Unsung extracts

[Reverie]

PART THREE

Another four extracts.

Georg Goltermann (1824-1898) Festpiel Overture
Bernhard Scholz (1835-1916) Symphony No1 1st mov
Paul Scheinpflug (1875-1937) Lustspiel Overture

and the best till last. The great  Heinrich Reuss (1855-1910)  Symphony No1 1st mov

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As ever please feel free to add to this thread with pertinent comments. They will be much appreciated.

CLICK HERE:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J92b1RdA0q4

[dhibbard]

Thank you.

[tpaloj]

Thank you again Reverie. Your extracts are always impeccably proofread and the sound quality is superb (all things considered, given the format). I appreciate the Scholz extract, it's good to hear more of his music. As time allows, I'm typing up his PC in D from 1897 (very slowly!). Here's some timecodes to help navigating the video:

Georg Goltermann [00:00]
Bernhard Scholz [04:40]
Paul Scheinpflug [09:22]
Heinrich Reuss [12:55]


To contribute here, my "Hiller appreciation month" continues with an upload of his early work "Overture to Faust", composed and premiered in 1831. The 3 minute introduction feels to me stilted and awkward, but the rest of the overture is properly brassy and exciting – less poetic than bombastic, admittedly. With the few Hiller recordings there are, it's difficult to chart his development as a composer and a get a good feel for his style, but perhaps to that end this extract showcasing his early music can be of interest to someone.

https://youtu.be/qkjwNKIDMaM

[Reverie]

And thank you tpaloj

Yes the Hiller adagio/intro is perhaps a little too lengthy. But my when it gets moving it is delightful and the ending quite superb. Great work in bringing this back to life! Thank you.

[Alan Howe]

I'm very taken with Scholz's Symphony No.1 in B flat - very powerful stuff, with attractive lyrical passages too. Evidently the work dates from around 1883, which makes it contemporary with Brahms 3.

Thanks for this intriguing excerpt!

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks to both Reverie and tpaloj for these latest additions to the growing list of well-crafted and listenable electronic realisations. They're a wonderful way of getting to know works which have little prospect of being performed by a "real" orchestra any time soon.  Goltermann's Overture struck me as owing more than a little to Raff, his near contemporary and fellow Frankfurt resident, whereas I too was struck by the Brahmsian cast of the opening of Scholz's Symphony. I wasn't too impressed by his Piano Concerto released a couple of years ago by Hyperion, but this promises to be much stronger fare and I'd love to hear more. Scheinpflug's Overture sounds like so many late romantic German "jolly" Overtures (all those Lustige/Heitere-ouvertüren). Fine, but nothing too remarkable. Prinz Reuß's Symphony seems rather an old-fashioned work for its 1890s publication date, but maybe it was written a lot earlier. That said, most of his music I've heard could have been written 30 years earlier than it was. Hiller's Faust Overture I thought another good piece by him, to add to the fine Symphony in C major posted earlier. If that latter piece is indeed also from the 1830s, it's easy to see why the young Hiller was regarded as such a major talent by the likes of Schumann.

[Alan Howe]

I'd certainly like to hear more of Scholz's 1st Symphony. Any chance? (Hint, hint!)

[Reverie]

Alan I have various "irons in the furnace" some of which I'd like to complete. The Scholz is on the current short list 

[Mark Thomas]

That's great news - it's in with a chance!

[Alan Howe]

Oh, that's great news. The Scholz struck me as coming (stylistically) somewhere between Brahms and Bruch - rather a delicious area, I'd say!

Actually, I'm just listening back to the two pieces by Scholz on Hyperion RPC 76, i.e the Piano Concerto and Capriccio. Both strike me as thoroughly entertaining and worthwhile discoveries - much better than I had remembered, in fact.

[eschiss1]

don't forget Matesic's performance of his string quartet op.46.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Eric, I had forgotten that.

[Alan Howe]

Indeed. Must listen!

[Alan Howe]

...gorgeous beginning. Very 'gemütlich'.

[tpaloj]

Many here are probably aware that Liszt's SP Les preludes has its origins in 'Les quatre élémens', a set of four pieces for piano and men's chorus composed in the 1840s. Less known might be the fact that these pieces were also orchestrated by Liszt's assistant August Conradi. The scope of Liszt's involvement in these arrangements is unclear, besides the fact that many of his corrections appear in Conradi's earlier drafts of these works. The manuscripts are essentially complete, just missing some final details. The orchestrations were never performed or published, however.

I have recreated 'Les astres': The Stars (corresponding to "Fire" of the four classical elements), the final piece of the set. Conradi's straightforward orchestration is maybe not too important in itself, but I find the piece worthy and very 'Lisztian': harmonious, grandiose, mysterious. I wanted to give you all a chance to enjoy it, too.

https://youtu.be/st0LM75_Xl8