Hello,
Maybe of interest, a new edition from Sony's Beethoven's World is to be release. Already available for download on streaming services.
Details:
Reicha, A: Sinfonia Concertante for 2 Cellos in E major
Bruno Delepelaire (violoncello), Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken und Kaiserslautern, Stephan Koncz (violoncello)
Reinhard Goebel
I.Romberg, B: Concertino for 2 Cellos in A Major, Op. 72
Bruno Delepelaire (violoncello), Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken und Kaiserslautern, Stephan Koncz (violoncello)
Reinhard Goebel
Eybler: Divertisment für Fasching Dienstag 1805 for Orchestra
Sony Catalogue No: 19075929652
All i can say the performances are super and recording is first class.
For the context of this issue, see this thread:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7567.msg79411.html#msg79411 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7567.msg79411.html#msg79411)
definitely Anton? It sounds like something cellist Josef Reicha might write.
Yes, but Josef could hardly be classified as a contemporary of Beethoven. As for Anton's Concerto, I have the CD on order, so hopefully the sleevenote will enlighten us as to its date and the provenance of the score used in the recording.
The blurb at jpc.de says this:
The insanely virtuoso Sinfonia Concertante by Antonín Reicha (1770–1836) is full of creative experiments and has clear references to Beethoven's new musical grammar.
very curious about this release, since I found Reicha's symphonies an unexpected delight..
The Reicha concerto is on a large scale: at 38:26 it is almost as long as Beethoven's Emperor Concerto! Its full title is 'Sinfonia Concertante for 2 Cellos in E major'. This article (in German) gives a composition date of 1805:
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/konzerte-von-reicha-und-romberg-cello-for-two.727.de.html?dram:article_id=471346 (https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/konzerte-von-reicha-und-romberg-cello-for-two.727.de.html?dram:article_id=471346)
To put the work in the context of Beethoven's compositions, if a date of 1805 is correct, that would place it between the Eroica and 4th Symphony, and make it roughly contemporary with the 4th Piano Concerto and the Triple Concerto.
Here's the first movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp2sBAZvhWg
and the slow movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8adiKwUPgI
and the finale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsKfDxuSers
hyperdanny - I suggest checking out Reicha's string quartets and piano music, too. Beethoven wasn't the only experimenter of the early 19th century :D
Indeed - but please don't post about them here! Check first to see whether a thread already exists - or, if not, start a new one.
And what a find Reicha's Sinfonia Concertante is! If this isn't great music, I don't know what is. I can't think of anything remotely like it.
It's on my listening list for tomorrow. Reicha seldom disappoints - such an original voice.
The Reicha really is a remarkable work for 1805. This isn't late-classical music, but burgeoning romanticism, with long-drawn melodies and strange harmonic twists and turns - and all in the form of a concerto for two cellos. Conductor Reinhold Goebel, who wrote the sleevenote, describes the work as a 'Monstrum' - i.e. as a monster or monstrosity! Let's hope 2020 brings more Reicha amongst all the Beethoven.
Seeing that i started the thread originally, i free the urge to comment further. The Reicha and Romberg are good well constructed pieces but nothing especially sticks out with them. Joseph Eybler is a different story. His music is so much related to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and not to Beethoven's World. Hardly surprising as he was a close friend and well respected by Mozart. Can you imagine his Requiem finished by Eyler? Another what ifs.
The Divertisment für Fasching Dienstag 1805 for Orchestra is a pure joy and full of frivolity. I especially like the second movement. It is like a clog dancing festival with Morris dancers jiggling their bell pads until the clock strikes twelve and its time to go home and then the third movement begins
Music not to be taken seriously, but just to make you smile. Buy just for the Eyler. :)
QuoteThe Reicha and Romberg are good well constructed pieces but nothing especially sticks out with them. Joseph Eybler is a different story.
Well, on this CD it is the Reicha that stands out as the extraordinary, original and memorable achievement - by far, for the reasons given above. The Romberg is a display piece, pure and simple (and very enjoyable on its own terms), but Eybler's 'Divertisment' is a
pièce d'occasion with no great pretensions to profundity. As Goebel says in his sleevenote, it's 'an example of the actual light music of the period' - in Goebel's German original, '
U-Musik' (short for 'Unterhaltungsmusik', or 'Entertainment Music'), as opposed to 'E-Musik' (='ernste Musik', or 'Serious Music'). The Eybler is thus not to be compared with the Romberg or Reicha pieces - it is light music, pure and simple. Good stuff, I admit, but it is what it is. The comparison, therefore, doesn't really make sense.
Buy this for the Eybler, by all means; but listen to the Reicha over and over again. It'll surprise, delight and move you each time.
Did you read my post? Did i say the music was not to be taken seriously? What is more enjoyable, is the Joseph Eybler. A bit like a 'musical joke' but obviously the joke went straight above your head. The rest is forgettable. Do not get me wrong some super performances but thats about it as far as I'am concerned.
I did indeed read your post - I quoted it and explained why I was of the contrary view, i.e. that the Eybler is what it is (i.e. light music, not a joke - so it didn't go over my head), the Romberg a superbly crafted virtuoso work and the Reicha a major discovery.
Anyway, it'd be good to have some other opinions on the music here, so let's move on...
Yes yes, light music bad, serious music good.
QuoteYes yes, light music bad, serious music good.
No, no, with respect, you misunderstand: light music good, serious music good. But it's pointless to put the two alongside each other for comparison purposes, as in:
QuoteThe Reicha and Romberg are good well constructed pieces but nothing especially sticks out with them. Joseph Eybler is a different story.
The reason that the Eybler is 'a different story' from the Reicha and the Romberg isn't that 'nothing especially sticks out with them' (in fact, there's plenty), but that the Eybler is a different type of piece ('U-Musik'), as Goebel correctly points out in his sleevenote.
Apples and oranges. But both good...
Oh sure, they are for sure different types of pieces. Actually it's a very wierd disc, you have these two double concerti for cello and then all of a sudden you get this loud rustic stuff. After having listened to it streamed I immediately put it on my wishlist -- it's all extremely enjoyable -- but yeah, not perhaps the most well thought out of couplings.
After two double concertos I imagine they just wanted some kind of filler. If so, the Eybler fits the bill.
So I got the actually disc today....and whelp, it turns out to be a CDR.
While I knew Sony was doing it for some OST releases this is the first fully classical disc I've encountered it on.
And of course like others there's no mention of this anywhere.
I guess it's time to be weary of Sony releases in the future...
I didn't spot that. One of my CD players usually objects to CD-Rs, but it played this release perfectly happily.
It's time to switch to digital chaps. You don't have worry about things like that anymore. Like it not that's the way the world's going(I haven't bought a CD in 8 years. I don't miss them, they always got scratched or my player wouldn't play them for whatever reason) :)
Digital can also go wrong, of course. And I don't have the time to do all the backing-up required, so I'll be sticking with physical CDs for as long as they continue to be made.
Anyway, more importantly: has anyone else spotted that this release is a CD-R?
Well in this case it's extremely obvious -- the back is blue. On top of that, the cover of the CD looks 'pasted' on.
Mostly importantly, though, is ImgBurn actually says it's a CDR -- https://www.imgburn.com/ (ir's freeware) if you want to check yourself and have a CD recordable drive. Every release that's looked like a CDR to me it's said said is one, and it'll even say what kind.
Interesting. Mine isn't blue at all...
Oh no the crummy dreadful blue CD-R..can I ask you TerraEpon from who did you buy it from?...mine has been posted a couple days ago from jpc, and now I don't know if I must cherish or dread its arrival...
Mine came from jpc...
That's comforting news, thanks Alan..I'll update when i receive it..
Quote from: hyperdanny on Wednesday 10 June 2020, 15:17
Oh no the crummy dreadful blue CD-R..can I ask you TerraEpon from who did you buy it from?...mine has been posted a couple days ago from jpc, and now I don't know if I must cherish or dread its arrival...
Amazon. It's likely a case of US pressing vs European pressing, which it often is. Good to know that the European one is fine. Knowing Amazon I'll likely get a full refund without being down a penny so i can just order it from elsewhere later...
thank you TerraEpon...not too surprised about the answer: the EU "real cd" vs US CD-R problem was already a scourge in other "niche" fields (i.e. soundtracks: the US releases by majors, not specialized labels, are now often CD-R's) ..now I see it's affecting the classical field too.
Just one more question (more of a curiosity, bear with me): what you got is a low-quality-like-burned-at-home CD-R (the blueish more opaque than normal ones, unfortunately inflicted on us by Wyastone for Sterling here) or a "better" one (the ones which are still blueish but much more shiny, denoting higher quality and a more professional pressing) ?
I wanna say the "better" one since I can't see through the other side like I can most of them.
yes , the see-through ones are especially low quality, that's a little better, but still not the real thing..and I even checked on the US amazon..they do not say anywhere that's a CD-R , i remember they used to. annoying to say the least.
I received the cd yesterday: just like Alan , I received a "real" cd from jpc.
The Reicha is a tremendous and very substantial piece (literally so: it's quite a behemoth for its time), played powerfully by a "normal" size orchestra, no 1-to-a-part nonsense here. (Goebel assures that the performance is stilistically appropriate).
The recording is also top notch, crystal clear but warm, with ideal dynamics.
While listening, I read with pleasure the booklet written by Goebel himself; while he doesn't linger too much on the analysis of the pieces (but what he says is very perceptive) , he does a wonderful job at describing the wider context with the composers' relationships.
That's an aspect that fascinates me to no end: all of these guys breathed very much the same air, they all knew each other, they shared teachers, competed for jobs, sometimes were friends, more often they detested each other, and Goebel revels in the description of all that.