Hanns Wolf Piano Concerto in C#minor (1929)

[Alan Howe]

This late, late romantic piano concerto...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJF8yBV-IHk
...was once available here as a download, although it's evidently taken from a commercial recording, copies of which I can't track down:
http://www.bielekat.info/index.php?action=showdetail&id=30774

Very Hollywood-esque! Gorgeous, in fact. Try the end of the finale!!

Biographical details of the composer:

Hanns Wolf was born on June 7, 1894 in Bamberg, Germany, and died on July 2, 1968 Fuessen, Germany. He studied with Prof. Henry van Zeyl (one of the last students of Franz Liszt), with Max Meyer-Obersleben (composition), with Willy Rehberg and Alfred Hoehn (piano) and he played as a soloist under Willem Mengelberg, Otto Klemperer, Sir Henry Wood, G.L. Jochum, G.M.D. Friedrich (Berlin), GMD Jung (Saarbruecken), Eduard van Beinum (Hilversum) and GMD Hans Swarowski (Danzig). Made broadcasts with the following radio stations: Munich, Berlin, Hilversum and Saarbruecken.

Almost his complete oeuvres were destroyed towards the end of war, in 1944. The following works however were rediscovered by Karl Urlberger, Aschaffenburg in 1996: A Concerto in c sharp minor for piano and orchestra, one of the great late romantic piano concertos; Paraphrase for piano on the waltz "Wiener Blut" by Johann Strauss; Grand etude in e minor for piano "Springbrunnen"; four peasant dances for string orchestra op. 7; five franconian dances for four-handed piano.

Biography:

1908-1912: Studied piano and composition at the Academy of Music, Wuerzburg
1912-1913: Piano teacher, Essen
1913-1914: Director of the conservatory, Elbing
1914-1924: Teacher for piano and organ, Aschaffenburg
1924-1945: Professor at the conservatory, Augsburg, piano soloist and accompanist, both nationally and internationally
1945-1968: Independent pianist and piano pedagogue
https://denneyhomeplace.com/2017/09/03/classical-sunday-hanns-wolf-piano-concerto-in-c-sharp-minor/

The gentleman who discovered Wolf's PC, Karl Urlberger, is evidently the 'K.U.' of the label which released the CD.

[pianoconcerto]

Alan, have you tried emailing K. U. at the firm address that used to be cited by Bielefelder?  I don't know if it's still active or not:
urlberger@sps-schutzplanken.de.  If this doesn't work, you can also find mail, fax, and phone contact information archived at Yumpu (from Bielefelder, 2010):  https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/read/4649379/firmenadressen-bielefelder-kataloge/5.

K.U. 29002 used to be available from the membership-only shop Aria-CD.  At least you can still see what the cover looks like at http://www.aria-cd.com/arianew/indsale852.htm.  The same Wolf pc performance also was released on K. U. 29004, coupled with Liszt's pc2 and Totentanz (instead of the additional works by Wolf on 29002).  Please let us know if you manage to locate a copy.

Note that the performance on youtube is different from that on the CDs, though the pianist is the same:

youtube:  Dana Borşan/PO "Moldova" Iasi/Sebastien Rouland
CDs:  Dana Borşan/Romanian Radio SO/Ludovic Bács

[Alan Howe]

Thanks! I have tried emailing Herr Urlberger using the address you mention. I'll report back what happens.

[Alan Howe]

Herr Urlberger has replied, confirming that the CD is still available. I am waiting to hear back from him regarding costs...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Could you inquire if KU 29002 is still available, please, as this is an all Wolf CD, and therefore of greater interest - at least to me.

[Mark Thomas]

A most enjoyable late-romantic romp, and all the better for not lasting 50 minutes! Thanks for the heads up, Alan.

[Alan Howe]

Still waiting...

[Alan Howe]

The all-Wolf CD (KU 29 002) arrived today - with no request for payment at all!

[Gareth Vaughan]

How may I obtain one, please, Alan?

[Alan Howe]

I've PM'd you, Gareth.

I'm afraid that from this point I won't be helping anyone to contact Herr Urlberger. It would clearly be unreasonable to expect him to mail out dozens of free copies at his own expense. It's therefore now up to individuals to make contact with him themselves.

[Alan Howe]

As it turns out, what Herr Urlberger does is to mail out an invoice asking for payment by transfer to his bank. The total cost including postage to us in the UK is EUR13.70.

[tuatara442442]

The all-Wolf CD (KU 29 002) arrived today

What else was on this CD, Alan?

[Alan Howe]

See here:
https://allegro.pl/oferta/hans-wolf-klavierwerke-i-und-op-7-cd-x64-15768976599

Google/Images often yields useful results...

[tuatara442442]

Thank you, Alan. Although I was blocked by the website, I used the German in the link to google up the image preview. As I correctly guessed, this disc contains piano pieces and that suite for strings, and then the piano and the orchestra joins forces for the concerto.

[Alan Howe]

It was quicker than trying to find the CD. It's filed under 'W', but I've started the alphabet a number of times...