Richard Wetz (1875-1935)

[Oliver Fraenzke]

Falsely compared with Anton Bruckner, Richard Wetz (1875-1935) got into the pigeon-hole of epigoni.
But this is totally wrong, because Wetz developed more than most other composers a completely unique style. He studied with Jadassohn and Reinecke, later with Thuille. Being friends with Felix Weingartner, who got him an engagement as conductor, Wetz came into contact with Richard Strauss, who among Liszt and Bruckner got his rolemodels for his first years. More and more, Wetz began working of a free and unique style: this can be seen first of all in his songs. In his first years, Wetz composed mainly songs for voice and piano and kept holding on this genre his whole life - there must be more than 150 songs. (I collected up to now 10 opusnumbers, this may be around the half.) Later, Wetz made himself a name as teacher, composed isolated and didn't care too much about performances.

We can be lucky, that at least the orchestral works have been recorded. Exciting are his symphonies, here the third one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buSMfk6YbnA

Most known maybe the Christmas Oratory (even if the symphonies may be even stronger):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCt4mmROMFc

On the other side, the chamber music is forgotten completely. I found the scores of the two string quartets op. 43 and 49 as well as the sonata for violin solo op. 33. Those are extremely fine pieces in an exciting personal language, worth to discover! And Wetz should be a "must" for all singers, even though I don't know one single recording of one of his songs.

[matesic]

A much-discussed composer on this site! Having enjoyed playing the first string quartet I'm pleased to see the score and parts of the second quartet are now available on IMSLP

[vesteel]

His 2nd opera Das Ewige Feuer was performed recently in 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Pf9Oly5_0

[tpaloj]

The full score of Der Ewige Feuer has been digitized, available here: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN855109114

[vesteel]

The full score of Der Ewige Feuer has been digitized

I didn't know about this, Thank you! 
Also searching further, the score of his first opera Judith has been digitized as well: https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN863434150

[Oliver Fraenzke]

Here there is a movement of the first string quartet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvrR9bnyLvQ

The IMSLP-quality of the score is quite bad unfortunatelly, but it's hard to find a good score. I'm on it to search 

[eschiss1]

The YouTube video you link is redundant, since the same performance can be heard in Matesic's recording @ IMSLP with the benefit of the other three movements too (don't be fooled by the different timings, there's a minute of blank space at the end of the YouTube video.) Thanks though (I guess??...)

The 2nd quartet was on LP at one point (or CD?) and might also be on YouTube (ah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSflXcu7dM)

[matesic]

Curious! At least whoever downloaded my mp3 from IMSLP and created the youtube clip chose the most appealing movement (somewhat Brucknerian wouldn't you say?) and a nice picture. A proper performance would be welcome though... I didn't know the Mannheimers had recorded No.2 which sounds like a terrific work. A kindly word from its uploader Thorsten Gubatz too - makes my day!

[Rainolf]

Thank, you, Oliver, for turning the attention to this fine composer, whose songs are one of the treasures of late romantic German Lied, that have yet to be discovered by singers and CD labels. (As it is the case with another master, who was born in February 1875, too, and studied, like Wetz, with Thuille in Munich: Walter Courvoisier.)

In Wetz's worklist the opus numbers 1 to 5 are a mystery. Not even his pupil Hans Polack, who wrote the first larger study on the composer in 1934 (it was published a short time after Wetz's death in January 1935), could say to which pieces they were related. It seems that they contained collections of songs which were later withdrawn, as it was the case with the collection op. 6. Here is a list of the remaining songs. They are all collections, not cycles, and only one work, op. 30, is dedicated to one single poet:

Six Songs op. 5   
[Five Songs op. 6 (withdrawn)]
Five Songs op. 7   
Five Songs op. 9   
Five Songs op. 10  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Six Songs op. 15  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Six Songs op. 17   
Five Songs op. 18  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Five Songs op. 20   
Five Songs op. 21   
Five Songs op. 22  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Five Joyful Songs op. 23   
Five Songs op. 24   
Six Songs op. 25     (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Five Songs op. 26  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Four Songs op. 27  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Five Songs op. 28  (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Three Poems by Ernst Ludwig Schellenberg op. 30   
Five Little Songs op. 35    (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Six Songs op. 36     (Reprint: Musikproduktion Höflich, Edition Beyond the Waves)
Six Songs op. 41   
Four Songs op. 45   
So ich traurig bin (So I am sad) WoO (published 1931)
Osterlied (Easter Song) with piano or organ WoO (published 1933)
Two Songs with Small Orchestra op. 52   

This makes in total: 106 remaining songs for voice and piano, of which currently 50 are available for sale:

https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/de/produkt-kategorie/beyond-the-waves-kammermusik/stimmen-mit-instrumenten/

If I remember right, one or two songs were once recorded by Peter Anders. One of them was "Die Muschel" (The Shell) from op. 9, which was maybe the most popular of Wetz's songs.

A minor correction to Oliver's introduction must be made: Wetz strongly disliked Richard Strauss, whom he did not know personally; among the contemporaries he appreciated were Thuille, Pfitzner and Hausegger.

[Rainolf]

If you want to try two songs of Wetz's, here you can find the scores of two pieces from op. 45, examples of his ripe style, written at the same time as the first two symphonies and String Quartet No. 1:

http://www.mediafire.com/folder/f7vpkun4a6doc/Wetz_op._45

Unfortunately, I could not find the other two songs of the opus.

[Rainolf]

Good news: the Richard Wetz song edition by Musikproduktion Höflich / Beyond the Waves has been completed. Now Wetz is ready to be turned into a sung composer (in the literal sense).

If you are interested in late romantic German songs don't overlook the volumes of works by Ferdinand Pfohl, Ewald Sträßer, Hermann Bischoff, Walter Rabl, Gerhard von Keußler, Emil Mattiesen, Georg Vollerthun, and Hermann Zilcher, offered by the same publisher.