Franz Schreker

[albion]

In view of the quality of his music and the fascinating story of his life, it is somewhat surprising that Franz Schreker (1878-1934) is still largely unsung and unknown to most music lovers. Predominantly an operatic composer, his years of success ran from 1912 to around 1924, becoming the most-performed German opera composer during the years 1920-1923. With the 1924 production of Irrelohe his fortunes changed, and his subsequent persecution by the Nazis led to an almost total neglect of his music until the 1980s. Members of this forum may well be acquainted with Schreker (pronounced Shraycker), but if anybody who responds to Korngold and Zemlinsky has yet to encounter him, now would be a great time to start, as eight of his nine operas are or will shortly be available in decent recordings:

Flammen (1901-2) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schreker-Flammen-Katharina-Peetz/dp/B00005RTFD/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279646740&sr=8-2

Der ferne Klang (1903-10) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schreker-ferne-Klang-Franz/dp/B00004T6KS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279646983&sr=1-1

Das Spielwerk und die Prinzessin (1908-12) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schreker-Das-Spielwerk-die-Prinzessin/dp/B00009LW59/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279646740&sr=8-3

Die Gezeichneten (1911-15) - http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=87825

Der Schatzgraber (1915-18) - http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//60010.htm

Irrelohe (1919-22) - http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=9826

Der singende Teufel (1924-28) - currently unrecorded

Christophorus (1925-29) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Franz-Schreker-Christophorus-22Die-Oper-22/dp/B0007XHL2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279646740&sr=8-1

Der Schmied von Gent (1929-32) - recent performances at Chemnitz have been recorded for future release by CPO

In addition, two DVDs are available: the 1989 Hamburg Schatzgraber (http://premiereopera.com/dvd6872schatzgraber.aspx) and the 2005 Salzburg Gezeichneten (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schreker-Berlin-German-Symphony-Orchestra/dp/B000FVQUN0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1279647365&sr=8-6). Both are well worth seeking out.

[M. Henriksen]

Glad that you are mentioning Franz Schreker, a composer that finally made me listen to opera, and I'm now the happy owner of the recordings you listed above. One of the greatest opera composers in the 20th century, but as you say; his fortunes changed and he was too long a forgotten composer... as so many others (Walter Braunfels for example). In my opinion, Schreker's music is highly individual, the sound-world of his mature works is unmistakable "Schreker".
Great to see that Der Schmied von Gent has been recorded! I guess CPO again will deliever the goods with a fine recording. By the way, where did you find that piece of information?

Der Ferne Klang recorded by Capriccio, a recording I prefer to the Naxos version.
But unfortunately it is out of print and automatically gets a price tag in the "stupid"-category.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ferne-Klang-Albrecht-Schnaut-Hermann/dp/B000001WVP/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1279657899&sr=1-1

Morten

[eschiss1]

I gather even the one major work that isn't operatic is related to his dramatic music, but I may be mistaken. Anyhow, what I know by Schreker I also rate highly. Thank you.

[Alan Howe]

Albion: could you possibly rate the operas in order of 'must-getness'? Thanks!

[eschiss1]

Ah right, I'd forgotten the name of the orchestral work in question- the Kammersinfonie. Apparently also a "Romantic Suite". There's a release (reissues, I think...) mentioned in the July MDT on EMI of these two works by Schreker, several others also, along with Schmidt's Variations on a Hussar's Song and Busoni's Faust Studies (this latter a 1968 remaster). (http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR_July10/6279732.htm) (Welser-Most and Conlon conducting in the Schreker, I think. It's unclear. The line that says " Kammersinfonie - Intermezzo op.8 - James Conlon" is pretty clearly Intermezzo Op. 8, not a movement of the Kammersinfonie. I don't like it much... or at all... when people enter things this way on Cddb.com either. Bother.) (Hrm. Yes- the Conlon I think were issued in 1999, etc. and wasn't the Kammersinfonie's first recording - was it the Romantic Suite's? ... Confusing... Reger Romantic Suite (good work, I seem to recall), Schreker Romantic Suite-- not the most descriptive title ... if better than "Symphony"!)

Eric

[John Hudock]

Schreker also has an early symphony (Op 1) in A Minor recorded by Peter Gulke and the Koln Rundfunk as well as a chamber symphony for 23 solo instruments recorded by Michael Gelin and the RSO Berlin. The Peter Gulke CD also has an interesting piece for Speaker & Orch: Das Weib des Intaphernes and a choral setting of Psalm 116.

[JimL]

L.A. Opera did Die Gezeichneten last season as part of Conlon's "Lost Voices" series resurrecting the operas of composers suppressed by the Nazis.

[Alan Howe]

I certainly rate Schreker's orchestral stuff (the Kammersinfonie, or Chamber Symphony, is a tour de force of orchestral colouring), while finding the operas full of gorgeous music which I cannot recall afterwards. Which, say, three operas do friends think show him at his best, and why?

Allow me to eleborate a little: the Kammersinfonie has the great benefit of concision - in other words, the gorgeous late, late-Romantic wandering is not allowed to go on for a protracted period. Trouble is, the gorgeousness is of a rather generalised sort - one remembers the effects and impressions, but nothing more specific. When this is scaled up to a work of operatic length, the result, in my experience, is the problem of the law of diminishing returns: there's all this lovely music, but nothing really to hang on to. In contrast, most of Strauss' operas - like 'em or loathe 'em - are intensely memorable. (I find a similar problem with Zemlinsky's operas - but not with Korngold's!)

Is it me??

[albion]

Which, say, three operas do friends think show him at his best, and why?

The first recommendation would have to go to Die Gezeichneten. A good introduction to the music would be initial acquaintance with the Prelude to a Drama, Schreker's extended version of the opera's Prelude (also incorporating music from Act III). The melodies are strongly defined and highly memorable, whilst the orchestration (with the composer's characteristic glimmering sonorities) is astoundingly virtuosic. As a drama, I think that Die Gezeichneten is the most absorbing of Schreker's stage works - although most of the characters are pretty repulsive, they are keenly drawn in the music and the whole tale sweeps along towards a highly dramatic conclusion. The Salzburg DVD is fascinating and beautifully sung, but I would prefer a colourful Renaissance setting as envisaged by the composer. On disc, the Zagrosek peformance is the one to go for as it is uncut.

Next, I would suggest Der ferne Klang. This sprawls a bit and is more low-key in terms of the synopsis, but the score is full of wonderful touches, the highlight being the incredible multi-layered second act set in "La casa di maschere" (essentially a bordello). To give an idea of Schreker's innovation, here is what the composer himself wrote:

"The following scenes - it is unimportant whether they are more or less intelligible - should be played and spoken with animation and the various sounds which penetrate through to the stage (the singing from above, the gypsy music, the music from the gondolas, the count's serenade) should mingle in such a way that the listener receives the most realistic impression possible of the setting and very nearly has the feeling that he himself is in the midst of this commotion".

I was lucky enough to attend the 1992 Opera North British premiere of the opera and, heard live, this act is one of the most amazing experiences I can remember.

Next in line would be either Der Schatzgraber or Der Schmied von Gent. The former has a beautiful score and the tale of stolen jewels and murders is absorbing, but a better recording is needed. The only available one has cuts and the soprano playing Els (Gabriele Schnaut) is pretty squally - nevertheless it is a tribute to the opera that it can withstand these problems. Der Schmied von Gent is Schreker's final work. After the experimentally pared-down orchestrations of Der singende Teufel and Christophorus,  Schreker's virtuosic writing returns with a vengeance - there are extended interludes, dances and pantomimes. Scenes are structured on canons and fugues and the chorus is more prominent than in any other of his works. It is described as a Zauberoper, and with it's scenes of Heaven and Hell, is a folk-tale elevated to spectacle. CPO's intention to issue the Chemnitz performances on disc is noted in numerous reviews.

The best possible introduction to Schreker's style would be through Chandos' first volume of orchestral music (http://www.chandos.net/details06.asp?CNumber=CHAN%209797) which contains extended concert-versions of music from Der ferne Klang, Der Gezeichneten and Der Schatzgraber. The performances and sound are first-rate.

[Alan Howe]

I have Der ferne Klang, which, I suppose, is the most famous of Schreker's operas. All I can say is, try as I might, I can't remember a thing from it. I have the two Chandos CDs and I find Schreker more successful (sometimes) in some of the pieces on them. But overall, I think he is a creator of moods and colours, but ultimately falls at the hurdle of memorability.

Robert Layton, writing in Gramophone magazine, in a review of Irrelohe says this:

My only reservation is that although there is a great deal of highly imaginative material and a sophisticated orchestral resource, Schreker's music is predominantly a succession of finely realized atmospheres: melodic inspiration of a strongly individual profile is less in evidence though there are inspired passages...

[albion]

overall, I think he is a creator of moods and colours, but ultimately falls at the hurdle of memorability.

I think that Schreker's operas are peculiar in that they are primarily "moods and colours" and this is precisely why they are such powerful theatre - very much along the lines of Wagnerian gesamtkunstwerk. They come into their own in live performance but are more elusive on disc. Without any visual stimulus, repeated listening is vital: themes and orchestral details which may initially pass by unnoticed gradually penetrate and lodge in the mind.

[Alan Howe]

...but Wagner is intensely memorable!

[albion]

...but Wagner is intensely memorable!

He certainly is! I find Schreker also memorable, but with a bit more listening effort involved. I suppose he is one of those many composers whose music 'sticks' with some people but not others. Critics, like everyone else, have their personal tastes and enthusiasms:

Victor Carr (Classics Today) on Draeseke's 3rd Symphony - "Essentially what we have here is an attempt at brilliant, masterful thematic development of musical ideas that, for all their complexity, are of limited, or even negligible interest."

Andrew Clements (The Guardian) on the CPO Holbrooke disc - "Holbrooke's music tended to the dark and brooding in a style somewhere between late Dvorák and early Delius; it's good at atmosphere, less good at generating memorable themes."

I disagree with both of the above comments, but another listener's judgement is just as valid as mine as it is their personal experience. Incidentally, I find most of the Tudor mass settings (Tye, Taverner, Ludford, Fayrfax, etc), the Bach cantatas, and whole swathes of Haydn and Mozart incredibly unmemorable - I enjoy hearing them at the time but 30 seconds later I might as well have been listening to a dripping tap for all that I can recall!

[Alan Howe]

Of course, in the end it is a matter of personal experience of the music. However, I do trust some commentators more than others, e.g. Robert Layton and Malcolm (Calum) MacDonald.
Incidentally, one eminent musicologist wrote in a private e-mail to me (you'll have to trust me on this one!) on hearing Draeseke's Tragica recently for the first time:
Have listened to Draeseke 3; goodness what we hear. It's got that whackiness of Berlioz, all those melodramatic diminished 7ths in the 'storm-tempest' in the finale. The trumpet fanfares and fragmentariness of Mahler (to come), then suddenly you hit a frightfully four-square classical passage. Damned hard to play, poor piccolo at the very end, why do they make them play top Cs ppp ?? An exciting work. That scherzo with all its Dvorakian syncopations too. Like the way the opening comes back at the end.
In addition, Records International summed up the cpo recording of the Tragica as follows:
Draeseke's most famous symphony now receives its first modern recording as the first isssue in a complete series of the composer's symphonies. Dating from 1886, this work deserves a place alongside those of Brahms due to its impressive weight and seriousness, its memorable themes and their working-out and its impressive momentum, especially in the pulsating finale. The symphony's subtitle comes from its second movement Grave, as fine a funeral march as any since the Eroica but the remaining three are all dynamic and upbeat.

You pays yer money...

[ahinton]

It might be a matter of passing interest to some who don't already know that Schreker's name, which is usually mispronounced "Schrayker" (as it looks) was really Schrecker and the only reason why it is spelt without its second "c" is because it appears that way on his certificate of birth, a fact which is down to a misunderstanding at the office in Monaco where his birth was registered, due presumably to the registrar's lack of knowledge of correct spellings of certain Austrian surnames. Bruno Schrecker (b.1928), who was for more than three decades the cellist of the Allegri Quartet, suffered no such fate; he has spelled his name correctly all his life and it has accordingly not generally been mispronounced.

As you were...