Traumgesicht by Erkki Melartin

[anssik]

Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform Erkki Melartin's symphonic poem Traumgesicht, op. 70, on Wednesday, 13th, and Thursday, 14th, of November. I don't know if the work has received a single performance since George Schneévoigt and Helsinki Philharmonia played it in the spring of 1932 under the new title "Symphonische Musik". As with Melartin's symphonies, the Melartin Society and Jani Kyllönen have done wonderful job in transcribing the manuscript material and bringing the music, at least potentially, to wider acknowledgement. I'm looking forward to getting to know this piece, which is said to show influence by Strauss, Debussy, Scriabin, and Rimsky-Korsakov, and hopefully leading to a more nuanced picture of Melartin as a composer.

[eschiss1]

Thank you. I wonder if they will be broadcasting or even recording it? I have enjoyed Melartin's music very much (ever since getting syms. 5 and 6 on Ondine (not based on the new corrected edition, of course) back around 1992 based on strong recommendations in Fanfare and from a friend- and have been happy to hear more of his music since as I can...

[anssik]

Yes, YLE (The Finnish Broadcasting Corporation) will be broadcasting it live on Thursday, 14th at 1903 local time; after which it will be available for listening in YLE's website for the following 30 days; I don't know whether there are limitations on the availability of YLE's broadcasts abroad.

[eschiss1]

I don't know if their rebroadcasts are limited to local use, but I do gather that their immediate broadcasts stream over Windows Media Player/Flip/perhaps VLC/etc. (asx I think).

[mbhaub]

Thanks for the info. I'd like to be able to hear it. Just by coincidence, I have been listening to the Melartin symphonies the past few days, wishing they were better known. Strong, tuneful, noble music.

[chill319]

This is the work where Melartin pulls out all the stops on his orchestra. It's a complex score, more so than any previously written in Finland. In many places there's a lot going on at once. I'm not a good enough score reader to hear the results accurately, but the score will definitely be a challenge for the conductor, as with other big, ambitious works like Schoenberg's Pelleas, Schmidt's Symphony 2, or Bax's Spring Fire.

Addendum: In comparing the Melartin tone poem with other "big, ambitious" works, I refer to the masterly orchestration rather than to the size of the piece, which is not nearly as long as the others; I happen to have listened to them recently. That said, as forum members know, when for any mid-period Melartin work, the opus number mod 10 = 0, Melartin was definitely putting it on his A list and expecting it to be adjudged accordingly.

[jani]

This concert is also broadcast live on German radio on 14th November:

http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/programmtipp/konzert/2297233/

[eschiss1]

Ah, thanks! I hope someone will consider uploading it, unless there are plans to release it as part of a commercial recording, &c &c ...

[britishcomposer]

This concert is also broadcast live on German radio on 14th November:

http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/programmtipp/konzert/2297233/

Thanks for the note! My Radio- and TV-journal announces Ernest Pingoud's 1st Symphony instead of the Melartin piece. Hope it will actually be the Melartin because we already have the Pingoud in our downloads archive

[mjkFendrich]

I've just posted my recording from the German DRadio Kultur live broadcast,
(originally MP2 256kbps, 48 kHz - converted to mp3)
soon available upon approval.

[jani]

Traumgesicht was programmed only a month ago. Originally there was to be performance of Pingoud's 1st symphony, but the orchestral parts were in poor shape that they decided to play Traumgesicht instead.

[Alan Howe]

Many thanks, mjkFendrich, for the upload.

[Mark Thomas]

Excellent! Thank you very much.

[jani]

I'm interested to know what you think about the piece? It is very different kind of Melartin if you think about his other works.

[jani]

Video of the performance is available at http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2086975 for next 29 days.