Schmidt-Kowalski anyone?

[Alan Howe]

I like it   

[lasm2000]

Well, I have already wrote an email to Naxos asking for availability in this side of the pond. Let's see what they reply. Meanwhile, as someone noted before, the only option is listening on spotify although it lacks the cello sonatas/nocturnes.

[djarvie]

If you are happy with a download, the cello sonatas/nocturnes are available from The Classical Shop (aka Chandos Records)
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Details.aspx?CatalogueNumber=NA 1273
but only as a 320 kbps MP3.   They also have the three albums of orchestral music as MP3's and in various lossless formats as well.
As far as I can see from their terms and conditions there don't seem to be any restrictions as to where in the world you can download them from.
The music was all new to me and rewarding to listen to - especially the Cello Concerto.

[semloh]

  ...and don't forget that his marvellous String Sextet No.1 is still available via our downloads section!

[lasm2000]

Thanks for noting the downloads. As expected, the reply I got is that sale is forbidden out of Germany due to copyright reasons. No details were given but well, at least it ain't a marketing or whatever. Such a shame, his music is hands some of the most "listenable" made in recent times.

[Gauk]

Nope, just unsingable 

Actually I have to comment on this. I heard an interview with Stockhausen after the premiere of Stimmung, in which the interviewer asked, "Well, it's not exactly something you could sing in the bath, is it?" Stockhausen replied, "I don't know. I don't see why you can't sit in the bath going AAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU?"

Anyway, back to the thread topic. I have been listening to the S-K music available on Spotify, and it is really clear that he has an individual voice. I was reminded a bit of Pfitzner, and checked to see if he had studied with him, but no, there is no direct descent. Indeed, it seems that his teachers were modernists. It has me wondering if S-K himself had any pupils who are now turning out more unsung neo-romaticism.

The Wikipedia article on S-K is rather dumb, comparing his music to Dvorak and Saint-Saens. What?? If, anything, Bruckner would be a better comparison.

[eschiss1]

Or better yet, they should follow Wikipedia policy (or what was W-policy back when I was a frequent editor there, anyway- don't know what's changed), and stick with the reasonably objective. NPOV: here's the facts we were able to come up with that seem fairly certain, the opinions you are free to come up with on your own...

[Alan Howe]

I'd classify S-K under the 'late romantic' heading. I tend to think of composers like Barber as 'neo-romantic' because they combine elements of modernism with a basically melodic idiom. Barber's own VC would be an example of this - two movements in a very melodic idiom, although a recognisably 20th century one, followed by a much more modern-sounding finale. S-K's music, by contrast, is much more conservative in idiom, fusing, it seems to me, elements from several composers in the 19thC/early 20C German tradition, e.g. Wagner, Bruckner, Strauss.

[Balapoel]

Barber's own VC would be an example of this - two movements in a very melodic idiom, although a recognisably 20th century one, followed by a much more modern-sounding finale.

...and thus only 2/3 suitable for this forum... 

[Alan Howe]

Actually more than 80%. The finale is very short... 

[Gauk]

I'd classify S-K under the 'late romantic' heading. I tend to think of composers like Barber as 'neo-romantic' because they combine elements of modernism with a basically melodic idiom. Barber's own VC would be an example of this - two movements in a very melodic idiom, although a recognisably 20th century one, followed by a much more modern-sounding finale. S-K's music, by contrast, is much more conservative in idiom, fusing, it seems to me, elements from several composers in the 19thC/early 20C German tradition, e.g. Wagner, Bruckner, Strauss.

Actually, I think most musicologists would put it the other way round - Barber is "late romantic" because he is in continuity with those composers in the 20th C (like Rachmaninoff) who eschewed 12-tone ideas. S-K, on the other hand is jumping back stylistically to somewhere around 1890, and is therefore "neo-romantic", just as "neo-classicism" has no continuity to Haydn and Mozart.

But generally, these terms are vague and very difficult to apply in a rigorous manner. For instance, I would distinguish between nationalists and romantics, though this is not easy to partition either.

Incidentally, I can't agree about the Barber VC - the finale is just faster than the other movements (and harder to play). Stylistically, it's all Barber.

[Alan Howe]

Actually, I think most musicologists would put it the other way round

I agree that these terms are hard to define. But as far as I can see Barber is more frequently termed a neo-romantic:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/18/samuel-barber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excursions_%28Barber%29
http://www.fuguemasters.com/barber.html
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Samuel_Barber.aspx
...not least in this important book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voices-Wilderness-Neo-Romantic-Composers-Traditionalist/dp/0810857286

Incidentally, I can't agree about the Barber VC - the finale is just faster than the other movements (and harder to play). Stylistically, it's all Barber.

Well, it's certainly all Barber. But Barber wrote in more than one style - which the history of the genesis of the work certainly suggests.

Anyway, back to S-K, please...

[eschiss1]

... most musicologists would certainly not agree with Gauk, from anything I've read anywhere actually _by_ musicologists and informed peeps.  But that's a conversation that can be carried on elsewhere (perhaps not in this forum, I suppose, and since we won't discuss it here, sideswipes at it from either side should likely be avoided.) (Was John Cage a neo-romantic or a user of 12-tone ideas? Don't answer that, just think.)

[Alan Howe]

As I said, back to S-K, please..