Rufinatscha piano music from Innsbruck

[Alan Howe]

Posted elsewhere by a.b. and transferred here:
Alan Howe

By the way:  A new 3-CD-Box of Piano Works by Johann Rufinatscha is out now:

http://www.tiroler-landesmuseum.at/shop.php/de/cds_alle_/musikmuseum_13

Marlies Nussbaumer was playing a Steinway D-Piano:
CD 1: Fantaisie du printem[p]s (Ms. 1854), Andante (Ms. 1892), Rondo capriccioso, op. 6 Allegro agitato, 6 Charakterstücke op. 14, Fantasie op. 15, 3 Märsche op. 4
CD 2: Sonate op. 18 d-Moll, Sonate op. 7 C-Dur
CD 3: Sonate op. 3 f-Moll, Sonate op. 9 F-Dur

[Alan Howe]

Yours truly translated the sleevenote. It's a most exciting project.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Heavens! That "by the way" employed by a.b. is, I think, one of the most staggering understatements I've encountered for some time!

Is this 3-CD set newly issued, or am I a real dumbo in not previously being aware of it?

Would that rather modest author of the "sleevenote" be kind enough to tell us more? (And I'd guess "sleevenote" is yet another understatement!)

[Alan Howe]

It's an entirely new set of recordings, Peter, so you hadn't missed anything! Unfortunately I can't tell you much about the set as I haven't heard it (yet), but I hope to be able to remedy that soon...

[Mark Thomas]

This set is an absolute must-buy, surely? As our resident Rufinatscha expert, Alan, do we know how much of his catalogue remains unrecorded? I appreciate that there are likely to be works, possibly major ones, which remain unknown and therefore uncatalogued; shades of Donald Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns etc.

[Alan Howe]

In a word: dunno! And I suspect nobody really knows...

[JimL]

Are these all solo sonatas?  Because there are only 2 on his works list in Wikipedia!

[Alan Howe]

Everything is for piano solo. You can't believe all you read on Wikipedia...
Seriously, though, this is a composer whose works are still being uncovered, so who knows what's still out there?

[Alan Howe]

Anyway, here's the current chronology relating to Rufinatscha's solo piano music:

Sonata in F minor, Op. 3       Vienna: A.O. Witzendorf                 HMb November 1847
3 Marches, Op. 4                   Vienna: Pietro Mechetti             HMb March & April 1849
Grand Caprice, Op. 5             Vienna: A.O. Witzendorf                         HMb April 1851
Rondo capriccioso, Op. 6       Vienna: Spina                                     HMb August 1852
Sonata (No. 2) in C major, Op. 7   
                                              Vienna: Pietro Mechetti sel. Witwe          HMb Mai 1855
Sonata in F minor, Op. 9        Vienna: A. O. Witzendorf               HMb November 1857
6 Charakterstücke, Op. 14    Vienna: J. P. Gotthard                             HMb April 1871
Fantasie in B major, Op. 15   Vienna: J. P. Gotthard                        HMb August 1871
Sonate in D minor, Op. 18     Vienna: Carl Haslinger                            HMb Juni 1880

(HMb = Hofmeister Monthly Review)

[eschiss1]

Op.9 is listed in HMB as being by "Jos." Rufinatscha, so I omitted it from the list on Wikipedia, as I recall. Is there evidence (not supposition or "gotta be", please?- we especially know how many 19th century composers there were...) that the work is actually by Johann Rufinatscha?

(Just as "Radecke, R." can be Robert Radecke- or his brother, Rudolf. Yes, I know too on the flipside how full and overfull of typos HMB and other magazines - and the sources they depend on, like the coverpages of the scores - are What evidence can mean in this context - is too general for this thread...
I'm quiet now.)

[Alan Howe]

I see the problem, Eric.
This is the relevant section of the sleevenote to the new set of CDs:

Then there was Carl Georg Lick[e]l (b.Vienna 1801 – d. ibid. 1877) who came from a musical family and to whom Rufinatscha dedicated his Sonata Op.9; Licke[e]l became extremely well known as a virtuoso on the physharmonica (a type of harmonium very popular in the 19th century), musical arranger and as the author of a teaching manual for his main intrument. The slow movement of the Sonata Op.9 and that of the Piano Quartet in A flat major are clearly related to each other – proof of the extent to which Rufinatscha's piano writing was influenced by string-playing. The famous Hellmesberger Quartet in particular, who performed several works by him, also had a lasting influence upon him.

[eschiss1]

I know of Lickl, actually, composer and son? (apparently so!) of another composer (Johann Georg Lickl) (his father's 3 string quartets got a -very- good notice in Fanfare, I think...) etc. etc. ... have seen a Physharmonika-Schule (Op50, Diabelli? ca.1834, appendix published later) of Lickl's @IMSLP, if I am not much mistaken. How very interesting historically too.

(I love this stuff for the history/trivia too . ... apologies though.) Thanks!!

[Martin Eastick]

I don't know whether or not this may help, but the one work that I have in my collection by Rufinatscha IS the Sonate Op9, in the first edition published by A.O.Witzendorf. It quite clearly states on the title "Sonate fur das Pianoforte von Johann Rufinatscha Opus 9"!

[eschiss1]

Helps a lot, thanks. HMB goofed

[Alan Howe]

Thanks to both Eric and Martin for your contributions here.