Never-released unsung recordings

[dhibbard]

Just wanted to also confirm my observations that the classical-orchestral market is diminishing... case in point:
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article109959227.html

The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra earlier this year folded up.  Due to financial reasons.... however, a generous local Foundation came to the rescue and bailed them out.  I have been a subscriber to their concerts for many years... they perform at the Bass Hall in Ft. Worth which is a top performance hall, home to the Cliburn Piano Competitions, and of course, Ft Worth was home to Van Cliburn.   

However, they have found creative ways to sell tickets.. this summer they organized outdoor concerts with orchestra with what is called "tribute" bands.... like Journey, Led Zeppellin, and other pop bands that were famous in the 1960s-1980s...  They have proven successful and have "sold out" many of these shows.   
(as a side note, a tribute band is a group of musicians that play the greatest hit songs from these composers like the Beatles, Beach Boys, Journey.. etc)   These concerts also gives the FWSO the contact email addresses to market further concerts and of course beg for contributions.

Running an orchestra, selling tickets and selling out concerts is a marketing function.   So far, they have been successful in keeping the orchestra in the black.
But you are correct... the cultural things are the first to get cut.   In Dallas, TX, during the 1970s, the DSO shut down for many years, before the Hunt and Perot Family Trusts got it going again.

[Alan Howe]

You're right, Mike. Sadly.

[Christopher]

The owner of Aquarius Classics - http://aquarius-classic.ru - has told me that he has old recordings of the following operas (or incidental music) but is waiting to raise $450 per opera in order to release them commercially on CD:

Alexandr Glazunov (1865-1936) - Complete music to the play "Masquerade"
Ilya Satz (1875-1912) - incidental music to the plays Hamlet, Miserere, Life in Paws, and others
Oleksiy Ryabov (1899-1955, Ukrainian) - Sorochinsky Fair
Cesar Cui (1835-1918) - Ivan the Fool; Puss in Boots (actually there are already two recordings of the latter out there)

and also (but of less interest to this forum):

Marian Koval (1901-1971) - The Grey Wolf and the Seven Kids
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987) - The Master-Craftsman of Clamecy (this is the first version of Colas Breugnon)

$450 per opera doesn't seem like a huge amount of money...

[semloh]

With the upsurge of interest within Russia for pre-Soviet cultural artefacts and art works, I would have thought some oligarch would have jumped at the opportunity to fund these and get his name on the covers!

[Christopher]

If only!  They like being associated with things that are high-profile (restoring icons or artworks back to Russia, renovating the Bolshoi, restoring churches etc) - this in their eyes (and in the eyes of some of the public) justifies their wealth (and the means by which it was obtained...).  Discovering new musical treasures by forgotten composers, sadly, isn't high up their list, much as we might wish it otherwise.  Maybe that will change over time.... So much like over here, it's left largely to enthusiasts and amateurs.

[semloh]

You'd think that the aesthetic sensibility of someone willing to pay a fortune for a tiny Faberge pill-box might have extended to fine Russian music, but I was kind-of being half-serious and half cynical. What a pity.

[adriano]

That's it, semloh and Christopher 
The problem is that most (or all?) Russian oligarchs are musical ignorants. Imagine the spendid recordings/productions one could do in exchange of just a small Fabergé egg! Has one of you already visited the Baden-Baden Fabergé Museum? Baden-Baden is a Russian colony in Germany; historical buildings having been restaured with Russian money, the Theatre too is being supported by the mafia - Netrebko & Co. perform there regularly; and in Italian restaurants you also get also Russian menue cards. The Musum has a really perverse collection, this not only because of its object's "unsocial" background, but also because it has been created by one of these oligarchs, whose life goal is to buy back all these treasuries and have them stored in there, in order other oligarchs become jealous of him. The most expensive egg in there was bought from Christie's for 9 million Pounds. But Mr. Ivanov (the Museum's founder), has to accept that his own abstract paintings are being bought/sold only for about 60'000 Pounds...

[Ilja]

Isn't it a bit strange to complain about these oligarchs' dubious habits and their ill-gotten wealth, only to complain classical music doesn't get enough of it? The problem is structural public attention and funding for 'classical' music, not incidental money (even if in the case of Russia, these are intertwined). Even if one or two were to subsidize the re-release of a given Melodiya recording, it doesn't mean much in the long run if no one is marketing and then buying the thing. Put otherwise: we need infrastructure, not one or two cds.

[Alan Howe]

OK, enough of Russian oligarchs. Let's get back to the topic, please.

[Ilja]

Yes, about that. Can anyone tell what happened to the Audite recording of Eduard Franck's Symphony in A, Op. 44 by the Saarbrücken RSO under Hans-Peter Frank? The B flat major appeared about ten years ago, but although I have a radio dub of it, I would have expected its younger (and honestly superior) sibling to have made it to release by now.

[Alan Howe]

It was released and is still listed on Audite's website:
https://www.audite.de/en/product/CD/20025-e_franck_orchestral_works_i.html
The Symphony in A is his Op.47.

The CD is also available at Amazon.de:
https://www.amazon.de/gp/offer-listing/B00007GX1J/ref=olp_f_used?ie=UTF8&f_new=true&f_used=true&f_usedAcceptable=true&f_usedGood=true&f_usedLikeNew=true&f_usedVeryGood=true&qid=1517337009&sr=8-24

[Gareth Vaughan]

I also thought that they were going to record Eduard Franck's 2 piano concertos. But it would appear I was mistaken: they certainly haven't appeared, if indeed they were ever recorded or scheduled for recording.

[Ilja]

Sorry Alan, I was looking for the wrong opus number, apparently...

[Alan Howe]

That's OK. Is Op.47 the work you meant, though?

[Ilja]

It was. And is now ordered. The thing's even on Spotify, closer inspection reveals.