Unsung Composers

The Music => Recordings & Broadcasts => Topic started by: Alan Howe on Friday 05 June 2015, 09:42

Title: Gade VC
Post by: Alan Howe on Friday 05 June 2015, 09:42
...forthcoming on the Gramola label:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/mendelssohn-gade-violinkonzert-thomas-albertus-orchestra-doron-salomon-gramola-sacd.html (http://www.mdt.co.uk/mendelssohn-gade-violinkonzert-thomas-albertus-orchestra-doron-salomon-gramola-sacd.html)
Shame about the hackneyed coupling...

There are two good recordings already available:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Christina-Astrand-Romantic-Violin-Concertos/hnum/1049907 (https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Christina-Astrand-Romantic-Violin-Concertos/hnum/1049907)  (an excellent coupling)

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Niels-W-Gade-1817-1890-Violinkonzert-op-56/hnum/7231159 (https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Niels-W-Gade-1817-1890-Violinkonzert-op-56/hnum/7231159)  (a highly inappropriate coupling!)

In case you don't know the piece, it's an absolutely magnificent late work, with tunes galore - some of breathtaking beauty. Try the slow movement...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwMNutDKDuM&list=PLBlNpealb4JUBtSY5RKmOpsCmG0IK6vBq (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwMNutDKDuM&list=PLBlNpealb4JUBtSY5RKmOpsCmG0IK6vBq)
Title: Re: Gade VC
Post by: JimL on Sunday 07 June 2015, 19:19
The Mendelssohn is a truly appropriate coupling, considering that it was Gade who conducted the premiere of that worthy work.
Title: Re: Gade VC
Post by: Alan Howe on Sunday 07 June 2015, 19:51
Appropriate, but hackneyed.
Title: Re: Gade VC
Post by: semloh on Monday 08 June 2015, 03:31
What do you think would have been a better coupling, Alan? (Let's assume you could ignore the marketing power of a sung composer.) Maybe another Dane - Børresen perhaps? Or would you prefer greater contrast?
Title: Re: Gade VC
Post by: eschiss1 on Monday 08 June 2015, 06:13
a new recording of Gade's violin/orchestra capriccio, or of a violin work by another member of the Gade family, would not have been a premiere (well, ok, neither would the Børresen, or the Lange-Müller which I would have suggested :) ), but would have been less so (though these programming choices, it's true, have already been tried on Danacord and elsewhere. Then again, always room to do them better, I gather?). Whether it would have been as good an idea from other points of view, I don't know!
Title: Re: Gade VC
Post by: Alan Howe on Monday 08 June 2015, 07:56
I'd suggest Gernsheim's 1st VC. A major piece by another composer in the broad conservative tradition.
Title: Re: Gade VC
Post by: JimL on Wednesday 10 June 2015, 03:30
Well, if you're going to go all-Danish, the Nielsen, although out of our remit, would be an obvious coupling.