Romanian music

[jowcol]

Thanks for posting this! To make sure that there is no confusion in my mind, is this the Symphony No. 3 (out of the 11 numbered symphonies by Andricu), completed in 1950, or the Chamber Symphony No. 3, completed in 1965?

The confusion is in my mind-- I didn't know there were two of them---  any ideas?

[eschiss1]

Hrm. We have no.4 uploaded from awhile back, too. And no movement headings for it, I think...
A sinfonietta (his 11th, as I recall) by Andricu is sometimes broadcast.

[Jacky]

Just listened to it.It is,definitely a chamber symphony for two main reasons:you can hear the sparse instrumental texture and secondly, there is an historical reason:The very first Romanian chamber symphony was written in 1955 by Enescu,after the Maestro, Vieru,Mendelsohn,Dan Constantinescu wrote works with this title.Andricu's work uploaded here has seemingly the same instrumentarium like Enescu's cs namely piano,strings,winds.If you could give me the unedited tape or the cover I can try to  see if there is any hint regarding the work's name.Anyhow,a long research on the net in romanian, didn't return with notable results.It's next to impossible to find here information about the own musical  national school.Andricu,like Jora,Cuclin,Dragoi,Paul constantinescu,Negrea a.o, had a very unlucky life-grown under the crushing shadow of Enescu,weary because the taxing communist ideology, and overlooked by the posterity.Andricu was a very free person-he organised in his tiny apartament private auditions of jazz-music banned in the fifties in Romania.He had a fake trial and condemned in 1959,his name being banned.Later on,with the thaw that came in the middle sixties,his works were again permited.

[jowcol]

Just listened to it.It is,definitely a chamber symphony for two main reasons:you can hear the sparse instrumental texture and secondly, there is an historical reason:The very first Romanian chamber symphony was written in 1955 by Enescu,after the Maestro, Vieru,Mendelsohn,Dan Constantinescu wrote works with this title.Andricu's work uploaded here has seemingly the same instrumentarium like Enescu's cs namely piano,strings,winds.If you could give me the unedited tape or the cover I can try to  see if there is any hint regarding the work's name.Anyhow,a long research on the net in romanian, didn't return with notable results.It's next to impossible to find here information about the own musical  national school.Andricu,like Jora,Cuclin,Dragoi,Paul constantinescu,Negrea a.o, had a very unlucky life-grown under the crushing shadow of Enescu,weary because the taxing communist ideology, and overlooked by the posterity.Andricu was a very free person-he organised in his tiny apartament private auditions of jazz-music banned in the fifties in Romania.He had a fake trial and condemned in 1959,his name being banned.Later on,with the thaw that came in the middle sixties,his works were again permited.

Thank you for all of the information, and for trying to find what you can in Romanian. It is sad that you cannot find much information about your own national school, but I have also had trouble finding out about some of the American composers I have posted. 

I am particularly interested in Andricu's support for Jazz-- I'm a big jazz fan myself. 


  I don't have access to the source-- so I don't have access to the unedited tape or a cover.

[Miklos Pogonyi]

Regarding the Andricu "Symphony #3 I think it's a little misleading to label it so, since this appears to be Andricu's Chamber Symphony #3, Op.106 of 1965, a tape of which has been around for many years. Andricu's Symphony #3 for full orch. is his Op.54 of 1950, also on tape and in my collection.
Thanks for uploading.

[jowcol]

I've updated the posting.  Thanks!

[John M Potter]

Thanks for uploading Cuclin 20! (I wonder if the score has been published and what the movement headings of its movements - movement? - time to go listen - are ... )

I used to have a book called "Repertoriul general al creației muzicale românești" and from what I remember, the only one of his symphonies to be published was No. 9 in C sharp minor - of which, of course, there is no recording! It's unlikely to be published now, as the Romanians hardly publish any scores these days...

[eschiss1]

Well ,actually, there is a heavily cut non-commercial recording of no.9, but I take it you mean a complete one

[Jacky]

On 14th of June passed away Dumitru Capoianu,one of the most interesting Romanian composers in the second half of the 20th century.Atracted by jazz,he imbued his music with syncopated jazzy elements,without transforming the musical material in a symphonic jazz.
I posted two month ago some recordings with his music,but the links are dead.I am going to reupload these works.Our member A.S.uploaded on 11th of December the Phoenix suite,and the link still works.

[eschiss1]

Thank you. Sorry to hear about this- I still remember hearing (and going back to listen to again a few times, I think) his violin concerto on LP at the university library a decade or more back. Downloaded it gladly when it was posted here for it is after all lovely music.

[Jacky]

Essential listening I would characterise the music shared today by MVS.Enescu's unfinished works-completed after his death by Bentoiu and Taranu give us a glimpse in his artistic laboratory.Isis and the fifth symphony are born in the aftermath of Oedipe and you can feel it each moment.Ruzicka the composer understands from inside the musical process and gives us a fantastic rendition.
Wilhelm Georg Berger was a Saxon-the Germans from Transilvania.His music is indeed very german-solid,monumental,spacious,serious-sounds like a more tonal free Reger or a less aventurous Berg.He wrote 24 symphonies,21 string quartets,concertos for various other instruments,chamber music, Masses, musicological books.His music will appeal to those who like the music of Reger, Schmidt, Pfitzner,early Berg and Schonberg,late Strauss...

[Sydney Grew]

Essential listening I would characterise the music shared today by MVS. Enescu's unfinished works- . . . Wilhelm Georg Berger . . .

Seconded. Enescu is one of my favourite twentieth-century composers, and these contributions - which I have not heard before - interest me very much.

Incidentally, does any one know whether a DVD of Œdipe exists? I have heard the music but I'm still looking forward to watching the action. (There are a just a few extracts on Youtube.)

Many thanks to both A.S. and MVS!

[oleander55]

I really hope that there are more than just a few of you who enjoy the Berger as much as I do. 

I just had to upload these, because Wilhelm Berger is Mike Herman's favorite composer! 
(Believe me, folks, I'm kidding! )

[Jacky]

Schuman,Schumann,Toch,Bloch,Wilhelm Georg Berger and Wilhelm Petterson Berger,Verdi and Monteverdi,Weber and Webern...
W.G.Berger is a sad story.As a German in communist Romania,he refused to "go back in Heimat" the BRD.A devoted protestant in an atheistic otherwise orthodox country.A conservative post romantic musical language in the times of avantguard.Before 1989,orchestras had to play and record contemporary Romanian  music-hence a great corpus of recordings and performances of his music and of other composers,generally mixed bag,because,it was after all "a duty"..Nowadays he is a totally unsung composer,not sure a top drawer-his music seems sometimes to be stolid but there's a lot to enjoy whithin a careful listening.
DVD of Oedipe I don't know to exist.Generally speaking Oedipe had better recordings than stage productions.

[eschiss1]

will check out the W G Berger very soon; his name kept turning up when I looked up Wilhelm Berger, so I have been curious for awhile... Thanks much!