Pianophilia

Thanks Rob for the Bowen Studies, and special thanks to 4candels for the Émile Blanchet recommendation. I've was up till 3:00am playing through the Blanchet preludes and etudes last night. They are wonderful - just what I was looking for.

One of Blanchets Etudes from Op. 31.

Igod82 wrote:One of Blanchets Etudes from Op.31..

Really thanks for this etude!
Hard to find.

Duirton

Igod82 wrote:One of Blanchets Etudes from Op.31..

I'll second that thanks for this Blanchet Etude. To my knowledge this is the first appearance of any of the Op.31 Etudes on Pianophilia. Congratulations on finding this wonderful score for us all to enjoy!

Well here is the other one that I have.

Igod82 wrote:Well here is the other one that i have.

Thanks for this Etude as well. We have 2 or the 4 now thanks to your uploads. Blanchet always has something interesting and different to say in his etudes. How this composer can have been overlooked for so long is a big mystery. I am really enjoying the interesting figurations in this particular piece.

Jean-Séb wrote:

Caprotti wrote:From my experience Fétis must be taken with caution. I can't verify online the catalogue of the French National Library, but there are only a few works by Forgues in the main european libraries and no cycles of 12 Etudes. Pazdirek is never complete, but Hofmeister database doesn't quote any other works by F. apart those already known. btw, I found that a 'Scherzo' that was circulating is the Etude stated as op.15.

In 1860, the publication of those 12 Etudes was announced in Le Ménestrel : "Monsieur Emile Forgues, de retour à Paris, va publier chez l'éditeur Flaxland son nouvel ouvrage intitulé les Pathétiques, douze grandes études de concert d'une exécution transcendante, appelées dit-on à faire faire un grand pas à l'art moderne du piano." But who knows whether the project was actually completed?
http://books.google.fr/books?id=Jc8JAQA ... CCcQ6AEwAA

For posterity, and in case anyone is interested, I have discovered from contacting the French National Library that all studies from 'Les Pathétiques' by Émile Forgues were indeed published, but Flaxland never sent duty copies of the collective work to the Library. Here are what I believe are the names of the individual studies (including opus numbers) that made up the set, one of which we have seen in PP:

"In Durand-Schoenewerk's catalogues of 1872 (p. 23) and 1875 (p. 26), the following works are listed (prices in brackets):
- Les pathétiques [... both books [were] available separately or together... each étude [was] also available separately]
- op. 10, Les flots (7,50)
- op. 11, Romance dramatique (5)
- op. 12, Le départ (7,50)
- op. 13, Canzonetta (6)
- op. 14, Marche funèbre (7,50)
- op. 15, Scherzo en sixtes (6)
- op. 16, Improvisata (5)
- op. 17, Le mouvement perpétuel (10)
- op. 18, Méditation (5) [obviously the same as "Mélancolie"]
- op. 19, La sérénade (7,50)
- op. 20, Ballade (5)
- op. 21, Le trémolo (7,50)"

Tantalising and very disappointing (for me anyway) that we may never see or hear most of these works, by a popular pianist of the time.

To confirm Caprotti's statement, only three of the études seem to be available in any of the main European libraries, according to the BNF - the Scherzo, the Méditation and 'Le mouvement perpétuel' - I intend to track them down!

Berlin has also the following
http://musikipac.staatsbibliothek-berli ... 000071.jpg

Caprotti wrote:Berlin has also the following
http://musikipac.staatsbibliothek-berli ... 000071.jpg

The BNF also has this étude in an autograph manuscript (under the title "Etude solo de concert composée par Emile Forgues op. 5"). They seem to think it's the same as the op. 15 Étude/Scherzo (despite the differing opus numbers).

Louis Diemer's name has appeared on Alfor's pages, but a search of this site and IMSLP has not yielded any of his original scores.
So here for your pleasure is the first of several works by him that I am scanning. Peter.