A Forgotten Cello Concerto

OK—here’s the deal. I’m taking a break today from rescuing America from its rising tide of gun violence to take on another, just-as-worthy cause.

Yesterday, I wrote about all the music that should be heard, the composers we should be listening to, the pieces that are never played. In the post, I mentioned Carl Reinecke, whose cello sonata (one of them) I had played and loved.

So I was on to YouTube, this morning, to see if I could hear that sonata, and guess what? In all of YouTube, there is only ONE video of a Reinecke cello sonata, played by what looked to be a German conservatory student (very talented). And no, it wasn’t the one I had played.

YouTube offered me the consolation, however, of the Reinecke cello concerto, and so why not? And Readers, Dear Readers, we’ve got work to do!

“I’m Michael Samis,” the guy starts out, “and tonight I’ll be playing the Reinecke cello concerto with the Gateway Chamber Orchestra…” He then sits down and plays a ravishingly lovely, lyrical theme—just the stuff I remembered from the sonata. He then stopped—a musical coitus interruptus.

OK—I was off. I HAD to hear the rest of that piece. First stop, amazon.com—zip. iTunes—ditto. Google, and I’m back on Michael Samis.

First however, I had checked out Reinecke, who has a career somewhat parallel to yesterday’s man whom time forgot, Hans Gal. Reinecke was born in 1824 as a German but in an area controlled at the time by Denmark. He studies in Leipzig with an impressive triumvirate: Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt. He later spends time in Copenhagen as court pianist to Christian VIII, and in 1848 goes to Paris.

In 1851, he becomes a professor in the conservatory of Cologne, and then in 1860 is appointed as conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, a post he will occupy for thirty years. While there, he will conduct the premiere of the full seven movements of the German Requiem of Brahms, as well as the premieres of several of Brahms’s chamber works.

He is—one has to admire that 19^th discipline—teaching as well; his students include Grieg, Bruch, Albéniz, and Leoš Janáček.

After retirement, he devotes his time to composition—which he’s been doing in his “free” time all his life. He writes several operas, which are unperformed today, as well as four piano concertos.

And as you will hear Michael explain below, he’s writing in a musical style of the past. German music had evolved—Michael might say devolved—into Wagner and his followers. Reinecke stays in the style of his teachers, Mendelssohn and Schumann. He writes those long, lyric, lush themes and has the dazzling technical displays that leave you breathless.

And nobody wants his music.

He’s old, he’s out of fashion. The cello concerto, written in 1864, may never have been heard in the United States. And then Michael Samis comes along and falls in love with it—it’s the kind of music he’s loved all his life.

And now Michael has a dream—recording the concerto, as well as the Schumann concerto and various shorter pieces. But to do that he needs…

…sigh…

…do I have to tell you?

Look, if you go on kickstarter.com and donate 100 bucks, you can get a high quality DVD of Michael performing the concerto. For 2000 bucks, you get a 90-minute recital in your home! Hey, the Jones’s are gonna have to work pretty hard to top that.

And the tragic thing?

This guy needs just 8500 bucks. Oh, and if he doesn’t get it—no recording. Kickstart is all or nothing.

I’m in, I’m totally in. Readers, send this to everybody before the next 32 days. Get Michael’s message out there. Twitter and Facebook—this music has gotta be heard.

Long URL: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelsamis/a-forgotten-cello-concerto?ref=live

Twitter-friendly shortened URL: http://kck.st/ZgH5iP