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From the December/January edition News pages
DG has Sibelius discoveries
Two hitherto unknown orchestral movements by Sibelius were revealed — only as encores — at the Sibelius Festival in Lahti on September 19th and 20th, when the Lahti Symphony Orchestra were conducted by Osmo Vänskä. The music is preserved in a manuscript which bears the inscription, in Sibelius’s hand and in Swedish: ‘Fragments from a Suite for Orchestra 1914/ Predecessor of The Oceanides’.
Sibelius received the commission for The Oceanides in August 1913 from the American music patron Carl Stoeckel and his wife, for first performance at a music festival the next year. He duly composed the work and sent it on ahead On the ship that took him over the Atlantic to conduct the piece, he completely revised it, and the manuscript containing the first version was put aside, eventually being deposited in the library of Yale University.
That, at least, was the initial supposition. The Sibelius scholar Andrew Barnett wonders whether Sibelius’s (later) inscription may be misleading. The manuscript begins at page 26, with a second movement which extends to page 38; the third movement runs from page 39 to page 70, and it’s here that thematic links with The Oceanides are found. Barnett’s suggestion is that these two movements may have been written as companion pieces to the tone poem The Bard, premièred in March 1913: the scoring is virtually identical, and the earliest copy of the work (in a copyist’s hand) is only two pages longer that the ‘gap’ in the Yale manuscript.
Whatever the origins of the two ‘new’ movements, they are vintage Sibelius: instantly atmospheric, creating a world of allusion with the minimum of musical gesture. The harmonic language looks back — to the late-Romantic world of The Wood Nymph, another recent discovery, and the other scores of the early 1890s — and forward, to the elliptical sound-world of Tapiola.
The ‘official’ première of these two movements took place in Lahti on October 24th; they will doubtless appear soon in BIS’s complete Sibelius edition. Martin Anderson
This year’s Penguin Guide
The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and DVDs Yearbook 2002/3 was published on October 31st. The Guide, in its various guises, has been in publication for the past four decades, the Stereo Record Guide in 1960 inaugurating the series. The latest guide, priced at £14.99 and running to 596 pages, is intended to be the companion to the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs.
As usual, the guide is compiled by Edward Greenfield, Ivan March and Robert Layton (who we are proud to include on the reviewing panel of IRR).
A windswept Heath
Black Box Music, a Sanctuary Classics label, is releasing a second recording of the music of the British composer Dave Heath. The new recording ‘Sirocco’ (BBM1083), to be released in February 2003, continues Black Box’s policy of giving a high profile to première recordings. In addition to the title piece, other works included are ‘The Celtic’, ‘The Sapphire’, ‘Home from the storm’, ‘Requiem’, ‘The Beloved’ and ‘Lochalsh’. It is a sequel to the first disc ‘African Sunrise/Manhatten Rave’ which featured percussionist Evelyn Glennie (BBM1051).
Bruckner from Sir Colin Davis
LSO Live’s latest release is Sir Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony (LSO0023). The recording was made in February 2002 at two concerts at the Barbican in London. In recent years Sir Colin has regularly conducted Bruckner symphonies, his Bruckner/Mozart series in 1996 being one of the LSO’s most successful composer festivals. Sir Colin’s recording of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony will be released early in 2003.
Optimistic figures from the IFPI
Statistics recently published by the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry), who represent the recording industry worldwide, show that the apparent downturn in sales of classical CDs as a percentage of the total record market may not be quite as gloomy as many would like to think. The market figures compare the years from 1992 to 2001 and in many countries the percentage of sales between the two extremes of the period have been maintained. These include Canada at 5%, Spain at 11% and Hong Kong at 8%. The UK figures go back to 1993 and indicate that the share then was 7% compared to an increase of 9% in 2001. Many independent classical retailers in the UK do not submit figures to the national industry body so the percentage could be even higher.
Some of the worldwide share of the market and record units sold in 2001 were as follows: the USA had 29.4% and sold 936.6 million units, Japan 9.1% (291m.), UK 7.7% (245.7m.) and Germany 7% (225.2m.).
Opera merger?
The German newspaper Der Tagesspiel has reported that government officials in Berlin are considering a plan to merge the Staatsoper and the Deutsche Oper. Merging the two companies would mean that there could only be one general director, implying that either Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper or Christian Thieleman at the Deutsche Oper would be made redundant. This is not the first time a proposal such as this has been considered. However, Berlin’s changing financial and political climate indicates that a merger may be the only way the two companies can continue to exist. [news item supplied courtesy of www.classical.com]
SACD/DVD-A
The central panel in last month’s overview of Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio (page 18) stated that SACD players will not play any kind of DVD disc. Although that is true of most examples, I should have said that some of the newer SACD players will also play DVD-Video, though not DVD-Audio discs. It is worth repeating that ‘universal’ players from companies such as Pioneer are now available which cater for any kind of disc that you care to put in the tray. Ivor Humphreys
Errata
EMI’s Oliver Knussen budget-price recording (CDZ5 75296-2), reviewed on page 75 of the October issue, was incorrectly described as being at full price.
In the November Releases list it was incorrectly stated that there were Various Composers on CRD’s recording (CRD5007). There is only one: Eustache du Caurroy.
The photograph of Dietrich Henschel on page 65 of the November issue should have been credited to Teldec/Warner Classics.
Dorle Soria 1900-2002
Dorle Jarmel Soria, who was born in New York City on December 14th, 1900 died there on July 7th, 2002. The French word animatrice would have been an apt description of Dorle Soria: she was someone who made things happen. For most of her life, she was close to the centre of the music and recording worlds, as journalist, publicist, recording company executive, fund-raiser, and as friend and confidante of artists such as Toscanini, Reiner, Mitropoulos, Szell, Callas, Schwarzkopf and Gobbi. A woman of boundless energy, warmth, and vivacity — not to mention a ready wit and the sagacity born of great experience — she counselled, promoted and entertained a worldwide circle of friends and colleagues through her ninth decade.
A graduate of Columbia University, she was diverted from a budding journalism career by the powerful manager Arthur Judson, who hired her to do publicity for his management company (forerunner of today’s CAMI) and the New York Philharmonic. Beginning with the orchestra’s legendary first European tour under Toscanini in 1930, she played a significant role in establishing the maestro’s iconic stature and later promoted such events as the orchestra’s centennial, its 1951 European tour and Leonard Bernstein’s début.
In 1942, Dorle Jarmel married Dario Soria, and after the war assisted him with the Cetra-Soria record label. She left the Philharmonic in 1953 to collaborate with him in launching Angel Records, a new imprint for EMI’s LP recordings, notable for its high standards of packaging and annotation. Dorle masterminded Angel’s imaginative promotion, including Opera Balls in honour of Maria Callas’s débuts at the Chicago Lyric and Metropolitan. After leaving Angel in 1957, the Sorias assisted at the birth of the Spoleto Festival, then joined RCA Records to direct the Soria Series imprint, a collaboration with the Swiss art publisher Skira.
Dorle’s monthly column, ‘Artist Life’, devoted to news, reminiscences and interviews, began in the 1960s, appearing first in the Carnegie Hall programmes, then migrating to High Fidelity/Musical America, where it continued for many years. Dario Soria, who had been Managing Director of the Metropolitan Opera Guild during the 1970s, died in 1980. Dorle then became active with the Metropolitan Opera Association, as an advisory director, member of its Archives Committee and co-producer of the Historic Broadcast Recordings. For the Opera Guild, she wrote a book, The Metropolitan Opera: A Guide and contributed to Opera News. She was also a moving force in the establishment of the Toscanini Memorial Archives (containing microfilms of composers’ autograph manuscripts) at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, and donated valuable historical material from her own career to the Library’s Music Division. David Hamilton
Philip Brett 1937-2002
Philip Brett, born in Nottingham, UK in October 1937, was a pioneering musicologist who was noted for his work on issues concerning gender and sexuality in music. He took a particular interest in the gay themes in Brittens’s operas and wrote a series of books and articles on the subject. He co-founded the American Musicological Society’s Gay and Lesbian Study Group. Among Brett’s many recordings was the first recording of Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel, which he made for New Albion Records.
Brett began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley in 1966 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1989. In 2001 he became a professor of musicology at UCLA. Brett’s work at UC has encompassed a wide spectrum. He conducted the University Chorus and Chamber Chorus, and performed frequently as a harpischordist. He was also noted for his work as an editor of the complete works of William Byrd.
Peter Rybar 1913-2002
Viennese-born violinist and eminent orchestral musician Peter Rybar died in October at the age of 89. Born in 1913 to two Czech violinists and raised in London, Geneva and Leipzig, he was considered by many to be one of the last links with the classical musicians of pre-war Europe. He attended the Prague Conservatory, studying with artists of the calibre of Rudolf Firkusny, Rafael Kubelík and Walter Susskind. A pupil of Josef Suk, he was an early champion of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto and received much acclaim for his performances in Prague and Paris.
In the post-war years he made the first recording of Goldmark’s Violin Concerto. He also recorded with pianist Clara Haskil and fellow violinist Henryk Szeryng. After officially retiring, he was asked by conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch to become concert master of the Suissse Romande Orchestra in Geneva. He could not resists this offer and remained in the post for a decade until 1980. [news item supplied courtesy of www.classical.com]
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