Eric Schissel <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Trying to find out if the Vienna Symphony concert of April 29&30
>this year, in which Wellesz' 3rd symphony in A was to be premiered,
>went ahead as scheduled; how it was reviewed; whether it will lead to a
>recording.

I would very much like to know as well, all the more since, much
less fortunate than Eric, I have never heard any of Wellesz's symphonies
(although I have been looking for recordings for more than 15 years).  That
the 3rd has never been performed before this year is astounding news to me,
considering that it is the one praised in the (penultimate edition of the)
New Grove, as far as I remember.  Also, to quote Paul Conway's paper on the
symphonies:

   "Robert Layton, in a broadcast on the Third Programme, commented
   "...in his finest pieces among which the eloquently wrought Third
   Symphony should be numbered, there is a nobility that recalls the
   art of Bruckner whom he so revered".  Robert Layton, a friend of
   Wellesz, remembers visiting the composer at his home in Woodstock
   Road, Oxford and hearing the Third Symphony (1951) played on the
   piano by Wellesz accompanied by the composer's foot-stamping and
   singing!"

(from Len Mullenger's Classical Music on the Web:
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/wellesz.htm)

Anyway the recent recording of Wellesz's Violin Concerto and Prosperos
Beschwoerungen provides us with some glorious music from both "stylistic
periods", at least for orchestral writing.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le
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