Messages

Thanks, Alan.  Long live the CD.

For however many years now, I've been hoping that the remaining Raff symphonies by Werner Andreas Albert and the Philharmonia Hungarica that were recorded by WDR would somehow see the light of day.  Project killed off by some contractual dispute or something, wasn't it?  I seem to remember that the glorious 5th was next up for issue. I guess I should just be grateful we got 7 through 11.  Still, hope, like stupidity, springs eternal.

April 24th for the download. How long until the CD is released, I wonder.

I can't disagree.  It is my favorite symphony, but, to my mind, all seven of the recordings released on CD so far are flawed in one way or another, be it sound quality, phrasing & tempo, or quality of orchestral playing.  That said, I still enjoy listening to all of them, well, maybe all except Yondani Butt & The Philharmonia on ASV.  That one is absolutely lifeless.

I just found out yesterday that Heritage Records have, in the past few years, been reissuing Unicorn-Kanchana CDs, including several Bernard Herrmann titles.  As noted in a thread from a few years back, all copies of the 1990 CD reissue of Herrmann's 1970 recording of Raff's 5th Symphony evidently suffer from "bronzing," aka "CD rot."  I've emailed Heritage encouraging them to consider reissuing the Raff.

My eternal gratitude will go out to any of you who would do the same.  I'd also note that there are a number of other currently unavailable titles in the Unicorn catalog that might be of interest to readers here, so it can't hurt to let them know there's interest in their efforts.  I'll paste the link to their website below:

https://www.heritage-records.com

Listed on Presto as download only, but I imagine the CD will be listed soon.  The filler is the 9-minute "Sinfonia Festiva."

BIS has a forthcoming SACD of Helvi Leiviska's orchestral music coming soon.  It is "volume 1," so I guess at least one more is planned after this one.

I saw it listed on the HMV Japan website, and not being able to read Japanese, I can't tell what the pieces included are, but their Opus numbers are. 11, 27 and 30.

From a review I saw on www.classicalmusicdaily.com, I believe the Chineke! Orchestra CD also uses the Trevor Weston reconstruction, but am unable to confirm that because Decca doesn't seem to have posted a photo of the inlay card or mentioned it in their promotional blurb.

Now that Nézet-Séguin's Price project appears to have moved from DG to Decca with the second installment, I wonder if they'll take a pass on the piano concerto, there being such a new one already in Decca's catalog.  Naxos, please take note!

Scott

There'll have be to be at least three CDs to cover Respighi.  There's still the two piano (or is it piano, 4 hands?  I can't remember now.) version of the Concerto in Modo Misolidio.  When I emailed Toccata to inquire about that particular piece, the reply was that they were going to include everything.

I sold my LPs off around 1988 or so.  I'm with Alan, good riddance to them.  I would have to say that a large part of the problem was the increasingly poor quality of the pressings.  By the end, I was buying brand new LPs, and the first time I'd play them, my ears were assaulted by the crackle.  Seemed like I was wasting my money on a high end turntable and hideously expensive cartridges.

Sad to say the same kind of thing is happening with CDs.  Jewel cases, which were thick & heavy in the beginning, became thin and flimsy (and easily broken when the the mailman dances on them).  The discs themselves aren't faring much better.  In the first ten years or so of my collecting, I only got one CD that had anything wrong with it (it just wouldn't play on any machine).  Now, the situation is very different.  I order new CDs, and, when I get them and I remove the cellophane, I find scratches on the playing surface.  (and, yes, I know a re-wrap when I see one, having been burned on that many times when buying through Ebay or the Amazon Marketplace).  I'm at the point where I will not purchase CDs on Supraphon or anything manufactured in Italy (Urania being the absolute worst).

Add to this all the labels foisting off CD-r's on unsuspecting customers, unrealistically high prices in the secondhand market, the near extinction of brick-and-mortar shops, rising international postage rates, increasingly poor postal service, having to pay North Carolina sales tax on discs I order from other states, having to order from Japan to get the format (SACD) I want...  Well, let's just say that, when the CD is dead, it won't be just downloading and LPs that killed it.

I guess the one thing I used to like about Hurwitz was that he was often very specific about what he liked or disliked.  That said, I always found it a little hard to deal with his overemphasis on percussion and his eagerness to trash whatever the British critics liked, and, lately, he's pummeling recordings that everybody else praises, including some I'd say were beyond reproach. 

The video reviews are less specific and a bit repetitive and rambling.  I thought it was telling that, in reviewing the Korngold, he didn't even mention the Albrecht on Pentatone, which he gave a 10/10.  Seemed like a very careless omission.

It is a very fine disc, indeed.  I would also recommend Jack Gibbons' two disc set (ASV), which contains the complete Op. 39 set and more.  Marc-Andre Hamelin has several excellent Alkan discs on Hyperion, too.  While I'd rate Gibbons & Hamelin just a bit above Wee, the latter definitely has the advantage in sound.  Nice to finally have this material on SACD.

As Beethoven's 250th birthday is coming up in 2020, lots of boxed sets are appearing in the listings of forthcoming releases.  I'm pretty sure I have all the Beethoven I'll ever need, but this got me to thinking.  2022 will see Raff's 200th birthday.

Any time I am in contact with record labels about anything else, I always try to slip in a good word for Raff's 5th, hoping to stir a little interest.  Now, I actually have an excuse.  Going forward, I'll be asking, "by the way, are you planning any new releases for the upcoming Raff Bicentennial?"   

Luckily, Cesar Franck seems to be the only other composer born that year likely to be competing for attention.

According to the (somewhat hidden in a not very obvious spot) news section of the Karl Weigl Foundation website, the 4th and 6th were scheduled to be recorded in early May.  The delay between recording and CD release of the first symphony was five months, so I guess it's possible we could see 4 & 6 before Halloween.

The older I get, the less patient I become with cycles that take years to complete, though even worse are the cycles that get abandoned because the conductor moves on to another orchestra, Neemi Jarvi's Raff on Chandos being the best (or should I say worst?) example I can think of.

Someone's probably already mentioned it on another Weigl thread, but Capriccio is going to do all six symphonies with Bruns.  The next issue is to be 4 & 6, so those who already have the BIS CD of 6 will have to deal with a little duplication to get Sym 4.