Musical questions and answers thread

[teamsaint]

plenty of Gerhard here, including some of , if not all the Chandos discs.
Not sure what the sound quality is like.

http://wiltshire.naxosmusiclibrary.com/google/searchgoogle.asp?googletext=roberto%20gerhard

[David-G]

Good investigation!

One thought - Is it still possible that Bizet (or perhaps his librettists, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) could have changed the role for some reason? According to Wiki the role in the premiere was played by 'M Nathan', but I haven't been able to find more about him/her.

As verismissimo observes, I suspect that "M. Nathan" is Monsieur Nathan (as opposed to Mme. or Mlle.). I cannot remember for certain, but I just have the impression that Lillas Pastia was male in previous productions that I have seen.

[Don Petter]

As verismissimo observes, I suspect that "M. Nathan" is Monsieur Nathan (as opposed to Mme. or Mlle.). I cannot remember for certain, but I just have the impression that Lillas Pastia was male in previous productions that I have seen.

Perhaps a bit of nepotism or 'director's girlfriend' at CG?

[Ferretfancy]

plenty of Gerhard here, including some of , if not all the Chandos discs.
Not sure what the sound quality is like.
http://wiltshire.naxosmusiclibrary.c...erto%20gerhard

The Chandos discs sound excellent, particularly symphonies 3 ( Collages ) and 4 ( New York ) These pieces also get fine performances rather more closely recorded on the Audivis Montaigne label with the Tenerife SO and Victor Pablo Perez. The same musicians also give us the complete Don Quixote ballet and Pedrelliana on an Audivis Valois disc. The Naxos disc of the Concerto for Piano and Strings gets splendid playing from Peter Donohoe and the Northern Sinfonia, and it's also worth having for the Howard Ferguson concerto.

Back in LP days there was quite a vogue for Gerhard recordings, although it didn't last for very long. . His Concerto for Orchestra coupled with Rawsthorne's 3rd Symphony certainly deserves a reissue, as does the BBC SO Colin Davis in the 4th Symphony coupled with the Violin Concerto with Yfrah Neaman.
Finally there's the BBC SO in No. 4 with Frederik Prausnitz, this is coupled by Peter Maxwell Davies Revelation and Fall, which worries me in case the neighbours think that somebody is being murdered ! These stereo LPs still have demonstration worthy sound.

The general neglect of Gerhard nowadays is inexplicable, since he wrote fascinating music which is intellectual but approachable, in an odd way Bartok comes to mind.

[Don Petter]

The only CD I have (other than the BBC Don Quixote) is a Harmonia Mundi from 1994:

Cancionero de Pedrell / Pandora / Alegrías / Sept Haiku
Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, Josep Pons, Josep Benet
HMC 901500

I suspect it is long since out of the catalogue.


I also have an early Argo LP (RG 326) which couples Gerhard's Wind Quintet from 1928 with Peter Racine Fricker's similar work (Op.5) and works by Seiber and Arnold. Performers are the London Wind Quintet. These players were from the Philharmonia's woodwind section (Gareth Morris, flute; Sid Sutcliffe, oboe; Bernard Walton, clarinet; Gwydion Brooke, bassoon; Alan Civil, horn)

Terrific perfomances, and, as far as I am aware, it has never been issued on CD?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The only CD I have (other than the BBC Don Quixote) is a Harmonia Mundi from 1994:

Cancionero de Pedrell / Pandora / Alegrías / Sept Haiku
Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, Josep Pons, Josep Benet
HMC 901500

I suspect it is long since out of the catalogue.

No, it's still available, DonP - the first highlighted item on my #144 (was it you who recommended it to me a few years ago on the old BBC boards? If so, again my thanks - a regular favourite on my CD player.)

I also have an early Argo LP (RG 326) which couples Gerhard's Wind Quintet from 1928 with Peter Racine Fricker's similar work (Op.5) and works by Seiber and Arnold. Performers are the London Wind Quintet. These players were from the Philharmonia's woodwind section (Gareth Morris, flute; Sid Sutcliffe, oboe; Bernard Walton, clarinet; Gwydion Brooke, bassoon; Alan Civil, horn)

Terrific perfomances, and, as far as I am aware, it has never been issued on CD?

Oh - I think I remember that LP: the cover had a white boarder surrounding a "neon light"-type effect (pink and blue lights) against a black background? Great record - no, I don't think it has ever been re-released in any format

[Don Petter]

No, it's still available, DonP - the first highlighted item on my #144 (was it you who recommended it to me a few years ago on the old BBC boards? If so, again my thanks - a regular favourite on my CD player.)

Good to know! I hadn't followed up all the links - sorry.

Oh - I think I remember that LP: the cover had a white boarder surrounding a "neon light"-type effect (pink and blue lights) against a black background? Great record - no, I don't think it has ever been re-released in any format

That's the one. It was also issued in stereo on ZRG 5326. (It has been available as a download on a private blogspot.)

[jayne lee wilson]

The Chandos discs sound excellent, particularly symphonies 3 ( Collages ) and 4 ( New York ) These pieces also get fine performances rather more closely recorded on the Audivis Montaigne label with the Tenerife SO and Victor Pablo Perez. The same musicians also give us the complete Don Quixote ballet and Pedrelliana on an Audivis Valois disc. The Naxos disc of the Concerto for Piano and Strings gets splendid playing from Peter Donohoe and the Northern Sinfonia, and it's also worth having for the Howard Ferguson concerto.

Back in LP days there was quite a vogue for Gerhard recordings, although it didn't last for very long. . His Concerto for Orchestra coupled with Rawsthorne's 3rd Symphony certainly deserves a reissue, as does the BBC SO Colin Davis in the 4th Symphony coupled with the Violin Concerto with Yfrah Neaman.
Finally there's the BBC SO in No. 4 with Frederik Prausnitz, this is coupled by Peter Maxwell Davies Revelation and Fall, which worries me in case the neighbours think that somebody is being murdered ! These stereo LPs still have demonstration worthy sound.

The general neglect of Gerhard nowadays is inexplicable, since he wrote fascinating music which is intellectual but approachable, in an odd way Bartok comes to mind.

He's quite well represented on record now though, isn't he? Probably all we can hope for these days...

(...as per my msg 150, that Neaman/Davis/BBCSO album of Violin Concerto/Symphony 4 is available on Lyrita SRCD 274...)

[soileduk]

It looks like the Chandos Symphony 4 is now deleted.

[Richard Barrett]

A few more words on Gerhard: like others, I find the Chandos series of recordings mostly superb, although what I don't like is that the electronic sounds are somewhat apologetically balanced in the 3rd symphony (the recording conducted by Perez is much better in this regard, although the orchestral playing in that series isn't as precise as the BBC SO).

The general neglect of Gerhard nowadays is inexplicable, since he wrote fascinating music which is intellectual but approachable

I don't really know what "approachable" means, but I can't think of another composer working in the UK during Gerhard's most fruitful period (1950-70 or so) whose music I find as compelling.

[EdgeleyRob]

Well,in an attempt to get music theory savvy,I've been doing a bit of reading.
Key signatures,sharps and flats etc,yep got the hang of those.

So why did composers use double flats and sharps ? (apparently there are examples of triples ).
E double flat could surely be written as D,and if the D is already sharp or flat in the key signature,then just write D with a natural sign.

I came across this too

Confused dot com.

[Serial_Apologist]

Confused dot com.

Me too, ER - I bought the early Messiaen piano preludes on the strengths of their relative harmonic simplicities, as a gateway into attempting his other piano pieces, but soon gave up on account of their profusion of double sharps and flats, combined with some of the most difficult key signatures in what is in any case only distantly diatonic music. In the end I gave them away to a friend.

[mercia]

this is how one website explains it

........ in everyday notation, double-flats are necessary in certain scenarios. Suppose you were composing in the key of Cb major (which puts a flat on every note) and wanted to write a G natural in a measure or passage containing a lot of Gb’s. Instead of alternating between writing G natural and G flat, you could indicate the tone of G by writing an A double-flat instead

or

http://www.piano-play-it.com/double-sharp.html

i.e. in an upward scale of G# major the penultimate note is F double sharp, you have to have some sort of F not two sorts of G

[Serial_Apologist]

this is how one website explains it

........ in everyday notation, double-flats are necessary in certain scenarios. Suppose you were composing in the key of Cb major (which puts a flat on every note) and wanted to write a G natural in a measure or passage containing a lot of Gb’s. Instead of alternating between writing G natural and G flat, you could indicate the tone of G by writing an A double-flat instead



or

http://www.piano-play-it.com/double-sharp.html

C flat major is B for god's sake! The next thing will be learning the scale of C double sharp!

(Atonality made everything much simpler, in the end).

[mercia]

apparently C flat major is better for harps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_flat_major