Hi Peter (and everyone else),
The earlier thread I mentioned is here: http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=4062.0
If you would like to hear a few things, I have placed some recordings on youtube, and on my website www.patriciagoodson.com. Also there is the Kickstarter page, now dormant in terms of fundraising, which has a bit more information, especially perhaps in the updates http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1230126388/dreams-memories-impressions-piano-works-of-jb-foer?ref=email
You are right that the pieces have not been commercially recorded. Věra Kopecká has recorded many sets of pieces over the years for Czech Radio, but they are locked up in the archives. Marian Lapšanský recorded the five Snění (Dreaming) for Supraphon, but that is the only commercial recording. For me as an artist, the opportunity to learn Romantic era music entirely without reference to anyone else`s interpretation or ideas was astonishing and humbling.
There are about seventy pieces, if you count the movements of larger works as individual pieces. Most of them have the peculiar pianistic awkwardness common (in my opinion) to Czech composers such as Suk, Dvořák and Smetana, though (thankfully!) without the latter`s Lisztian virtuosity. It could simply be my own failing, but for the most part, the pieces - even the simplest ones - don`t leap immediately off the page and sound good, which may partly explain their obscurity. In particular, they require careful voicing, rubato and coloration, and perhaps an awareness that Foerster`s great love was song and voice. I suspect the orchestral works have not received scrupulous, imaginative performances because of the time and expense involved.
Thank you for your good wishes, and for likely being the first purchaser! I hope you will enjoy it.
The earlier thread I mentioned is here: http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=4062.0
If you would like to hear a few things, I have placed some recordings on youtube, and on my website www.patriciagoodson.com. Also there is the Kickstarter page, now dormant in terms of fundraising, which has a bit more information, especially perhaps in the updates http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1230126388/dreams-memories-impressions-piano-works-of-jb-foer?ref=email
You are right that the pieces have not been commercially recorded. Věra Kopecká has recorded many sets of pieces over the years for Czech Radio, but they are locked up in the archives. Marian Lapšanský recorded the five Snění (Dreaming) for Supraphon, but that is the only commercial recording. For me as an artist, the opportunity to learn Romantic era music entirely without reference to anyone else`s interpretation or ideas was astonishing and humbling.
There are about seventy pieces, if you count the movements of larger works as individual pieces. Most of them have the peculiar pianistic awkwardness common (in my opinion) to Czech composers such as Suk, Dvořák and Smetana, though (thankfully!) without the latter`s Lisztian virtuosity. It could simply be my own failing, but for the most part, the pieces - even the simplest ones - don`t leap immediately off the page and sound good, which may partly explain their obscurity. In particular, they require careful voicing, rubato and coloration, and perhaps an awareness that Foerster`s great love was song and voice. I suspect the orchestral works have not received scrupulous, imaginative performances because of the time and expense involved.
Thank you for your good wishes, and for likely being the first purchaser! I hope you will enjoy it.