Hungarian Romantics besides Liszt and von Dohnanyi

[Gareth Vaughan]

In regard to the D minor symphony and Serenade on CD, surely you must be referring to Beliczay, not Major?

That would explain why I was unaware of them. Since I originally posted I have been looking for references to these compositions supposedly by Major - without success. All is now explained.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Like Eric, I'd like to hear more by Ottokar Novacek, especially that PC written for Busoni.

[eschiss1]

Major and Beliczay did, however, both write serenades (Major's serenade for strings, his Op.24 in G from about 1895, won a prize offered by the Clausenburger Conservatory. Worldcat lists a couple of copies, too (Free Library of Philadelphia; British Library, St. Pancras). So that work- the Gyula Major serenade- is not a chimera, anyway... - and while he may not have written a symphony in D minor (don't know- I don't know the keys of four of his six symphonies), he did write one in D major (no.5, op.79, biggish piece for soprano, baritone and orchestra after a text by Stangen... )

(No recordings, though. Hrm.)

[LateRomantic75]

As Alan made clear, Beliczay's Symphony in D minor and Serenade for Strings were recorded by Panton, not Hungaroton as I had mistakenly said.

[Alan Howe]

NO! Not Panton - PANNON CLASSIC. (I have the Beliczay CD in question - Symphony in D minor & String Serenade.)

[eschiss1]

I think Panton specializes rather more in Czech music, so that makes sense

[LateRomantic75]

Oh dear!

[eschiss1]

Anycase, hoping to accidentally or otherwise hear the disc, of course. I hope Radio Bartók is still streaming, will have to check...
Oddly, Major's argument with Wellesz in 1912 was about the apparent paucity of Hungarian music and Hungarian composers (though the examples Major used as counterexamples were, I think, at least mostly ones already known to the initiator of this thread, but still, ... )

[arpeggio]

The flautist and composer Franz Doppler, who made orchestral versions of several of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, and also wrote a number of operas. Borderline, but perhaps (seeing as he was so influential on Liszt) it is worth mentioning the gypsy violinist Janos Bihari.

[eschiss1]

If anyone knows of some good dissertations or books (the more thorough and researched, the better, though of course other considerations enter too- still, this would be a book unlikely to have a wide market and most likely to be from the university presses) on the "serious" composers from Hungary who concentrated on  (? well... or attempted) instrumental and vocal music in the "larger forms" (at least occasionally- that is, not solely waltzes etc., much as I find myself enjoying those too of late!) between Liszt and Bartók (I've found one so far, as mentioned abuf..., which contains, from Google preview, some mentions of the composers we're talking about here; I'll see if Cornell's library has it in which case I'll head up there sometime and give it a good afternoon read when I have a block of time - and take some notes, too; likewise if there are some journal articles on the same subject...)- then I'd appreciate learning about them! (Not claiming that no one else should, or that I'll do so verysoonnow, just planning to do so and asking if anyone has any info- will of course look for names of books, articles, etc. myself too.)

[LateRomantic75]

There's also Károly Aggházy (1855-1918), who composed numerous operas in the Wagnerian style, a symphony, a string quartet, and works for piano solo: http://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Károly_Aggházy

[TerraEpon]

The flautist and composer Franz Doppler, who made orchestral versions of several of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies, and also wrote a number of operas. Borderline, but perhaps (seeing as he was so influential on Liszt) it is worth mentioning the gypsy violinist Janos Bihari.

FWIW,  there's some debate on just how much Doppler actually did and how much Liszt did (similar to the Raff situation...)
More importantly though he wrote a number of flute pieces, many of them collaborations with his brother Karl.

Acording to Wikipeida however he was Polish, though born in Lviv which now in Ukraine,,,,yet for Karl it just says "Hungairan". Huh.

[arpeggio]

Indeed, re nationality I had assumed he was Hungarian from his Budapest connections, but I am none the wiser after reading the Wikipedia pages; considerably more confused perhaps. Of course birthplace isn't always an indicator - ironically Liszt's birthplace is now in Austria and I believe he didn't speak Hungarian!

[minacciosa]

Jeno Hubay wrote a Viola Concerto? Really? I'd love to see it. Anyone have a score or recording?

[eschiss1]

Hubay Morçeau de concert, Op.20 (Viola concerto) (possibly only composed with piano accompaniment???), described at the Hubay Foundation page so:

"Morceau de concert. Violaconcert (1: D. Popper transcribed to Cello),
1-2: 1884, 3: 1888; 1: Hain[a]uer (that is, published by Hainauer of Breslau), 2-3: Ms."