New Releases

[Symphonic Addict]

Not properly a new recording, but rather like a reissue (?)

[Roasted Swan]

Not properly a new recording, but rather like a reissue (?)

recorded April 1989.......!

[vandermolen]

Not properly a new recording, but rather like a reissue (?)

I like the cover image as well!

[kyjo]

Not properly a new recording, but rather like a reissue (?)

Yes, that certainly looks like older Chandos artwork. Oh, and the Bliss Viola Sonata is a fantastic piece, one of the best works of its kind that I know. It's rather uncharacteristically dark and agitated in mood for Bliss. I've heard the recording on Naxos which is superb (coupled with his Oboe Quintet and Piano Quartet).

[Symphonic Addict]

[Symphonic Addict]

[Brian]

Oh, that will be worth it for the photography alone. Salgado's work is extraordinary. I've got one of his books.

[Brian]

Some more SEPTEMBER stuff that has not been posted already (unless I missed it)...



Looks like Jaap favors fast tempos in No. 5 - less than 15 minute first movement, finale is just 10:13.



53, 54, 33



"The piano concerto in D minor was composed between 1931–1935 and premiered on November 23, 1935, by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Toivo Haapanen, with Ernst Linko as the soloist. The concerto is preserved only as a piano reduction and instrument parts, but the original score is lost. The piano part contains several cuts and facilitations by the 1935 soloist, while the instrument parts show no omissions. The most probable result was that the orchestra played some passages without the soloist. For this recording, Leiviskä's original solo part was restored. Several reviews, mostly under pseudonyms, discussed the symphony after its first performance. The reviews were mostly favorable. It was both praised and criticized for its structure and the inclusion of the waltz motive, and comments of the themes and melodies were also ambiguous. After 1948, the symphony was performed three more times until 1951. After 70 years of silence, the symphony was resurrected in 2022."
Concerto is 44:44 with a fugal finale, symphony is 39:45



"James P. Johnson is renowned as the father of stride piano but he also flourished as a composer of opera and of show tunes in the 1920s and 1930s. The Dreamy Kid and De Organizer offer contrasting stories of African American life at that time, set to an eclectic and powerful mixture of jazz, swing, blues and ragtime. These two works were reconstructed by the renowned musicologist, composer and bandleader, James Dapogny, before his untimely death in 2019. The Dreamy Kid is a world premiere recording."







-

Finally, Naxos uploaded the booklet notes for Daniel-Ben Pienaar's "48 Haydn Sonatas" box, which means I can paste in the official explanation for why it is 48 sonatas and not the more common 60ish figure:

This cycle comprises Haydn's 39 authenticated multi-movement solo keyboard works from 1765 onwards (all
called Sonatas here, using modern nomenclature), and nine earlier works (Addendum) that are presumed his,
or probably his, by the vast majority of scholars.
Careful detective work on the authenticity of a number of works from Haydn's youth is still evolving, but
I have limited my cycle to works that are included in Anthony van Hoboken's and Christa Landon's lists
of Sonatas, except fragments, works that have conclusively been shown not to be by Haydn and those over
which significant doubts are raised.
Early works found in Hoboken's and/or Landon's catalogues, but not included as part of this cycle are:
 • L. 21–27 (Hob. XVI:2) – These seven Sonatas, for which we have incipits, were lost, probably in a fire.
 • L. 17–18 (Hob. deest), L.8 (Hob. XVI:5), L.10 (Hob. XVI:1) – Severe doubts exist as to their authenticity.
 • L.57 – This has been shown not to be authentic. It uses two movements from L.19 (Hob. XVI:47),
 transposed up a semi-tone.
 • L.28 (Hob. XIV:5), L.5 (Hob. XVI:11) – These works exist only as fragments.
 • Hob. XVI:15 – This is an arrangement, not by Haydn, of the Divertimento in C Hob. II:11
 • Hob. XVI:16 – Severe doubts exist as to its authenticity.
 • Hob. XVI:17 – This is by Johann Gottfried Schwanenberger.

[Symphonic Addict]

The Boult disc may interest Jeffrey.

[Symphonic Addict]

[Todd]

Image of the aforementioned box.







The last classical music performance I attended in person was Dasol Kim's recital of LvB's last three sonatas, in January 2020.  It was good enough that I really ought to make it a point to listen to his new recordings as they come out.  (I have not attended recitals or concerts since Covid struck, not because I have any fear of contracting 'rona and getting deathly ill, but because downtown Portland is a complete dump, with boarded up buildings everywhere, and homeless people/junkies everywhere, doing drugs in the open, and leaving used paraphernalia strewn about, including around the venues used by Portland Piano International for full recitals.)

[Brian]

Oooh, de los Angeles box. I wonder how many Lars Vogt recordings remain before they reach the last one.

(I have not attended recitals or concerts since Covid struck, not because I have any fear of contracting 'rona and getting deathly ill, but because downtown Portland is a complete dump, with boarded up buildings everywhere, and homeless people/junkies everywhere, doing drugs in the open, and leaving used paraphernalia strewn about, including around the venues used by Portland Piano International for full recitals.)

Well, I don't know the exact location of that concert venue and the situation of those blocks, but when we visited Portland in March 2022, we spent about three nights each in hotels on each side of the river, the near east side and squarely downtown, getting around by public transit and on foot. We walked to Powells, the Japanese Garden, and various breweries, ate at a number of downtown places, and never felt like it was nearly as bad as its reputation. Homeless people around the country appear to be moving to cities with temperate climates and legal weed; we saw about as many in Seattle and many more in Denver.

I came away with one conclusion about the crisis. The approach taken by cities like Seattle and Portland, to group unhoused/unsupported/unhelped people in certain public areas, has an obvious visual downside in terms of city upkeep. We walked over the bridge across the river and there's a whole almost-Mumbai-style city down underneath of tiny shacks. But although it leaves more visual evidence of the crisis, it seems to me more humane than the Dallas approach, which is to forcefully drive the people out of anywhere habitable, which results in a whole city of camper tents under highways, hidden behind trees, etc. Our version is significantly more depressing to me - and it certainly has not resulted in a downtown more vibrant or cleaner or safer than Portland's.

Uh, anyway...ooh, de los Angeles box!

[Todd]

The approach taken by cities like Seattle and Portland, to group unhoused/unsupported/unhelped people in certain public areas, has an obvious visual downside in terms of city upkeep. We walked over the bridge across the river and there's a whole almost-Mumbai-style city down underneath of tiny shacks. But although it leaves more visual evidence of the crisis, it seems to me more humane than the Dallas approach, which is to try to drive the people out of anywhere habitable, which results in a whole city of camper tents under highways, hidden behind trees, etc. Our version is significantly more depressing to me - and it certainly has not resulted in a downtown more vibrant or cleaner or safer than Portland's.

I was in downtown Dallas a couple months ago.  It is much cleaner and safer and more vibrant than Portland.  I saw homeless people and junkies, but to someone who goes to Portland from time to time, it was nothin'.  Portland still had its federal courthouse and surrounding buildings gated and boarded up at the beginning of this month, something that has been the case since the 2020 riots.  Downtown has about a 30% vacancy rate, as well.  There are entire blocks that are empty where buildings have been taken over by squatters and destroyed inside, and only recently have the squatters been removed.  Hazmat crews have to clean the buildings up before new construction can begin.  Local news stations have covered this.  Closer to home, a few months ago, a homeless person set up camp right across the street from the local elementary school.  I personally witnessed him get out of his tent, look at me in daze, and then drop his pants and shit on the street.  Obviously, I called police to have him removed immediately. 

The main Portland Piano International venue is in Portland State University, which has been a hotbed of potheads since the 60s.  Those were the good old days compared to today.  The Oregon Symphony plays in the Schnitz.  Out the west exit sits the Park Blocks, which have always been - as in since at least the 80s - a magnet for homeless people and junkies, but it got much, much worse after Measure 110 passed.  Portland is so bad that there are known spots where people openly take drugs, including Old Town, and until the past couple months, right outside the Washington Center Building, where people died of overdoses on the street literally all the  time - sometimes multiple times a day.  It is so notorious that the CBC sent a reporter down to cover it since BC is going a similar route to Oregon.  Here's a fun local article from three whole days ago from the Willamette Week: On Portland's Fentanyl Corner, a Dance With Death Sells for $20.  Out at Powell Butte, one got to witness a Brazil-style scene as the wealthy lived in McMansions at the top of the butte and massive homeless camps sat at the base.  Indeed, at its worst, Powell Boulevard had homeless camps dotting the entire stretch from Gresham right to the Willamette.  The new Governor Tina Kotek, who clearly wants to become Senator, deserves credit for pouring money into the problem and forcing some action to be taken, though part of that includes buying scuzzy hotels in poorer suburbs and moving the homeless people to those facilities. 

Note that Portland is just the most obvious example of Oregon's fundamentally failed policy regarding drugs and homelessness.  The entire state is now filled with homeless camps, drug use, and overdose deaths.  I've personally seen homeless people and camps in my travels, though I've not seen an overdose death.  At least that I know of.  I've seen people out cold on the sidewalk in Portland, including on the Fourth when I went downtown last, but I don't know if they were alive or dead.  I assume they were still alive.  The problem is everywhere.  Ontario, Oregon has homeless camps in the north part of town.  Ainsworth State Park is a homeless camp now.  One rest stop on I84 that was closed for renovation was taken over by homeless people.  On the west side of The Dalles Dam sits another camp.  Multiple camps are visible just off Highways 6 and 26 in the coast range.  (One has to venture to side roads off Highway 20 between Corvallis and Newport to see them there.)  Even Schooner Creek road, about 12-15 miles in, where it is all gravel, has homeless people.  The Willamette Valley has encampments all the way down to Roseburg.  They pop up again outside Medford and Ashland.  The only part of the state not notably impacted is the far southeast (ie, Lake, Malheur, and Harney counties) because it is so remote. Oregon offers a perfect example of what types of policies not to pursue. 

[Brian]

10 hour compilation coming in October of this very underrated conductor. Looks like it's partly a reissue of the series that originally appeared on Glor Classics and had a lot of good stuff.

Berlioz - Six overtures
Debussy - Images, Danses sacree et profane, La mer
Ravel - La Valse, Valses, Alborada, Bolero
Stravinsky - Rite, Petrushka
Schoenberg - Chamber Symphony No 2
Webern - Six pieces, interspersed with Debussy's Six epigraphes antiques
Berg - Three pieces
Bartok - Miraculous Mandarin suite, Deux Portraits, Viola Concerto (Kim Kashkashian)
Janacek - Sinfonietta, The Fiddler's Child
Dutilleux - Symphony No 2 "Le Double," Metaboles
Ives - Symphony No 4, Three Places in New England, The Unanswered Question
Messiaen - Reveil des oiseaux, Oiseaux exotiques, Chronochromie

[vandermolen]

The Boult disc may interest Jeffrey.

Oh wow! Most certainly it does. Thanks Cesar 

[Roasted Swan]

Oh wow! Most certainly it does. Thanks Cesar 

You are not alone.........!!

[vandermolen]

You are not alone.........!!

[Symphonic Addict]

Hänssler is releasing attractive music lately

[Symphonic Addict]

More

[JBS]

Amazon US gives the release date as August 25.

The blurb from the Amazon listing

Description
Charming salon miniatures and a grand funl march by the verismo composer of La Gioconda. Ponchielli's career developed during a rapidly evolving in Italian musical culture that posterity squeezed him between Verdi on the one hand and his own students, Mascagni and Puccini on the other, though he hardly lacked for popular or academic recognition in his own time. Born in 1834, Ponchielli had written a symphony by the age of 10 and started out as a bandmaster for the wind ensembles which were centres of amateur music-making in Italian towns comparable to the choirs in the UK and Germany. While Ponchielli belatedly won wider fame with I promessi sposi in 1874, his death from pneumonia in 1886 cut him off in his prime with only one acknowledged optic masterpiece to his name: La Gioconda, Boito's adaptation of a Victor Hugo story. However, he continued to write instrumental pieces at the height of his fame. Most of the pieces issued here were published in the 1870s and 1880s, and some of them are far more substantial than mere album-leaves. Yet they are hardly known at all; Riccardo Muti recorded an orchestration of the sombre and touching Elegia funebre from 1881, but Ester Fusar Poli's new recording is the only available version of the piano original. Even more imposing in scale is the 16-minute Funl March which Ponchielli wrote late in 1872 to honour the passingof the publisher Francesco Lucca. However, no Ponchielli album would be complete without a version of the 'Dance of the Hours' immortalised by Walt Disney's hippos in Fantasia. Between these two poles of Ponchielli's output, Ester Fusar Poli presents a beguiling sequence of elegies, nocturnes, polkas and tone-poems, demonstrating the composer's expressive range and deft piano writing. An extensive essay by Gabriele Galleggiante Crisafulli considers Ponchielli's piano output in the context of his career as a whole, making this album an important contribution to our understanding of a figure who was much more than a 'one-work composer'.