Henselt/Bronsart Piano Concertos - forthcoming from BIS/Paul Wee

[4candles]

Whilst reading this very interesting article in Interlude, I was delighted to come across Paul's mention of plans for a recording of Henselt and Bronsart PCs (he also mentions a Beethoven/Liszt – Mozart/Alkan disk).

Although these are just in the planning stages, on the strength of his previous two releases both disks will certainly be on my want list.

4c

[Mark Thomas]

Wee is a tremendous pianist and the prospect of him playing the Bronsart, and indeed the Henselt, is an exciting one. Thanks for the news.

[Alan Howe]

He is indeed a formidable talent. This planned CD will be a must-buy for me.

[MartinH]

Good to know another pianist and record company are exploring these wonderful, too much ignored works. Let's nudge Bis to give us a complete set of Rubinstein concertos!

[Gareth Vaughan]

I'd be more interested in the piano concertos of Eduard Schutt (2 + a piece for Left Hand & orchestra) actually, or Halfdan Cleve (5), or those by Jakob Gyula Major (2 + 3 Fantasies for piano & orchestra). But very glad that BIS is giving Wee the opportunity to take up these two splendid examples of the genre.

[eschiss1]

with the exception of most of Cleve's, though, have those been recorded (commercially or otherwise)? The Henselt and Bronsart have, anyway... at least Kalmus published the full score of Schütt's Op.47, so someone may have a copy besides Pancras and Fleisher (which would make an accurate sample rendering more -possible- than if only the reduction were available, etc. The parts and score seem not to be online for these works except for some of Cleve's.)

[Gareth Vaughan]

To my knowledge, none of the concertos I mentioned have had commercial recordings, though some of the Cleve are available on YouTube in recordings of varying quality. Hyperion had the Schutt in their sights at one time but the rumour was that Klaus Heymann of Marco Polo was going to record them. But in the end neither project has materialised.

[Martin Eastick]

The two Schütt concertos (Op7 & Op47) would be the most desirable, even if it means foregoing the 'other' piece, which would seem to be of lesser importance - and, of course, not available outside Heymann's sphere of activity, certainly for the time being. I still feel that the Schütt concertos together with that of Borowski would still be the most attractive proposition, and Hyperion were still interested to some degree last year when I had confirmation of the availability of the orchestral material for all three concertos, which, from the indicated timings as well as some more basic investigation myself with the relevant scores, should all fit nicely onto one CD! I hope that Hyperion don't get pipped at the post, but would welcome any decent recording of these concertos which should have been recorded years ago!

[eschiss1]

Op.7&47 are listed as rentable through Zimmermann @ Worldcat - which is bloody expensive, of course- but again. -Why- should they? No recording (of any kind) to hear, I as record company exec would -pass-.

[Gareth Vaughan]

An excellent collection for a CD, Martin. And, as you say, all the performance materials are available. Both Schutt concertos from Fleisher - so relatively cheaply. The Borowski from the publisher (I forget who that is now, and I am not near my computer so I can't check my files) - I had a hire quote from them years ago. Would have to look it up. That's if I made a note at the time. It was a commercial rate, I seem to recall but not prohibitive.

[pianoconcerto]

Cleve's pc3 has been released on CD in a version for piano sextet (Joachim Carr, pf; Grand Piano 757) and his pc4 both on CD (Joachim Carr/Norwegian Radio O/Leo McFall; Grand Piano  757) and LP (Einar Steen-Nøkleberg/New SO of London/Roy Wales; NKF 30038).  Nevertheless, it would be good to have a new recording of the complete set along with the other works mentioned by Gareth.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I didn't know about the Grand Piano disks (thanks for letting me know) and had forgotten about the NKF recording which was a very long time ago.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I can't find a mention of the Cleve on Grand Piano. Not listed on the Naxos website under that label, and Carr's website says only that he is in the process of recording piano concertos by Cleve for Naxos.. Can you provide a link, please?

[Alan Howe]

The Grand Piano recording of Cleve's PC4 seems only to be available on Spotify (and other streaming services):
https://open.spotify.com/album/3mZ06pnpdPHDUbr4xTSVEk

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks, Alan. A fat lot of use that is.