Adolf Reichel

[Wheesht]

I am really happy to see that there is so much interest in Reichel here at UC and I do hope that some of that momentum can be carried beyond this forum and that perhaps, with some careful planning ahead, someone involved in music in Bern could be persuaded to 'do something' on the occasion of the composer's 200th birthday in 2016...

[Florestano]

Wheesht: Thank you very much for starting the discussion, for coming forward again and for your excellent tips !
Yes, we are going to contact the Berne Orchestra about the Reichel anniversary. I even happen to know their principal conductor, he recorded a disc with me, way back ... well, we'll do all we can !
JimL and Aramiarz: As I wrote earlier, the problem with the piano concerto is that the solo part is fragmentary and that the work can therefore not be performed - not yet, at least.

[Florestano]

Dear Adolf Reichel community,

for those of you who are curious to get an idea of Adolf Reichel's other finished symphony, no. 1 in D minor, I posted a MIDI recording in Dropbox.

MIDI, in this case, means that the sound is computer generated by the notation programme used for the score (Finale in this case). Sounds horrible of course, but better than nothing. Fortunately all of you have sampled and saved nice orchestral sounds in your heads.

The curious thing is that symphonies 1 and 2 have exactly the same duration - 37' or half a CD each - as if the composer had foreseen things to come.

Reichel 1 is even more beethovenian than no. 2. The unabashed quote of Beethoven 7 at the outset of the last movement is worth a smile. Almost a gag. Like Beethoven, Reichel likes simple themes, such as the initial nine-note-motive of the 1st movement, that allow him to show off his skills in developing banal material.

It's music written by a good teacher of composition, and a conservative one, showing his virtuosic craftmanship to advantage, but not in an merely academic way. I find the piece quite charming and romantic.
   
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mi6ecx7p1c4p9me/AAAUSE-U5n8uCuBPoaOFwqZOa?n=110958608

Enjoy.

Florestano

[Aramiarz]

Thank you!! It's heavy and hard the work for transference to the sw!! I use "Sibelius" for piano scores.it's better that we have the sound in this source comparate with nothing!!

[eschiss1]

Tangentially: a thread about (computer) typesetting (generally, not just as regards sound and MIDIs) might not be a bad idea ...

[Florestano]

Good news: Sinnaj just informed me that Reichel 2 is on back YouTube:

]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d80zIb5KIow]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d80zIb5KIow]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d80zIb5KIow

Touch wood !

[Florestano]

  Sorry, folks, and thanks, eschiss1. The YouTube link was triplicated. I HAD previewed it but must have been shaky when pushing the "post" button  . Here it is again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d80zIb5KIow

Enjoy.

[musiclover]

Hello Florestano, if I may suggest, it may be worth getting in touch with the conductor Martin Yates in London. Not only does he seem to have the ear of the record label Dutton Epoch, with whom he has recorded some 40 CDs during the past 6 years or so, but he does seem genuinely interested in unsung composers. He has also recently released his own completion of the Mendelssohn E Major Piano concerto which is absolutely superb. A conversation with him would not be a bad idea in my opinion. I don't have contact details but they can't be difficult to find through his management.

[christopherjhoh]

I am preparing a performing edition of Reichel's set, Six Four-Part Songs if anyone is interested.  My source is the IMSLP reprint from the Berlin (formerly Royal) Library.  They will be coupled with my own translations into English and settings for 4-part chorus. 

[Florestano]

Dear christopherjhoh,
of course we are interested and find it extremely exciting that there's somebody in Virginia working on Adolf Reichel and even going to the trouble of translating the lyrics of his works !
I'll get check our archive of mss. for "your" piece and get back to you ASAP !
Thank you for joining the Reichel community which is extending from Greece to Puerto Rico by now ! Not bad.
With kind regards
Florestano

[Alan Howe]

Hi Florestano,

I was just wondering whether you have any more information us as to performances or recordings of Reichel's music?

[Alan Howe]

For those who can read German, here's an appreciative article, containing an analysis of Symphony No.2:
https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/musik/der-schweizer-komponist-adolf-reichel-der-klassizist-und-der-revolutionaer-ld.125138

[Florestano]

Dear Alan,
thank you very much for posting the link to the article I wrote for the NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) to commemorate Adolf Reichel's 200th birthday. It is one of three similar articles I penned on that occasion.
A more detailed one, focussing more on Reichel's amazing lifelong friendship with the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin appeared in the Swiss review "Dissonance":
https://www.dissonance.ch/upload/pdf/136_19_hb_mso_reichel.pdf
A little breakthrough is that, on the basis of these articles, an author (unknown to me) wrote a German Wikipedia article on Reichel (I hope we'll soon find time to complete it):
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Reichel
Last but definitely not least, Sinnaj (who is working on a doctoral thesis about Reichel as you know) published a wonderful, fascinating book in Greek on Bakunin's relationship to music, with emphasis on Reichel, of course:
https://www.politeianet.gr/books/mallouchos-giannis-eleutheriaki-koultoura-to-tragoudi-ton-okeanidon-265457
Sinnaj is currently preparing a German version of this work.
What else? Adolf Reichel's manuscripts are now preserved in the library of the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, Switzerland, and being inventoried for the RISM.
An additional pile of Reichel works was found in the archives of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hannover and donated to the Bern Hochschule.
My wife Regina is preparing printable versions of several works, including one of Reichel's magna opera, the Piano Quintet Op.30 of 1864, dedicated to his student Duke George II. of Sachsen-Meiningen, a weighty and brilliant work, apt to belie the common opinion that Reichel disliked Brahms.
A concert with live broadcast planned by the Bern Hochschule in cooperation with the Swiss Radio had to be cancelled for illness but one of the artists involved, the young French 'cellist Mathieu Gutbub, and pianist Jean-Jacques Dünki will at least perform one of Reichel's 'cello sonatas at the Wildt'sches Haus in Basle, Switzerland, on Sunday, September 10 at 11 a.m..
The undersigned is working on articles on the erratic life of Reichel's son Max, a.k.a. Henri Ern, while Regina is copying Ern's virtuoso pieces for solo violin that we found in Puerto Rico, and has performed one of them so far.
In short, things are progressing, not as speedily as we'd hoped, but pretty steadily.
Thank all you for your continued interest in A.R. and please excuse me for my lengthy silence, due to the vicissitudes of life.
With best wishes to all,
Florestano

[Alan Howe]

Thank you very much indeed for that full update. Please do let us know if and when any further performances/recordings of Reichel's music are planned.

I would personally very interested in the score of the Piano Quintet, Op.30...

[eschiss1]

The quintet in A minor for piano and strings by Adolf Reichel was performed in 1865 and a note ("Hierauf folgte eine Novität: Quintett (Amoll) für Pianoforte, 2 Violinen, Viola, und Violoncell von Adolf Reichel" in correspondence from Dresden in p.93 of the 10 March 1865 issue of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (reporting on the Tonkunstlerverein concert, 18 February 1865, Hotel d. Saxe.) No idea offhand if it's been published (haven't yet checked that wiki, maybe it survives in manuscript, though where?) Ah, I see. Florestan above notes that an edition of the piano quintet (I assume the A minor, but anyway his Op.30 which may be the same work?) is in prep. Thanks!

(Not to be confused with the (piano and winds) quintet in E-flat of 1897 by Alexander Reichel or the string quintet Op.29 (published 1937) by Anton Reichel (@ÖNB) though I can see how one could make that confusion. The former work is in a (piano and winds) group's current repertoire and the latter as noted is @ÖNB library, and my curiosity is mildly piqued even though I know nothing about those two composers ... yet.) (Alexander Reichel wrote a piano and winds quintet and two woodwind quintets, in E-flat, E-flat and D respectively.)