To be released next week by our friends at Schweizer Fonogramm: https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/en/cd/hans-huber-1852-1921-early-works-for-orchestra-and-a-world-premiere-recording/ (https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/en/cd/hans-huber-1852-1921-early-works-for-orchestra-and-a-world-premiere-recording/)
(https://www.schweizerfonogramm.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Huber_Cover.jpg)
A Comedy Overture, Op. 50 (1879)
Serenade No. 1 "Summer Nights" in E major, Op. 86 (1884)
Serenade No. 2 "Winter Nights" in G major (1895)
Roman Carnival (1879) - World Premiere Recording
Yes, really good news. A label we should all support if at all possible.
In this short silent film on a bridge in Basel in 1896, the first figure on the right at 8 seconds is Hans Huber:
https://vimeo.com/327244886 (https://vimeo.com/327244886)
I will certainly be supporting this release!
More details here:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/hans-huber-serenaden-nr-1-e-dur-op-86-sommernaechte-nr-2-g-dur-o-op-winternaechte/hnum/11155237
Dear friends,
Tomorrow (Februar 11th) you'll have the opportunity to listen to one of the tracks of this production. Eine Lustspiel-Ouvertüre op.50 will be broadcast by the SRF.
https://www.srf.ch/audio/ch-musik/berg-und-tal-und-darueber-hinaus?id=12323131
I hope you'll enjoy it!
Salutations de Berne,
Fred.
Thanks, Fred. I am greatly looking forward to hearing this recording.
Dear friends,
Next week (25.02.2023), other tracks from this production will be broadcast by the SRF.
https://www.srf.ch/audio/ch-musik/eine-grosse-nachtmusik?id=12333505
Salutations de Berne,
Fred.
Thanks! My order is now in!
My copy has now arrived from the label's webshop, accompanied (as usual) by a kind message from Graziella Contratto.
The CD is absolute joy from start to finish - really beautiful, inspiriting music which will have you smiling with enjoyment. The performances are suitably sensitive, polished and alert to the music's lyrical flow. The recording is duly sonorous and expertly balanced. Very fine indeed.
I suppose the idiom is basically what one might expect from Huber - conservative, but never predictable, with melodies galore. The major work here is clearly the roughly 27-minute 2nd Serenade dating from 1895 which has all the freshness of the 1st, but a more developed sense of style and greater variety of mood and expression. This in particular should be more widely played and known - it would be a great showpiece for any orchestra.
Everyone should have this CD in their collection. File it under 'Sheer Enjoyment'!
I think one work here has been recorded before, the first serenade (in Adriano's recording on Sterling). I wonder how the recordings compare... (edit: ah, I think one or both of the overtures were also part of the same symphony recording project, my mistake, so that would make two or three works...)
Quote from: eschiss1 on Sunday 05 March 2023, 03:36I think one work here has been recorded before, the first serenade (in Adriano's recording on Sterling). I wonder how the recordings compare... (edit: ah, I think one or both of the overtures were also part of the same symphony recording project, my mistake, so that would make two or three works...)
There is a "Huber" box set on Sterling, recorded by the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker under Jörg-Peter Weigle.
You'll find in this box the Lustspiels-Ouvertüre op.50 and the Serenade Op.86.
Personally I find that the recordings in this box set were made too quickly and the quality of the orchestra playing and intonation leaves something to be desired. But of course, it's just my opinion.
There are a few versions of "Winternächte" available on the internet and the Carnival is a world premiere.
Fred.
I'd say that the 2nd Serenade is one of the finest works of its type. It ought to be in the standard repertoire.
My mistake, apologies!
This production is on the Longlist for the SchallplattenKritik award.
https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/bestenlisten/longlist/longlist-2-2023
Salutations de Bern.
Fred.
It should be on the shortlist!
https://www.musicwebinternational.com/2023/06/huber-orchestral-works-schweizer-fonogramm/
"went on to write seven more"... eight more :) but it's not the reviewer's fault that symphony, erm, "1 1/2" is mostly forgotten.
I wonder if that was Huber's own solution to the 9 symphony problem? That, and writing an "eighth " symphony that was actually just an arrangement of his string quartet, so I guess you could say he only wrote _7_ symphonies...
Being based on an earlier work doesn't make something less of a "real" symphony, of course (particularly if that work is a string quartet). If so, we'd have to toss Atterberg's 7th and Reznicek's 5th as well, and quite a few others probably.
As I recall, all of Koechlin's as well (they fall out of our bounds, but his wartime 2nd, though most of its movements are arrangements and of different works, feels like a coherent symphony to me. A powerful one, even.)
Agreed; I was not actually being serious or trying to think of a "real" reason why only 8 symphonies were mentioned (instead of the, well, obvious).