Hyperion has announced Vol. 62 of its Romantic Piano Concerto series for April 2014 release...
The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 62 – Albéniz & Granados
Melani Mestre (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor)
Sounds very promising. .... finally Spain!
I assume it'll be vol.63, as 62 is the Gounod release. Any more details, please?
I see that there is a Grandos Piano Concerto, which has apparently recently been rediscovered and completed (see a previous thread here (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=2564.0)), and there are two Piano Concertos by Albéniz: the First, which I remember as being quite a fine piece, has been recorded at least once before (by Guzmán on Auvidis), and the second is "unfinished".
www.Hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15175_67918&vw=dc (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15175_67918&vw=dc)
Thank you, Gareth.
Looks like another must buy - but Hyperion's website says April 2015 release...i assume this is a typo!
Excellent news!!! I have been longing to hear the Granados and I already know the Albeniz, which is a fantastic (its subtitle is quite fitting ;)) work. I wonder what has become of Albeniz's incomplete PC no. 2 in E-flat?
The Albeniz PC has a few recordings actually....not sure how many but Arkiv lists three.
Plus there's of course the Rapsodia Espagnola with like three or four different orchestrations out there -- and doing a bit of search-fu, it's on there. No PC 2 though.
According to "Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic", the first concerto was composed in short score 1886-7 and orchestrated by (Tomas, I assume) Breton, who also orchestrated the Spanish Rhapsody. Footnote: "He began work on a second piano concerto at this time, but only got as far as the secondary theme group in the first movement. The manuscript is a two-piano reduction dated Broadstairs August 1892 and is now in the BC, M985." (Clark, p.84.)
There's some good info on the two works in the notes for BIS's recording, IIRC:
http://www.eclassical.com/performers/baselga-miguel/albeniz-piano-music-volume-6.html (http://www.eclassical.com/performers/baselga-miguel/albeniz-piano-music-volume-6.html)
Thanks for the info on Albeniz's PC 2, Eric! I won't get my hopes up, but methinks a realization is not entirely impossible, considering what has been accomplished recently in this field.....
I have a recording of what i think is the first concerto of Albeniz; very early work,; by, I think, Felicja Blumenthal. Is on Vox Turnabout LP.Steve
Whilst I understand why Hyperion have recorded the Albeniz, I wish they had recorded the piano concerto by Emilio Serrano Y Ruiz in G major composed in 1904. One of his operas was championed by Placido Domingo several years ago and if the concerto is as good a quality, then it is worth hearing.
Wikipedia mentions a symphony (... intriguing, by the way), string quartet (also!- I like Breton's...), but not a piano concerto (and I see none mentioned among his publications on Worldcat, but maybe the Spanish National Library, not exactly "covered" by Worldcat- and which has this terrific digital scanning project which they deserve many congrats for- has musical materials for it.) I wonder if it was published? Anyhow, sorry. Yes. Offtopic but - the fellow may well deserve his own thread*; he looks interesting. Thank you for bringing him to my attention... (I thought it should be Serraño but after I undid that newbie mistake of mine and spelled it as you did, yep, found info on him.)
*I admit that that, by itself, is not saying much, considering ... oh, hush, Eric. Just meant to say he really does seem interesting, based on what I see so far, that's all. Anyhow. ... Cheers and happy New Year's Eve- Eric out... (for now)
We can also look forward to some Brazilian piano concertos in the series played by Artur Pizarro
Perhaps you'd be good enough to start a new thread, Giles? Thanks.
OT: Re Brazilian PCs, I know and love Hekel Tavares' (1896-1969) lush, full-blooded, Rachmaninoffian Piano Concerto in Brazilian Forms, recorded by Felicja Blumental on a Brana Records CD. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it recorded by Hyperion!
Good!!
I somehow doubt that Tavares' PC will be recorded by Hyperion. It was scheduled to be done quite early on in the series but the family, having given permission for the disk to be made, suddenly withdrew that permission at the last minute after the orchestra had been engaged, studio time booked, and the pianist contracted and already learning the solo part. This left Hyperion with a substantial bill to pay and nothing to show for it. I believe the family thought they could interest another company in coupling the PC with Tavares' VC. Well, nothing came of that - and the irony is that if Hyperion had been allowed to record Tavares' PC in the RPC series the company might have been inclined to record the VC in its RVC series. Now I imagine Hyperion will want nothing to do with the Tavares family - "once bitten... etc" - and I wouldn't blame them.
A cautionary tale if ever there was one. A bird in the hand, etc.
Gareth,
The link posted does not work.
www.Hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15175_67918&vw=dc (http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W15175_67918&vw=dc)
No, not any more. It used to, but I noticed 2 days ago that it doesn't, and if you put Granados or Albeniz into the Hyperion website search engine you now get only disks already released. I hope this does not mean the recording has been cancelled.
Gareth, I believe they have taken down all prospective releases for April... It's just January. I expect we will see them all on the website by Feb.
I expect so too. Thanks.
This seems to have disappeared completely. Maybe the given date - April 2015 - was correct.
Is anyone else having "RPC series" withdrawal issues!!? After getting used to 3 or four releases a year (we have been spoiled) it is not good to have no listings in the first 6 months of the year. At least we have a Scharwenka release (no new repetoire there though) and the marvellous Moszkowski (thank-you, thank-you, Ludmil).