Humperdinck: Piano Quintet

[Revilod]

Composers are often at their best in their piano quintets....Schumann, Brahms, Elgar, Dvorak, Franck for example. I see that Humperdinck wrote one and it's available on CPO coupled with more of his chamber music. Does anybody know it?

[eschiss1]

Not me, but then it wasn't I think published until 2008 or recorded until that cpo recording in 2012...

[Mark Thomas]

By chance I listened to the work only a few days ago. It's in three movements lasting around half an hour and sounds like what it is - a piece from his youth. He was only 21 when he wrote it, so it's not at all what you might expect from the mature Humperdinck. The outer movements are jolly, upbeat, tuneful and, ultimately, anonymously forgettable "kapellmeister" music. The central slow movement is more individual and has some real emotion to it, although I thought when I listened to it that it was played too slowly, but it's undoubtedly lovely and the best of the three by far.

[Revilod]

Thanks very much for that assessment. Am I right in assuming that you were listening to the CPO recording?

[Mark Thomas]

Sorry, yes, I should have made that clear.

[eschiss1]

OOCuriosity, -is- there another? (Maybe on Koch International, or somewhere?) I thought cpo's the only one before or since the 2008 publication of the work. (Likewise with his other chamber music most of which - though not, I think, all - has also only been published for the first time recently. Though Schott published a work they described as a quartet by Humperdinck back in 1937- it would be interesting to acquire a copy of that publication and see if it actually -is- one of his authentic chamber works, or something else (a quartet potpourri of his well-known music arranged by someone? who knows, without seeing...))

[eschiss1]

Just to make things more complicated*, a quick search reveals Humperdinck may have composed two piano quintets, in E-flat and in G?

*(Yes, yes, I know. Please do not take that statement literally. I'm not - quite - that solipsistic.)

[Double-A]

The Zurich Tonhallequartett, back in the day when it existed, once recorded "quartets by opera composers", one of which was by Humperdinck (the others on the LP were one in A Major by Donizetti and Gounod's a-minor quartet).  I suppose it must be the one from the 1937 edition.  There was no internet back then, so finding unpublished works would have been a lot more work than it is now (the players were after all section leaders in the orchestra PLUS members of the quartet!).

I don't have the disk any more but from memory I'd say it was a genuine quartet, not some pasticcio.  I rather liked it back then, found it at least equal to the Gounod.

[Santo Neuenwelt]

We have the parts to the quartet published by Schott. It is a real quartet composed I have not only played it, but also performed it in concert. We would like to publish it but since it was brought in 1937, it is under copyright. But, it is out of print, parts cannot be found anywhere and Schott will not reprint it. And if we tried, they would go after us. Too bad for chamber music players. It is a good, but not a great work, with a magnificent viola solo in the middle movement.

The Quartet in C Major was composed, according to the notes on the sleeve of Schwann Musica Mundi VMS 1015, in 1920, the year before his death.

The Diogenes Quartet recorded some unfinished chamber works in addition to his Quartet in C Major. They are String Quartet movement in e minor, String Quartet movement in c minor, Minuet for Piano Quintet in E flat Major and Notturno for violin and piano. These are all early work with the exception of the aforementioned String Quartet in C Major

[eschiss1]

Actually, things to check for: did they renew it regularly with the LoC as required by US law? (This can be checked by looking at issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries- which is mirrored at Archive.org or IMSLP or other places- at fairly regular intervals. Within 25 or 26 (edit:28) years, I'll have to check... The reason copyright expires at 2033 in any case is because the law states that it cannot be renewed again past 2032 (95 years) (if first copyrighted between 1923 and - some date in the 1960s, I forget? Items _first_ properly copyrighted after that some date, I'll check, have much greater protection, but that's not immediately relevant here.)) Just copyrighting something in 1937 does -not- ensure that the work's copyright here will last until 2032; the renewal is essential.

Of course, also, if no registration shows up in the 1936/7/8 Catalogs of Copyright Entries - if a 1937 copyright claim is made on the score but none was registered with the Library of Congress - then it's not in fact copyright in the US at all. (Mind, yes, I agree that if it came to a lawsuit, the courts are always free to disagree with the law on the subject, but this is always true about, well, everything...) (Ah. Ok, the 1937 original publication was properly ©-d. Link. Registration 26282.)

Ah. And a 1964 renewal of the quartet seems to be listed. So on the assumption it was also renewed in 1992, sorry, that was irrelevant of me...

(The later issues of the Catalog of Copyright Entries make the point that the printed/digitized versions are incomplete, so one should contact the US Copyright Office to be sure.)

[Martin Eastick]

Schott does actually have this string quartet in its current catalogue - available to buy or download both as parts for performance or study score (ED3172 for parts - priced at 32 Euros plus postage). The preview clearly shows the original 1937 copyright date!

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Guess they reissued it. Been a while since we checked with them. The new edition had a different cover and look to it than the original. Good to see it is still available.

[eschiss1]

Copyright renewal here in the regular 28 year sense, afaik, requires keeping in circulation but not reissuing in the sense of editing/revising/revidierte, to be clear.