...forthcoming from cpo:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/eduard-franck-klavierkonzerte-nr-1-2/hnum/9730051
What good (and unexpected) news! Unless I've missed them, the concertos haven't been recorded before.
Yes, I racked my brain (such as it is) and couldn't remember a previous recording either.
No.1 in D minor Op.13 was (first?) performed by the composer in Berlin on 30th November 1846. No.2 is in C and dates from 1879 - it has no opus no. and has been recorded here using a score produced from the manuscript and a piano reduction.
No, these concertos have not been recorded before! CPO have certainly done us proud with this month's new releases, what with this, and the 2+ Woelfl concerti - as well as another version of Rubinstein No2!. This, however, would be the pick of the crop, IMHO!
1850 might be publication date though?
No idea, Eric. Sleuthing needed!
Well, no, I mean the Op.13 certainly was published (by Guttentag, dedicated to Clara Schumann) by January 1850. Sleuthing already completed on this point sometime back. This much I know already, and is on the IMSLP list of works by Eduard Franck. See HMB, January 1850. (https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-buch?apm=0&aid=1000001&bd=0001850&teil=0203&seite=00000004&zoom=1)
It's conceivable that it was also completed in January 1850 too. Since the statement above was that it was composed in 1850, that was my query.
(As also noted on the aforementioned worklist, there is a newly typeset edition of the D minor concerto Op.13 in score that was published not long ago, that can be browsed @ issuu.com, that was published by Breitkopf.)
Edit: all solved now abufe I see!
Breitkopf produced a typeset score and parts of the 2nd concerto for this recording, I believe.
In the preface to the score of Concerto 1 prepared by James Tocco back in 2012, note is made that the work was performed by the composer already on 30 Nov. 1846, in Berlin.
Aha! Very interesting. I'll make the necessary correction - see above.
Quote from: pianoconcerto on Friday 12 February 2021, 19:28
In the preface to the score of Concerto 1 prepared by James Tocco back in 2012, note is made that the work was performed by the composer already on 30 Nov. 1846, in Berlin.
Dear friend, thankyou for your proper research-finding.
:)
Very pleased to hear this - this Franck is criminally underrepresented in recordings, which is a real pity as his works seem to be very fine.
before giving it a try I will wait to hear what you guys think about it, since with E. Franck the jury is still out for me: I have the Audite cd's and, despite very good performances and orchestra, I stubbornly find the music unmemorable and emotionally pallid...
The work of his I like best fwiw is the E-flat string quartet- don't yet know the concertos.
His two violin concertos can be found on YouTube.
a few works of his have already received two recordings (iirc), incidentally, what with series of his works on Audite and Naxos.
Yes, true. But not the PCs. As far as I know there's only been one Naxos CD so far.
ah, you're right, I thought there had been a few.
And so back to the PCs...
Soundbites of the two PCs now available at jpc. They are most enticing and I think listeners will not be disappointed with the complete works. Having known the scores of these two PCs (the second only in a photocopy of the MS) I can say they are better than I imagined them to be - at least from the tiny soundbites we are offered.
That was my reaction to the same soundbites. My copy's already on order...
Well, PC1 turns out to be a large-scale work of nearly 41 minutes' duration (15:34; 11:46; 13:22), which surprised me. PC2, by contrast, takes just over 34 minutes.
The former is undoubtedly the most expansive work we have yet had by Franck, with an opening movement of a reach and power, not to say poetic intensity, that I hadn't expected at all. A wonderful surprise! The songful slow movement is absolutely sublime. The finale begins with arresting calls to attention from the brass which lead into the dance-like main theme. The second subject makes for a delightful contrast before a passage of rapid-fire pianism. There is a stunning cadenza featuring the main theme of the slow movement before a magnificently grandiloquent and imposing closing tutti. Glorious.
I'd now propose this as an important missing link between Beethoven's Emperor and Brahms' PC1. The performance seems well-prepared and played. My only question would be to wonder whether the whole work could have benefited from swifter tempi, but who knows?
Excellent news,Alan. I will be putting in my order for this and the Wolfl on my birthday, later this month. I have long thought that for sheer melodic beauty he deserves more outings in the recording studio than a lot of other contemporaries.
PC2 (14:28; 9;43; 9:57), composed 33 years later, does indeed sound like a later composition, with an imposing, freely composed opening movement followed by a slow movement which begins with a beautiful, hushed chorale-like string passage soon taken up by the piano. The level of inspiration here is very high. The finale is a vigorous Presto, featuring frequent syncopations; later there is an unexpected slow cadenza in C minor before the triumphant coda. Altogether: a superb work.
It would have been a feather in the cap for Hyperion if they'd chosen to record Franck's two PCs. As it is, it's a jewel in the crown that is cpo's ever-expanding catalogue.
This is all tremendously encouraging, but I shall wait (holding my breath) until the download becomes available.
According to PRESTO, the(ir) UK release date is scheduled for 2nd April 2021. However, I've noticed that quite often with PRESTO, particularly with CPO, that the download option does not follow until some time (months?) later and, when it is available as a download, it does not always include the booklet notes!. (I assume this is a CPO marketing decision but I cannot for the life of me see what advantage it is to them to delay the download option and/or not include the booklet notes).
Anyway, given how much I enjoyed his other orchestral outings on the Audite label, I'm really looking forward to hearing these works. Pity about the wait but 'que sera'!
Cheers
Richard
cpo downloads are routinely available three or so months after the physical product, irrespective of the download site. Now, back to Eduard Franck.
Wow. The First is good and definitely above average, but the Second is mature and assured. And both are lively and fun!
They are indeed both fine concertos. We are lucky to have them - and now in splendid modern editions by Breitkopf und Hartel. Don't know if No. 2 has been issued yet, but, if not, it is definitely on its way.
MusicWeb review here:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Jun/Franck-PCs-5553202.htm
Interesting, I didn't know that the orchestral score and parts of the 2nd apparently hadn't survived...
Where do you get that information from, Eric? The MS full score of the 2nd is in the possession of the composer's great great grandson, Dr Andreas Feuchte.
Indeed. The MusicWeb review states: <<The second Concerto is still in manuscript though Breitkopf and Härtel are planning its publication.>>
Rob Barnett's earlier review hadn't gotten that memo ("It has survived in the form of a piano reduction and manuscript from which what we hear has been extrapolated"), just as the current review seems to suggest that the first concerto was published for the first time in 2012 (not the case.)
Well, we know what the situation is now - yes?
Yes.
I am sorry to say that Rob Barnett, enthusiastic supporter of unsung music though he is, lacks academic rigour in his writing and far too often gives inaccurate information. His reviews are full of padding and stuffed with unhelpful adjectives and adverbs, which fail to give the reader any precise description of the music he is reviewing. There is a good example of padding in the review in question where he pointlessly tells us that the notes have been in part written by Dr Andreas Feuchte, someone whom most readers will not have heard of and whose relevance to the music will not be clear until we realise he is Franck's great great grandson - a significant piece of information which Rob does not tell us. So why mention Andreas Feuchte at all, without making clear this connection? It is just padding. He also tells us the liner notes are in English and German. Wow!!!
The 1st concerto begins, according to Rob, with a "propitious drum roll". How useful is that adjective? How much more does it tell the reader than saying it begins with a drum roll?
The slow movement is described as "warmly accomplished". What on earth does that mean and how does it help one to get an idea of the music? It is, alas, empty waffle.
Some will say I have been, perhaps, too harsh in my criticism here, but Rob Barnett has done so much for the cause of unsung music, that it is extremely disappointing to find him so unself-critical as to be apparently content to put his name to such manifestly second rate writing. Only compare his review of the Franck disk with that of Mr Challinor.
btw the Breitkopf page (searching for Eduard Franck) doesn't list no.2 yet, but I'm guessing it's a matter of time.
It is all typeset and ready to go - so, as you say, only a matter of time.
I've at last got around to listening to the Piano Concerto No.2 and must say how impressed I was by it. A shorter work than the First, to be sure, but it packs a substantial punch. The first movement in particular has a monumentality about it which reminded me strongly of the first movement of Rubinstein's Fifth, and the contrast with the beautiful slow movement with it's delicate, almost chamber music, textures is most effective. The finale is less immediately memorable, but it still has real musical substance and is no vapid tail-chasing dash to the finish. This will definitely be one of my top ten unsung discoveries for 2021.
I'm usually late to the party, but have just listened to the first movement of the 2nd Concerto. Mark hears Rubinstein's 5th. My ears hear prefigurations of Rachmaninov in its sweeping harmonic movement and even Busoni's monumental Concerto, Op.39 (3rd movement I think), in the rhythmic momentum. I have to say I feel the first movement to be slightly long but I have yet to hear the movement in the context of the full concerto, so I'm sure my impressions will change with time!
4c
What about the Double piano Concerto. is it lost?
I was not aware that Franck had written a double piano concerto. I don't think it is listed in Paul and Andreas Feuchte's catalogue of his works. Certainly Dr Andreas Feuchte never mentioned it to me in any of our correspondence. Can you let us know the source of this reference, please?
Are you thinking of another composer whose concertos have been reorchestrated of late, Thieriot, whose 2-piano concerto may- I don't know?- only now exist in its published (2-piano...) arrangement?
I'm referring to the CPO booklet notes that accompany this marvelous music - it states a Double concerto for 2 pianos composed in Cologne in 1852 and performed together with Carl Reinecke. The booklet says its lost, but we all thought Moszkowski's 1st piano concerto was lost; same for D'Albert's A minor piano concerto, but both turned up eventually. I was just wondering, if we are certain that this concerto is lost or...!?!
I think that if it is not listed as extant by Dr Feuchte, it is currently lost. This does not nean, of course, that it may not turn up somewhere in the future. But that is mere speculation.
Incidentally, both the Thieriot concertos mentioned by Eric are not re-orchestrations. They are modern editions prepared from the ms full scores in the Thieriot nachlass in Hamburg. Walter Zielke, an expert on Thieriot, told me that he knows the whereabouts of the ms full score of the two-piano concerto but he was coy about revealing it - which suggests to me that it may be in his own collection, and that he may produce an edition when it suits him (i.e. if someone wants to perform/record it and will pay him to do so for them).