Noisy organ in the forest.

[Bryn]

A rare opportunity to hear a performance of the Leifs Organ Concerto this afternoon. Good programme all round, indeed.

[Beef Oven!]

Bloody click-bait!

[ardcarp]

A rare opportunity to hear a performance of the Leifs Organ Concerto this afternoon. Good programme all round, indeed.

Can you give a link or a pointer to this, Bryn?

[Bryn]

Can you give a link or a pointer to this, Bryn?

I didn't think it would need one, but https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000r18

[ardcarp]

Phew. Just got there in time. I guess it's more impressive to be there in the hall rather than hearing it on the radio. It seems at first to be heavily influenced by the Poulenc Concerto....but that dead-but-it won't-lie-down 'ending' ! I just want to scream STOP! The announcer picked up on it too ('that 10-minute ending').

[oddoneout]

The bit I heard sounded like an organist working on Bach inspired improvisations in a space occupied by a percussion section working on something else. Not objectionable, just odd.

[Bryn]

The bit I heard sounded like an organist working on Bach inspired improvisations in a space occupied by a percussion section working on something else. Not objectionable, just odd.

It was not exactly well received at its premiere in Germany. You are by no means the first to spot the Bach influence,
.

[ardcarp]

I probably need to re-think what I said in #5 about the Poulenc Concerto. It seems that Leifs got there first (1930 as opposed to 1934-38). Could Poulenc have heard it? It seems a bit unlikely. Poulenc's is billed as a concerto for organ, TIMPANI and strings. I wonder if the timps on this afternoon's performance were more dominant than Leifs intended?

[Bryn]

I probably need to re-think what I said in #5 about the Poulenc Concerto. It seems that Leifs got there first (1930 as opposed to 1934-38). Could Poulenc have heard it? It seems a bit unlikely. Poulenc's is billed as a concerto for organ, TIMPANI and strings. I wonder if the timps on this afternoon's performance were more dominant than Leifs intended?

I doubt it. When I typed "Noisy organ in the forest" I must admit I wasn not only thinking of the organ. I had not grasped that this was going to be a repeat of the Proms performance, so when I heard the SIbelius announced as such I got on with sonething else. The timps were no more prominent than they are in the BIS recording ot the work, as I recall. It is a very noisy affair. I have a soft spot for the music of Jón Leifs. How, despite their marital problems, he managed to keep his Jewish wife, Annie Riethof, alive during the Nazi era says something for the man, too.

[Bryn]

Following this repeat of the 2015 Proms performance of Leifs's Organ Concerto, I decided to check on the progress of the BIS recording of Part II of this composer's Edda. I have just had a reply from Robert von Bhar advising that the recording is due for release on the morning of February 11th next year. I am very much looking forward to hearing this work, the first performance of which took place in March of this year.

Part I was released some years ago on CD compatible SACD, BIS-SACD-1350: