Eduard Künneke (1885 - 1953) and his Piano Concerto

[Praetoria]

The German composer Künneke was known mainly for his Operettas and song music, and some of it is apparently still in some fashion, a great deal of it readily available to purchase.

His forgotten Piano Concerto (1935, Ab major) however is beyond words. It's energetic, flamboyant, romantic, and has great orchestration to compliment its memorable melodies and well-written piano part. Its second movement is also of note, one of the most beatiful and refreshing Concerto middle movements I've heard in a long time.

There's a CD recording made in 1997 with Tiny Wirtz as the soloist, a quite good performance.

I believe a great service to musicians would be made if this Concerto were made more available to study with future performances in mind. I don't have any connections or clue as to how one might go about locating an "unsung" orchestral score, or even find out where the manuscripts are located, and internet databases only get you so far. According to Worldcat, there are 2-piano versions (publ 1935) sitting & gathering dust in some two libraries at London and Netherlands. As far as I know this 1935 2-pno is the only available edition of the Concerto, sadly, no recent editions exist. And you can only get so far with a 2-piano version, you're going to need or want to study the orchestral score sooner than later, I think.

Anybody else know anything about this Concerto? Do recently published editions exist? Other recorded performances? Sheet music in their pocket? 

[semloh]

Hello, Praetoria, and thanks for that reminder about the Künneke concerto.

Yes, if you put Künneke into the search facility in the top RH corner of the page, you'll find that he and his music have featured in our discussions before, and several of his compositions are/were available in the download section. I agree about the appeal of the  concerto - guaranteed to lift one's mood. It would be a real treat to hear the 2-piano version. Sorry I can't answer any of the questions you posed, but I am sure others will respond. 

[eschiss1]

I think there's been a broadcast recording in addition to the Koch recording, with someone named Quelle as the pianist. Besides the Birnbach 2pf (which is also at Munich BVB), though, I don't know of a score- maybe the parts for the recordings were in manuscript...

[Wheesht]

That broadcast recording can be heard every now and then on German radio stations: Ernst August Quelle and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Willy Mattes. I was able to record it a few months ago. Quelle, who is a composer,  has an entry in German wikipedia. He worked for GEMA, the German performance rights organisation. It may be possible to contact him through them to find out what performance material he had available.

[Amphissa]

Interesting. I have two broadcast recordings featuring pianist Ernst August Quelle. One was with Radiophilharmonie Hannover des NDR conducted by Reto Perolari. The other was with Munich Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by H. Gesse.

Has Quelle performed this concerto often? If so, I wonder why he has not made a commercial recording.

Actually, I'm rather surprised that there is not a broadcast recording in our downloads archive, especially since the Koch CD is out of print and listed at *hundreds* of dollars on Amazon. Did I overlook it in the archives?

[eschiss1]

interesting. There is a download, but it's in the wrong section - or maybe it predated the creation of the download section and wasn't moved there? Anyhow, it probably should be moved there (if it's legitimate.) It's from a 2010-ish thread on this board.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Eric. The recording of the Künneke Piano Concerto still seems to be downloadable, and it's here:

www.rapidshare.com/files/294183474/K__nneke.zip

[Wheesht]

It turns out I was too hasty when checking German broadcasts. The recording by Quelle that I have and which was most recently played on Bavarian radion on 17th May was with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Heinz Geese, not Willy Mattes. That still makes at least two broadcast recordings by Quelle.

[jdoggtn]

Love the Kunneke Piano Concerto, whose Tango middle movement sounds strangely reminiscent of Andrew Lloyd Webber, of all things! Also worth checking out is his Tanzerische Suite for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra from 1929. Peculiarly, there is a recording of this in Germany from 1935, which would have been during Hitler's reign. I cannot imagine the Nazis allowing a performance of a work incorporating jazz, but they apparently did.

[Ilja]

The nazis attempted to replace the influence of American, 'negroid' and 'degenerate' jazz with their own, sanitized version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_in_Germany#Years_of_National_Socialism.2C_the_1930s_and_the_missing_1940s.

[BerlinExpat]

If anyone is interested I have Eduard Künnecke's music to Ernst Lubitsch's 1922 silent film Das Weib des Pharao. It was recorded by Frank Strobel and the WDR-Rundfunkorchester to accompany the restoration of the film. It's divided into six acts and totals 97 minutes.

In the autumn another silent film Das Blumen Wunder with music by Künnecke is due to be released. The music has been recorded by Christian Gayedand the Norddeutschen Sinfonietta.

[jerfilm]

I believe I have that film on DVD but I don't know if the music track is the original.  Not at home to check that out,unfortunately.  But would love to hear the score.

Jerry

[navy.p@voila.fr]

two other K in the same vein with such a concerto Under their belt :
Kalman (1882-1953) and Kattnigg (1895-1955) both wiritten in the same period...
Maybe the neutral form of romantic concerto was better tolerated than theater/cabaret à la Weill/Brecht...
and Nico Dostal leading the Berlin PO in 1979 recorded his own Blues-Fantasie for piano & orchestra (on CPO 999 811-2)
theKünneke's  dance suite (Berlin PO Under the composer,Telefunken1938) is available on Magdalena METCD8005
Only Kattnigg had been member of the nazi parti...
Allo ,Hypérion,why not a forthcoming coupling of Künneke &Kalman i this fabulous series of romanticpiano concertos ?

[adriano]

@jerfilm: yes, that deluxe DVD edition of DAS WEIB DES PHARAOS contains a reconstructed and newly adapted version of Künneke's original score.

[Jonathan]

Interestingly, the York recorded music society are having a talk about Kunneke in November.