Odon Mihalovich 1842-1929

[giles.enders]

Odon Mihalovitch 1842-1929, was a pupil of Mosonyi and Bulow and succeeded Liszt at the music academy in Budapest.  He wrote a symphony in D, is it worth reviving?  He is also reported to have written four piano concertos which I have been unable to verify. 

[Gareth Vaughan]

Have you tried writing to the Hungarian State Library? Katalin Szerzo used to be head of the Music Collection there, but the last time I dealt with a Mrs Boglárka Illyés (back in 2007). Her e-mail is (or was): ilbo@oszk.hu

[eschiss1]

the symphony in D minor is available in full score at IMSLP, for what it's worth (Symphony No.1). That does not answer the question of course. Wikipedia mentions 3 other symphonies.

[Gareth Vaughan]

The BL has Full scores of a number of orchestral works - mainly symphonic poems, but including the Symphony - by Mihalovich, but no concertos. If they were not published the Hungarian State Library is probably the best place to start searching for them. When searching it is as well to bear in mind that he was also known, outside Hungary, as Edmund (or sometimes "Edmond") von Mihalovich - so more than one search may be required.

[auberiste]

In case anyone would like to take a look at some of Mihalovich's works, there's a wealth of manuscripts at the Liszt Academy of Music, most of which can be accessed online, including the four symphonies.
At least from my browser, the page works only in Hungarian. In order to find the scores, click on "Katalógus", then type in "Mihalovich Ödön". On the left hand side, click "Kották" under "Forrás típusa". Anything with a green dot and the remark "Online hozzáférés" will be available for download.
I've only just discovered this (apologies if it's been mentioned, but I think it hasn't) and have just started skimming through the symphonies. Especially the fourth with its cyclic theme looks majestic. Here's hoping someone will record one of these works one day.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for you post - and welcome to UC! However, there seems to be a problem with your link: it leads to a 'Server not found' page.

I found this link to the first of ten pages of entries:
http://primo-36lfz.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?fn=search&ct=search&initialSearch=true&mode=Basic&tab=kvtar&indx=1&dum=true&srt=rank&vid=36LFZ_VU1&frbg=&tb=t&vl%28freeText0%29=Mihalovich+%C3%96d%C3%B6n&scp.scps=scope%3A%28%2236LFZ%22%29&vl%283622540UI0%29=any&vl%283622540UI0%29=title&vl%283622540UI0%29=any

[Alan Howe]

Here's a link to the Wikipedia page about the composer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96d%C3%B6n_Mihalovich

And here's an important introductory paper about him and his music:
http://doktori.btk.elte.hu/lit/windhagerakos/thesis.pdf

[eschiss1]

I knew of the PDF (some days when I despair of the morass on the net I remember all the really interesting, thoughtful stuff that's been legally made available on it... like a few of the best scanned dissertations; I'm serious...) Didn't know the symphonies themselves had been digitized though, had just read (with my nonexistent Hungarian) the intriguing descriptions of them in that dissertation...

[auberiste]

Thanks for the heads up, Alan! The perils of joining a forum and trying to add a working hyperlink to your first post... The link should work now, yours is more useful though.
Windhager's dissertation really is a great ressource, it's a pity it's only available in Hungarian (apart from the short introduction above). Let's hope it will spark some interest in this composer in Hungary and maybe lead to a performance or two.
Concerning the first symphony (D minor), there's an in-depth December 1884 review in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (pp. 527-528 in the PDF) that makes my mouth watery and also gives some insight into how Mihalovich was seen by his contemporaries. I'll just add my humble translation of the general description here, replete with 19th-century German imagery:

"Whoever has got to know the earlier orchestral works by Edmund von Mihalowich [sic!] will surely ask himself, once he looks into this new score: will the same disrupted spirit manifest itself in it, with the storminess of the Hungarian temperament, incessantly seeking out the extravagant? Or will the score perhaps tell of a fortunate process of purification, which bore a work that could ignite [interest?] more steadily, like a purer flame freed from smoke?
Having studied the D minor symphony more closely and given account to oneself of its intellectual content, everyone will affirm the latter question with wholehearted satisfaction. The composer has indeed crafted a far more mature, self-contained work, which is by virtue of this more convincing and viable, than he could have succeeded with his earlier eccentric inclinations. [...] This is not to say that his individuality has become more timid or more pale; no, it still fully comes into its own. Yet it expresses itself more clearly and more to the point, the formative powers have gained strength. Artistic volition reaches out its fraternal hand to advanced prowess, thus fulfilling the conditions of the true work of art.
The symphony is in four movements without anxiously adhering to the old formula. Traces of a spirit striving for autonomy, hailing towards the best of modern aspirations, abound in every single passage. [...]
The instrumentation is full and brilliant, often pompous, but never touching lurid excess. A big orchestra, well-equipped in all departments, is, of course, a necessity. To such an orchestra, the technical difficulties, although present, will not seem insurmountable either. Thus, to this orchestra and to all concert agencies keeping their eyes open for interesting novelties, this symphony by Mihalowich presents itself as a work that clearly merits performance and that will appeal to everyone who grants well-deserved space in the arts to the characteristic, the distinct."

[Alan Howe]

As you say, mouthwatering! Now we need the Hungarians to champion their unknown 19th century symphonists. Mihalovich, Beliczay and Major would be a good start...

[giles.enders]

I notice I started this post in 2011. It has been worth the wait.  Is there any information about the piano concertos ?

[Alan Howe]

There is a Ballad for grand orchestra "Das Geisterschiff" ("The Ghost Ship"), after Strachwitz's poem:

Here's some further, fascinating information:

Preface

Ödön Mihalovich was born in a Hungarian-Croatian aristocratic family in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was ruled by the Habsburg Empire. His childhood was deeply marked by three tragic events: the fall of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, his parents' divorce in 1854 and his father's early death in 1863. He started to play piano at his early age but devoted himself to be a composer at the age of 18. He studied composing with Joseph Merkl and Mihály Mosonyi, two Hungarian composers. After one year at the Faculty of Law at Budapest University he left for Leipzig and Munich. He studied composing with Salomon Jadassohn, Moritz Hauptmann and Peter Cornelius. The latter mentioned him in his letters as a friend and ,,A person with feelings!" (Cornelius, 1905, 415). Soon, Mihalovich was allured by three geniuses, Hans von Bülow, Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt. Bülow taught him formal piano playing, but soon asked him to be his private secretary in law cases. He supported spiritually and consoled Bülow many times during his marital tragedy with Cosima Liszt. (Bülow, 1869, 1)

The meeting with Richard Wagner's music determined his style (mainly in the aspect of dramaturgy). He wrote in his diary: ,,The impression was overwhelming; I became immediately an enthusiastic admirer and supporter of Wagnerian music." (Major, 1929, 4) His aim was to reinvent the Hungarian opera style through the Wagnerian music drama, and to this purpose, he composed 4 operas: Hagbarth und Signe (1874), Wieland der Schmied (1879), Eliane (1887) and Toldi szerelme (Toldi's Love, 1890/94). Hagbarth was premièred in Dresden (1882) and Budapest (1886); Eliane was played in Budapest (1908) and Vienna (1909). The Toldi-opera, which tells the tragic love story of a Hungarian Medieval knight, successfully synthesized Wagner's dramaturgy, Liszt's narrative music and some Hungarian style melodies. Arthur Nikisch conducted it many times, and it remained on the stage for 20 years. Especially, its prelude, which was conducted for the first time by Gustav Mahler, became popular. Notwithstanding, the greatest experience in Mihalovich's life was his friendship with Liszt, as he wrote him: "We can congratulate ourselves that we are your contemporaries, that we see you, speak and may you hear." (Birkin-Feichtinger, 2003, 426) It is no wonder that Mihalovich had a strong, vivid and fertile Liszt-reception (in the aspects of genre, narrative and harmony).

Mihalovich was positively received in Germany, being part of Wagner-family's closest circle and his pieces were set by the German conductors for staging. However, he returned to Budapest in 1869 and set off his Hungarian career. During the next decade he completed his two early operas, composed 4 cycles of songs and 4 orchestra ballades: Das Geisterschiff (1871), A sellő (Die Nixe, 1874), Hero und Leander (1875) and La Ronde du Sabbat (1878); an elegy (Gyászhangok / Trauerklänge, 1876) and a phantasy (Faust, 1879). Shocked by his mother's death, he composed a funeral symphony (No. 1, in D minor, 1880). Liszt and Hans Richter revised the scores and the publishing houses Schott and the Breitkopf published them.

During the next decade, he composed his two matured operas (Eliana and Toldi), in addition to the Sieben Gedichte after Mathilde Wesendonck's poems. Mrs. Wesendonck and Mihalovich had an intimate friendship with frequent correspondence. The composer wrote to his Muse: "Why do you not live here or me in Berlin? Oh! Everything is furnished so awkwardly in this insufficient world. ... And how long it still lasts up to the summer, where the sun, flowers and friendship unites us again." (Pechotsch-Feichtinger, 1999, 258.) Renewed by the friendship Mihalovich composed a song cycle (Hat dal Endrődy Sándor Kurucz nótáiból / Sechs Lieder aus den Kurucz Noten von Sándor Erdődy, 1897), three symphonies (No. 2 in H minor, 1892; No. 3 in A minor, 1900; No. 4 in C minor, 1902) and the Pán halála (Der Tod des Pan, 1898) a large scale symphonic poem, inspired by Mahler's Symphony No. 3 and was played even by the Berlin Philharmonic (Windhager, 2013, 47.). He dedicated his Symphony No. 3 to the Memory of the late Empress and Queen Consort Elisabeth. Even his critiques received favourably this piece of music. Despite his successes, in 1902 he stopped composing.

In 1887, he was appointed to the position of head of the Hungarian Royal Music Academy in Budapest, which he directed till 1919. He built up the brand-new institute to be one of the most relevant music academies in Europe. Mihalovich dared to employ the youngest generation, among others Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernő Dohnányi and Leó Weiner. After his death his oeuvre faded, but the Sellő, Toldi-prelude, Symphony No. 4 remained on concerts for the next two decades. In the Communist era (1949-1989), his works were on the index, that's why nowadays there is no tradition to play his orchestral pieces. Fortunately, his songs can be heard on recordings.

Program Music

Michalovich was influenced by the program music oeuvre of Liszt. He "was the first Hungarian in the history of music to compose a symphonic poem, and the first to vocalize its achievements: orchestral effects, expressional delicacies, shades in colouring, technical progress, and new and courageous links in harmony at us." (Moravcsik, 1917: 306) His greatest successes were his eight pieces of program music:
- Das Geisterschiff, Ballad for grand orchestra after Strachtwitz' poem
- A sellő Gyulai Pál költeményére nagy zenekarra, Ballad after Paul Gyulai's poem Die Nixe for grand orchetsra
- Hero und Leander after Schiller's ballad for grad orchestra.
- Gyászhangok nagy zenekarra (Trauerklänge) for grand orchestra
- Le Ronde du Sabbat d'aprés la Ballade de Victor Hugo composée pour grand orchestre
- Eine Faust-Phantasie for grand orchestra
- Toldi szerelme előjáték, Overture toToldi's ,,Liebe"
- Pán halála Reviczky Gyula költeménye után nagyzenekarra (Pans Tod) after Julius Reviczky for grand orchestra

By the 1870s, Mihalovich had experimented and formulated his individual interpretation of the Lisztian grand form, which applies a free sonata form usually with a leitmotiv, frequently with a cyclical structure. He was already thinking in orchestral categories in his formative years, even if he only sketched his pieces in the form of piano a 4 mains. Therefore, it was important for him to conduct his own works on as many occasions as possible (see e.g. the premier of Symphony II).

Mihalovich composed The Ghost Ship, the first piece of program music which was to achieve a significant success, in 1871. The ballad was written by Moritz Strachwitz (1822-1847) and published posthumously in 1848, in the volume Neue Gedichte of the Nordland cycle.The poem tells the story of the revival of a Viking ship that was wrecked centuries ago, contrasting the memory of past victorious battles with present decay. Strachwitz concludes the story with an ironic pathos, and his resuscitated protagonists set towards the South for adventure. Mihalovich, however, reinterprets the plot, and makes the Viking shadows vanish in the sea of the past.

According to the Lisztian grand form, the ballad can be divided into four sections: the introduction, the development I. and II, and finally a free coda. The main theme is an organ pedal-point-sequence with the key interval of the tritone. All four sections are built upon this theme and its variants. Longer cohesive surfaces are interrupted by intermezzos, which, in turn, are determined by a horn course in major, or its variants. After the blaring orchestra tutti that follows the end of the second elaboration section, the main theme settles, and the coda is concluded by an organ pedal-point play – set in motion by woodwind instruments - in B minor. Mihalovich has augmented the usual number of the brasses to six horns, thus resulting in a specifically proportional sounding.

The ballad may be related to sea-music pieces of German Romanticism, but no matter how insisting the contemporaries were in comparing it to the Flying Dutchman, Liszt, who had an in-depth knowledge of both works, did not consider that of Mihalovich to be Wagnerian. "The Geisterschiff of our friend, Mihalovich, was not as warmly welcomed as I would have wished; the orchestra was not really intoned to this work and the audience was also a bit protesting against the Wagnerian reminiscences, which, according to my view, are rather supposed than real, but which are more perceived in Germany than elsewhere." (Csapó, 1911: 102) The Geisterschiff rather is a genuine rewriting of the Fingals Cave overture, given the coincidence in the dramaturgy of tonality (from B minor to blaring D major and return to the B minor ending). It is also corroborated by the dramaturgy of themes: the starting motive is the origin of every other themes.Two elements relate the piece to the Dante Symphony: the central tritone of the main theme, and the dedication to "his Master, Franz Liszt".

The piece was conducted by Liszt as the head of the Philharmonic Society on 5 April 1871, on the night of "Five Young Hungarian Composers". Contemporary criticism reports on the piece in the following way: "His work in question is composed for the poem of Strachwitz, which reflects a Northern legend in the form of a ballad. The author aptly and with courageous turns paints some elements of the story. This successful musical picture, which Liszt conducted with a joyful expression on his face, is characterized by rich imagination, mastery in the moulding of forms and a polyphonic elaboration worthy of a master." (Ábrányi, 1871: 292)

The day following the premier, Liszt greeted Mihalovich in a letter with the theme of The Ghost Ship and with the saying: "Welcome on board, Captain!" (Prahács, 1966: 210) For the second time, the ballad was presented in Cassel on 26 June 1872, again conducted by Liszt; and then, Mihalovich himself conducted the performance on 28 March 1873, in Budapest. On another occasion, Liszt performed it as a piano a 4 mains version with Mihalovich during one of his house concerts. In 1879, Geisterschiff was published by the Schott, in the edition of János Richter.

Ákos Windhager, PhD., 2018

References
- Ábrányi Kornél: ,,Öt magyar zeneköltő", Zenészeti Lapok, Budapest, 09.04.1871.
- Birkin-Feichtinger, Inge: ,,Hochverehrter Meister" – Briefe von Ödön von Mihalovich an Franz Liszt, Studia   
  musicologica, Akademia Verlag, Budapest, 2003.
- Cornelius, Peter: Literarische Werke, 2. Band, hrsg: Cornelius, Carl Maria; Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig, 1905.
- Letter of Hans von Bülow to Mihalovich, 25.06.1869. Manuscript, Library of the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy,
  Budapest.
- Liszt Ferenc levelei báró Augusz Antalhoz 1846-78, ed. By Csapó Vilmos, Franklin Edition, Budapest, 1911.
- Major, Ervin: ,,Mihalovich Ödön", Muzsika, Budapest, May 1929.
- Moravcsik Géza: ,,Mihalovich Ödön", Zenei Szemle, Temesvár, December 1917
- Pechotsch-Feichtinger, Inge, ,,Briefe von Ödön von Mihalovich an Mathilde Wesendonck", Studia Musicologica,
  Akademia Verlag, Budapest, 1999.
- Prahács, Margit, Franz Liszt Briefe aus ungarischen Sammlungen, Akadémia Verlag, Budapest, 1966
- Windhager, Ákos, "The Friends of <Pan>: The <Pan> Symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Ödön Mihalovich",
  In: News About Mahler Research 65, International Gustav Mahler Society, Vienna, Spring 2013.

https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/4077.html

[Gareth Vaughan]

Where did you get the information that he wrote 4 piano concertos, Giles? I haven't been able to find any reference to them.

[giles.enders]

That post was 8 years ago so off hand cannot recall but will rake through my notes.

[daapa]

The source is perhaps Josip Andreis-History of Music.