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Yes, this was sad news to hear of, I had some contact with him from 2007 onwards when the string orchestra I co-founded performed his Overture at the Fondation des États-Unis here in Paris. As recently as April this year Noël performed in his own work Paraboles at a Cantus Formus concert at the CRR de Paris organized by Nicolas Bacri.

The work "Landfall in Unknown Seas" is still available on CD according to the SOUNZ site; Landfall in Unknown Seas. It's not really neglected in NZ, I've played it in an orchestra there at least one time that I can remember, and also the Third Symphony that I prefer over the first two for its conciseness.

I've just tracked down an existing recording of the Robert Kahn Serenade Op.73 on the Polymnie label.

Robert Kahn wrote a serenade for oboe, horn and piano that was published in 1923 (so I haven't seen it - copyrights stuffs) but I suspect is good... (recorded on Chandos in 2002 in one of its alternate forms, with viola for horn.)

I'm at present working on a recording of this work in its original version (Serenade in F-minor Op.73) for the group Trio Art Dente; it's going onto a CD of works for this combination and will be ready by October, but I understand it will have a limited distribution.

I thought I'd have a look on the web to find out a bit more about Moszkowski so started with the wikipedia page. This uncovered a rather quirky coincidence: In Paris, he lived on the rue Blanche, and in the summer he rented a villa owned by Henri Murger. That sentence has replicated itself onto dozens of other sites. I live about a 100 metres from a rue Henri Murger, so for a moment thought that this might have been where the villa outside Paris once was, but celebrated figures often ended up with streets named after them in several districts. There's another rue Henri Murger in the 19th district but that's all. In fact it's certain that the villa was at Bourron-Marlotte (rue Murger), out near Fontainebleau. Moszkowski is mentioned on that page. At least I know about Henri Murger now (& the la Boheme connection)...

Seems there's certainly a question or two to ask. I ended up looking at this doc: http://www.bnf.fr/documents/autorisation_usage_fr.pdf Perhaps it would be considered a "produit dérivé"? There's an email address to write to there, in any case.

...seems to think they hold copyright on everything from Homer onwards.

I've just been looking at the Bnf site; there's a commercial use license for things that have gone out of copyright ("hors droit").

My wife tells me that one needs proof of being a researcher to get access to certain rooms at the Bnf, I'd probably be classified as riffraff, she on the other hand would probably have a much better chance as a Maitre de Conférence (in English, but has keen interest in music as violinist).

Ça ne doit pas être trop difficile, et qu'est-ce que j'y gagne ?!!

Thanks for the info on the Lemeland Concerto. I had a look at the Billaudot site and it seems that not even the solo part is for sale, and there's no mention of any piano reduction (same with the Violin Concerto). Somewhat unusual, if that's really case with the solo part, but worth checking on. I know rue de l'Échiquier quite well - a movement of my own viola concerto (that I just uploaded to youtube in version vla/pno) was recorded in a friend's apartment in that street.

On that IMSLP page Op. 35 says "for harp", but in fact it's for quintet of string quartet & harp (1906).

I'm searching for info on a Viola Concerto by Aubert Lemeland (Concerto pour alto). There is a recording on the Quantum label - does anyone have this? The work is in one movement but that's all I know, I'm just wondering about the duration, structure and character etc. Lemeland has only been mentioned on this forum a couple of times (once favourably by eschiss). I bought two CDs of his music recently and I'm rather impressed by it so I'm thinking that the Viola Concerto is probably going to be well worth getting to know.

A French group, Quatuor des Iles, has been performing recently the work of Rita La Villette (1865-1941) aka Rita Strohl, composer of two symphonies, opera, chamber music... There's a short documentary here in Breton with option of French sub-titles that contains an extract of a Quartet for flute, violin, viola and cello.

John Adams on Philip Glass (youtube) ".... there's some chord progressions that really almost come out of pop music but they're done in a "Glassian" manner..."

British composer David Beck's new CD Flights of Fancy is now available from primafacie.ascrecords.com. I've been particularly interested in a couple of works on it, the duo for violin and viola and the String Quartet N°1. The String Quartet N°1 from 1962 has already been reviewed on www.musicweb-international.com as it was on another CD, and that review gives a very good description of it. There are seven movements in the Duets for Violin and Viola ranging from 1'14" to 3'34" in duration, in a very individual style.