The Boston Six

[eschiss1]

And yes, love Arthur Footes music as well.  It is such a shame that we have these wonderful Romantics from the US and our own orchestras never play them.  If the Minnesota Orchestra has done ANYTHING by the Six, it hasn't been in the last 50 years!  And I gave up suggesting things year ago......

There's some obvious exceptions of course - the Detroit Symphony's recordings (and I would presume, and I could try to find out, concerts...) of Chadwick (under Järvi, but let's not go quite entirely nativist here; Chadwick's 2nd symphony was, yes, the first to be published by an American publisher, but it was a publishing house set up by a German immigrant (Arthur Schmidt), after all *tweaktweaktweak* ) the Louisville Orchestra's concerts and recordings likewise (not alas recently either, but well-enough distributed anyway that they were mentioned by Paavo Järvi in an interview he did with Fanfare as part of his musical background, I remember...),  ... other counterexamples worse but also better are to hand.

(Though it occurs to me that if I find it noteworthy that orchestras in the mid-20th performed - usually premiered, not more than one performance generally, though occasionally - works by deceased greats e.g. Roger Sessions and before him Ernest Bloch - then it's because name orchestras seem to have three categories - the standards ; modern premieres ; and everything else... and at that time, those works fell into modern premieres, and now they fall, alas, into everything else )
Eric

[edurban]

Was the Foote concerto played by Doug Moore?  Not my favorite cellist by a long shot, but a serious and helpful scholar.  I'd LOVE to hear this (hint.)

Those who would like to enjoy the Foote concerto in non-orchestral clothing may enjoy the Romance and Scherzo, Op.22 for cello and piano.  The romance is the slow movement of the concerto in a different key and with minor alterations.  Beautiful, beautiful music.

One composer rarely mentioned in connection with the Boston composers is Tchaikovsky.  Not as big an influence on this generation of Americans as Brahms, but definitely there.  The 2nd Tchaikovsky pf concerto had its premiere in New York in Nov, 1881 and a tune from the first movement (sorry, I don't have a score so I can't give bar #s) figures in a rather obvious ways in Arthur Batelle Whiting's early piano trio.

And speaking of A.B. Whiting (1861-1936), surely his once (relatively) popular Piano Concerto in d minor (1888) and Fantasia for piano and orchestra, Op.11 (1897) are candidates for Hyperion's series??

David

[chill319]

Marcus, a member of this forum with a very broad collection of music, no longer posts here (though he may lurk -- Mark, are you reading?) so I'm going to take the liberty of posting an excerpt from a private communication he once sent:

I love all of Parker's music. The Northern Ballad is one of his best, but equally as good is his symphonic poem Vathek (1903). It runs for 15 minutes with typical lush romantic writing. I also admire Parker's Oratorio "Hora Novissima" which runs for over an hour. At its best it recalls Liszt & Wagner, with the chorus parts, with orchestra & organ, particularly noteworthy. The Concert for Organ & Orchestra is in the same CD set.

[Mark Thomas]

(though he may lurk -- Mark, are you reading?)

Marcus last looked in here in October and his last post was in May 2010.

[dafrieze]

The Boston Six get precious little play here in Boston.  I've lived here for almost 40 years now and I can remember the Boston Symphony playing Amy Beach's "Gaelic" Symphony once about 25 years ago - and that's about it!  The Trinity Church choir and orchestra performed Parker's Hora Novissima about 10 years ago.  The concert hall at Harvard's School of Music is named after John Knowles Paine.  Otherwise, the Boston Six are as good as forgotten in their hometown. 

[albion]

Parker's Oratorio "Hora Novissima" which runs for over an hour. At its best it recalls Liszt & Wagner, with the chorus parts, with orchestra & organ, particularly noteworthy.

You can download a transcript of William Strickland's (less than ideal, but nevertheless highly enjoyable) 1950s recording of Parker's warmly romantic Hora Novissima with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra here: http://randomclassics.blogspot.com/2010/04/charles-ives-teacher-horatio-parker-and.html

It is taken directly from the Desto LP D 413 (M) with one or two jumps and some distortion.

[albion]

To supplement the excellent disc of Symphonies 2 and 3 (http://www.chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN%209685), the best option for Chadwick's orchestral music is the two-disc set conducted by Serebrier on Reference - a conflation of two previously-issued single discs (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aprhrodite-symphonique-George-Chadwick-Serebrier/dp/B000066TVU/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1299261786&sr=8-9).

These interpretations of Melpomene, Tam o'Shanter and the Symphonic Sketches have more bite than Jarvi's Chandos versions. Plus you get super performances of three more little-heard works - the Suite symphonique in particular is splendid. 

[Gareth Vaughan]

Does anyone know where the score and parts of Whiting's piano concertante pieces are? The two piano score of theRhapsody is in the RCM, I think. But there is no sign of either in Fleisher or the Library of Congress,  where one would expect them to be.

[dafrieze]

I just noticed an earlier poster mentioning that Tchaikovsky's 2nd piano concerto was premiered in New York.  Even more to the point of this thread, his 1st piano concerto was premiered in Boston on October 25, 1875.  He later revised it a bit - but yes, we Bostonians heard it first!  (Not me.  I wasn't there.)

[eschiss1]

Does anyone know where the score and parts of Whiting's piano concertante pieces are? The two piano score of theRhapsody is in the RCM, I think. But there is no sign of either in Fleisher or the Library of Congress,  where one would expect them to be.

Hrm. Schirmer in a 1908 set of program notes (Boston Sym. program notes were -big- in those days, magazine sized) advertised the parts and score of Whiting's fantasy as for hire...
Could they possibly, conceivably, still have them somewhere in a back room? Doubt it, but...

[edurban]

Gareth: Whiting's manuscripts are in the Music Division of the New York Public library, Lincoln Center.  The library probably also received Whiting's own copies of his published works at the same time, but I have never consulted them.  I would speak to someone at the Music Division.  Alas, I haven't been down there in years and don't even know who replaced John Shepard as Chief.

David

[eschiss1]

Gareth: Whiting's manuscripts are in the Music Division of the New York Public library, Lincoln Center.  The library probably also received Whiting's own copies of his published works at the same time, but I have never consulted them.  I would speak to someone at the Music Division.  Alas, I haven't been down there in years and don't even know who replaced John Shepard as Chief.

David

the online library catalog lists a few orchestral work manuscripts under Whiting but their print catalog and their staff should be consulted also I would agree.

[albion]

Compared with Chadwick, Horatio Parker doesn't seem to get much of a look-in when it comes to commercial recordings and I find it hard to understand why this should be the case.

When the Nebraska CD of his splendid cantata Hora Novissima (1893) was issued in 1994 I was at first excited and then rather disappointed and didn't hang on to the disc for very long. The Trinity performance which dafrieze has provided in the download section is a dream come true - far and away the best rendition I've ever come across. If members don't know the work, this is definitely the recording to have: beautifully sung and played, and everything at just the right tempo.

I've not yet listened to mikehopf's files yet, but they are inching their way to the top of the pile of CDRs -

Overture, Count Robert of Paris, Op.24b (1890)
Christmas Cantata, The Shepherd's Vision, Op.63 (1900)
Mona, Op.71 (1910) - excerpts





I've just finally got round to ordering the two Bridge sets and there is some wonderfully off-piste repertoire -



Louis Coerne - Excalibur; Edward Burlingame Hill - Stevensoniana, Suite No. 1, Op.24; Horatio Parker - A Northern Ballad; John Alden Carpenter - Sea-Drift

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/ Karl Krueger

BRIDGE 9190



Disc A
Edward MacDowell: Suite No. 1 in D Minor, Op.42; Suite No. 2, Indian, Op.48

Disc B
Horatio Parker: Vathek; Victor Herbert: Hero and Leander; Arthur Farwell: The Gods of the Mountain - Suite, Op.52

Disc C
Henry Hadley: Symphony No. 2 in F Minor, The Four Seasons, Op.30; Salome, Op.55

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/ Karl Krueger, conductor

BRIDGE 9124A/C

[Amphissa]

It's really quite an embarrassment that these recordings were made by Brits rather than Yanks. And equally disappointing that, in all my years attending concerts, I've not encountered performances of works by any of these composers. A sad commentary on the state of classical music in the U.S.

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

But I've found at least one nice work by 5 members of the Boston Six, the odd man out being Amy Beach. (Something seems technically incorrect about that sentence, but as I pointed out recently, I'm not a very skilled writer.)  I'm open to further exploration, but what pass for the famous works of Beach do not appeal to me at all - yes, including the Gaelic Symphony.  Large passages are overtly repellent to me, unfortunately.

I must confess, I've never really been able to warm to Mrs. Beach's larger-scale works all that much.  (Cabildo excepted, and that's not really that much "larger-scale".)  But she more than makes up for it with her treasures of chamber music (there's a violin sonata which I adore) and her songs.  Some of the smaller choral works are nice, too.

I saw a mention of Henry Holden Huss - might I direct your attention to this disc by the Rawlins Piano Trio? http://www.amazon.com/American-Romance-Adolph-Martin-Foerster/dp/B0002NY8LC  They're an excellent outfit out of South Dakota who have done much to promote American Romantic chamber music in recent years.  I own all of their discs:

http://www.amazon.com/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=music&field-artist=Rawlins%20Piano%20Trio
(See also the Parker trio, which they have recorded, and which is lovely.)

I like most everything on their discs (with the exception of the Samuel Adler, whom I never could stand).  But the standouts, for me, are the Parker; the Huss; the William Clifford Heilman*; the Edwin Grasse; the Cadman; and the Henry Hadley.

Regarding Cadman, incidentally - oddly enough, I managed to purchase the two recordings of this triop, this and the one on Naxos (http://www.amazon.com/Cadman-Piano-major-Sonata-Violin/dp/B00005QIST/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1321887299&sr=1-9) at exactly the same time, independent of one another.  It's possibly my favorite pre-war American piano trio, and is definitely in my top-five list of American chamber works.  It's wonderfullly inventive, and as there's sore little else of Cadman's available on disc, I can't recommend it too highly.  (Both recordings are worth purchasing for the other works on them, but if I had to choose one, for technical quality it would be the Naxos release.  It's a cleaner performance.)

I realize this is rather far afield for a discussion about the Boston Six.  But as Dave Barry might say, I don't care.    Any chance I get to boost American music is fine by me.

*Funny story about Heilman: I bought the disc, but the liner notes aren't of much help in telling his story.  So what do I, child of the internet age, do?  Go to Wikipedia.  There's a short article, not much more help.  I get curious to see who wrote it, so I check the article history.  It was...me.  I'd written it about a year earlier in a flurry of article-creation based on John Tasker Howard.  And the worst of it?  I still don't know anything else about heilman.