Hi All,
Very intriguing news from the DUX label.
Recording of the completely unsung Polish composer Michał Bergson (1820-1898) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micha%C5%82_Bergson
Among others we have his Piano Concerto op. 62 played by Jonathan Plowright with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra under Łukasz Borowicz.
I await it with great interest!
http://www.dux.pl/bergson-muzyka-symfoniczna-plowright-orkiestra-filharmonii-poznanskiej.html
Marek
This is excellent news. Bergson has deserved some attention for too long! And Plowright and the forces involved in this recording will clearly put forward the best case possible for this composer's music.
Thanks for alerting me to this 🙂
Very exciting. Thank you.
Unfortunately I get an unsafe website warning when trying to proceed to purchase on Dux's website. Can anyone help?
I got the same thing, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is unsafe to carry one, just that the vendor's online security certificate doesn't check out, and that could be for all manner of reasons. Anyway, I took a deep breath, ploughed on (an option in "Advanced") and all appeared well. The credit card I used has a very low credit limit to minimise such risks.
Hmmm, my problem occurs once I get to the website. When I search for "Michał Bergson" (or "Antoni Kątski" from other thread), I can only get:
"Sorry! Your search does not appear to match any products!"
Targeted links would be greatly appreciated!
....and an additional couple of tries gets me where I need to be. Crisis averted. :o
For more information on this concerto and to hear some excerpts, see the 7' video at https://filharmoniapoznanska.pl/nie-znacie-to-posluchajcie/, which has comments by the conductor (in Polish) and pianist (in English). The work is in e minor (New Grove says g minor). According to the title page of the manuscript, the work was composed in 1862 and was submitted for his appointment to the Geneva Conservatory, where he began teaching in 1863 and became its Director. It was performed for the first time on 22 March 1868 in Paris.
The Polish Music Center at Univ. of Southern California also has an article on the discovery of the manuscript full score in a small antiquarian book store in London
https://polishmusic.usc.edu/newsletter/2020/sept-2020/piano-concerto-discovery/
imslp has a clarinet work of his, iirc.
This is most interesting.In fact, I had come across this same manuscript on the Abebooks website a couple of years ago, and had it in my basket for some time whilst considering whether or not to commit to buying it! I still have the images forwarded to me by the seller! In the end, however, I decided against it having already sounded out the prospects of possible interest by such as Hyperion and one or two others, without much interest however, and I was not prepared to part with several hundreds of pounds on the offchance. However, I am delighted that the item was eventually acquired as indicated above and has gone to a most deserving home - and now look forward very much to the CD. Certainly a case of "All's well that ends well" perhaps?
I believe I remember seeing this work on AbeBooks too Martin, probably around the same time as yourself.
Members wishing to get a flavour of the music (who don't already have the disk), or even to play it, might be interested in the composer's solo piano transcription which I've just discovered has been digitized by Berlin State Library.
- Concert Symphonique, Op.62 (https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN1728890349&PHYSID=PHYS_0001&DMDID=DMDLOG_0001&view=overview-toc)
(solo piano transcription by the composer), 1866.
4c
I'd say the idiom of the compact Concerto Symphonique is somewhere between Chopin and Schumann. I don't hear any particularly individual voice, except in the 'skipping' main theme of the finale - a real earworm. However, there are some really lovely things in the work - indeed the slow movement is a gem. Hyperion should've got hold of this years ago.
Alan, I did mention this when I became aware of the score for sale, but to no avail unfortunately (for them)! My one concern was that, if I had not bought the item, it would inevitably disappear into some library or archive, never again to see the light of day. However, in this case, I'm delighted that the outcome has been so successful! Would that this could be the case in all such similar circumstances though!
It's a fine discovery. Thoroughly worthwhile. Well done on having spotted it in the first place.
What an attractive work this is - a real find. I do agree with Alan about both the lack of individuality (not that that's a problem in itself) and the influence of Chopin in the more cantabile passages. I don't hear much Schumann, but in the outer movements in particular I was reminded quite strongly of Litolff's own Concertos Symphoniques, and I wonder if they were in part Bergson's model? Whatever, playing the "sounds like" game never gets us very far, and the important message to get across is that this is a very enjoyable work, considerably better than some of the weaker offerings in Hyperion's RPO series. If it has a weakness, to me the tuneful finale is rather inconsequential when compared with the long, heroic opening movement and the gorgeous slow one, but the concerto receives a most persuasive performance from Plowright and the Polish forces and overall gets a hearty recommendation from me.
When a work like this is unearthed, it makes you wonder what else might be 'out there', perhaps especially by composers from eastern Europe.
On the reproduction of the manuscript given on the booklet cover and inside the booklet we can read "1iere Concerto" what in French means 1st Concerto. This suggests that Bergson may have composed another concerto / other concertos - possibly for other solo instruments. There is no mention about this in the booklet notes. Perhaps eschiss1 has more information.
It doesn't necessarily imply a second concerto, it may well simply be that Bergson was writing that this was his "first" concerto. In the absence of any record of a Piano Concerto No.2, that seems more likely than the surviving autograph being a copy made some time after he'd composed a second one.
Oh, one must be very careful about imagining that the title "1st Concerto" or "1st Symphony" or "1st" anything implies other exercises in the genre from the same pen. For example, Holst's "Choral Symphony" was published as "First Choral Symphony". There were no others, albeit he may have intended to write them.
There are some concertante works by him for wind instruments (3 concert-arias for clarinet, 2 fantasias for flute) and orchestra, though, if that matters. Also a polka de concert for military band. I see that the concerto symphonique's material can be viewed in the digitized material section at Northwestern University (https://www.worldcat.org/title/concerto-symphonique/oclc/52544298).
Unfortunately for me the Bergson cd appears available only to those residing in the EU. The DUX site only allows me to go so far in the ordering process and that's it. I believe it has something to do with the pandemic. Has anyone outside the EU had a similar experience?
QuoteUnfortunately for me the Bergson cd appears available only to those residing in the EU
Hopefully this will change - give it some time. Meanwhile keep looking on Amazon, jpc, etc.
QuoteUnfortunately for me the Bergson cd appears available only to those residing in the EU
The UK (where I live) is no longer in the EU, of course, and so that in itself doesn't seem to be the problem.
I'm sure it's just a matter of when it'll be released outside Poland.
For those who want hear the Concerto symphonique, here's a video recording of this rather fine piece with the same performers as on the CD (starts at 13:20):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RYYqF2pYhI
I was too cowardly to order the CD from an apparently unsafe website, but I am growing impatient. Has anyone an update on distribution outside Poland?
It's due from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concerto-Symphonique-Bergson-Plowright-Borowicz/dp/B08T4H7DXT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=concerto+symphonique&qid=1612520900&sr=8-1
('Temporarily out of stock' just means that supplies haven't come in yet. Anyone interested can sign up to be notified when it becomes available, which is what I've done.)
Thank you! So have I.
According to Amazon US, it will be released March 5.
https://www.amazon.com/Concerto-Symphonique-Jonathan-Plowright/dp/B08T4H7DXT/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=bergson&qid=1612530859&s=music&sr=1-4
It's out and it's good!
It can be downloaded from Presto (no CD advertised):
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8891711--bergson-orchestral-works
...but it looks as though the physical CD isn't going to be available here in the UK for a few weeks yet - and it'll be expensive:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concerto-Symphonique-Bergson-Plowright-Borowicz/dp/B08T4H7DXT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1614982571&refinements=p_32%3ABergson+%2F+Plowright+%2F+Borowicz&s=music&sr=1-1
It seems to be cheaper from amazon.de, although I´d prefer not to pay so much. I think I might wait until a price is quoted for the CD on presto and on jpc, but, if I have to, I will buy it from amazon.de.
Yes Alan.... the Music libraries are full of orchestral scores of E European composers whose works have yet to be recorded....I've seen them.
Perhaps you could name, say, your top five such compositions and start a new thread on them?
Amazon.co.uk have slashed the price and it´s worth getting from them now. By contrast, amazon.de has suddenly become prohibitive.
In the end, I ordered through amazon.de the CD, with the seller being Clic Musique. That was last Saturday and the price, including shipping, was 18.50 euros. This afternoon,it arrived and I will be giving it a tryout tomorrow. They have certainly taken trouble with the accompanying booklet.
I decided to do a little experiment and listen to the underrated Goetz First and follow it immediately with my first hearing of the Bergson .Both concertos date to the 1860s and both deserve more than the one recording they have had. But the styles are very contrasting. Goetz obviously knows his Weber and Schumann, and the work is more like a concert-piece ,to my mind. But it is a work that grows on you on repeated hearing and I actually prefer it to his later concerto, good as that is. The Bergson sounds very different, more in the mould of Litolff and Mendelssohn I think. Surprisingly for a Polish composer, I found the second movement to be the one that kept my attention the least, but I can remedy that by further playings. The finale is a real winner and played in a leonine way by Plowright.
Goetz: I thought there were two recordings of the 1861 concerto.
Mea culpa! You are right,of course. I was forgetting about the Naxos.
Finally, the CD is available from Amazon (UK) - and Presto (see above for links).