Mathilde Kralik

[jimsemadeni]

If I remember correctly someone had interest in a concert of Bruckner's students' orchestral music and I got it off a broadcast I stumbled across. Here is the Mediafire folder if anyone wants to hear Kralik's violin concerto and her Hymnische Sinfonie.https://www.mediafire.com/folder/dubesavh1tfxb/Mathilde_Kralik
I don't know if it meets the forum's criteria or not.

[semloh]

Thanks, Jim,
Members NB - these are substantial WAV files.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, thanks Jim. From a brief sampling, both works are in a late romantic style - reminiscent of Joseph Marx, perhaps - although the two movement Violin Concerto in D minor dates from the 1930s. The 40 minute long "Hymnus" Symphony in F minor was written in 1902–03 and revised in 1942, shortly before Kralik's death. Surprisingly it isn't mentioned in the work catalogue available on the (rather over-engineered) Kralik website and I can find no more information about it other than that it's for soprano, organ and orchestra and the four movements are: I. Rhapsodisch II. Adagio III. Scherzo (Sehr rasch) - Trio (Ruhiger) IV. Rasches Tempo - Feurig - Schwungvoll- Hymne. 

[Mark Thomas]

Futher Googling reveals that the concert, from which these recordings were taken, was on 18 September 2021 at the Brucknerhaus concert hall in Linz, Austria. Here, courtesy of Google Translate (and uncorrected), is a review of the performances:

The Concerto for violin and string orchestra (with timpani) in D minor dates from 1937 and is a beautiful, melodically catchy piece full of intimate late romanticism. The soloist Francesca Dego played with verve, technical sovereignty and noticeable enthusiasm, which she shared with the carefully accompanying orchestra and the sympathetic director.

Mathilde Kralik's Symphony in F minor is also a solitaire. According to newspaper reports, the demanding work was first performed in Prague around the turn of the year 1903/04, but was never re-enacted. In 1942 the composers revised the piece. This version has now had its first performance in Linz. It is admirable how Silvia Spinnato and her all-female collective played the difficult piece not only flawlessly, but also with due passion and great skill. One caught oneself thinking of being able to experience a Bruckner or Mahler symphony in this constellation. The string section developed an enchantingly sonorous sound and the brass players gave their best, excellently seconded by the patent drums and the organist Magdalena Hasibeder.

The complex work amazed with its energy and melodic power. Of course, Bruckner was the model, along with Bach's counterpoint, but Mathilde Kralik transformed these suggestions with her own ideas into a very compact, a little too thickly instrumented but effective soundscape, especially in the multifaceted Scherzo, which the conductor sensitively modeled. Despite the minor key, the music expresses a serious yet vital joie de vivre.

The composer did not add the final hymn to her own text until 1942. To a densely woven, massive orchestral movement with timpani and trumpets, a soprano has to intone an almost fervent, very Catholic hymn to "God-filled infinity" and the "Giant Gate of Eternity", probably inspired by St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. Unfortunately, the originator was no longer able to try out, hear and change this actually unsingable exhibition. Because not even a Nilsson or Varnay would be able to cope with this almost insufferable flood of orchestras. Jacquelyn Wagner did it with courageous full commitment and thanks to a reinforcement that was absolutely necessary in this case, which admittedly charged her lyrical-dramatic noble soprano very metallically. The giant gate had to open! - The plentiful audience gave a lot of applause and bravos.

The performers were Francesca Dego (violin), Jacquelyn Wagner (soprano), Magdalena Hasibeder (organ) and the Female Symphony Orchestra, Austria conducted by Silvia Spinnato.

[britishcomposer]

Thank you, Jim!
I recorded the concert myself but did not manage to prepare and upload it yet.

[eschiss1]

I -think- we discussed some other works of hers not that long ago, by the way- chamber music?

[Alan Howe]

I greatly look forward to hearing this music.

[Mark Thomas]

I've added to our Downloads Board here mp3s made from jimsemadeni's recordings. This is attractive music, perhaps over-orchestrated but rather livelier than I had thought from my initial samplings.

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

Thanks for converting the original WAV file to 3 mp3 ones and uploading the results.  Can you tell me if the last of these three mp3 files (containing movements III. & IV.) is one mp3 because the movements are played without a break and if so do you know where movement IV starts?

Many thanks

Richard Moss

PS I'm not 'au fait' with 'tagged' files so if the info is there, my apologies for not being able to use it)

[Alan Howe]

While it's always good to have the opportunity to listen to such unsung music, my first reaction is that there's an awful lot of heavily orchestrated fury here signifying not very much. What I miss in her Symphony is any real sense of the music leading anywhere. I'm reminded, from a previous generation, of Rubinstein's 4th Symphony which huffs and puffs for over an hour; at least Kralik gets it done in 40 minutes.

Mind you, the concluding Hymn is rather fun. And the soprano makes rather a good job of a part that even Birgit Nilsson in her prime might have found a bit of a stretch.

But overall, I just can't take seriously such overblown stuff. Battered into submission, I'm now going for a lie-down...

[Mark Thomas]

Richard, yes the third file contains both the third and fourth movements - I haven't seen the score but I marked the third movement in the description I posted with the link as [attacca] to signify that it continues without a break into the fourth. Without the score I can't be sure where the fourth movement begins, but I think it's around 08:33 into the final track because the Scherzo material which opens the third movement and returns after the Trio ceases then, the tempo changes and a new theme is introduced. There's no mystery to tagging - it just means that the mp3s have text added to them which describes the music title, composer, performers etc. In most mp3 players this is displayed as the music plays.

[Mark Thomas]

I just can't take seriously such overblown stuff. Battered into submission, I'm now going for a lie-down

I hope you feel better afterwards . I didn't think the symphony that bad, to be honest. It's not great music, of course, but I've heard worse from that era, although the final vocal section (yes, poor soprano - what a job!) is a major miscalculation on Kralik's part. The Concerto is rather more delicate fare, but the orchestra is strings and timpani only.

[Alan Howe]

The Violin Concerto jogs along quite attractively in the first movement, but with absolutely zero melodic distinction. By far the best music comes in the slow movement which leads into the very excitable finale - another exhausting, full-on, and very loud movement.

Glad to have heard it? Just about. Glad it's now over? 'fraid so.

Many thanks, though, for the efforts that went into recording and uploading this very obscure and unusual fare.

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

Tks for the quick and helpful reply about the mp3 file for movements III & IV.  Much appreciated.

Richard

[Ilja]

I just can't take seriously such overblown stuff. Battered into submission, I'm now going for a lie-down

I hope you feel better afterwards . I didn't think the symphony that bad, to be honest. It's not great music, of course, but I've heard worse from that era, although the final vocal section (yes, poor soprano - what a job!) is a major miscalculation on Kralik's part. The Concerto is rather more delicate fare, but the orchestra is strings and timpani only.

The symphony made me think of Leopold Damrosch's, which (I think) Alan once described as a "glorious failure", or words to that effect. I still don't quite know what I listened to, but I enjoyed parts of it, particularly the coda.