Ewald Straesser (1867-1933), born Burscheid, died Stuttgart

[eschiss1]

also re Straesser of possible interest, recent uploads to IMSLP-
Symphony no.1 and
Symphony no.2
(not by me )

[Mark Thomas]

I have off air dubs of both these pieces and they are impressive late-romantic, but not gargantuan, works. Well worth getting to know. Thanks, Eric.

[eschiss1]

I gather there's been a recording (also broadcast, not commercial) somewhere of the 3rd symphony (in A?) (unpublished?) too, no idea if his other three or more symphonies have been performed since their premieres back in the 1930s or published though... I very much like the two (of five?) quartets I've heard and the look of the scores of the rest of the music
And giving sym 2 another look I like the opening of the Commodo, grazioso e con anima finale - do hope someone gets around to recording these two or all 6...  in the couple of years between sym. 1 and sym. 2 I feel like a hint of Reger has mixed in with the Strauss and Brahms, but I'm just considering the score (and inching backwards from the sound of the quartet he published seven years later, which differs in style of Romanticism from the one he published in 1901... still recommending both of those to such as haven't heard them, both quite good, the 1901 one suggesting Brahms a bit to my ears and the quartet no.4 again admitting other influences too, reminding me maybe a little of Zemlinsky and others still? Don't know...)
Grateful for these occasional wonderful discoveries, as ever.
Eric

[giles.enders]

A considerable amount of this web site is picked up by Google.  I would suggest that anyone starting a topic uses the FULL name of the composer and dates.  It is easier for the Google search engine and brings new people to our web site.  Straesser is only known to the cognoscenti.

[jerfilm]

How about an upload of those dubs, Mark?   Sounds interesting.  All I have is his Piano Concerto in e, but it's a kind of come-on for more......

Jerry

[Mark Thomas]

Jerry, leave it with me for a couple of days...

[dafrieze]

Thank you, Mark, for these wonderful pieces!  I'd never even heard of this composer before.

I'm sure this idea has been bruited on this site before (I may even have bruited it myself), but shouldn't there be a place here for non-British unsung composer downloads the way there is for British ones?  Subject to approval, I'd be happy to take on this project.  What do people think?  Is it feasible? 

[khorovod]

Oh, that would be a wonderful idea, for me especially if anyone could be kind enough to upload music by Prince Heinrich XXIV Reuss of Köstritz, who was I think the subject of my first (of not many!) posting on here. I know he isn't supposed to be very original at all but I am still terribly curious! 

But I might be being a bit cheeky to ask really, as I know I am not a very frequent visitor here or a very active contributor. 

[dafrieze]

What I was clumsily trying to say, Jerfilm, is that there should be a centralized spot on this site where all the participants could upload otherwise unavailable recordings (preferably radio checks, or copies of long-deleted commercial recordings) of unsung composers outside of the British Isles, as there is now for British composers.  If there's any interest, and if the powers that be will give me permission, I'd like to set up such a spot. 

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Dafrieze,a download area is a good ides, one which had occurred to me over the last couple of hours, too.  The way to do it is to copy what Albion has done, use UC as a common port of call and then link to the MediaFire (or other) download connections. I'll happily set up another category at UC (Downloads or whatever) and then maybe we could ensure than any future downloads are posted in threads there that are reserved for them? So any Straesser downloads, say, would be in a thread headed Straesser and so on. My one concern is that any files must be of music which is not available commercially, for obvious reasons. No CD rips, no files downloaded from commercial sites. Give me few days to mull this over, but I see no insuperable problems.

In the mean time, Khorovod, I have some recordings of music by Prinz Reuss and I'll upload that in the near future.

[Mark Thomas]

Sorry, Jerry, I should have thanked you for the Piano Concerto. Great stuff.

[khorovod]

Thank you, that's brilliant! 

[Jonathan]

Thanks everyone, I look forward to hearing this!

[dafrieze]

Thank you, Mark - that's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind!

And thank you, Jerfilm, for the Straesser piano concerto.  (And conducted by Klaus Tennstedt, no less...)

[eschiss1]

re Straesser - not much information around about him I think, but there's some biographical information in a few places, including the link at the IMSLP category, which I'll reproduce- http://www.dohr.de/autor/straesser.htm

There's also a link to the Straesser-Gesellschaft there, but I can't figure out how to get past its homepage.
He was apparently born in Burscheid, Germany in 1867; died 1933; was a conductor as well as composer, composed 6 symphonies or so (4 are, I think, still only in manuscript; the 6th and possibly also the 4th were, after his death was learned of, set to be premiered, the 6th conducted by Abendroth, though I don't actually know if those premieres happened. Found that much out from the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, some 1933 issues.

The first three symphonies - in G major, D minor, and A - minor or major?... - have been broadcast) ... -

anyhow, wrote a paragraph-long summary of what I knew of his output here.  There is a book, one copy of which is at the British Library (haven't seen it of course) and authored by his widow (pub. 1937), Ewald Straesser. Sein musikalisches Schaffen. with a list of works that's rather more definitive, I hope, if the piano concerto,  and the 2 string quartets that Steve's Bedroom Band recorded over at IMSLP, create any interest in a composer whose name seems to have next to vanished (so far as I was concerned, certainly.)

Though I wonder - especially on the evidence too of his own clarinet quintet - if he was the clarinettist E. Straesser who is mentioned as having taken part in some performances Stateside in 1891?...

Eric

(late edit- RISM has information on symphony 4, which it gives opus 44, incipits of the 3 movements, etc.)