Anton Urspruch

[Alan Howe]

Anton Urspruch is also worth pursuing...

Anton Urspruch (Frankfurt am Main, February 17, 1850 – Frankfurt am Main, January 11, 1907) was a German composer and pedagogue who belonged to the late German Romantic.
Urspruch was a pupil of Ignaz Lachner and Joachim Raff in Frankfurt, and later one of the favourite students of Franz Liszt in Weimar.
In 1878 he was appointed one of the first teachers at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt when it opened there, teaching piano and composition and had friendly communication with Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. After the death in 1882 of the Conservatory director Joachim Raff, Urspruch moved to the newly founded Raff-Konservatorium in Frankfurt, where he taught until his death.
In 1883 Urspruch married Emmy Cranz, daughter of the music publisher August Cranz.
In addition to his teaching, he produced a wide variety of compositions from piano solo, solo voice, choir, chamber music up to large orchestral works as well as two operas. Many of his works had successful performances in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig and Frankfurt.
In the last years of his life Urspruch was part of the revival of Gregorian Chant, having contact with the Beuron Archabbey and the cloister at Maria Laach Abbey.
In his lifetime Urspruch was highly recognised internationally as an advocate of the late romantic period. After his early death he was soon forgotten.

Works:

Der Sturm (opera), after William Shakespeare: The Tempest, Frankfurt, 1888
Das Unmöglichste von Allem, (comic opera), after Lope de Vega: El major imposibile, Karlsruhe, 1897
Symphony in E flat major, Op. 14
Piano Concerto
Piano Quintet
Piano Trio
Violin Sonata
Cello Sonata in D major, Op. 29
Sonata quasi fantasia, for piano 4 hands
German Dances for two pianos

Recordings:

Few of Urspruch's works are commercially available. Some of his songs have been released by the German label MDG (opp. 6, 8, 23 & 25), whilst the E flat major Symphony and the Piano Concerto have been recorded (but are awaiting publication by the label cpo).

[Alan Howe]

Both the Symphony and the Piano Concerto are large-scale, attractive works. The Symphony is a personal favourite of mine, its idiom somewhere between Brahms (think 2nd Symphony) and Smetana (Ma Vlast) or Dvorak (6th Symphony). At 50 minutes it does have its longueurs, but it's a lovely listen with memorable themes and orchestration.

[Lionel Harrsion]

somewhere between Brahms (think 2nd Symphony) and Smetana (Ma Vlast) or Dvorak (6th Symphony)

Now that IS something to look forward to!   

[Lionel Harrsion]

Mark, I just listened to the Piano Concerto, for which many thanks.  If that's typical of what one can expect from Urspruch, I can hardly wait to hear more of his works.  It's nothing short of magnificent!

[JimL]

The PC is another work whose finale owes its structural inspiration to Beethoven's 3rd PC, major key aside.

[Jonathan]

There is also the double CD played by Ana-Marija Markovina on the Genuin label which contains Opp.19, 20 and 2.  It is an excellent disc and I thought of his piano music as sounding like "Schumann on steroids"