Hermann Zilcher (1881-1948)

[Gauk]

Just recently one of my YouTube feeds came up with a piano concerto in B minor (1906) by Hermann Zilcher, a name entirely unknown to me. It sounded like it might be worth hearing, so I listened and was quite impressed. It has an intriguiging understated opening, and a rhapsodic slow movement that segues into the finale. (I think the same recording is in the archive here).

So I thought I should find out more about Zilcher, and found one reason for his neglect: he was one of those composers who joined the Nazi party in the 1930s, apparently of conviction rather than necessity.

I have always found it interesting that while the music found suitable by the Stalinists is relatively well-known today, that favoured by the Hitlerites is the blackest of black holes. Reasons are not hard to find, but nonetheless, one could argue that association with Nazism does not automatically mean that the music is no good musically.

It is not entirely clear to me how Soviet social realist music fits within the scope of UC (it certainly doesn't have much dissonance), but there is no doubting that composers like Zilcher, Trapp, Frommel, Schillings etc fall clearly into the late-romantic bracket, however much the composers themselves may be tainted as individuals. It could be argued that a revulsion for "Nazi music" was one of the motivations for the rejection of romanticism after WW2 (see Adorno, for instance).

So Zilcher is not much recorded, and I doubt if we will ever hear what his five symphonies are like. But it is interesting to note that all or virtually all of the Zilcher discography is available on Spotify, for those who have subscriptions. I would draw attention in particular to his piano trio, which is unusually in two movements, the second of which is a set of variations on what UK listeners will recognise as the Welsh tune "Ar hyd y nos".

[Mark Thomas]

For my own part, association with the Nazis, the Soviets or any other political ideology is no bar to discussion of a composer's music here. It is an irrelevance. The music's the thing.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree entirely. There is a Hermann Zilcher website here: http://www.hermann-zilcher.de/home.htm. Only in German, I'm afraid, but useful nonetheless. (I like the PC very much, by the way.)

[eschiss1]

we used to have uploads of a few works by Zilcher btw (including his 2nd violin concerto, but the link no longer goes anywhere) and an earlier discussion of his music here.

[Music33]

we used to have uploads of a few works by Zilcher btw (including his 2nd violin concerto, but the link no longer goes anywhere) and an earlier discussion of his music here.

I just re-uploaded the recording (see DOWNLOADS) :
Herman Zilcher (1881-1948) : Violin Concerto No. 2 in A major, op. 92 (1942)
Violinist : Michele Auclair
Rhineland Pfaz.Ph.
Conductor : Christopher Stepp

[Alan Howe]

Very kind, thanks!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Quite a lot of his orchestral music (scores & parts) is in Fleisher.

[Gauk]

For my own part, association with the Nazis, the Soviets or any other political ideology is no bar to discussion of a composer's music here. It is an irrelevance. The music's the thing.

I rather assumed that would be the case. I think it is the most sensible attitude.

I agree entirely. There is a Hermann Zilcher website here: http://www.hermann-zilcher.de/home.htm. Only in German, I'm afraid, but useful nonetheless. (I like the PC very much, by the way.)

Interesting! So there is a Zilcher Society in Germany. The web site has a link to a very ancient recording of the composer conducting the first movement of his 4th symphony. It also appears that the 5th symphony has been recorded on CD, but the CD seems not to be available any longer on the Tonkünstlerverband Bayern website.

we used to have uploads of a few works by Zilcher btw (including his 2nd violin concerto, but the link no longer goes anywhere) and an earlier discussion of his music here.

I just re-uploaded the recording (see DOWNLOADS) :
Herman Zilcher (1881-1948) : Violin Concerto No. 2 in A major, op. 92 (1942)
Violinist : Michele Auclair
Rhineland Pfaz.Ph.
Conductor : Christopher Stepp

Thanks for that!

[semloh]

Belated thanks for uploading this Violin Concerto. I find it most enjoyable, and I'm amazed that it sounds like it was composed at least 50 years earlier.

Although I agree unreservedly that the music is what counts, understanding the social/political context in which composers compose is, for me at least, very important. Once I became aware of Shostakovich's situation, for example, and understood how his music often embodied covert resistance to Stalinism, it opened up a whole new understanding and appreciation (and, how can one divorce the Nazi invasion of the USSR from the 7th Symphony? It's integral to its appreciation). The same applies to other Soviet era composers. Indeed, I would go further, and suggest that listeners owe it to composers to try and understand the forces acting upon them and shaping their creative life, especially when those forces are of an extreme or unusual nature.

Whether or not one agrees with my view, we would still agree that it is the music that counts.

[Mark Thomas]

No, I don't disagree with your point at all, Colin. My warning was just against condemning a composer's music simply because of his political sympathies.

[Claude Torres]

I don't agree with your separation between composer's music and his political context.
Do you enjoy listening to some music if you know that the compposer agreed (or more helped) people killing.
It's an offense to the victims, and a deny of music history

The problem is of personal ethics and one can be of another opinion.

Claude

[Mark Thomas]

Fine, I respect your view, but I just don't agree with it, that's all. And it's not the policy of this site.

[Alan Howe]

We've been down this route before and it got us nowhere. As Mark has said, the site has no stance on the matter except to focus on the music, so let's do precisely that.

[eschiss1]

It also makes it a good thing that we don't cover Renaissance music! Would make it a difficult thing to talk about Gesualdo's music (e.g.) without heat.

[semloh]

All that brings me to a question about Zilcher's Violin Concerto No.2 - which I ask simply out of curiosity! 

Was its old-fashioned style not so much a characteristic of Zilcher as a composer, but more a reflection of what he believed would be safest in the context of 1942 Germany and the Nazi regime's oversight of cultural production? It couldn't be further away from the modernist/avant-garde music that they were inclined to condemn. For me, it recalls the desperate measures that were adopted in Germany to present an appearance of normality, and a sense that what has been familiar will continue. It seems the obvious explanation for its style. That said, it doesn't alter at all the fact that I like the concerto (as I like much of Germany's musical life at that time).

I suppose we could answer this question more easily if we had other examples of his work. Maybe there are clues on the Hermann Zilcher website.... but no use to a simple monophone like me.