Julius Weismann

[jerfilm]

I posted his 2nd and 3rd symphonys in the downloads long ago.   Here is the link:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/n2no1jv2o0bck/Julius_Weismann_Symphonies

There are three piano concertos, at least two violin concertos, sinfoniettas, etc.  Lots of them are on YouTube.  Happy listening.

Jerry

[Alan Howe]

Don't forget that wonderful 1st Violin Concerto!

[matesic]

I'm a late arrival at the banquet here but feel my appetite stirring. Unfortunately I can't find any UK or internet sources for scores or parts of his 11 string quartets. From the paucity of Worldcat entries I suspect only the first quartet Opus 14 and the Phantastische Reigen Opus 50 were published, although we have the strange release on CPO of the Opus 133 and 148 quartets in orchestral arrangements. Maybe I should try to contact Georg Mais the arranger?

[minacciosa]

Thank you Jerry, I did obtain those. This is quite a discovery.

[eschiss1]

Worldcat doesn't get you everything!!
ÖNB has the - published, nota bene! - parts of Weismann's quartet Op.133 (pub. by Peters), and a piano duet sonatine Op.142; also the violin/piano reduction of his concerto Op.98 (published in 1938 by Muller), and other works.  Not many, but maybe some other libraries also not fully covered by Worldcat should be dragged in... (SBN Italy perhaps; Széchényi Budapest, e.g. ; NKP (?) Prague ... ; Weismann was none of these nationalities but just as Stenhammar was not American and yet his piano concerto score showed up at the Library of Congress, one goes by "who knows?"...)

(The Library of Congress also has Op.133. No "unk" so I presume they really do have it and not just list it...)

I have not heard a 1999 early MDG CD of Weismann's piano music, nor was I even aware it existed. Hrm...

[matesic]

Yes, now I see Worldcat does list the parts of Op.133, held by the library of the University of North Carolina. The score of Op.14 is held by a number of libraries in the US including the Juilliard (hint...) while that of the Phantastische Reigen exists as a "downloadable musical score" at Iona College, New Rochelle NY. I guess that means they might let me have a copy so I'll make inquiries. With a date of 1914 it must be PD in the US although I suppose all Weismann's works will still be copyright in the UK.

[matesic]

Well fiddle me if the Phantastische Reigen score isn't also on imslp, uploaded by one Schissel who also provides the information that a 1979 recording was reissued on CD by Signum in 2001. The score has "Einstein" written in pencil at the top.

[Wheesht]

Has anyone had a look at the holdings of the Julius-Weismann-Archiv at the Stadtbibliothek Duisburg? They say on their website that they have all his manuscripts and printed music plus recordings and more.
The link to their catalogue (with all loanable media) on that site doesn't work, though, you'll need to go here

[Gareth Vaughan]

They don't appear to have his symphonies or piano concerti.

[Wheesht]

The OPAC does not list everything they have, so it may be worth contacting them to see what they have that isn't listed.

[Double-A]

This is from German Wikipedia (not by me ):

From 1934 Julius Weismann was one of the honorary chairmen of the "Working Committee of Nazi composers" [? German: Arbeitskreis nationalsozialistischer Komponisten]. In 1935, he wrote on behalf of the National Socialist cultural community a new stage music for Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was to replace the composition of Mendelssohn, but failed to catch on in theaters. On 20 April 1936 Adolf Hitler appointed him professor. [4] This title he won again in 1950 by the Federal State Baden. In 1938 he wrote his most successful opera, "The Smart maid" [? German: Die Pfiffige Magd] after a text by Ludwig Holberg. In 1939 he was awarded an honorary citizen of Freiburg and in the same year with the Leipzig Johann Sebastian Bach Prize. In the same year he moved to Nussdorf near Überlingen (Lake Constance) and ended up teaching, but continued to compose.

Weismann was definitely NOT Jewish. Anyway, it would have been a strange kind of Nazi policy to commission a new 'Midsummer Night's Dream' score from a Jew to replace Mendelssohn's...
However, he wasn't a staunch Nazi (like his contemporaries Hermann Unger or Richard Trunk) either. A naive opportunist perhaps, what we call "blauäugig" (blue-eyed?)
As I said before, "Die Pfiffige Magd" was one of the most successful operas of the Nazi era - nevertheless one of his greatest artistic failures I think.

I am afraid I can't be this indulgent.  He wrote the Midsummer Nights music in 1935.  I don't think anybody forced him to do it.  It is practically an endorsement of Nazi antisemitism.  I understand people who didn't emigrate at the time:  If you didn't have connections (like say Thomas Mann or Carl Zuckmayer) it was very hard to do--even with connections it was hard.  To keep your head down and survive was the strategy of many in totalitarian systems (including Shostakovich).  But his behavior goes way beyond that and can't be shrugged away as "blauäugig"  (maybe not a happy term in this context anyway since blue eyes were a sign of Arian descent).

I am just taken aback that this thread can go on for one and a half pages before his Nazi past even comes up.  Is the Second World War really that far in the past?

[Alan Howe]

Frankly, though important - very important - this issue has been aired before at UC and we're not about to take another detour in that direction. Let's stick with the music, please.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Hear, hear!

[minacciosa]

Don't care; that was then, this is now, and the music I've heard is terrific.

[Alan Howe]

I care, but the discussion's for another time and another place...