Heinrich Zöllner (1854-1941)

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks - but what a shame that the audio example is only of a few bars on the piano! There are several recordings available of men's choral pieces by his father Carl Friedrich but nothing, apart from this little thing, by Heinrich, not even on YouTube.

[Wheesht]

A 1954 recording of the overture to "Die versunkene Glocke" (The Sunken Bell) is now available on Youtube: https://youtu.be/Fo1kg5zksYo

[Alan Howe]

Yum, yum. Terrifically calorific!

[eschiss1]

Re "5 symphonies": according to the earliest version of the Wikipedia page from 2007, this claim is sourced to Randel (Harvard Dictionary of Music). Nothing further unfortunately

[Gareth Vaughan]

I have found library locations for the full scores of the first 3 of his symphonies, but the 4th is eluding me. BSB purports to have "19 Stimmen" but no Partitur. And it is not clear from the record whether or not this is a complete set of parts. I must admit I have not yet gone through the card catalogue of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

[adriano]

Zöllner's "Die versunkene Glocke" went into oblivion in the 1900s, after the success of Respighi's "La campana sommersa" - which was premiered in Hamburg in 1927. It was sung in German, with Gerhard Hauptmann in the audience. And it was even a German publisher who printed it! It's a masterwork - and I strongly recommend the new DVD by Naxos, which is a peformance from Cagliari and has excellent singers and a very beautiful and tasteful staging.
That Zöllner's opera is forgotten, is a real shame: the few excerpts we can hear do make us want for more. In the 1980s I consulted the piano score with Opera Studio singers and we were impressed. The score on IMSLP. An aria alone was performed at the BBC Proms in 1913.

[Mark Thomas]

I'd quite forgotten about Zöllner, but what an atmospheric piece - it quite whets the appetite for more. Thank you, Wheesht.

[eschiss1]

I should note that as is sometimes the case, not all the works on IMSLP are presently there completely (from beginning to end) let alone in full (orchestration-wise). So eg Bei Sedan is represented at present by the full score of 1 excerpt, not as is more usual by a complete (but not "full", in the sense of this distinction) vocal score.

(ÖNB has a reasonable number of opera vocal scores of his, and songs and choruses, etc.- but not, that I can tell, manuscripts or full scores- their Zöllner manuscripts are of his relatives, I think.)

[eschiss1]

Ah. That said, it seems that the full score of Mateo Falcone may be at Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. That's a start. Coburg has a manuscript (but published by Breitkopf's Partitur-Bibliothek) score of Das hölzerne Schwert (library sig. Mus TB Op 438(P).)  And I forgot that ONB does have an (incomplete, it seems, though) full score of Die Überfall. Coburg seems to have at least some scores and parts for several works of his.

[Reverie]

The 3rd Symphony (1st mov only)



LISTEN TO THE FIRST MOVEMENT HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUGCE7JY0zY

[Alan Howe]

I enjoyed this - however, I didn't find it very memorable or particularly attractive. Powerful stuff, though, and I'm glad to have had a chance to hear it. Thanks!

I wonder how easy it might have been for a 'Mountains Symphony' to compete with the likes of Strauss' roughly contemporary Alpine Symphony? Just a thought...

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Martin. How fascinating! I look forward to listening to it when I get back home.

[eschiss1]

There is a Berg-Symphonie out there- the nickname for a symphonic poem a century older...