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Presumably it's from this 2023 broadcast concert as discussed in May 2023 https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=9077.0

I have the earlier broadcast version that I think I downloaded from our Downloads section several years ago. As I recall, not having heard it for a couple of years, it's a great big piece, as you'd imagine, very impressive. It's from his mature period (a couple of years after his very fine Second Symphony). A big, richly scored oratorio from the 1900s: what's not to like?

And if it really is from a 2023 recording, perhaps it's evidence that CPO are finally hearing our pleas for a quicker release of stuff they record? Yeah, I know: perhaps not ...

Of course, if one was so minded you could use readily available free software to convert YouTube video into mp3 and download to your computer, allowing you to listen to the music without any ads. Or even burn to disc. I merely point out the technical possibility!

Ah, I should have checked the Downloads section! Many thanks for recording, britishcomposer

I've listened to the first movement and impressed by it so far! But try as I might I can't find a way to get an mp3 of this performance. Is anyone able to record it - or give any info on an app I can use (Mac)?

My copy arrived too and I've only delved into the first act as yet and while it's obviously very well-crafted, nothing has really leapt out at me yet. Perhaps it will take time. As Alan says, the booklet - well, book really - is very thorough. Alongside a couple of good essays, there are about a dozen pages of musical analysis with excerpts from the score. It's similar to the packages put together by Bru Zane, but the in-depth analysis is something I've not seen before. It helps identify the motifs Erlanger uses, but as Alan also points out, you'll be looking in vain for the big tune. Nevertheless, it's great to have another rare French opera from this era. Perhaps we might dare hope for some more Erlanger - or Bruneau or Aubert or Dupont's rather fine Antar?

You can hear that same hesitant motif appearing in the first two movements as well, before the slow movement, so I think the symphony has a coherence and integrity - until the fourth movement, that is, because I agree that the final movement just doesn't manage to pull it all together.

Got my copy of this the other day. Very pleased they edited out the horrible false note that appears in the version that was in Downloads. I am currently absolutely obsessed with the noble, yearning theme in the third movement (very Mahlerian), played by the violins at the bottom of their register apparently (I had thought it was violas). Heart-melting.

Others here may not care for the accompanying Schoenbergian Haydn Variations by Hans Erich Apostel, but there's nothing to be scared of, I promise you! And the Busch variations make a very pleasant end to a well-filled disc.

Excellent. Will be nice to hear some more of her earlier works

That's good. Thanks Alan

My copy is on order but not arrived yet. Does it have the libretto with it (preferably with translation!)?

It having been on a wants list for a few years, I finally bought the MDG CD of Hans Weisse chamber works - his Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Sonata, both from the 1920s. I don't recall seeing anything about him here and he really is properly Unsung: there doesn't seem to be a lot known about his compositional output, but he is well known as a student of Schenker and a leading exponent of Schenkerian analysis which he introduced into America from 1930 onwards. He was born into Jewish family in Vienna in 1892. What I can say is the Quintet, in particular, is a lovely work in a late Brahmsian mould, at 43 minutes long, a major composition. I recommend.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hans-Weisse-Clarinet-Quintet-Sonata/dp/B07FSWS47B

Yes, Moser another pupil of Reger. Seem to be lots of them coming out of the woodwork recently!

Thanks very much for the uploads of the Piano Concerto and the upgraded Symphony No 4.

Here's a little more info I've got from Senfter's listings on the Schott site. For the Symphony, the conductor's surname is Mága (ie not with an umlaut), and it gives the work's performance history:

Johanna Senfter
4th Symphony Bb major
Conductor: Othmar Mága
Orchestra: Jenaer Philharmonie
October 14, 2011 | Jena (Germany) , Volkshaus

Conductor: Johannes Goritzki
Orchestra: Bamberger Symphoniker
November 19, 2000 | Fürth (Germany) , Stadttheater

Conductor: Johannes Goritzki
Orchestra: Bamberger Symphoniker
November 18, 2000 | Fürth (Germany) , Stadttheater — World Premiere

For the concerto, there's the following:

Conductor: Jonathan Bloxham
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
November 17, 2021 | Cardiff (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) , BBC Hoddinott Hall

This is good news. It's the 1979 recording that has done the unofficial rounds for years, so it will be nice to have a cleaned up copy. It may be a flawed work, but it's got some of Schmidt's loveliest music in it.

I have only just caught up with this news and am deeply depressed by it. As someone who really started to appreciate classical music in the early 1980s, Hyperion – then really finding their own feet – introduced me to so much. Their catalogue contains some of my most-cherished recordings, from early music, Renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic through to more contemporary music.

They boldly set out, of course, on the big RPC and RVC series that have been mentioned. It's difficult to overstress how groundbreaking these were, incredibly brave explorations of repertoire no one else would have touched at the time, let alone put so much love into.

But there was so much more - the Schubert Edition, scores of discs of early English music most notably the incomparable Purcell series of choral works, outstanding series of recordings of Monteverdi and Vivaldi sacred works from Robert King, loads of 19th/early 20th C British music, wonderful Dvorak and Brahms, the Solomon Quartet's Mozart quartets ... the list just goes on and on. They showed that you didn't need the big beasts of the international concert stage to make interesting, vital music, and instead they put their faith in largely lesser-known soloists and bands that were able to develop their own, hugely appreciative audiences.

As has been said, the production values and presentation were always immaculate, but the learned and beautifully understated booklets were often an education in themselves. During 10 years as a CD reviewer, I always found the folk at Hyperion to be incredibly helpful and supportive and approachable, and always, always enthusiastic about the music in a way that I rarely encountered elsewhere. They were a real family concern – and, being British, a homegrown one, too. It's very sad to think of that coming to an end and the legacy being swallowed up by Universal.

I'll go and lie down now ...