Bernhard Scholz – Symphony No 1

[Reverie]

I used the Noteperformer sound library but Sibelius was the engine.

[Alan Howe]

It's a brilliant realisation.

[tpaloj]

Thank you, Reverie for finishing this long and tough task.

I especially enjoyed the second movement. After the opening as the music finds its stride, it's very passionate and moving. Nice fun scherzo with its bouncing horns in the start, later developed into other instrument combinations. I find no great flaws with the symphony and its orchestration, conservative as it is (no problem! it's not a detriment). Your error-free – atleast to my ears – and thoughtfully phrased rendition made a pleasant listen all the way to end.

Can I ask what video editing software or other methods you used to sync the sheet music pages to the audio? I'm wondering what would be the most convenient way to do it for large scores in mind, and I'm not sure how to go about it.

[Alan Howe]

This is as magnificent an unsung symphony from the latter years of the nineteenth century as I have ever heard. It has everything: immensely powerful tutti, yearning lyricism - and all contained in what feels like an iron grip of compositional logic. More than ever it becomes clear that the 'standard repertoire' has in effect robbed us of hearing the vast range of fine music written by composers that have simply been forgotten - for no good reason that I can fathom.

Yes, this is a conservative work. But who cares? Commentators are going to compare it to Brahms, but they should be taking the time to work out what is specifically 'Scholzian' about this imposing, memorable symphony.

By the way, has anyone come across any contemporary reviews of the work?

[Mark Thomas]

I completely agree with that - it's a masterwork of real quality and strength. Reverie deserves some respite after such a tremendous effort, but one can't help but hope that we'll get to hear Scholz' Second too in the future.

[eschiss1]

earliest performance I know of offhand in Leipzig in 1886 January followed by one in the US in March of that year; looking to see if I can find evidence of one in 1885 or earlier, though, together with a review. here is a review of the 1886 concert. NZM lists an announcement of a 1885 Frankfurt "Museums-concert" containing the symphony on p.157 (Apr. 3 1885 issue.)

[Alan Howe]

The review dismisses Scholz's Symphony out of hand, apart from the Scherzo in which the composer is described as abandoning his academic reserve and affording us some attractive ideas. Comparisons are not to be made with Brahms!

All this is, of course, totally unfair - and based almost certainly on one hearing. We, on the other hand, are able to listen to the work 'on repeat', as it were, so as to get to know it better. How fortunate we are!

[tpaloj]

Some reviewers make a point of stating whether they had the opportunity to review the work with the score, which would usually give them better ability to judge the work itself.  As we know, first performances back in the day tended to be under-rehearsed and unevenly performed for even some of the best and most longstanding pieces in current repertoire. So no surprises for the dismissals there.

[Reverie]

tpaloj

Thank you. I use Youtube Moviemaker. Getting the score pages to fit with the music timings etc ... is done manually. I don't think there's any other way of doing it?

It reminds me of when I turned pages for a very accomplished pianist. It was a quite nerve racking experience. You had to flip the page just a bar or two before. Okay in slow passages but when it was presto ....  Then the additional worry of turning two pages by accident!

[Ilja]

Martin, many many thanks for working on this - a bit weightier than Reinecke, yes, but to me that is a good thing.

[eschiss1]

Here's another review, btw, from Signale für die Musikalisches Welt, May 1886 probably, apparently about a Berlin concert.

[semloh]

Martin, thank you so much for all your hard work on this very fine symphony. How marvellous that we can actually hear it and appreciate its magnificence.

The obvious question now is whether anyone will consider an orchestral recording. Recordings of music by Scholz appear to be few and far between.

[eschiss1]

I know of hardly any commercial recordings. The Hyperion CD...
A disc of some of his sonatas or his first quartet and quintet for strings might be more practical right just this moment but I'd like a disc- of both symphonies- maybe on cpo sometime, seems a good match.

[sdtom]

I have had the opportunity to listen to it twice and I am quite impressed with it especially the second movement. One can only hope that CPO will offer this work.

[Reverie]

Scholz 2nd Symphony (1896) -

THIS IS A SHORT TEASER

The opening bars of the final movement (3 mins) - all I can think of are cliches to describe this beautiful music.

For me it's a brief farewell to Romanticism - melancholy and resignation. The clarinet towards the end sums it up. It's a must listen 3 mins I think.

All four movements are near completion. Hopefully the symphony won't disappoint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w18bv5b75ww18bv5b75w