Hyperion RPC #80 - Dupont PC #3 and Benoit Symphonic Poem

[Sharkkb8]

Apple's music app is announcing Auguste Dupont's Piano Concerto #3, and Benoit's Symphonic Poem for Piano & Orch as #80 in Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series.  Howard Shelley playing; release date Jan 31.  This is not the first time I've seen something announced within Apple's sphere and nowhere else, including on Hyperion's own website....at least I didn't find anything with a first try.  Seems curious to me, as if it's a right-hand-unaware-of-the-left-hand kind of timing.  But what do I know?      

(Still can't make the insert-picture function work with Dropbox, don't know why it just reveals tiny blue question mark image)

https://music.apple.com/us/album/dupont-benoit-piano-concertos/1483043767

Gregory

[Sharkkb8]

I was unfamiliar with Auguste Dupont; here's his Wikipedia entry:

Auguste Dupont, full name Pierre-Auguste Dupont, (9 February 1827 - 17 December 1890) was a Belgian pianist and composer.[1]

A laureate of the Royal Conservatory of Liège, where he was a student of Jules Jalheau, he travelled for a time as a musician in Germany, England and the Netherlands. While performing in Berlin, he was introduced to Giacomo Meyerbeer who gave him work for a time and who often mentions him in his diary.[2] In 1850, he became a professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He composed several major pieces for concerts and pieces of chamber music.[3] He was also the editor of the series École de piano du Conservatoire de Bruxelles, forty booklets of classical masterpieces.[4] He became a teacher of chamber music in 1886.[5]

His brother was the violinist and composer Joseph Dupont.

[FBerwald]

Wonderful news! I particularly like the Benoit Piano Concerto. It seems from the Antwerp Conservatoire website that they have been trying to get Hyperion interested in recording the piano concertos of  Benoit and Charles-Louis Hanssens and that the Benoit concerto was to be recorded in early 2018. I'm not familiar with the second composer but look forward very much to this release.

[4candles]

Delighted to hear this! I remember being in touch with Mike Spring about the Dupont some years ago and before his departure from Hyperion, so I'm very glad to see this is coming to fruition. I admit to not knowing about the Benoit piece, but I'm always interested in concertante works of the 'symphonique' variety!

[Revilod]

So, the Benoit "Symphonic Poem" is the same work as the Piano Concerto which is currently available on Naxos. That's right, isn't it? It's a very fine work indeed. The finale in particular is a real Lisztian tour-de-force.

[Alan Howe]

Yes, that's right.

[eschiss1]

I think some works by Dupont have been mentioned here before and _a_ piano concerto of his is at IMSLP but I didn't know he wrote more than one

Belated edit: oh, whoops: Auguste, not Gabriel- edit 2: yes, Auguste's piano concerto in F minor op.49 pub.1882...

[Alan Howe]

Excerpt available here:
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/ym.asp?ym=2020_02

[FBerwald]

Soundclips of all the movements available...
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68264

[Alan Howe]

I had confused this Dupont with the much later Gabriel. Note to self: must read thread properly!

I think this is a most enterprising venture - how on earth does Howard Shelley do it? Conducting too...

[Droosbury]

I did too when I first saw mention of this disc! We desperately need more of Gabriel's work on disc, following on from the disc of orchestral works released earlier this year.

[Ilja]

Benoit's Piano Concerto is the second half of a "symphonic poem", the first of which is made up by the Flute Concerto, Op. 43a (written two years earlier, in 1864). The Naxos recording combines these, although inexplicably with the entirely unrelated Elzenkoning (King of the Aulders) Overture in the middle.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The Hyperion notes quote Fetis as the authority for 2 earlier PCs plus a Concerto Symphonique for piano & orchestra. A quick and superficial trawl through online catalogues of likely libraries reveals only a Concertstuck (sic) for piano & orchestra in addition to the PC on this disk. Any clues as to whether the works Fetis mentions have survived?

[eschiss1]

ah ok, Dupont's concerto is given in Hyperion's PDF as op.49 in F minor- the same work IMSLP has in full score.

[Gareth Vaughan]

That's right, Eric. The Concertstuck is Op. 42, according to catalogue data.