Franz Lachner

[Alan Howe]

I am in the process of a fairly major change of mind with regard to the quality of the music of Franz Lachner. What has spurred me on to explore him further is the 5th Symphony (on Marco Polo). This is a giant symphony (around an hour) which takes its time in a Schubertian manner and which clearly stands in line of descent from Schubert 9 and points forward to Bruckner (and Rufinatscha). I am also mightily impressed by the String Quartets available on the Amati label.

I know that John White has always been keen to promote Lachner (and his brothers): now I can confirm that I am a fully paid-up member of the fan club!

If only the other symphonies (apart from 1, 5 and 8 which Marco Polo have done) had been recorded. John: I believe you have a high opinion of No.6 - can you give us any hints as to its character at all?

[John H White]

Congratulations, Alan, on your new found championship of Franz Lachner!
I cannot say anything about his 6th Symphony, which I have neither seen nor heard, except that a young music critic by the name of Robert Schumann, who was later to also make a name for himself in the symphonic field, reckoned it to be twice as good as No 5! Sometime in the near future I shall need to get in touch with Gareth for further advise on how to acquire a copy of the score from the British Library.
  As regards to No 5, I would say that, in the outer movements at least, it is more indebted to Beethoven than to Schubert. By the way my favourite Franz Lachner quartet is the Op. 76 in A, which sounds just like a late work by his good friend , Schubert. If you haven't already acquired them, the quartets by his kid brother Ignaz are well worth hearing.They are however, more conservative in style being influenced both by Schubert and Haydn.
   The author of the liner notes, Dr Harald Mann, has also written a book in German about Franz Lachner and his family. If you go to the Rain an Lech web site you may be able to order a copy. Maybe you could negotiate with Dr Mann to produce an English translation!

[Alan Howe]

Thank you, John. Very helpful as always.

[Gareth Vaughan]

You may care to know that Chris Fifield is currently studying the symphonies of Lachner and intends programming No. 8 in a concert later this year with his Lambeth Orchestra: http://www.lambeth-orchestra.org.uk/

[John H White]

That's splendid news Gareth! I shall have to see if I can make my way to Lambeth to hear what may well be its British premiere.

[Alan Howe]

Me too, John! We should try to meet up...

[John H White]

Gareth, I went to the Lambeth Orchestra's web site last night and was very impressed by the list of lesser known works performed by them over the past 30 years. However, I could find absolutely no reference to Lachner in any forthcoming concert. Anyway, many thanks for putting us in touch with such an enterprising orchestra. By the way, am I correct in believing that their conductor was once on our old forum?

[Alan Howe]

John: Lachner 8 is planned for 2010 - the date has yet to be confirmed.

[JimL]

And yes, Chris Fifield was a contributor to the Raff Forum until about 18 months ago.  Wish he'd come back.  Maybe I'll email him by your leave.

[Alan Howe]

Chris is very busy at present; in addition several of us are in touch with him anyway, so there's no need to e-mail him with regard to the forum.

[JimL]

OK!   As long as he knows where we are...

[Peter1953]

Yesterday my copy of the Lachner 5 arrived, and I have listened to this more than one hour lasting symphony twice. Released by Marco Polo (1993), a label which acts like the successor of the VOX/Turnabout from the 1970s in their tradition of releasing unsung work.

Of course this symphony, written in 1835, is a fine piece of music. But almost anything written between 1820-1900 sounds fine to me, although there are big differences, also between our unsung composers.
Although pleasant to hear, this symphony is in fact too long-winded for me. Themes or successive notes are repeated quite often, but in another gamut, particularly in the 3rd movement (Do-Re-Mi > Re-Mi-Fa > Mi-Fa-So, and so on. I hope you understand what I mean, because, as I've said before, I'm not a musician). The 2nd movement weaves its way gently forward with music of considerable leisurely charm, as Keith Anderson puts it in his booklet notes, and I fully agree on that.
I think this is an example of music which needs "to sink in", as Alan strikingly puts it in his interesting reply #1 (topic: Justified or Unjustified Unsung). And this symphony certainly deserves to be heard more times in order to fully appreciate it. I wonder how Lachner's 6th sounds, which is according to Schumann twice as good.

Remarkable is the price some sellers ask for this CD. I have bought it at Amazon.fr for EUR 7.99 but I also found it offered for EUR 94.41, Amazon.co.uk offers the disc for £70.01 and in the US for $69.99. Most peculiar.

Time to order Lachner's 8 while listening to his 5 for the 3rd time!

_____________

If you like listening to singing-birds, you might know the difference between the song of the (European) Blackbird and of the (European) Song Thrush. What a coincidence. While listening again to Lachner's 5th I also heard a Song Thrush singing in my garden. Then I thought there is a certain resemblance.
Lachner's 5th is like the Song Thrush: this thrush repeats every tune a few times before continuing his song... Schubert's 9th is like the Blackbird. 

[John H White]

I think you are right about needing to play certain works through several times to get them to grow on you Peter. However, when this CD first came out back in the 90s, I took to it straight away and it went straight up to No 1 in my charts. I had previously only heard Lachner's No 1 which was coupled on a Marco Polo disc with the first ever CD of Spohr's No 2. At the time, I regarded the Lachner 1 as rather a run of the mill symphony for the period just as I regarded Schuberts first 3 symphonies, the only special thing about it being the fugal nature of the scherzo.
I was really taken aback by massive nature of  No 5 and decided there and then that I had found the missing link between Beethoven/Schubert and Bruckner/Brahms! You say its too long and repetitive but then I thought that way about Schubert's Great C Major when I first heard it!
I think my favourite movements are the opening one, which I find most majestic.
(Look out especially for that passage in the coda where he quotes from Bach and Beethoven successively in the course of a few seconds.) and the huge plodding canonic minuet with its trio that reminds me of a typical melancholic Victorian drawing room song.

[Alexander_Glazraffstein]

Dear all,

I have the Lachner 8 + Ball Suite.
I confess taht I like the Symphony in spite of It would be considered an attempt to follow the Schubert way of music after the Schubert´s die. That is, a way to nowhere or cul de sac.
Would be possible that I detected some of Bruckner´s music in the Symphony?
Regarding the Ball Suite, It is funny music for a joggig time or car trip playing.
Greetings,


Fernando.

[Alan Howe]

I would say that Schubert was clearly only just beginning to find his 'symphonic feet' when he died. Lachner was a close friend of Schubert and must have sensed where the latter was going with the symphony. There is absolutely no doubt that Lachner was following along Schubert's path in attempting to develop an epic-scale symphonic form - one which was later taken up by Rufinatscha and, eventually, Bruckner. It was definitely not a symphonic dead-end...