usual level of wining, dining and travelling on this kind of repertoire.
Quote from: erato on Sunday 15 January 2012, 10:09
Quote from: mbhaub on Saturday 14 January 2012, 15:20
From the sound clips, this certainly seems worth a listen. We may have to dig up an old topic about conductor-composers and revise it. With all the ink spent this week about the Vivendi buyout of EMI, and that there are only three majors left, I wonder if the so-called majors would be in better shape if they had been as adventurous with repertoire as the smaller labels like Guild. For those of us who are rabid collectors, Chandos, Hyperion, Marco Polo, CPO, Dutton and Guild are the majors.
Problem is that you cannot support the usual level of wining, dining and travelling on this kind of repertoire.
Yeah, well the other repertoire can't prevent a buyout!
Has anyone discovered this as a download anywhere that those of us in the colonies can buy??
J
I had ordered the Andreae symphony immediately on receiving a monthly newsletter from Guild, and before Alan had given his thumbs up. Of course, had I not known of it I would have taken Alan's recommendation into account. But ordering the symphony was impelled by how good I found the previous three Guild CDs of the chamber music - string quartets and other works. Really fine works - and equally fine recordings.
Of course, that's just a bit of autobiography of interest to none but myself. What could be of real interest to other readers of the forum is my experience of ordering direct from Guild. I had always 'saved up' for a Guild CD since they are especially expensive within the UK (i.e. sources such as MDT or Amazon). However I noted on the Guild website that the CDs are generally £8.50 each. I thus couldn't resist ordering a little clutch, including not only Andreae but the Tovey chamber music discs, and the recent Brun symphonies. And the postage on that lot amounted to £2.91. The whole process caused a little skip of joy!
I don't think I've yet heard his music, but I have seen some chamber works (which have also been recorded recently) in score and thought they looked promising...
I've now listened (but once) to the Andreae symphony on the new Guild disc.
First impression: wow! It is a 4 movement work (played without a break) lasting just short of 30 minutes. It dates from 1919 (thus composed when Andreae was 40 and already an admired and experienced conductor in Zurich).
My initial impression is of a masterly work. It seems superbly orchestrated, and has a firm seamless development. The 2nd movement is a profoundly moving funeral march, and after an energetic Allegro molto 3rd movement, the symphony progresses to a magnificent final movement and a compelling conclusion.
Apologies - sub-inferior musical analysis operating here! But first reaction is to share my experience rather than further dissect the work.
The disc is generously filled with three other orchestral works by Andreae. Not sure about the 'origins' of the recordings. But interestingly we have a Swiss label using the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (as far as I recall label and orchestra are meeting up for the first time). All works conducted by the composer's grandson, Marc Andreae. Recordings took place in the Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset - familiar from many other Bournemouth SO recordings.
Whao, hats off to all concerned! And fingers are tightly crossed that these same forces will soon give us Andreae's Violin Concerto - written in 1936 for Adolf Busch. There's much about the work in the magnificent two volume Tully Potter book on Busch, but there are (to my knowledge) no commercial recordings.
I remind all that I heartily recommend the three Guild discs of Andreae's chamber music. Lovely!
This is the first recording of the Symphony...and thus the pool of unsung works diminishes by one (but still a hell of a way to go yet!)
Apologies for the excited, breathless gabble!
Thanks for the useful review, or breathless gabble as you put it :)
We are on the same wavelength when it comes to musical analysis! I think I'll have to buy this one!
Morten
Apologies again for brief tangent that may deserve its own thread eventually, but I rather like the internationalism (recently? not so recently? actually, I gather recently) shown in performances and recordings (it has its faults and problems too I know...) - where - for recordings - the recording label, orchestra, conductor, and composer - and sometimes soloist for concertante orchestral works - and perhaps venue, also - will quite a few times all be from different countries (as I remember a reviewer having pointed out once or three or more times.)
Well, my copy came today and I'm have a quick listen as I type. First impressions are extremely favourable: this is a symphony about 'big things' without suffering from late-Romantic over-inflation. I'm somewhat reminded of Paray's symphonies, but I'll report back when I've got my bearings more fully...
Quote from: Alan Howe on Friday 20 January 2012, 15:19
Well, my copy came today and I'm have a quick listen as I type. First impressions are extremely favourable: this is a symphony about 'big things' without suffering from late-Romantic over-inflation. I'm somewhat reminded of Paray's symphonies, but I'll report back when I've got my bearings more fully...
The Paray symphonies ??? I did not know these were available. Would that be the Grotto cd coupling of the two ???
There are two CDs of Paray relevant here...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joan-Mass-Paray-Rsno-Rsnc/dp/B0000015AE/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1327080375&sr=1-2 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joan-Mass-Paray-Rsno-Rsnc/dp/B0000015AE/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1327080375&sr=1-2)
...and...
http://www.amazon.com/Paray-Works-Vol-VI-Symphonies/dp/B000F5AGYA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1327080481&sr=8-3 (http://www.amazon.com/Paray-Works-Vol-VI-Symphonies/dp/B000F5AGYA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1327080481&sr=8-3)
The Andreae Symphony is a splendid work: beautifully written for the orchestra and well played by the Bournemouth SO, it is primarily late-Romantic in style with some absolutely gorgeous melodies, as the exhilarating close to the finale demonstrates. Altogether, not an undiscovered masterpiece of the first order, but yet another fine work that doesn't deserve to have fallen into the chasm of oblivion.
Thanks for the info about Paul Paray. I've never heard of him before, but after listening to some excerpts I've added a couple of discs to the never ending "must-buy"-list.
Morten
Thanks, Alan :)
I have ordered the symphonies disc ;D
Glad to help.
True, Alan doesn't press the point, and only mentions it in the context of a rough 'triangulation'.
But I was puzzled by the reference to Paray. Of Paray, apart from his wonderful conducting of Ravel, Roussel, Schmitt, Chausson, Chabrier etc on the old Mercury label, I only know the 1st Symphony together with some of the chamber works and many songs. Yet all those works are thoroughly French.
Andreae is surely solidly in the Austro-Germanic tradition. He writes within the traditional classical forms (both the symphony here, the string quartets, the piano trio etc), and the language is post Brahmsian. Hardly a surprise that he was a renowned conductor of Bruckner. There is surely a far greater kinship with another Swiss master, namely Schoeck, than there is with Paray?
But I'm certainly not out to pick quarrels over the issue. Maybe I've just missed out on one possible perspective on Andreae?
In my (tentative) view Andreae's Symphony is essentially a synthesis of the German and French traditions - it has a lightness of touch and an approach to colour that seems more French than German, and yet there are clear echoes of the great German tradition in its form (four movements rather than three) and its post-Brahmsian style. He was, after all, a Swiss...
Interestingly, the MusicWeb review of Andreae's 2nd Piano Trio (written five years before the Symphony) says this:
Andreae's language adopts a mixture - something approaching French Impressionism yet all the while holding on to a basis of Germanic seriousness.
I've now listened to the Andreae Symphony too and it is indeed a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding late romantic work which, to my ears at least, is pretty firmly in the French tradition of Franck, Chausson, Boëllmann, Magnard et al. It has a certain breeziness and openness which some of theirs lack and impressionist touches which I guess were difficult to avoid in music written in 1919, but I honestly don't hear much of the German tradition in it until one reaches the boisterous finale, which is a very successful movement. It does have four movements, that's true.
Of course, the composer whose influence looms large over these composers is....Wagner.
I'm surprised that no one has commented on the recently released Piano and Violin Concerto disc that is now available on Amazon.com. Lovely stuff. Again. The first movement of the piano concerto brings to mind, a time or two, X. Scharwenka or perhaps even Moszkowski. Nevertheless, very original material. The longish second is quite lovely and the presto finale is quite short and ends in a flurry of typical romantic brilliance.
Have not yet listened to the Violin Concerto and the other two interesting looking works. But for $8, you gotta buy this one - the PC is worth the price of admission alone.
Jerry
Not commented on, but mentioned - see here (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,4069.msg43371.html#msg43371). Has its own thread'n'all just lying idle :)
I received my copy last week, Jerry....but haven't commented on it for fear that folk might get fed up of my incessant postings!
I agree - lovely stuff. And so utterly well crafted. Amazes me somewhat that Andreae died way back in 1962, and his music seems to have lain dormant ever since. Don't know whether it gets performed regularly in Switzerland, but it was only a couple of years ago when Guild issued what (so far as I know) was the first CD of his music that I first got to know of him as a composer. I knew of course of his reputation as a conductor (especially of Bruckner), and before I heard that first CD I assumed his compositional skills took a probable poor second place to his conducting.
Not so at all. The first three of the Guild CDs were of chamber music - and highly accomplished and very rewarding chamber music. Then we had the Symphony....a wonderfully impressive work. Now the recent disc of these concertos - wonderful. With each of these discs and as my knowledge of Andreae grows he steadily ascends in stature - in my view at least.
I wonder why Guild seem to be the only company to touch Andreae? And I wonder what other works they might have up their sleeve?
hrm... btw.. any recording of his oboe concertino op.42 yet?...
As to Guild Music being the only label etc., Doron Music recorded his violin sonata (in 2001, with Lazzari's sonata), so that's only sort of true. (And back in 1997 Gallo released a CD that contained his suite op.20...) A few really small labels (and some larger but unknown ones, like the Swiss government one, I think, Communaute du Travail) have released several CDs (and before that, LPs) with his music also, according to Worldcat...
Looks like a partial worklist might be in order, at that.
Many thanks (as always) Eric. Very sloppy of me to make a statement without checking its accuracy. I simply plead that I hadn't been aware of these few other past recordings - a case of what could be called the egocentric fallacy perhaps. However I suppose it remains true that Guild is the sole label making a major commitment to Andreae - and good for them on account of it.
I must, incidentally, have a look at the Lazzari Vn Sonata - obviously a substantial work. Anyone know whether it is any good?
alas no re Lazzari; I'm more familiar with his string quartet (I should be, I scanned in- very very very sloppily- the parts for IMSLP from a booksale-purchased copy of them- my scans have been removed now that Sibley has done a much better job of same. I liked them, though, and they have been recorded as has also his symphony and a few other works- none of which I think I've heard in full yet unfortunately. Tangent, yes, sorry!!!)
(Yay (very emphatically) booksales for the stuff you can find at them sometimes for less than a dollar "just saying".)