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Messages - adriano

#2
My personal opinion: This is a rather endlessly boring piece, where Raff definitely failed as a music dramatist - and librettist.
This time he had no sense at all for comedy in music.
In German we call this kind of music "betulich" - which can be mildly translated into "comfortable", but I felt rather unconfortable. Already the extremely long first act never seemed to come to an end and no surprises occurred later on.
But with a lot of patience one can still enjoy Raff's skills as a melodist and an orchestrator.
Again, I shake my head on that this ensemble proudly calls itself "Orchestra of Europe".
(I've already posted a similar criticism in this forum, at the occasion of the Zurich production, which I attended).
#3
This has just been released in Switzerland. A super and luxuriantly presented production.
It includes also a libretto with French and English translations!
#4
Scherber's First Symphony is definitely a Bruckner homage :-)
#5
@TerraEpon
Oratorios have usually recitatives and no dialogues :-)
#6
Well, I already recorded it directly from digital radio when it was broadcast in 2022, but will still buy a CD in order to support this enterprise :-)
#7
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Thursday 22 February 2024, 11:02
By the way, this is also a very nice CD!
https://www.amazon.de/Kozlovsky-Romances-Polonaises-Orpharion-Ensemble/dp/B0012KRK50
It's also for sale on Discogs
#8
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Thursday 22 February 2024, 08:58
Yes, Alan
In any case, the Russian CD and the 1978 "Muzika" vocal score write Козловский - "Kozlovsky".
The original Polish spelling is Józef Kozłowski, he was born in Warzaw - although, according to recent researches, he was born in Slauharad (Koslowitchi), today's Belarus.
Osip is the Russian version of Jósef.
#9
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Monday 19 February 2024, 11:45
Good :-)
It's actually a very good recording, except, sometimes, a strange sound balance between some soloists and the orchestra. The "dies irae" section with the extra Instruments ist quite thrilling! From what is hearable in the orchestra, some brass parts may also have been added by the composer in this section, but for his we need the alternative score (which is not the one on ISLP).
And here the link to the earlier mentioned St. Petersburg performance (which is preceded by two speeches):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRyKyxtMgv8&ab_channel=SergeiPolyanichko
#10
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Sunday 18 February 2024, 23:46
Of course you may, dear Alan :-)

As I have already mentioned in here a couple of years ago, Melodiya produced an LP of this Requiem Mass already in 1988, which was reissued on CD in 2010. Vladimir Yesipov conducts the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra. TT 70 minutes.
It's the composer later, "augmented" version, featuring a.o. an exciting, much more dramatic "dies irae" section involving tamtam and drums. This Melodiya CD also includes a "Marche Funèbre" and a "Salve Regina" by Kozlovsky, which the Pentatone CD does not consider.

The Melodiya CD (which can be heard on various YouTube postings) is based on a score published by Muzgiz, edited by Konstantin (?) Fortunatov. I am trying to get scans or photocopies from Moscow...
On YouTube, this recording has been posted several times, but there there are also two video-taped performances of 2012 and 2022 (Sergei Polyanichko conducting Moscow and St. Petersburg ensembles).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mIO0F3J0TWQ&ab_channel=SergeiPolyanichko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRyKyxtMgv8&ab_channel=SergeiPolyanichko

A 2019 performance by the the Choeur Classique de Montreal, but in a version with organ accompaniment only, is also available on YouTube.

Hans Graf's newly edited score apparently considers the first (1798) version of the Mass. But some sources mention that the "augmented" version was the first version... His recording has a TT of 50 minutes.

Scans of the 1789 holograph and of the first printed score by Breitkopf can be found on IMSLP, as well as a vocal score for keyboard with violin, both including the "Marche Funèbre" at the end of the Mass.

In my collection I also have a Melodiya LP featuring following works by Kozlovsky:
1) Overture to the tragedy "Esphir"
2) Overture to the tragedy "Deborah, or the Triumph of Faith"
3) Overture and two dances from the incidental music "Fingal"
4) Polonaise op.10 on themes of Mozart's terzet "Mandina amabile"
5) Polonaise in D minor op. 4 no. 6
The Overture are quite interesting!
This recording (produced in 1979) is also conducted by Vladimir Yesipov.
#11
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Sunday 18 February 2024, 10:42
No trouble at all, Alan: it's a pleasure. Just let me know how many copies you want. I visit the distributor regularly.
And it seems that Raff's "Welt-Ende" will be available very soon; the same distributor has cpo for Switzerland.
#12
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Sunday 18 February 2024, 06:51
Alan: I could collect the CD directly from the distributor (who is a friend of mine) and send it to you.
Special price for me: 15 CH.
The CD has a cardboard book-form cover, no jewel case - and weights 50 gr.
As long as the parcel's total weight remains under 100 gr, postal charges will be 4 CHF, meaning that you could even buy 2 copies, but with the risk of having them packed into a simple "bubbles" envelope with no extra cardboard reinforcement.
Between 250-500 gr it would cost 9 CHF, meaning that you could even post 3 CDs.
This goes under the tariff "Brief mit Kleinwaren" (letter with small merchandise content).

The distributor's online (direct website ordering) price of a Pentatone CD is 21 CHF, meaning that in the shop it would become some 25 CHF. I suppose some of their contracts are not allowing them to ship outside Switzerland...

(Speaking about prices and rates: Zurich's governors apparently, are proud that their town has officially become the most expensive in the world; I would have a bad conscience. What we experience over here (constantly raising flat rents, insurance and living costs etc.) is absolutely perverse - but nobody does something against it. They even reduced welfare rates poor people are entitled to! In March there will be a "people's initiative" voting for a 13th monthly pension for everybody, but some politicians already draw up horror scenarios saying that because of this, the state will be bankrupt soon! Even ex-ministers (who have nothing to say anymore and live with a yearly pension of 230'000 CHF) write letters to some people, or give interviews warning us against the consequences should the voting win. They bought private addresses from unserious traders, so even some already deceased persons got such letters...!
On the other hand, there are billions around to save corrupted banks from bankruptcy and stocking up our army equipment. Real needs of our people always come in the last place, or even they do not at all).
Sorry for this angry personal note...

#13
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Saturday 17 February 2024, 12:30
Strange: over here it's already available...
#14
Recordings & Broadcasts / Re: Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Thursday 15 February 2024, 18:02
Thanks, Alan
In Switzerland it is already available :-)
#15
Recordings & Broadcasts / Osip Kozlovsky - Requiem
Thursday 15 February 2024, 16:59
Remember our earlier postings on this subject, in connection with a 2010 CD premiere by Melodiya of this exciting Requiem Mass?
Now we have a new (2023) recording on the Pentatone label, involving the Singapore Symphony and Choruses, plus various soloists conducted by Hans Graf - who also prepared a new edition of the score. Very recommendable!