Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen

[FBerwald]

Other than the Sterling recording of his Symphony No. 5 there seems to be nothing much else. Even the wiki article is scant. It talks about 10 Symphonies and a Piano Concerto. Can anyone share some info on this forgotten composer? What else did he write?

[M. Henriksen]

An interesting article by Chris Walton for The Musical Times (vol. 147, pp. 25-38) could be worth reading. Unfortunately I have only access to a preview of it, but it seems that most of Schulz-Beuthen's compositions (they were kept by his sister) were lost during the bombings of Dresden in 1945. The list of works lost in the fire is not a pleasant reading:

6 Operas
15 Symphonic poems and overtures
8 of his 10 symphonies
Several works for choir and orchestra
Songs, piano pieces and chamber works

The complete article can be read for free online here (if you register..) I guess it can give you more details about his music.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25434381?uid=3738744&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102119556941


Morten

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Having read that Schulz-Beuthen rubbed shoulders in student days in Leipzig with Moscheles and Reinecke I thought him a potentially interesting composer. In fact a quick look at overviews of his biography on Wiki and elsewhere indicated this is someone to investigate. Quite a few 'names' popped up in these preliminary investigations.

However a large proportion of his compositions were destroyed in the Dresden firebombing, and thus sadly there is not much left to investigate. Presumably many works weren't actually published which would have increased the chance of their having survived the horrors of those years? The thought can't be resisted, although it may well be monstrously unfair: if they weren't published in his lifetime, then are they in fact any good?

However I suppressed such niggling thoughts, and a couple of years ago purchased the Sterling disc of the Reformation Symphony. Dreadful confession: having listened to it, it went back on the shelf and I think has gathered dust since. One problem of course is that in the case of a totally unfamiliar composer it is often difficult to make headway with a single work because you're not familiar with her or his musical language.

So I guess things will remain thus until I ascend heavenwards (grim thought: think of the sheer boredom consequent upon having no wants to pursue and having to listen for an eternity to the sound of harps) or descend to more fiery places below. Unless someone unearths a host of compositions buried in a steel trunk in a Dresden cellar, and who knows? (There have been two cases in the last year or so of long lost compositions being discovered in trunks under garden sheds or in cellars where they had been placed in Nazi years!)

There are two Guild CDs of piano music recorded by Kirsten Johnson, but I don't know them.

As Morten indicates Schulz-Beuthen was a prolific composer. He suffered breakdowns towards the end of his life, and died in an asylum. Coupled with the fact that most of his compositions are no more, what an awfully sad, tragic life.

[Alan Howe]

Can't say I've ever heard anything of any real interest by him. Still, it would have been nice to judge for oneself...

[eschiss1]

And at IMSLP all we have so far is some waltzes for piano duet... so far, anyway.  I should put up some wish-requests for the other stuff, as I'm intrigued to find out for myself one way-the other...

[Mark Thomas]

It's years since I've listened to Sterling's CD of his orchestral music (which says something in itself) but my strong memory is of works which were undistinguished in content and amateurish in execution.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Of his orchestral works the British Library has full scores of Die Toteninsel (recorded by Sterling) and the Kinder Sinfionie, Op. 11.
Also a microfilm of the Partitur of  this interesting sounding piece: Befreiungs-Gesang der Verbannten Israels. : Nach Worten des 126sten Psalms für gemischten oder Männer-Chor, Soli, Orchester und Clavier componirt.

[Gareth Vaughan]

undistinguished in content and amateurish in execution.

Yes - rather disappointing. Except for Die Toteninsel which I thought really had something. I must say, I haven't listened to the disk for a long time. Time to give it an airing perhaps.

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

Add me to the list of those who own the Sterling recording.  (I bought it used last month, actually - part of a raft of Romantic stuff someone appears to have unloaded on a nice little used CD store near here.)

I rather liked it, actually.  It's not the greatest of the great, but I found it quite pleasant, if undistinguished, listening.  Can't say that I remember a note of it, but I know I liked it.  Take that for what you will.

[Jonathan]

There are a few of his piano works on CD - on the Guild Label, played by Kirsten Johnson.  These are excellently played and recorded and the music is really interesting.  I did download an article about him ages ago which I still have - pm me if you would like a copy (it might be the same as the jstor one mentioned earlier...)

Here are the CDs:

http://www.mdt.co.uk/goetz-hermann-lose-blatter-op-alhambra-sonata-kirsten-johnson-guild.html

and

http://www.mdt.co.uk/schulz-beuthen-heinrich-piano-works-opp-23-28-kirsten-johnson-guild.html

Hope this helps!

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Jonathan.

[Mark Thomas]

I have both these CDs and listened to them recently. I'm afraid that I'm just as negative about his piano music as I am his orchestral. Of course, in piano music Schulz-Beuthen can (and does) get away more easily with the merely pretty, and some of the pieces on these CDs are quite fetching salon music, but I don't think that there is any substance to any of it. A shame, and only my opinion of course, but I do think the Schulz-Beuthen was no more than a minor talent.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, we shall probably never arrive at a just assessment of his worth as a composer because so much of his music is lost forever, but what we have does suggest that he was not a forgotten master!

[eschiss1]

I have this vague memory that he also did good editing work, but maybe I'm thinking of his well-known arrangements/fantasies, arrangements in a broader sense, and getting that confused instead. Have to look into that... Non-master but I want to give as much credit as is due, I guess.

[Mark Thomas]

we shall probably never arrive at a just assessment of his worth as a composer because so much of his music is lost forever

Very true, Gareth, and I do agree. Unfortunately he hasn't been well served by his surviving music that we can hear.