Romantic Violin Concerto - Vol. 19

[brianeb]

Another way of looking at it (perhaps) is that the VC1 will likely take up only about a third of the playing time of the disc.  The VC1 takes a little over 20 minutes, the Serenade Op. 75 around 35-40 minutes, and the Romance Op. 42 around 10 minutes.  The presence of a warhorse like the VC1 might be less offensive when one realizes that the majority of the recording will be devoted to the other, more obscure works (although admittedly, neither of those additional works qualifies as completely unsung).

[eschiss1]

I think the question that was asked wasn't:

(a) whether all the recordings in the series by Mr Hough were of well-known music, but:

(b) whether all the recordings in the series that were of well-known music were by Mr Hough.

(statement, converse, inverse, contrapositive, all that stuff? It's not just for logic students anymore )

[Revilod]

Oh yes. I know that Stephen Hough also records rare repertoire and not only for Hyperion (wasn't his first, or one of his first, concerto recordings of works by Hummel for Chandos?) but he seems to be the only pianist allowed to record standard repertoire for the RPC series.

Yes, eschiss1! You have hit the nail on the head!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you, Eric. I was reading the post too quickly. It does seem to be the case that all the standard repertoire disks in the RPC series are by Stephen Hough. Interesting!

[Alan Howe]

...and this might expose another problem with Hyperion's RVC series - namely, that they may be favouring 'house' artists rather than seeking out soloists who haven't recorded for them before. For example, if Jiří Vodička has already performed the Lassen VC (and superbly well at that), why wouldn't Hyperion invite him to record it?

Here's Vodička's publicity blurb:

JIRI VODICKA
born 1988, has studied violin from the age of six, attending the Primary Artistic School in Ostrava-Vitkovice, Czech Republic. Since 2000, he has studied with Professor Zdenek Gola, and, in addition, has recently joined Professor Gola's violin class at the Institute of Arts, Ostrava University.

Jiri Vodicka was awarded First Prize in the following national and international competitions: Czech Nationwide Competition for Primary Artistic Schools, the Kocian International Violin Competition, Prague Junior Note, Violin Competition (Dolny Kubin), the Beethoven International Violin Competition in Hradec nad Moravici, and the 2004 4th Internationsl Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar, Germany.

As a soloist, Jiri Vodicka has performed in many concerts throughout the Czech Republic with the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Ostrava; Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, Zlín; Slovak Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Bohdan Warchal; and with Chamber Orchestra Camerate Janacek. He has also played many concerts in foreign countries including Sweden , Poland , Germany , Slovakia , Austria , Spain , Japan and China.

In his solo recitals and chamber music concerts, Jiri Vodicka includes compositions from various music periods, ranging from Baroque to the compositions of the most contemporary composers. Mendelssohn, Paganini, Lalo, Wieniawski, Dvorak, Sibelius and Mozart, among many other composers,
are featured in Mr. Vodicka's repertoire.
http://agsonata.cz/index.php?cnt=stf&id=66

He is also concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic!

[eschiss1]

Hrm. If he would be willing to record the Lassen and something else (enough to come closer to filling a CD/a worthwhile download-bundle) for Hyperion; and if Hyperion would be willing to consider taking him and such a project on- (it seems difficult to present such a possibility in emails while making no promises and even implying no promises , as that's how it must be done, of course) - I wonder.

[Alan Howe]

He is willing - and Hyperion know about him. So..................................

[jonfrohnen]

Finnnnnnnallllllly someone has recorded the Bruch #1!!!!!

(Accidentally posted this on another thread, sorry)

[Alan Howe]

No problem, Jon - I've deleted it.

[eschiss1]

Well put, if applied to, say, Bruch's long unrecorded first (real first, I think?) string quartet - but that's another thread and another recording...

[brianeb]

So there is a Bruch string quartet older than the Op. 9 in C minor?  Oooooh...interesting.

[jonfrohnen]

Yes the op.10 both of the quartets are represented on CD. 

[eschiss1]

Jon- huh? There are (unless I am misremembering) three Bruch string quartets. Whatever are you referring to? I'm not actually positive that the earliest one (w/o op.) -has- been recorded, but it has been performed recently, I believe. (The third may be a recent discovery, and does not seem to be mentioned in Fifield's book. I know I'm aware of- have heard, in fact- his second string quintet, so I'm not confusing it with that, but maybe I'm just misremembering period and tout court...)

Ah. Yes, Fifield does mention it, briefly, as a work mentioned by Hiller in an April 1850 letter about his student (Bruch)- so the early quartet is a student work. I believe it has been resurrected, though...

[eschiss1]

Ahhh! THIS post by Giles.enders was what I was thinking of... (Wikipedia has 1852 but doesn't give a source; fixing to 1850 based on Fifield.)

[jonfrohnen]

Yes-ah yes indeed