Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949)

[FBerwald]

I agree, the latest cpo Pfitzner CD is an absolutely first-rate release. Wonderfully sung and played too.

Seconded!!!!!!!!!!!! This album is just plain terrific.

[Pyramus]

I have a Hyperion CD of three Pfitzner cello concertos (two in A minor, one in G), and the duo for violin, cello and orchestra by the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin cond. S. Weigle. I must have bought it having heard one of the works on the radio so will listen to it again. It will make a change from Draeseke, Grimm and Dietrich!

[Mark Thomas]

... and be more tedious than any of them, I'll be bound. Good luck!

[Alan Howe]

Agreed! Draeseke, Grimm and Dietrich composed some of the most interesting, not to say important unknown symphonies of the nineteenth century.

Pfitzner's greatest work is probably his opera 'Palestrina', but that really takes some listening to. Kubelik's recording is very fine - and very well cast. Some of it may remind you of the more 'conversational' passages of Die Meistersinger, other parts of Richard Strauss. Overall, though, it's rather an austere listen, but I'm persuaded that it's worth persevering with - if serious late romantic opera in the German tradition is your 'thing', that is. As I suggested, the Kubelik recording has a fabulous cast - Gedda, Ridderbusch, Fischer-Dieskau, Weikl, Prey, Donath, Fassbaender. Unlike so many obscure operas released these days, this was cast from strength. That's how they did things 50 years ago (it was released in 1973!)

FWIW I believe that 'Palestrina' contains some very great music indeed. But this is a personal opinion which I'm sure not everyone will share. Orchestrally, the Prelude to Act 2 is quite a piece. It comes at the listener almost like a medieval battering-ram. I can't think of anything quite like it in all music.

[Pyramus]

Agreed! Draeseke, Grimm and Dietrich composed some of the most interesting, not to say important unknown symphonies of the nineteenth century.

Yes I agree too. Discovering them this  year has been quite a revelation (and I'm 76). I was just meaning that Pfitzner would be different!

[Alan Howe]

He's certainly that. He's uneven, but when he's good, he's sublime. And what makes Kubelik's Palestrina so inspiring is precisely that roster of star soloists. It's an opera which, with so many roles to cast, would be a pain to listen to if recorded, like so many operas today, at some provincial theatre with a decent orchestra but zero singers capable of caressing the ear.

[adriano]

In my opinion, Pfitzner's gretaest and most inspired work is his cantata "Von deutscher Seele" - on poems by Eichendorff. The best recording forever is the 1966 DDG album conducted by Joseph Keilberth, featuring singers like Agnes Giebel, Hertha Töpper, Fritz Wunderlich and Otto Wiener. One of my "desert island" items!

[Alan Howe]

That's an important reminder. Fancy having the great Fritz Wunderlich in that work!

[Ilja]

That's a wonderful recording; re-released not too long ago together with Othmar Schoeck's appropriately gloomy Lebendig begraben (in the Fischer-Dieskau / Rieger recording).

[Alan Howe]

It's a reminder that all music benefits enormously from top-flight performers, especially if it isn't well known. I just can't imagine Palestrina sung by a string of provincial soloists: there's pleasure in hearing such great singers performing Pfitzner's opera and having such a distinguished conductor (Kubelik) at the helm.

[Pyramus]

When it comes to public performances of the cello concertos, or indeed any concerto by one of the unsung composers we are discussing, we are faced with finding soloists who have them in their repertoire. An aspiring cellist would aim to learn some or all of the following - the Haydn concertos and those by Schumann, Saint-Saens, Dvorak, Elgar and Shostakovich, plus the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations and Brahms Double Concerto. That's already a large repertoire so Pfitzner unlikely.

[Alan Howe]

Well, the reality is that many recordings - especially those made by/alongside broadcasters - are virtually one-off events which preserve performances of unsung music that are never repeated. This was the case with Rufinatscha's last Symphony made in conjunction with the BBC in Manchester when the broadcast performance was followed by the Chandos recording. As far as I know Gianandrea Noseda has never conducted the work again.

It's asking a lot to expect any musician to learn a work purely for a recording and then never to perform it again - but that's usually the reality as far as getting neglected music recorded is concerned. It's an uphill battle...

[kolaboy]

For me Pfitzner is a bit like Thomas Mann; dense, oppressive, but ultimately rewarding. I return to his chamber works more than his orchestral pieces - especially the piano quintet. I do enjoy the symphonies, though.

[John Boyer]

For me Pfitzner is a bit like Thomas Mann; dense, oppressive, but ultimately rewarding.

Regarding Thomas Mann, I certainly concur with the first two qualifiers, at least in translation, but for Pfitzner all three apply.  He is, as Alan says, uneven, but when he's on his game he's remarkable.  The prelude to Act I of "Palestrina", along with the chorus of angels in the final scene of that act, are sublimely beautiful.  The Violin Sonata is a masterpiece (at least for me), and the Violin Concerto highly original.  What other composer would write a concerto slow movement where the soloist plays not a single note?  There are other examples, like the aforementioned quintet, and the Piano Concerto.   

Yes, he's definitely worth the effort. 

[Alan Howe]

'Von deutscher Seele' belongs, I think, in the broad same category as Schoenberg's 'Gurrelieder', Elgar's three great oratorios, Delius' 'A Mass of Life', Franz Schmidt's 'Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln' and, I'm tempted to add, in some respects Havergal Brian's 'Gothic Symphony' and Mahler's 8th, i.e. large-scale late/post-romantic choral-orchestral works. You'll also find parallels with later Strauss operas, especially in some of the more ecstatic vocal writing for the soprano, beautifully sung by Agnes Giebel in the classic Keilberth recording. I would say, however, that it's probably a more difficult listen than any of the above-mentioned works, with the exception of the Brian.

For further information on the work, please follow this link:
https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/prefaces/4606.html

I'd certainly like to experience the work live. Has it ever been performed in the UK, I wonder? Get Martyn Brabbins to conduct it and hire the Royal Albert Hall...