FRANZ SCHREKER'S opera Der Schatzgräber was first performed in January, 1920

[brendangcarroll]

Happy New Year to the List!

This year marks the centenary of Franz Schreker's fabulous opera Der Schatzgräber, which premiered this month, at Frankfurt in 1920.

Schreker is still much neglected and productions of his operas and recordings of his works are few and far between.

I was honoured to be commissioned to write the following article about the opera, which I thought might interest some here and which is published today with materials from my archive and a rare 1927 recording:-

https://www.momh.org.uk/exhibitions-detail.php?cat_id=5&prod_id=381&iotm=1

Best wishes to all for 2020.
BRENDAN CARROLL

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you very much, Brendan, for posting this most interesting article. I am very fond of Schreker's operas and I agree that Der Schatzgraber is a fine piece.

[brendangcarroll]

You're most welcome Gareth!

[adriano]

Looking at the present status of the Schreker discography I would not really say that recordings and opera productions of his works are "few and far between". 
29 productions of "Der Ferne Klang" since 1976 and 18 productions of "Die Gezeichneten" since 1984 are quite remarkable; not to speak of the many performances before these dates, which are almost the same quantity. Of "Der Schatzgräber" ther were only 10 productions since 1968, but 54 before!
I am working on a Schreker discography myself, my last update of 2014 counted already 240 items, but in the meantime surely some 80 more have to be added. As an "item" I consider a work or an excerpt of it - and no re-issues on other labels or media.
In my opinion, Schreker is no more an "unsung" composer.

[Alan Howe]

In my opinion, Schreker is no more an "unsung" composer.

Maybe not to us. But to the general public he's not even a name...

[adriano]

In any case, in his time, Schreker's operas were more frequently performed than those by Puccini. Only Richard Strauss was more prominent amongst his contemporaries.
Schreker's pupil Alois Hába (yes, the one who wrote quarter-tone music) affirmed in 1921 (after "Die Gezeichneten" were already produced 11 times in Germany and once in Vienna since 1918), that "Schreker will never have a place in posterity such as Wagner, Strauss, Verdi and Puccini because his music has no nationality: German elements are intermingled with Italian and French elements". Hába concludes: "perhaps this is his death sentence".
Later on he writes that Schreker's music is a defeat, with inner reasons we naturally do not know... He even added that Schreker "basically does not sense things polyphonically"!
Composer Adolf Weissmann (who knows him today?) also wrote that Schreker had a weak sense of line!
And, of course, Hába wrote his nonsense before he would witness Schreker's stylistic development until his later period, where he wrote music in the style of the "Neue Sachlichkeit".
Thanks God we have today some musicologists capable of defining Schreker more substantially :-)

@ brendancarroll: "Die Gezeichneten" were first performed in Frankfurt on 25th April 1918 (23 performances) - and not in 1920. In 1918 followed 4 more productions: in Munich, Nürnberg, Breslau and Dresden. Vienna's production followed in 1920.

[brendangcarroll]

I do know when Gezeichneten was performed. My article was about Der Schatzgräber which was indeed first performed in 1920.

[adriano]

You are right, sorry. Old men sometimes get a bit confused :-)
Your article is excellent!

[Revilod]

I know this is slightly off the point but can I ask which CD version of "Gezeichneten" is most recommendable? Zagrosek, Conlon, Edo de Waart, or Albrecht? I'd very much like to get into Schreker...a composer whose operas I've never investigated.

[Alan Howe]

OK: recommendations, please - and then back to Der Schatzgräber.

[Maury]

Regarding revilod's question I have not found modern performances of Schreker's Die Gezeichneten very involving including the DVD. The best recording to me is an "unofficial" LP issue conducted by Gielen sometime in the late 70s or early 80s which I admit is not brilliantly recorded and off the radar for most.  https://www.discogs.com/release/27640767-Franz-Schreker-G%C3%B6tz-2-Card-Mora-Reich-Gielen-Die-Gezeichneten.

More generally I feel that Der Schatzgraeber is his greatest opera followed by Der Ferne Klang. His last three operas were composed after 1925 and fall outside neo Romanticism.

I understand the general criticism here about the music in Schreker's operas not being memorably melodic enough as opposed to mood inducing but Der Schatzgraeber IMO is much more incisive. The DVD with M. Albrecht is very good for singing and excellent for conducting. Albrecht also did a CD but I find Manuela Uhl's singing of Els to be a taste I haven't acquired yet. (I feel the same about the unofficial DVD with Gabriela Schnaut.) Uhl is not on the DVD. I would say that Schreker's operas play much better on the stage than one would think from the rather kooky librettos. The problem today is that no one is particularly inside this style anymore IMO (which affects Zemlinsky and Szymanowski and the Silver Age operetta composers as well). The purely orchestral music at least is played more excellently than before.

PS. I clicked the link that Mr Carroll provided in the OP and got a page not found at the Museum of Music History (sic). So I searched the site for Schreker and found nothing. Either I'm doing something wrong or the Museum of Music History deletes its history unpredictably.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Try this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338295826_FRANZ_SCHREKER'S_opera_Der_Schatzgraber_-_Centenary_2020

[Maury]

Ah thank you very much Mr Vaughan.

Reading Mr Carroll's notes on the opera I am happy to provide independent agreement for his various assessments in my post above.