Reinhold Becker (1842-1924)

[Alan Howe]

...not to be confused with Albert Becker (no relation), Reinhold Becker (1842-1924) has been mentioned a few times on this forum, usually in connection with his 1st Violin Concerto which was so highly praised by Toskey in his magisterial reference work on violin and viola concertos. I believe, therefore, that it is time for further investigation of this interesting figure.

It is evident that Becker was first and foremost a composer of songs and choral music; however, he also wrote the following:

Violin Concerto No.1 in A minor, Op.4
Violin Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op.100
Symphonic Poem Prince Friedrich von Homburg, Op.16b
Symphony No.1 in C major, Op.140
Symphony No. 2 in D minor, Op.175
Opera: Frauenlob, Op.75
Opera: Ratbold, Op.88
String Quartet in A minor, Op.170
Violin Sonata in G minor, Op.150

...which tells us that most of his major non-vocal compositions were the product of his maturity.

I am currently reading a monograph on Reinhold Becker published in Dresden in 1932. He was born in Adorf in the Vogtland region of south-west Saxony near the border with the modern-day Czech Republic and became an exceptional and successful violinist in Dresden during his teenage years. Despite receiving instruction from one Julius Otto, an opponent of Wagner, Becker was greatly taken with Wagner's music. The turning-point in his life seems to have been his meeting with Louis Eller, a violinist who led a string quartet based in Pau in the south of France. Becker duly followed Eller to Pau where he stayed until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 (Eller had died in 1863). He became well known in Pau as the leader of Eller's quartet, as a soloist and also as a conductor until he suffered an injury to the muscles in his left hand brought about by excessive violin practice. Thus he returned to Dresden and devoted himself to composition (although his first songs had already appeared in 1867). One of these early songs, Frühlingszeit (Springtime), Op.3/3 is still performed today, e.g. the tenor Peter Schreier has recorded a it in a rather syrupy modern arrangement! In Dresden Becker established himself initially as a composer of songs and choral music and his compositions were performed by the leading artists of the day. Both his early 1st Violin Concerto (pub.1876) and his 2nd Violin Concerto (a four-movement work of symphonic scope  containing a 3rd-movement scherzo, pub.1900) were played to great acclaim. Of the former, Toskey writes:

Romantic style.
Time: 30'.
Grade: 7 (i.e. the general level of difficulty of the Brahms, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos).
This music is intensely dramatic and lyrical. It is melodically inspired and very original, not at all like the concertos of any other composer and is a brilliant romantic showpiece for the performer. The solo part is brilliantly violinistic, filled with original and highly effective combinations. Many varieties of doubles and arpeggios are used, but harmonics and pizzicatos are avoided.

Can anyone add anything? Eric - can you help, please? Or Martin (Eastick)? I'd particularly like to find the scores/parts of these major works.

[Alan Howe]

For those who can read German, there's more info - and some audio samples (second bullet point,  "anhören" - two samples - at end of page) - here:
http://www.adorf-vogtland.de/inhalte/adorf/_inhalt/freizeit_tourismus/musik/musiker/becker/r_becker

[Mark Thomas]

A fascinating prospect, Alan. The two songs linked to in the article betray a real melodic gift. As always, though, we need to track down the music. The Fleisher collection in Philadelphia has the score and parts for the First Violin Concerto, which it records as being in one movement btw, but I can't straight away find a library with a copy of No.2. Maybe if they are as good as Toskey makes them out to be then they'd be a suitably mouth-watering idea for Hyperion's RVC series or for Chandos?

[eschiss1]

Bavarian Library has his symphony no.1 op.140, but just the violin/piano reduction of the 2nd violin concerto, it seems (edited by Marteau). Will take a quick look now and more later (LoC has the first symphony and the violin sonata op.150, but it seems not the violin concerto no.2 either, alas.)

According to J. Schuberth's own 1906 catalog, it's in E major (and dedicated to Johann Lauterbach. Hrm. Familiar name in association with Reger, I think...?) Published in 1901, I believe. Still, I don't know where a copy of full score or parts of the concerto are to be found; hopefully somewhere...

[Alan Howe]

It's very good of you to have taken the trouble, Eric. Thanks! I'll investigate further.

[eschiss1]

I assume the 1932 book you mention is Kreiser's Reinhold Beckers Leben, seine Werke, Verzeichnis der Werke. There's also an earlier (1924) Sämtliche Werke von Reinhold Becker by Friedrich Adolf Geißler; RISM mentions both in their cataloging (they often reference worklist-books) - don't know if the earlier book is entirely subsumed by the later

[Alan Howe]

Interesting. Yes, I have the first book you mention. It contains an extensive works-list arranged in categories by opus number, but probably not in the detail of the second book you mention (which seems to have 36 pages). Annoyingly, it gives very few dates.

[eschiss1]

BTW the movements of the 2nd concerto are -
I. Mäßig bewegt; II. Legende; III. Scherzo; IV. Finale
- can't help you as to the Scherzo and Finale yet -
this from Violinconcerto.de where I should have looked first, of course.

(Though of course 1901 is date of _publication_, date of composition being unknown - so far as I know. Never trust a database with rigid fields. Case in point: Sibley Library (urresearch.rochester.edu) where "sometime in the 1910s" comes out as 1910, the "?" not being allowed by their database, I think...)

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Eric. I'd forgotten that the starting-point of that resource is the mid-1890s.

[violinconcerto]

BTW the movements of the 2nd concerto are -
I. Mäßig bewegt; II. Legende; III. Scherzo; IV. Finale
- can't help you as to the Scherzo and Finale yet -
this from Violinconcerto.de where I should have looked first, of course.

Great to hear and thanks!
I can say that I was in personal touch with the head of the Adorf museum (someone mentioned a link before) and received several information. The fact of four movements and the titles come from a longer part from the Becker book (that was also mentioned here before) and the year of composition was the suggestion of the contact at the museum (which was - to be more correct - "written in 1900 or 1901", which I turned into the later year)

Best,
Tobias

[Alan Howe]

Hi Tobias,
Do you think that your contact at the Adorf museum would know the location of the score of the 2nd Violin Concerto - or, indeed, anything more about Becker's scores in general?

[Alan Howe]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread as the descriptions of Becker's music are so tantalising. My question: can one request copies of scores in the Fleisher Collection in Philadelphia?

A great addition to the Hyperion RVC series would be Becker's VC1 coupled with Gernsheim's VC1. Thing is: how to get hold of the parts...

[FBerwald]

Still no clue about the 2nd concerto, eh?

[Mark Thomas]

Alan, there should be no problem getting the partitur and parts for the Becker and Gernsheim First Violin Concertos from the Fleisher Collection for a recording project. Provided the material is in sound enough condition, they freely lend out complete original sets to bona fide orchestras or concert/recording organisers and, certainly in the cases I've been associated with, charge only the cost of getting the package to its destination. I found them very eager to help. I doubt that they'll send out an original partitur to an individual, and whether they'll make you a copy of it I just don't know, but I don't think anything would be lost by simply emailing the curator at fleisher@freelibrary.org. I have been getting a lot of scores copied recently, and have found European libraries much more geared up for it than US ones. Some American libraries (mostly university institutions) have been hugely helpful, often not charging, others (like the Library of Congress) have a very slick scanning operation, but some have been most uncooperative and one downright obstructive. Personally, if Fleisher wont play ball, as it would be easier, I'd do a trawl for major European libraries which hold copies of the partiturs and order copies from them. I'll happily help with that, of course.

[Mark Thomas]

... for instance, the Staatsbibliothek Berlin has very large collections of both Becker's and Gernsheim's published scores. It has partiturs for both the Gernsheim concertos, his Fantasy for violin and orchestra and Becker's 1st. concerto. It also has the violin & piano reduction of Becker's 2nd (as does the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich), but not the orchestral partitur. Was it published? Maybe Berlin, which has an enormous music manuscript collection too, has the autograph manuscript? Berlin is very good at copying material at reasonable cost and their music manuscript department has been extremely helpful to me in my own researches. Again, it never harms to ask. I can give you contacts if you want them.