Hans Gal's music is discussed on this forum under the topic "A plea for Hans Gal". Now, some of the recording projects mentioned there are starting to emerge. His first 3 symphonies have been recorded by Avie, and coupled with Symphonies by Schubert and Schumann.I don't know exact release dates, but I would guess that these records will be in our hands during spring/summer 2011.
http://www.hansgal.com/recordings/Zehetmair1.html (http://www.hansgal.com/recordings/Zehetmair1.html)
http://www.hansgal.com/recordings/Zehetmair2.html (http://www.hansgal.com/recordings/Zehetmair2.html)
http://www.hansgal.com/recordings/Gal3&Schumann.html (http://www.hansgal.com/recordings/Gal3&Schumann.html)
Morten
OK, a bit more information. Amazon and jpc have the recording of Gal's 1st Symphony available from the 18th of April, while the second Symphony will be available on amazon from the 10th of May.
Morten
thanks!
Good news, Morten. Many thanks! Three more for the list...
Morten - once more you bring wonderful news. Much gratitude to you.
Gal is fortunately becoming a far less unsung composer (but that is, however, no reason not to write of him here!). We're also getting to know him in a slightly unusual way. The usual pattern with an unsung is that someone like CPO or Chandos (or whoever) treat us to a major work, typically a symphony. If that's successful it has a snowball effect, and folk like us then start making a clamour about wanting to hear recorded performances of other works.
Not that it is of any real significance, but with Gal we've got to know him in a different way. For some time we've had that mightily impressive set of the piano music from Leon McCawley. We've also had the Edinburgh Quartet recordings of the string quartets - treasurable things in my view. An utterly stunning disc (a bit hard to get hold of) from Camerata of music for piano trio. A Cybele CD dating from 2002 of the Op. 17 Violin Sonata c/w the Op. 89 Cello Sonata. A Membran CD of the Concertino for Organ & Strings. A Gramola CD in 2010 entitled 'The Right Tempo' with hitherto unrecorded chamber works such as the Op. 96 Sonata for Two Violins & Piano (a gem). But pride of place goes to the two Annette-Barbara Vogel CDs from Avie of the Violin Sonatas and concertante works. A real Gal renaissance, and bringing this composer the prominence he so richly deserves. Much has happened since I initiated that 'A Plea for Hans Gal' in March last year.
And, whacko, at long last the symphonies. Can't wait to get to know them! Maybe I haven't quite got the full picture, but I think it is a slight case for regret that they're being released individually on CDs coupled with other works. OK, Gal wrote a groundbreaking book on Schubert - but why now make a Gal symphony only available with Schubert 6 and 9? And again with Schumann 3? These are such 'indispensable' works that I fear they will already be so well provided for in most people's collections that this could be a reason not to explore Gal. Surely a 2/3 CD set of all 4 symphonies, which also threw in a number of unrecorded orchestral works (the Cello Concerto for example), would be a far more welcome and enticing package? (Heck, folk such as us can never be wholly satisfied, eh?)
btw if you're in the US (copyright restrictions forbid for now otherwise because of his deathdate) you can look at scores and/or parts of Gál's opp.1 and 10 at IMSLP. (Ah. I see the website was mentioned in the first post in the thread, even.)
I have a cassette tape of his Symphony #4 - Sinfonia Concertante - if someone will remind me next month to see if it could be uploaded.
Jerry
Nice prospect, but why, oh why, couple these symphonies with other stuff? Just to sell disks? Who do they think will buy these? I would think it's the serious collectors who don't need any more Schubert/Schumann. Maybe I'll just wait until Naxos gets around to them. I've played the 3rd and it would be nice to have a recording of it.
Not wishing to sound a discordant note here, but had anyone thought the couplings might have been chosen for sound MUSICAL reasons?
Yes, Gareth. I'm actually sympathetic to your point - and in some ways much dislike my response! But we do, regretfully, have to live in the 'real' world. A world in which other CDs compete for attention and in which there are limits to the pocket. The gist of my first posting was that I very much hope the Gal and Schubert CD sells in quantities that satisfies the record company and encourages them to produce more recordings of Gal. For he is a wonderful if sometimes demanding composer, and I think the musical lives of people would be amply rewarded if they got to know Gal. However many potential purchasers, when confronted by the CD, will think 'Hm, already 'got' Schubert 6, and for the same amount of cash I could buy that other CD'.
I dislike this consumer world where record companies and buyers think in terms of 'minutes of new music' balanced against 'cost'. Yes, I'm sure there are very sound musical reasons for putting these two composers together (a CD combining, for example, Hans Gal and Havergal Brian would seem quite bizarre in comparison). But those reasons could be explained in the booklet inviting the listener to explore for themselves. And the vacancy left by the omission of Schubert 6 on the CD could then be filled by Gal's second symphony. Wouldn't a CD of Gal 1 and 2 be more attractive to people than one of Schubert 6 and Gal 1?
It seems to me that those of us who are steady buyers of unsung composer CDs are something of a niche market. I have friends who love "classical" music but wouldn't dream of buying a disc of music by someone named Hans Gal. (Never heard of HIM....) By the same token, I can't imagine them buying a disc of Schubert and Gal. They won't even buy Raff or Ries. So what's the point of coupling such stuff?
I'm not, I guess, as sophisticated a student of music as some. I would love for someone like Gareth to point out to me what the sound musical reasons might be for the coupling? Would they be obvious enough to the more casual record buyer so that he might think "Wow, that was a great idea"?
It would seem to me that some of the CD producers might do well to do some market research to see exactly who is buying the discs that stray from the workhorse byways.
And I would agree with whoever said it above, that programming for a symphony concert and programming for a CD are and should be quite different animals.
Jerry
QuoteYes, Gareth. I'm actually sympathetic to your point - and in some ways much dislike my response! But we do, regretfully, have to live in the 'real' world.
But I think the CD producers
are living in the real world - they are if they stay in business. To read what you write, Peter, one would think that half the record companies don't know what they're doing - yet they manage to survive in a difficult market. Oughtn't they to know the market better than we? We on this forum are a tiny, tiny group of people interested in unsung composers. The vast majority of classical music lovers (who themselves are a tiny fraction of the record buying public) haven't even heard of most of the composers whose music we discuss.
QuoteIt would seem to me that some of the CD producers might do well to do some market research to see exactly who is buying the discs that stray from the workhorse byways.
What makes you think they don't? I expect they do, though perhaps not as much as we might wish because we, the lovers of unsung music, are a really tiny part of their total sales income. I'm constantly surprised at how adventurous some, indeed many, labels have become in the last decade. We should be very thankful for that - as, indeed, I'm sure we all are.
QuoteI would love for someone like Gareth to point out to me what the sound musical reasons might be for the coupling?
May I suggest that the following quote from the press release for the recording goes some way towards explaining the thinking behind this disk:
"This is paired with Symphony No. 6 by Franz Schubert, appropriately enough as Gál was an acknowledged scholar of his 19th -century forbear (cf. his book Franz Schubert and the Essence of Melody) and the two composers can legitimately be considered – as the subtitle of the CD indicates – "Kindred Spirits".
Gál's Symphony No.1 was not in fact his first - an earlier symphony had won the Austrian State prize in 1915, but it was later discarded, as was another. Gál finally considered this work, which won a Columbia Schubert Centenary Prize in 1928, to be his symphonic debut."
I don't actually own a recording of Schubert's 6th Symphony, so that's an added incentive (if one were needed) for me to buy this CD. As I've got only one recording of Schubert's 9th, I won't think twice about buying the 2nd Gal Symphony in this series either - and No. 3 is to be coupled with Schumann's 3rd, yet another mainstream work I do not have on my shelves. Altogether, the record company has got
me hooked.
Ditto, Gareth. See above, I think. No, wait a minute that's the Dubois thread. In any event, getting Gal would be a much better prospect for me, since I own neither the Schubert Little nor Great C Major Symphonies, nor, for that matter the Schumann Rhenish. As I said, that is the particular reason I eschew simply stockpiling warhorses - so's I can pick up unsung couplings.
Many thanks, Gareth, for your considered and thoughtful reply to my earlier rant. However I'm not wholly convinced. A couple of points:
First, that record companies survive doesn't imply they always plan their marketing strategies (I did in my youth teach logic!). True, there is considerable evidence of careful thought and planning on the part of people like Hyperion - in their early days they battled against the then dominant major labels precisely by such planning. At the other end of the spectrum there are those lumbering majors whose output seems to me to be largely determined by what conductors or soloists on their lucrative contracts want to record, which is often not the same as what the market needs. Hence endless packages of Beethoven or Brahms or Bruckner...and even yet another complete Ring cycle in the offing. The good thing I suppose is that if companies are faced with even more severe economic difficulty then they will be forced to plan releases with the utmost care, or just fizzle out. On second thoughts, maybe not: borrowing a Darwinian idea, they will survive by diversifying. And that will doubtless mean, and I groan, much larking about with more sophisticated technology and trying to grab the interest of the gullible and those too afraid of listening to music fully. (Lots of prejudice here, for which I make no apology!)
Next, the 'sound musical reasons'. Yes, Gal and Schubert are certainly kindred spirits. But that is surely no reason to put them side by side on the same CD, when (to repeat my earlier point) the 'space' taken up by Schubert could have been used to give us the second of the Gal symphonies. I'm sure that one disc containing Gal 1 and 2 (and then presumably a second later CD giving us 3 and 4) would get Gal a wider audience than would be the case by scattering his symphonies amongst those of Schubert, Schumann or other kindred spirits. Bach and Reger are distant kindred spirits - but maybe it would be poor marketing strategy to squeeze both on the same CD (though of course a judicious selection of material might be musically interesting).
Finally you can't seek a justification of Avie's decision to offer joint Gal and Schubert discs by pointing out that you don't happen to have a recording of Schubert 6 and 9, and that this will be a useful way of acquiring them. First, I suspect you're in a pretty small minority in being, as it were, Schubertless. I would guess most people contemplating buying a CD of Gal would already have Schubert on their shelves, and that might well incline them not to buy the CDs. And second, if you want (as you should!!) to add Schubert then, with all respect to the Northern Sinfonia and Thomas Zehetmair, there are probably easier (and less expensive) ways of doing so.
So maybe, in friendly fashion, we should agree to disagree! And let us instead turn the ear to music, for that is an infinitely more pleasant activity than squabbling over marketing strategies!
FWIW I'd buy the CDs whatever the couplings!
OK, one final paranoid thought and then I'll shut up. IF Avie knows they're dealing with something of a niche market (and I see that no one has agreed with me that we ARE a niche market), then why put all the goodies on ONE disc? Better to sell 2 or 3 or 4.
Of course, they may not take into account that there are many download sources now where a download of the full album is approximately half the price of the cd. Thus will I download these, if and when available, make my own CD and toss the Schubert which I am already well endowed with......
Jerry
we're a submarket of a (repeat several times here...) submarket with certain defined... I'm pretty sure I agree with you that we're a niche market...
It may be possible to purchase downloads of individual tracks, so you can skip the pieces you already have. The Pop music world has been talking about "the death of the album" for so long they don't even talk about it anymore; it's only the length of movements, and some online music stores' refusal to sell individual tracks if they're above a threshold length, that's delayed the same discussion in the Classical world.
-J
P.S. Gal symphonies! Swoon!
--
Jim Moskowitz
The Unknown Composers Page: http://kith.org/jimmosk/TOC.html
My latest list of unusual classical CDs for auction: http://tinyurl.com/jimsCDs
www.eclassical.com is the only site that I've seen that wants people to buy individual stuff. All other places are reletively speaking much less worth it to buy individual works, even the ones that DO have works priced alone.
A favourable review of the first disc in Avie's Hans Gal series:
http://classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=13415 (http://classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=13415)
Morten
Hi everyone
I hope you will forgive a well-intentioned interloper dropping in on this very interesting conversation. It is so exciting to read of everyone's interest in Gal's symphonies having spent an enormous amount of work in the last few years getting some of this music recorded.
I'd like to chime in with some behind-the-scenes information about the couplings which some of you have raised questions about. First of all, the Hans Gal Society (and the Gal family) has been very proactive in encouraging contextual programming of Gal in both concerts and recordings. This is not an economic philosophy but a musical and educational one. In general, they've tried hard, as per Gal's own sense of his place in music history (which he wore with great modesty), to place his output in the context of the Austro-German symphonic canon. In this sense, there has been a past reluctance to treat Gal too much as an "Entartete Musik" composer, but to show him as an heir to Schubert, Brahms and Schumann. One can agree or disagree about whether an all-Gal disc would tell you as much or more about Gal as a Gal-Schubert disc, but there is a lot of idealism behind the decision.
The two Zehetmair discs were projects of the Gal Society- the Kindred Spirits pairing was the idea of the Society (in discussion with Zehetmair and the orchestra), not a marketing idea from Avie.
On the other hand, there are very real economic issues that have to be faced to get these records made. An all-Gal disc would cost about twice as much to release because mechanical copyright law, which licenses music under copyright by the minute of disc time). Avie works on an artist-ownership model (http://www.avie-records.com/about.php). They work like LSO Live or other artist-owned labels, except they're not tied to one particular orchestra, instead working with us at Orchestra of the Swan, TZ and Northern Sinfonia, Bychkov/WDR, Petrenko/RLPO and they handle all the San Franciso/MTT discs outside the US and so on. What this means is that each disc is funded by the orchestra (not the record company), the artists or a sponsoring organization (like the Gal Society). Each of the Gal discs to date has required years of work to fund. As each disc sells, the proceeds (to call them profits rather stretches credibility!) go back into the artist's Avie account. Eventually, there may be enough in the account to do another disc.
This can be a slow process- the good news, is that as new Gal discs have come out, Leon's wonderful piano disc has improved its sales. Now that the symphonies are out, the Violin Concerti/Triptych disc I did with Annette-Barbara Vogel last year sells a bit more. The more discs out there, the more likely more new discs can be made.
Our series with Orchestra of the Swan is going to be a full cycle of Schumann and Gal symphonies (the next recordings with be Gal 4 and Schumann 2 in December). The only way the project can work (i.e. happen at all) is to tie it to concerts (as most orchestral discs are now done), and record all the rehearsals and the concert. To do an all-Gal concert for a professional orchestra is an economic impossibility at this time (our performance of Gal 3 last year was the first Gal symphony concert since the 1970s). We considered going in 2 year cycles and releasing 2 Gals on one disc and 2 Schumanns on another next year, but one can't really plausibly fund the second year without the revenue from the first (it also takes at least 6 months for sales revenue to start to return home from all the distributors and retailers).
I happen to love the musical paring of Schumann and Gal, but, of course, I love both composers' music. Gal wrote a wonderful book on Schumann's orchestral works (he also wrote wonderful studies of Schubert and Brahms) and you can learn a lot about Gal's music from what he says about Schumann and Schubert. I agree with the Gal Society (my cycle is an Orchestra of the Swan project, but we work very closely with the Gal Society, and Simon Fox-Gal is producing all our discs) that hearing his music in the context of his forefathers helps bring his music to life, and I also think one learns about Schumann and Schubert by listening to them in new contexts. The Schumann symphonies are a huge labor of love for me, and I know Thomas Z was deeply invested in the Schuberts that appear on his discs (to the best of my knowledge, TZ is not planning a full cycle of Gal). In both cases, the Schu's are anything but an afterthought. I really enjoyed TZ's Schubert 6, and I hope some of you will find something new in our Schumann 3 (and Schumann can be plenty unsung, too!).
The good economic news is that projects like this tend to keep selling for a long time. At some point, we're hopeful that all involved will actually make some money, but that is likely (unless something takes off and becomes a best seller, which we'd love) that that will take many years to happen. To those of you who feel like you don't need or want another Schumann or Schubert, I would just encourage you to think of that half of your purchase price as a small but incredibly valued contribution to the next recording. If all goes well, and we get the project finished, of course, there will be a strong incentive to box up all the Gal symphonies with Triptych and maybe some newly recorded string orchestra works. The important word is "if." Your six bucks/pounds/euros spent on the coupling you may-or-may-not want makes a big difference to us getting all four symphonies recorded. For the foreseeable future, every penny we take in on these discs just goes back into the recording pot towards the next CD, not into the maestros limo fund or Avie's new palatial office suites. If everyone waits, no box happens, because the project runs out of gas.
If I can just make one final plug- we're working on a micro-site within my blog for the 4 year Gal/Schumann project. It's very much under-construction (the disc has only been out 2 weeks), but we'll have all kinds of podcasts, video of the concerts, essays and interviews with players, experts and Gals there, as well as all the current reviews and news. Lovers of Gal's music will find lots of goodies there over the coming months and years: http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/bobby-and-hans/
Many thanks for your interest
Ken Woods
This is invaluable background information. Thanks very much indeed!
As Alan says, Ken, this background is hugely appreciated.
I do notice though that Records International mentions some sort of problem recently between you and the orchestra, and Avie, suggesting that in consequence there may be a wait for symphony 2 for instance. Have not heard the discs so far as it is but looking forward to them and to any continuations of course.
All four Gal symphonies - no unwanted couplings - on two discs:
http://www.avie-records.com/releases/the-four-symphonies-2/ (http://www.avie-records.com/releases/the-four-symphonies-2/)
^Ah, well—good fortune for those who have not already bought the four discs of Gál-plus-Schumann!