DAN FRANKLIN SMITH
Pianist

Hans Huber (1852-1921)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor Opus 36 and
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Major Opus 113

with Michail Jurowski, Conductor
The Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded in Stuttgart, July 2003

World Premiere Recording

Available now on Sterling Productions
Distributed in the U.S. by Qualiton Inc.
available through www.qualiton.com,
www.amazon.com or fine record stores

• The Recording
• The Composer
• The Performing Artist

 
The Recording:

          Having recorded all eight of Huber's symphonies, Bo Hyttner's Sterling label turns its attention to the Huber concertos:

          "In the brief description of the music in his monograph on the composer from 1944, Huber's friend and biographer Edgar Refardt emphasized that these works were intended for a restricted circle of the composer's colleagues and pupils, who repeatedly stepped in as performers to assist with the dissemination of the concertos. 'Robert Freund, Otto Hegner, Rudolf Ganz and Ernst Levy have shown not just Switzerland but all the world what a pianist can achieve with a piano concerto by HansHuber. The most effective of the entire series remains the Third.' Even if Hans Huber's piano concertos to some extent owe their existence to specific occasions and friendships, they nevertheless extend of perception of this versatile and multi-faceted composer."

From liner notes:  Dominik Sackmann©2003
(translation:  Andrew Barnett)

Once again this recording project was financially bolstered by the Czeslaw Marek Foundation for which we owe them thanks.
 

 CD Review from:  THE CLASSICAL SOURCE

          Dan Franklin Smith plays with admirable dexterity and obvious sympathy, and he is well supported.  . . . this is rare repertoire; indeed its seems these are premiere recordings.

 

CD Review from:  MUSIC WEB

          The considerable strength of this disc lies in a magically performed and honestly recorded Third Concerto. This is an example of profundity and sincerity in the silver-plated realms of the romantic piano concerto. Sterling have on this occasion beaten Hyperion to the draw.

Rob Barnett

 

CD Review from: CRESCENDO

          The Sterling Label, specializing in romantic rarities, and having already astounded the public with Huber's eight symphonies, attempts in a very successful experiment to prove that even Switzerland has excellent and original composers with their own musical expressiveness.  Also the interpretive results of the not-exactly-world-renowned artists is remarkable . . . you should rush to your next CD-shop and enrich your Audiotheque!

TR

 

CD Review from:  FONO FORUM

          Hans Huber's wonderfully recorded Piano Concerti with their symphonic dimensions, their opulent piano parts and their expressive style stand in the tradition of corresponding works of Brahms. However, the third piano concerto, with a fantasy form that one otherwise only finds in Saint-Saën's music, widely surpasses Brahms.  The recording leaves no wishes unfulfilled:  All of the musicians master these high-level scores with confidence . . . .  With such a recording, Huber's music rates as one of the discoveries of the year!

Interpretation:  XXXXX (Excellent)
Sound:  XXXX (Very Good)
R = Release with special value for the repertoire

Return to Top of Page . . . .

 

The Composer:

HANS HUBER

          Huber was born in the Solothurn canton of Switzerland. His mature studies took place in Leipzig. These culminated in a public performance of Schumann's Op. 92 Conzertstuck with Huber as pianist. In 1877 he moved to Basle where he wrote the First Piano Concerto. The work is written much under the Schumann spell: limber, gracious, elegant without being thin, decorous without dullness, entertaining without plumbing Brahmsian stürm und drang. There is a trace of glittering Litolff in the galloping third movement. The Third Concerto from 1899 has a tawny Brahmsian quality under its decorative surface. The work has more emotional depth than the first. The scherzo is quite magically weighted and constructed - a wonderful example of what can be done with the romantic concerto. There are intimations here and there of the Macdowell, Schumann and Grieg concertos. Certainly if you like those works (and few do not) you will find plenty to fascinate in the Third Piano Concerto. Huber lavished first class ideas on this work and in a performance as sensitive and seemingly well prepared as this we are in for a treat. It stands head and shoulders above the First Concerto. Listen for example to the tenderness of the violin-borne theme at the end of the third movement - Intermezzo. The final movement ends with a conventionally perfunctory flourish; the only weakness in a work that deserves much more public exposure.

Return to Top of Page . . . .

 

The Performing Artist:

DAN FRANKLIN SMITH

          Dan Franklin Smith discovered the Atterberg Piano Concerto at the Lincoln Center Reseearch Library in New York City early in 1998.  "While classical music's marketplace focuses on the best-known repertoire," he notes, "there are many musical gems still hidden, waiting to be found and shared with today's classical music lovers."

          At that time he was investigating Swedish compositions for performance with Maestro Arne Johansson and the Sofia Orchestra in celebration of Stockholm Cultural Year.  The performance took place in October of that year at Sofia Kyrkan in Stockholm, to high praise from the Swedish press and TV.  TV's sole classical music program, Musik Spegeln (Music Mirror), featured the performance, the work and the soloist on a broadcast seen throughout Sweden in November.  And Svenska Dagbladet noted that " . . . the result was more than anyone could wish for . . . .  Dan Franklin Smith beautifully asserted himself as a musical collaborator with his sensitive ear, strong sense of style and fine musicianship."

          A few months later, a Swedish CD producer, Sterling Grammofonskivor, was looking for a pianist who could accomodate his schedule to their projected recording date in May with the Gävle Symfoniorkester and conductor B. Tommy Andersson.  Sterling heard via the grapevine of Smith's great success with the concerto in Stockholm.  Having just performed the extremely difficult work, says Smith, "I was definitely the pianist of choice."

          While he is a concert pianist who performs all over the world, Smith is also in demand as an accomplished opera coach in his home town, New York City.  As one who is constantly hearing singers, "I was immediately impressed by the soaring melodic invention of Atterberg's concerto.

          As I studied the piece I found that the melodic and motivic development, a gentle bitonality on occasion, and the piano's integration into the orchestra as well as the very challenging piano writing made it a work always offering some new and distinctive sound to a definitively late Romantic work."

          A glowing description of this concerto, its recording and its artists can be found on the front page of Records International's September catalogue:  ". . . a full-throated, dizzyingly romantic work from 1927-35 whose first movement sounds now like a Swedish Rachmaninoff and now like the score to an echt-Hollywood romance of the 1930s.  The piano is treated as an equal of the orchestra -- more a symphony with a piano obbligato than a true concerto.  The second movement is a deeply elegaic andante, full of nature lyricism, magic and melancholy in which the piano has a more soloistic role, and the finale, marked furioso, is in rondo form with Nordic harmonies and much brilliant and demanding work for the soloist. No lover of piano concertos can fail to be seduced by this intoxicating work."

by Stephanie Low
President, Stephanie Low Artists, Inc.

Return to Top of Page . . . .

Home Page . . . .