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I was aware that Berwald had composed an early violin concerto, which I find rather mediocre.  I was totally unaware that there was a two-violin concerto that had been recorded, no less!  Is it a more mature work than the single violin VC?  Also, is it a complete work, or was it finished or orchestrated by other hands?  Somebody give me a link...

You might want to steer clear of this work, it's one of Berwald's less successful compositions. Even the piano concerto didn't quite convince me, but this double concerto is just horribly tedious. I love his chamber music and purely orchestral works - everything solo I don't find particularly successful.

I'll be very happy with this recording! I only know his 2nd piano quartet, and have been waiting for the 1st to receive a good recording (I really do assume it will be good).

Enescu's music is as interesting as it is elusive, although his earlier works (of which a great many still aren't available in good recordings) are unmistakeably romantic. His later, more modern language just wasn't 'late' and modern enough, which make him a rather obscure composer - or more a one-hit composer.

The piano quintet is an amazing piece as well, but I really had to let it grow on me. Worth the effort, though! It's just his more popular violin sonatas I don't really care for, but I guess that has to do more with the combination piano/violin than with his musical language. I really wish CPO would do his youth symphonies...

I regard Poulenc's Concerto for Organ, Strings and Tympani as the most beautiful piece of music I have ever heard. And yet, I have never heard anyhting else by Poulenc that I like. Any comment on the merits of Poulenc as a composer?

Gerhard

...only that I consider him an anti-romantic composer!

There's only one piece of him I adore as much as I dislike the rest: "L'Embarquement pour Cythère" for 2 Pianos. Gay, harmless, and funny!

There are one or two recordings of the Concertino (or is it Konzertstück?), I forget exactly how many.  I wanted to pick one up, but now I can't remember the label.

I have this work and am listening to it right now, thanks to your post. Must've been years since I last heard it. The CD is from the label EBS (sub of Bayer) and the year 2005, and on the cover it says 'premiere recording of op.33' - the fast-slow-fast concert piece. As I'm writing, I'm starting to remember why I hardly ever listen to this piece - it really lacks a good tune, and the orchestra isn't particularly subtle. That is different with the CPO piano concertos, which are next on today's playlist!

Perhaps the Konzertstück can be done a greater favor, although I know of no other recordings. Anyway, time for the 3rd concerto, now...

Only one vote?

Then mine has to go to Haydn Wood's concerto!

Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque - try listening to that alone, in the dark...

Not to sound ungrateful, but do we really need this?

...more than another Bruckner or Mahler, less than a Marx-Herbstsinfonie...

What is this, the fourth or fifth recording? The Hyperion gave us all we needed to know

Hyperion gave us what is propably the most uninteresting reading of the work ever. I'll be looking forward to Järvi - although I'm not getting my hopes up. But your last question is rather interesting; how many recordings of this can the market support? Especially since the 'hype' around this composer/work is sooo 20th century...

Secondly, and a bit off topic, to gently disagree with Jim over the question of whether joining the Nazi Party in 1933 carries less subsequent approbrum than joining it later on. My take is that, if Graener joined it in 1933 when it had only just gained power, he is much more likely to have been a dyed in the wool believer than if he had joined it later when the party had established its dictatorship. By then it might be argued  that it was defensible as an expedient thing to do, either because membership brought career benefits or at the very least protection. We shouldn't forget that many ordinary and decent Germans welcomed the advent of Nazi power as promising a return to the strong pre-WWI Germany which they looked back to with pride. Just my two penn'orth.

Dear Mark, I hope you let me be slightly (...) off topic as well - without ever being "on it" - and gently state that you actually disprove your own point; the Nazi party gained power in 1933, as you write, but had been existing for over a decade. If the composer joined in 1933 after the party gained power, it was probably because of the "benefits". If he joined it between 1919 - 1933, then he would probably have been a "dyed in the wool believer". Oder?

It's interesting that he decided to just stop composing.

Are there many examples like this?  (I guess I just see composing as something you do for your whole life. )

Brahms, Sibelius...

I'm also aware that Erland's father Sigurd von Koch (1879-1919) also was a composer, and Phono Suecia have recorded a Piano Quintet to be found here: http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Sigurd-von-Koch-Klavierquintett/hnum/2964298

Morten

I have this CD, because of the Koch work - I was very pleasantly surprised with the music! The trick is to have very low expectations...

"...and regard his four piano concertos as the greatest of the 19th century..."  Do you mean greatest among unsungs, or greatest even when the competition includes Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, etc.?  The latter, I think, would be a tall order...

David

I meant exactly what I said--I'll take any of the Scharwenka piano concertos (and most of the unsung concertos such as Raff, Moszkowski, and Dohnanyi #1) over any of the "sung" concertos. It's high time to give the Scharwenkas and the other unsungs their deserved place in the sun and displace the hackneyed warhorses that we hear over and over and over again.

Have you actually listened to some of these warhorses, or did you just hear them too often?

I do agree some of the unknown concertos are right up there with the sung repertoire. I also agree that they should be given a "place in the sun". But, please, next to Schumann and Brahms etc., not above them!

The one composer I can't listen to is Willem Pijper, because of his relentless, obsessive hate campaign against Jan van Gilse in the early 20th century. But then, I wouldn't be able to listen to it without that, I guess.

If you replace "Pijper" with "Vermeulen" and "Gilse" with "Dopper", I'm your man!

They all wrote what we consider to be "romantic" music?

They were all alcoholics?

What about that nasty piece of work Richard Wagner, for example...?

As this Dahlhaus-supporter would say: Hands off!

Schillings is one of those composers I can't really listen to without thinking of his biography. He was a nasty piece of work, who spent the last half-year of his life making life impossible for Max Liebermann, Franz Schreker, and a host of other artists. Shouldn't be the only yardstick by which one assesses his music, but still...

For me, the yardstick you talk about is no yardstick at all - I care as little for Schilling's political sympathies as I do for Schubert's (alleged) sexuality. I'm not a big supporter of "new musicology".