Rufinatscha from Chandos

[Ilja]

I'm privileged to be going to the BBC studio performance this Friday in Alan's stead (thank you Alan) and will report on it once I get back from Manchester.

I'm usually not a jealous man - but today, that's different...

[Gareth Vaughan]

I'm privileged to be going to the BBC studio performance this Friday in Alan's stead (thank you Alan) and will report on it once I get back from Manchester.

I hate you for ever!!!

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you, friends!

[John H White]

Make sure you have a copy of the score with you so that you can let them know if they go wrong.

[Alan Howe]

Well, the BBC studio performance of R6 has now taken place and I understand from Mark Thomas that it was a great success. Watch this space...

[Mark Thomas]

Indeed it was a great success. We can look forward to stunning performances of the Sixth and the Bride of Messina Overture on CD if yesterday's concert recorded for radio is anything to go by. Inevitably one compares it with the Tirolean recordings: Noseda shaves a mighty ten minutes off Siepenbusch's hour long performance of the Symphony, half of that coming from the opening movement. I don't think that there were any cuts, it was just much tauter, much more dramatic and, of course, faster overall although there was plenty of tempi contrast within the framework of a movement with much more propulsive momentum than Siepenbusch gives it.

I didn't notice great differences in the performances of the Scherzo but I suspect that too had more urgency. The Largo third movement was beautifully done, invested with real Elgarian nobility. It too moved forward with purpose but Noseda brought out it's subtly varying moods to much greater effect than we get from the Tiroleans. After three string-dominated movements (more obvious with the BBC Philharmonic's much larger string section), the blaze of brass in the Finale was tremendous. If anything Noseda's way with this movement was the greatest improvement over Siepenbusch. Again, it was given real momentum - I was reminded of Glazunov's Fifth. Another couple of minutes were chopped off here to beneficial effect, so we ended up with a 50 minute Symphony but of even greater stature than I had thought it had from the CD. Certainly the 200+ strong invited audience, who clearly from the pre-recording chatter, had had no idea what to expect when they came into the studio, left it very enthusiastic about Rufinatscha. I heard several talking about making sure that they recorded the radio performance or bought the CD.

The Overture got a similarly taut and dramatically well thought through performance. The BBC Philharmonic are a fine orchestra, they played as if their lives depended on it but with real feeling for the nuances of the score. Noseda's interpretations of both works were thoroughly convincing and, as you can tell, I was hugely impressed.

[Peter1953]

Mark, your description of this great happening really gives me the goosebumps. I'm sure that we're all looking forward to the release of the Chandos disc with Rufinatscha's overwhelming Sixth. Also very good to learn that so many people of the audience were delighted. There is now a sort of awareness and the rise of Rufinatscha as a gem under the undeservedly neglected composers is about to start...!

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for the write-up, Mark. Great stuff. Now for the Chandos recording sessions themselves on Monday and Tuesday...

[JimL]

At last the discovery of a truly unsung master!  Hopefully this will bring attention to the 5th and other surviving symphonies, as well as the marvellous PC!  Wouldn't it be grand to see these works added to the standard repertory of major orchestras the world over, bringing attention not just to Rufinatscha, but raising awareness that there are so many others just like him still awaiting their place in the sun?

[Alan Howe]

Indeed it would, Jim.

And in case friends haven't been paying attention, the CD will include the overture The Bride of Messina and the conductor is to be Gianandrea Noseda with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (i.e. the same combination as on the recent Chandos/Casella disc).

[Alan Howe]

Well, R6 is in the can, as they say - and the Chandos CD should be out in the UK at the beginning of April 2011. A longer report will follow when I have recovered from dashing around the country!

[Alan Howe]

Well, here's my report on the recording sessions:

The recording took place in Studio 7 at the BBC in Manchester. I was permitted to observe from the recording room from which one can see into the studio itself - i.e. a side-on view of orchestra and conductor.

The Symphony was recorded in about 60 takes spread over nearly a day and a half. Noseda was clearly 100% committed to the project and very enthusiastic about the music - as I discovered when, to my delight, he came into the recording room to listen through to his longer takes immediately after they were finished. He is also open to unsung music, as I shall make clear later.

Anyway, to the Symphony itself. As Mark has already reported, Noseda's interpretation is a lot more fiery and fleet of foot than that of Seipenbusch in the Austrian performance available from Innsbruck. The BBCPO are also, as one might expect, several notches above their Bratislava counterparts, the Capella Istropolitana, in quality, mainly in terms of the sheer sonority of their string section. The question of repeats was obviously hammered out over the period between the BBC performance given before an invited audience last Friday (which Mark attended) and the recording sessions on Monday and Tuesday. On Friday Mark had in fact heard no repeats in either the first or last movements (which, taken together with the faster tempi in I and IV, had shaved around 10 minutes off the Austrian performance); however, the recording will preserve the repeat in the former while still omitting the one in the latter. So, my guess is that Noseda will come in at around 5-7 minutes quicker than Seipenbusch.

The orchestra was simply superb - although they did groan when told that they would in fact be doing the repeat in I! This obviously meant a later cup of coffee! Nevertheless, they were tireless in their commitment to the music and to getting the awkward passages right - at the insistence of Noseda or, more often, the recording team.

Noseda is a delightful man. In his mid-forties, tall, slim and abundant in gestures as a conductor, he constantly addressed the orchestra as 'dear artists' before going on to demand even more of them. They plainly love him. And he, equally plainly, has love and respect for his fellow-musicians: the first flute, Victoria Daniel, was very unwell, especially on the second day, and Noseda was very concerned for her welfare. A prolonged break enabled her to recover somewhat, but he was evidently very worried about her - and not just because there was a recording to complete.

The Bride of Messina overture - in effect a tone poem - will, I gather, be the first item on the CD, with Symphony No.6 to follow. It is due out in the UK on April 1st (!) next year.

I mentioned Noseda's openness to unsung music. You see, I had gone to Manchester armed with a copy of the full score of Draeseke 3 in the hope that I might be able to interest him in the work. Well, the opportunity arose at lunchtime on Monday - and so I duly presented him with the score. He had never heard of Draeseke (nor had any of the recording team!), but he accepted it with obvious interest. After all, if he was now recording Rufinatscha which I had been responsible for bringing to his attention via Ralph Couzens at Chandos, perhaps this was another piece that he should sit up and take notice of. We shall see.

All in all, then, a wonderful and inspiring experience.

[Mark Thomas]

A tremendous and heartening report Alan. I happily plead guilty to not noticing the lack of repeats in the outer movements!

[John H White]

Well done Alan! Now I wonder if we could interest him in Franz Lachner too!

[JimL]

Let's see if we can get anyone interested in the PC!  If Schoch would be willing to take it on the road, it could get some attention from other soloists!