Ferdinand Hiller

[Reverie]

Great work Tpaloj ! And it's dated about 1845 so earlyish romantic.

The Dudley Moore clip made me laugh. I haven't seen that in donkey's years 

[eschiss1]

I'm glad his (late) antipathy to Liszt didn't get in the way of his composing rather good music, at least. (For some composers, authors, artists, it has - it seems?- seemed more important to risk not resembling someone they've come to despise than to continue working well. (Hiller lived until 1885, almost as long as Liszt, though not quite as long as Clara Schumann. I wonder if he attended many concerts in his last years and what he thought of them- I should see if I can have a look at that new Hiller biography sometime in the next year or so, with a translating dictionary and some patience; I expect to be absorbed.)

[tpaloj]

Have you read Hiller's book on Mendelssohn, Eric? You'll find an english translation at least on archive.org. Hiller was a very modest man, sociable, well-spoken and liked in his circle of musical acquaintances and friends. Mendelssohn above all, with whom they had a real friendship - the two often shared conversation, ideas and critiqued each-others work (the book notes that Hiller's suggested improvements to Mendelssohn's compositions were accepted by him on a few occasions). It was in no small part thanks to Mendelssohn's help that Hiller's first oratorio "Die Zerstörung Jerusalems" met with such great success at its premiere, after all.

I still find it difficult to say how Hiller's musical style developed or changed especially into his later years, because of the limited amount of works recorded so far. But I'd be inclined to think he remained pretty conservative for all his life. He did keep composing all the way into the early 1880s, I think.

[eschiss1]

Conservative is one thing, and often a part of musical personality- and, as with Mendelssohn, compatible with a dose of sheer fire, of course. Which I think I hear in late Hiller too, from what I've heard of it, and I'll try to hear that again and other works..

[Alan Howe]

PC3, written in 1874, is certainly conservative in its style, although more expansive than PCs 1 and 2 - rather as Reinecke's PC3 is in comparison to his three other works in the genre.

[tpaloj]

You can check out the MS of Hiller's Violin Concerto (op.152a) uploaded by Goethe University of Frankfurt on their site. I paid 200 euros for those scans so you're welcome 

You can see from the score that this is very attractive music, overall lightly and gracefully scored (the first movement could almost have come from Raff's pen) – think less of Brahms or Schumann and more Saint-Saëns or Dvorak etc. Hiller wrote this concerto for Joseph Joachim, who composed a cadenza for it. The violin part is very busy, with barely any rests for the poor violinist in the 14-15 minute opening movement alone...

Schott has published a complete piano reduction and a separate edition of the 2nd movement, edited by Emil Kross, aimed for violin students (probably with more detailed fingering and other instructions etc: the British Library seems to have a copy). It's unknown to me if this concerto was ever performed in Hiller's time. There are no rehearsal marks in the score, which might suggest that it wasn't, but again not 100% sure.

I've typeset most of the score at this point. But to be able to create a satisfactory performing edition, I'll have to find and study those above mentioned Schott editions to fill in some of the details that this MS is lacking. And with most libraries closed for orders for now, it might take who knows how long, unfortunately. If anyone here has the Schott piano reduction score, please let me know.

http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/musikhs/content/titleinfo/11579123

[eschiss1]

Yes, thank you. Did you also arrange for the digitization of the Hiller symphonies and overture by them earlier?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Fleisher has a complete set of printed parts for the Violin Concerto Op. 152, but no full score: https://catalog.freelibrary.org/Record/1682279

As an aside, Fleisher also has full score and parts of the "Fantasiestück für Violine mit Begleitung des Orchesters", Op. 152b.

[tpaloj]

Yes, thank you. Did you also arrange for the digitization of the Hiller symphonies and overture by them earlier?

Thanks Eric but no, the VC is the only score I've ordered from them.

Thank you Gareth, it's good to know if Fleisher indeed has the full set of parts.

The old Schott plate number catalogues have some info on the publications. I can't grasp all of it thanks to the German handwriting though. First image: it seems to me that the left-hand side lists 200 printed copies of the piano reduction. In the middle column, in red ink, 300 copies of the Emil Kross edition of the 2nd movement and cadenza. The right-hand side indicates maybe the printed parts? Or something else? "ohne principall St[imme]"? Not too sure.

The second image indicates a printed set of parts "nur quartett ?". 12 Bg. (Bogen?) curse the shorthand of these old music engravers 

https://imgur.com/a/HjbP97e

A letter from Hiller to Schott which seems to say something about this work, but damn if I can't read a word of it either. Beautiful handwriting again though.
https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN1666993786&PHYSID=PHYS_0001

Ah, and Joachim's cadenza (not included in the full score) is digitized to those interested as well: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN1679363506

[eschiss1]

without violin part?; only strings (quartett)

[tpaloj]

To mark Hiller's passing 136 ago, yesterday, I've uploaded a Noteperformer recreation of his Idyll for orchestra on youtube. It was composed around early 1880s - the undated manuscript full score has "op.200" written but crossed over, and a surviving set of orchestral parts have performance dates in 1882-84. Either way, this work was never published.

Formally, it resembles the Symphonische Phantasie op.127 in that it consists of five short movements to be played without pauses. The mood is, well, pastoral and idyllic as the name implies! The second and third movements are definitely my favorite - excellent melodic writing. A fun part-Waltz, part-bacchanale Finale rounds up the work with good humor. I hope you enjoy it!

https://youtu.be/kMyqKp9cAqs

[Ilja]

Thank you Tuomas! I haven't found anything by Hiller sofar that I didn't like, and I'm looking forward to hearing this.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks very much. Hiller really deserves more recognition from commercial recording labels.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I heartily agree.

[Reverie]

Well done Tuomas!

Full of surprises, especially at the end of the final movement, the stalled ending.