Braunfels Ulenspiegel DVD

[der79sebas]

Capriccio will release a DVD of Walter Braunfels' opera "Ulenspiegel" (from the performances in Linz/Austria in September 2014) in January 2017. Already now the DVD can be ordered by mail to office@entarteopera.com, they possibly sell it cheaper (22,- Euro - I do not know the regular prize) but charge shipping costs. I have bought it already: sound (stereo and surround) and vision are great, the performance was wonderful (I have seen it three times in Linz)! Subtitles in English and German are included.

http://www.entarteopera.com/shop.html
office@entarteopera.com

There is also an old trailer somwhere at the homepage, but the sound of that one is not good, since the trailer is not taken from the DVD but was quickly and sloppily produced right after the performances.

[adriano]

That's good news - although this is not the original orchestration, but a chamber orchestra reduction by Werner Steinmetz. The last time the original was performed, was in Gera in 2011 (and broadcast on Deutschlandradio). Braunfels, fortunately enough, is having such a revival that he almost cannot be considered an unsung composer anymore. Have a look what all is available on CD (his son Michael Braunfels is also a composer)!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=braunfels&rh=n%3A229816%2Ck%3Abraunfels
His Grosse Messe and Te Deum are masterworks!

[der79sebas]

The "chamber" orchestra is of 35 musicians, after all. So it does not at all sound like chamber music...

[der79sebas]

By the way: For the "Große Messe", perhaps his masterpiece after "Die Vögel" and even before "Ulenspiegel" take the Decca recording on 2 cd. It is much better than the new Capriccio recording.

[Alan Howe]

Braunfels still only has a handful of recordings - or maybe two handfuls. The wider public won't have heard of him, so he's definitely still unsung.

I'll be frank: I've never heard anything by him that has really grabbed me, even though I've been collecting the CDs. Die Vögel strikes me as being his best work.

A complete performance of Ulenspiegel given at Gera in 2011 can be heard on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbJzVeK_NWs

The problem, though, is that there's hardly an attractive voice on offer - which is why the Decca recording of Die Vögel is so outstanding. Mind you, there's some fine music amidst the vocal trials...

[Wheesht]

I saw the Linz performance too, but while I was impressed by some of the music and by the (very dark and gloomy) production, the whole thing did not really strike a chord with me and I would not have thought of the music as being romantic.

[Alan Howe]

There's just so little that's attractive in the vocal writing. I find the same with Schreker. Strauss may make impossible demands on the voice, but he's in a different class altogether. A case of the great being the enemy of the merely good.

[minacciosa]

Braunfels Prelude and Fugue for Orchestra is spectacular. After hearing just the Grosse Messe and the P&F I am able to discern a personal voice. He definitely deserves much further exposure and recording.

I wouldn't (and couldn't compare Schreker with Strauss simply because they are radically different. They are both fascinating voices, and Schreker is especially intriguing due to his highly unusual vocal style and forward looking phraseology. The aesthetic of Schreker is far too psychological in a modern sense to be dismissed for his lack of being perceived as a tunesmith. It simply isn't necessary for his expression to be successful. Generally, his aesthetic rules him out of inclusion on this forum, and so I wouldn't expect too much appreciation for him here.

Personally, I firmly believe that if he hadn't had such a severe career interruption, he would likely be part of "the canon" of today's opera houses.

[Mark Thomas]

I can't say that I find his vocal works at all to my taste, very much for the reasons which minacciosa outlnes, but I do very much enjoy his earlier orchestral music. The Berlioz and Don Juan Variations and the Piano Concerto are all clever and (in the case of the two Variations works) often cheeky pieces, absolutely superbly orchestrated. I appreciate that in his early compositions his debt to Strauss is obvious, and that's no doubt why they appeal to me.

[Alan Howe]

The odd thing about Schreker is how gorgeous his orchestral writing is - and yet how unappealing his vocal writing seems to be. They don't seem to me to go together. It's as if we have to wait for Alban Berg before the two come together in a unified idiom - one which, of course, lies beyond the bounds of this forum.

[adriano]

Schreker knew very well how to write for singers. He had worked as a chorus leader and was married to a singer, so I would not put that theme in question. Although she may have been not enough a dramatic voice for her husband's operas, Maria Schreker was an excellet singer and musician. Schreker also wrote magnificent songs.
That his (highly lyrical) vocal writing does not "go together" with the orchestra and seems not to be "appealing" is nonsense. Already in his earlier, more "Romantic" operas the contrary can be proved. And what does "unappealing" exactly mean? Incidentally, it was Berg himself who said that his "Lulu" would not have been possible without "Der ferne Klang" (the first version of the piano reduction of "KLang" was done by Berg), and I am sure he meant that also as far as the vocal writing was concerned. In my opinion his symphonic accompaniments matches vocal lines perfectly. Last but not least, his operas were performed everywhere, and by great singers. Even in his three last operas, which were already reaching the Neue Sachlichkeit, Schreker's vocal lines are wonderful and original. Not to speak about his Walt Whitman songs (with orchestra). And the cycle of five songs for low voice and orchestra is a real masterwork! Listen to their wonderful parts and how it matches the delicate and atmospheric, even psychological orchestral accompaniment!
In her little book "Hören, Denken, Fühlen", Scheker's daughter Haidy (we were friends during many years) just analyses the connection between text and music, and the different ways the composer has succeeded in using them.
In the magnificent (English) Schreker monography by Christopher Hailey (another friend of mine), the author takes up the theme "voice vs. music" various times. And there is a unique 400-page study on the music of "Der ferne Klang" by Ulrike Kienzle (a super book which was published in 1997, together with a new orchestral study score of the opera). In there, the composer's aesthetics of a psychological "Musiktheater", his naturalism and psychological perspectivism are explained and analyzed often bar by bar. The analysis of the famous wood-scene of "Der Ferne Klang" alone is the case of 20 pages.

And I hope Alan is going to listen, or re-listen Braunfels' "Grosse Messe" in order to find at least a few "grabbing" sections in there too :-)

[Alan Howe]

I don't agree at all. I still find Schreker's vocal writing ungrateful and his operas for that reason in the final analysis unlistenable, despite the orchestral richness. Of course, I may be too much in thrall to the Italian tradition, but faced with a choice between Schreker and his Italian contemporaries, I know which I'd choose. Give me Respighi any day! (I do, of course, recognise that this may be a total blind-spot on my part - but then, we've all got them.)

I'll have another go at Braunfels' Grosse Messe, but it may simply be beyond my comfort zone...

[adriano]

 

[Gareth Vaughan]

I'm sorry, Alan, but as a singer I have to agree with Adriano. I find Schreker's vocal lines very grateful to sing - difficult, maybe, but not unvocal. A lot of Benjamin Britten is difficult, but usually very singable once you've mastered the notes. Some of Tippett, on the other hand, strikes me as not only difficult but UNgrateful to sing.

[adriano]

Thanks, Gareth, the discussion is indeed about vocal writing, but in our case how good or not Schreker's concord with the orchestral accompaniment. But I too, I had started with a defense of Schreker's qualities as a vocal writer di per se...