Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor Rob Barnett Editor in Chief
John Quinn Contributing Editor Ralph Moore Webmaster
David Barker Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf MusicWeb Founder Len Mullenger
ASIAN SYMPHONIES
A Discography Of CDs And LPs
Prepared by Michael Herman
This
is the final installment in this series of discographies devoted
to recorded symphonies that have been issued on CDs and LPs.
The title is somewhat inaccurate as this discography does
not include composers from the entire Asian continent, as
composers from Russia, the former Soviet Union and Turkey
are covered elsewhere. The composers who appear here are mostly
from Japan, China and Israel, with a small number from other
Asian countries in the Middle and Far East. As Japan has been
influenced by European culture since the latter part of the
19th century, its composers began writing European style classical
music in the early years of the 20th century. Israeli musical
culture, on the other hand, was mostly pioneered by emigration
from Central and Eastern Europe as a result of facism and
war. The remaining countries whose composers are represented
here are fairly recent newcomers to symphonic tradition as
all had, and still have, their own versions of "classical"
music.
Although this discography attempts to be comprehensive, it
is much smaller than any of its predecessors as it contains
far fewer composers whose listed symphonies have usually been
recorded only once. Recorded is here defined as being available
in a physical format that can be (or could have been) purchased
or obtained from either a commercial or non-commercial source.
Tape recordings, DVD's, music available exclusively as downloads
from the internet and formats other than CD's or LP's are
not included. For the few recordingsthat have been reissued,
the most current reissue and the orginal release are the ones
indicated.
The
entry for each composer consists of two sections. First there
is a compact biographical paragraph that notes some essential
information such as place of birth, higher musical education
(including schools and prominent teachers), subsequent musical
careers, in addition to composing, and details of other symphonies
that have not been recorded. Compositional styles are not
discussed in these paragraphs, and readers are referred to
the bibliography where various reference books that cover
this subject are listed. The second part of each composer
entry consists of lists of his or her symphonies that have
been recorded and the various recordings of each work. "Symphony"
is defined here as any work the composer has designated as
such in its title, including works called "sinfonia"
or "sinfonietta." The works can be for full orchestra,
chamber orchestra, strings, winds, brass or chorus and orchestra.
For every symphony that has them, the opus number, key signature
and title are noted and the year of composition or première
(if known) is stated for all. The entries of the symphonies
that have had multiple recordings are listed alphabetically
by the conductor's name. Each listing of a recording consists
of the following components: (1) performers (in this order
if all are involved - conductor, soloists, choral group, orchestra),
(2) other work or works on the recording, (3) label and catalogue
number and year of issue and (4) If the recording is a reissue,
the original LP or CD release and its year of issue. Please
note that the performers listed are for the entry work and
not necessarily for the works that it is coupled with. Also,
in most instances when an entry work is included in a large
collection (especially if most of the other works are not
related to the discography's subject), the list of couplings
is not given but is replaced by the title of the collection.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In
addition to the thorough editorial work by Steve Ellis, I
had significant help with this discography from Atsushi Sato
from Japan who alerted me to Japanese composers and recordings
whose existence I was totally unaware of. As in my previous
discographies, Len Mullenger of MusicWeb International was
on hand to help my work onto the internet.
Please
note that all recordings listed are CDs unless specifically
designated as LPs. Composers are listed alphabetically by
their surnames in the body of the text with Chinese composers
showing that name first according to the usual practice.
Clough, Francis F. and C.J. Cuming. The World's Encyclopedia
of Recorded Music (including Supplements) in 3 vols. London:
Sidgwick and Jackson, 1952-57.
The
New Grove Dictionary of American Music, in 4 vols., edited
by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie. New York: Grove, 1986.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, 2d ed., in 29 vols., edited by
Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York:
Grove, 2000.
Layton, Robert (ed.). A Guide to the Symphony. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1995.
Sadie, Julie Anne and Rhian Samuel (eds). The Norton/Grove
Dictionary of Women Composers. New York: W.W. Norton and
Co,
1995.
Simpson, Robert. The Symphony, 2 vols. New York:
Drake Publishers, 1972.
Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker's Biographical Dictionary
of Musicians, 8th edition. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992.
Slonimsky, Nicolas. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of
20th Century Classical Musicians (edited by Laura Kuhn). New
York:
Schirmer Books, 1997.
Thompson, Oscar (ed). The International Cyclopedia of
Music and Musicians, updated 11th edition. New York: Dodd,
Mead and
Co., 1985.
(2) CATALOGS
ASCAP
Symphonic Catalog. 3rd ed. (1977)
Gramophone Classical Record Catalogue (retitled: Gramophone Classical
Catalogue) (1953-1996)
Gramophone Compact Disc Catalogue (1983-1990)
Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog (retitled: Schwann 1 – Record
and Tape Guide and Schwann Opus) (1949-2001)
(3) WEBSITES
(A) LIBRARY CATALOGS
British Library Sound Archive http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/nsa.html
Library and Archives Canada http:www.colectionscanada.gc.
Library of Congress http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
New York Public Library Research Catalog http://catnyp.nypl.org/
WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/
(B) OTHER COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL SITES
Albany
Records http://www.albanyrecords.com/
Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com
Amazon (UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk
Arkiv Music http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/main.jsp
Many contemporary composers have their own websites and
others can be found on the websites of their publishers. There
are also websites for earlier composers and conductors that
are maintained by societies that promote their music and recordings.
These can be found by typing the composer's name into any search
engine.
