Richard Pennycuick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>In the middle of his fascinating account of a concert in New Orleans,
>Steve Schwartz wrote:
>
>>After the Weigel, a little secular cantata by Gottschalk - "Rustic Scenes"
>>- for soprano, tenor, and bass, with orchestra.  ...  I suspect Gottschalk
>>wrote it for his Cuban concerts.  Anyway, quite charming and somebody ought
>>to record it.
>
>Somebody once did.  I have it as part of a 3-LP set of Gottschalk on
>Turnabout which appeared around 1972 - on this, it was called Cuban
>Country Scenes.  Conceivably, Vox has reissued it on CD.

_Rustic Scenes_ _was_ included as part of the Gottschalk Festival CD set
- & the fact that i picked it up in the Internal Language Bookstore in
Beijing is a rustic scene in itself - & in answer to Steve's speculation:
it _was_ written for one of the great Creole's Cuban spectaculars.  One
needs to remember though that these concerts were inspired by Berlioz's
Parisian excesses - which LMG had had a minor involvement in during his
European period - & so the premiere performance involved something like a
thousand people making one hell of a racket vaguely related to the written
scores.  Sounds like it would'ave been a lot of fun; & Gottschalk certainly
thought so:  his bemused amusement at the punched contrapunct he had
created is one of a number of reasons i believe that if LMG had not
existed, neither would Ives....

All the best,
Robert Clements <[log in to unmask]>