Max Jentsch (1855-1918)

[4candles]

Max Jentsch – a name perhaps familiar to a number of piano aficionados (probably because of his Etudes, Op.28) – seems relatively elusive, despite having composed a good body of work. His page at IMSLP includes a works list, but very few of his compositions seem to have survived.

In any case, apart from the Etudes mentioned above, he wrote a variety of other piano pieces, as well as chamber works, works including voice/choir and operas. But what I'm really interested in in this instance is his orchestral music. According to Baker's Dictionary, his output includes a Piano Concerto and Symphony among others. I can find no trace of the former, but his Symphony in E-flat was performed twice by the Vienna Symphony in 1902.

Anyone with any other information?

[Wheesht]

There are 373 hits in the Austrian National Library's ANNO collection of digitised newspapers for "Max Jentsch", for example an autobiographical entry from 1894 with a list of compositions at the end. Friedrich Jansa's 1911 book on German composers and musicians mentions the Piano Concerto and a second Symphony, both presumably written after 1894 – but as to where they might be found...
The Berlin State Library does not list them in their catalogue, but they do have quite a lot of piano and chamber music.

[Wheesht]

Just found another reference. He gave the first performance of his Piano Concerto in E-flat minor in Vienna on 15 December 1894.

[Alan Howe]

perhaps because he died in the year that saw the beginning of WW1?

Oops...

[UnsungMasterpieces]

perhaps because he died in the year that saw the beginning of WW1?

Oops...

An "oops" indeed, because in 1918 the war ended.

[4candles]

My profuse apologies. My brain is clearly not up to scratch today! 

Just to allay any suspicions, I do, in fact, know the general dates of WW1, despite my earlier gaffe  and I have duly updated my original post above.

[eschiss1]

Apparently quite a few of Jentsch's works were published by Otto Junne. I wouldn't hold out much hope for seeing those; as with the music of Hans Fahrmann, much of the music published by Junne is permanently lost as their publishing house was destroyed, including their publishing plates, in bombings during WW2. Anything not purchased by a person or library before then or in the possession of the composer's estate etc. is lost.

[4candles]

Many thanks for your useful suggestions Wheesht and eschiss1. I will follow up on these leads when time permits.

[4candles]

Anyone wishing to get a flavour of Max Jentsch's chamber music can find a midi version of his late-Romantic (and ultra 'romantic') Piano Quintet, Op.50, on Musescore.

I'm not au fait enough with the music of the time period to make comparisons with the music of other composers, suffice to say that Jentsch was, I believe, in the Liszt school of piano playing and was an admirer of Wagner's music, which would have been hard to escape at the time would it not?

Plenty of chromaticism in here, virtuosic piano writing and soaring melodies. Hangs together well, if perhaps a tad too long.

• Max Jentsch, Piano Quintet, Op.50

[eschiss1]

Thanks!

[matesic]

I've been playing around with the speed toggle in the finale. About 70% seems to be the fastest at which the semiquavers could be articulated but that makes the sustained chords rather tedious. Some of the double-stopping seems highly impractical at the least - both my hands are aching just thinking about it! What do you think?

[eschiss1]

That reminds me, have you had a look at his string quartet op.49, matesic?

[matesic]

Frankly in places the string quartet looks a bit, well, eccentric. In the first movement the first violin has a lot of octave double-stops to play, far more than I've encountered in any other quartet and liable to sound horribly out of tune, in my hands at least. The scherzo in 27/16 time is surely unique! The three upper instruments are expected to play groups of 8 spiccato semiquavers in one bow, all together, which would be quite a feat if any quartet could manage it. One to avoid I think...

[4candles]

With (not very heartfelt ) apologies for resurrecting this thread, but a contemporary 'Letter from Vienna', published in The Monthly musical record* praises the Duesberg (or Duesburg) Quartet's merit of "introducing high-class chamber music to those less favoured by Dame Fortune[...]", giving special mention to Jentsch's String Quartet as displaying "rare creative and constructive power in its first three movements and, although less interesting in the finale—an elaborate fugato, mingled with some rather obtrusive "Tristan-isms"—the work is well worth the attention of quartet parties in search of novelty out of the common."

* London Vol. 29, Iss. 339,  (Mar 1899): 54-55.

4c