Messages

I absolutely adore the Florentine Symphony. It's too long, I know, but who can resist the fund of melody it contains? Do try it if you haven't heard it...

Who knows? But Brahms would not have been keen on these extra-musical associations. He would surely have insisted that his symphonies were pure music...

Be warned: the Carus/Burgmüller CD contains a couple of very period-instrument sounding performances. The Sterling (No.1) and MDG (No.2) performances are far more mainstream and, dare I say it, attractive...

Quite. Let's get on with recording the far superior mid-to-late Romantic repertoire - Gernsheim, Becker, Brüll, etc.

This forum is definitely not for the financially fainted-hearted; nor for those with eagle-eyed spouses!

Ahem, gentlemen. Just an observation that we are in danger of losing the thread entirely here...

PCs 2 & 3 are in fact available on the NMI label...

http://www.nederlandsmuziekinstituut.nl/nl/winkel

Lvov's VC is quite an expressive piece - well worth acquiring if you can unearth the Olympia CD.

Kilpinen wrote a Cello Sonata which is an undoubted masterpiece. It is available on the ClassicO label:

http://www.cdklassisk.dk/product_info.php?products_id=446

Yes, Pfitzner affords very little pleasure, I find. Braunfels is quite different: the oper Die Vögel (The Birds) is an exotic and enjoyable masterpiece more like Korngold. If you can track it down, it'll certainly reward you with some magnificent music.

Still, Brahms was the greater composer. Nevertheless, Herzogenberg was a very fine composer indeed - as were, say, Gernsheim and Fuchs, who are often compared to Brahms. I think such comparisons are inevitable - and acceptable provided that they are made with an open mind as to the quality of other composers' music. And I too couldn't now live without these newly-rediscovered masters.

BTW the facts: Herzogenberg was born 10 years later than Brahms, but only outlived him by 3.
   
To be contentious: only Draeseke, Raff and Rufinatscha match Brahms' stature - because they wrote great music that could never be mistaken for Brahms'. 

Relatively pale, but enjoyable nonetheless. I am in the process of getting hold of Syms 2 and 3 myself.

BBC radio's CD Review got it about right the other week: the problem with this transcription is that the piano-writing is simply not Brahmsian - it's nothing like awkward enough and gives no sense of the sort of struggle found in Brahms' true PCs. In fact it's nearer to the sort of thing Rachmaninov might have come up. So the effect is to replace the difficulty and strain which the VC poses the violinist with much more grateful piano-writing. The result is to neuter the piece somewhat. It's clever - but it's not Brahms.

Yes, Rudorff is on my list as a composer to investigate - unfortunately there's almost nothing of his on CD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Rudorff

Now, pooling resources is a good idea...

A small donation x lots of supporters = funds for a CD

You up for this, Jim?