Johanna Senfter: Symphonies

[Alan Howe]

I'm hoping that our new member Petteri Nieminen will tell us more about Joahnna Senfter's symphonies...

Wikipedia has this listing (no dates, unfortunately):

Symphony No.1 in F Major, Op. 22
Symphony No.2 in D Minor, Op. 27
Symphony No.3 in A Major, Op. 43
Symphony No.4 in B♭ Major, Op. 50
Symphony No.5 in E Minor, Op. 67
Symphony No.6 in E♭ Major, Op. 74
Symphony No.7 in F Minor, Op. 84
Symphony No.8 in E♭ Minor, Op. 107

...but there also seems to be: Symphony No.9, Op.117

...so a nine-symphony cycle indeed!

[Petteri Nieminen]

Johanna Senfter (1879-1961) was a taciturn, introvert person who wished that she'd be known by her music and not by her person. Hitherto, she failed and remained unknown on both accounts. Schott Music has the rights for her works and keeps most of her orchestral manuscripts while a few are at Cologne University Library. I am happy to have an agreement with Schott that allows our Society to engrave and edit the symphonies (and at least the viola concerto) from her manuscripts. Unfortunately, the process is obviously not the fastest but we're expecting to have performances (and hopefully some recordings) of the early symphonies in 2024.

No. 1 F major "1914". Performed once in 1918. This is a three-movement relatively compact work (30 minutes) for the conventional romantic orchestra but with cor anglais, bass clarinet (that only plays in 10 bars though), contrabassoon and harp. Could be a nice introduction for her symphonies for medium-sized orchestras that can hire a few musicians for the extra instruments. Second movement especially good in its chromatic and somber melancholy.

2nd in D minor. Four movements, practically similar orchestration, about 40 minutes. She often did a 6/8 finale in her earlier symphonies. Was performed once in the early 1920's. I did find the review from a local German newspaper but forgot the file where I put it.

3rd in A major and the only one in a sharp key. Working on its finale at the moment. Four movements, no harp, could be played by any professional orchestra. It pairs quite closely with the 4th in its 6/8 rhythms and large scale (I suppose 50 minutes). It was performed in 1928 with quite good reviews and apparently good response from the audience (as they mention how "the sympathetic composer" was repeatedly called on stage). However, they performed a torso. The score has many omissions that seem to have been hastily, as they just jump over important passages as long as the chord from the start of a jump was found on the bar where it ends. In fact, I am quite sure that the next performance of this can be called the actual first performance. I think that about 10 minutes were cut.

4th, B flat major and the one accessible with an audio. Also here some baffling cuts were made (of which one is an alternative proposed by the composer in the first movement). The second movement of the audio goes into (in my opinion) too fast tempos in the middle sections when compared to the score.

5th, despite the Wii page in C minor not i E minor, no date on the score and probably never performed. I surmise a composition date in the late 1920's or early 1930's. Requires 8 horns, which may have been an obstacle. Three movements and while I have not studied this yet in detail (next year), it starts to incorporate hymns, the sign of the latter half of the symphonies.

6th in E flat, Composed 1932 and performed at least twice (in the 30's and 50's). Four movements and goes deeper into the style of incorporating hymns.

7th in F minor and four movements, goes a bit back to her earlier style with an academic structure of sonata forms and four movements. Only the "urschrift" remains (the "original manuscript, not cleanly copies, the "reinschrift" is the clearer copy). There are reports of the work having been played in 1944 but I'm Skeptic, as no instrument parts or even traces of them have been found (same as with the 5th, 8th and 9th, I think that they are still waiting for their world premieres).

8th is in E flat major, I think that this is the one that's been dropped from the Wiki list (the 9th is in the musician-fiendly [pun intended] E flat minor). Composed 1945, have not looked at it in detail yet but the handwriting is a bit dismal.

The 9th is in E flat minor, four movements, this is going to be something. It incorporates Luther's hymn "aus tiefer Not schrei ich zo dir" (de profundis in german) but only instrumental. Four movements and the hymns is everywhere. Composed in 1949 and there are musicologists working in Germany deciphering her live events etc. figuring out if this was a personal cry, a reaction to Germany's dismay or both or something else.

General characteristics of her symphonies.
-Usually they follow the sonata form very closely in the 1st and 4th movements (which makes typesetting easier as the first 30-40 bars of recapitulation are identical to the beginning).
-Senfter does dynamics with instrumentation. As the music intensifies, more are more instruments join a line (usually the woodwinds also in the manner that the 1st player joins first, then the 2nd) and they also exit a phrase in the same manner.
-In the earlier symphonies the woodwinds do not always show mush independence but double the strings (as explained above), less so beginning with the 3rd and 4th symphonies.
-Senfter usually goes straight into business. No long introductions, the first theme groups starts at measure 1. No extended codas, either, once you reach the principal key in a reasonably satisfactory manner, it's OK and we can all go home (I like her endings).
-The horns are big players. They often introduce principal the groups (we.g., 2nd and 3rd symphonies) and for the remainder of the time, they have their own counter-melodies that add richness to the overall score.
-The trumpets are a bit more restricted for culminations of passages, trombones and tuba have interesting passages of accompanying especially woodwind solos and soli.
-Clarinets have a lot to do when it comes to woodwind solos, flutes next, oboes quite a lot of less and bassoons mostly double the cellos and double basses
-String parts are very demanding, requiring high passages for cellos (and also double basses), lots of divisi.
-The chromatism and accidentals are everywhere. A bar without an accidental is a rarity, a bar with a couple of double flats is the norm. Sharp accidentals perhaps only 20% of accidentals, its flat, flat, flat.

Viola concerto in C minor (I myself play the viola). Three movements, structure conventional. Technically, it is very demanding with lots of difficult double stops. The range does not go very high which will help the eventual soloist (not gonna be me, much too difficult). Orchestrated intelligently and very sparingly to give the soloist the front stage. We are still kind of missing the BIG romantic concerto for the viola (yes, we have Rubbra, Forsyth and Walton but not the ultimate). Could this be it? Maybe, but the complex chromatism could scare off the large audiences.

Unfortunately it is not possible (yet) to share any (computer-played) audio samples. Everything needs Schott's approval. However, the project itself is open for discussion and Schott has announced it as official. We're working overdrive and hoping that many orchestras and conductors will become interested.

World premiers for the 5th, /th (?), 8th and 9th pending, viola concerto also. 3rd: world premier of the original version. I should think that conductors would be interested in the kudos.

[Mark Thomas]

Thank you Petteri for this extremely thorough and very interesting summary. The prospect of performances and recordings is enticing and it promises well for the future.

[eschiss1]

The unusually (compared, say, to Haydn!) "exact" recapitulations sounds a lot like her teacher Reger! That said, I agree with Mark.
Is her fourth symphony in B (5 sharps) or B-flat (2 flats) (or B minor - 2 sharps - or B-flat - 5 flats) ? I'm confused?

[Petteri Nieminen]

The unusually (compared, say, to Haydn!) "exact" recapitulations sounds a lot like her teacher Reger! That said, I agree with Mark.
Is her fourth symphony in B (5 sharps) or B-flat (2 flats) (or B minor - 2 sharps - or B-flat - 5 flats) ? I'm confused?

Sorry, the 4th is in B flat major.

The exact recapitulation extends to the first 2/3 of the first theme group usually, thereafter she does some changes into instrumentation etc. Interestingly, the second theme group is repeated not in the main key of the movement but usually a second higher or lower than in the exposition (and this takes palce in more than one symphony). Reger used to say that Senfter was his best student (also mentioned in the newspaper reviews of her early symphonies).I am happy to go deeper into any aspect and if any one knows conductors who would be interested, I can connect them with Schott for more info (they will have to have a say for first performances).

[Alan Howe]

Thanks very much indeed, Petteri! As you will see, I have amended the key signatures in the listing which I posted as well as B♭ major for the 4th Symphony in your own very informative and intriguing post. I hope everything is now correct.

We greatly look forward to reports on your progress whenever you have the time to post them.

I would imagine that cpo might be interested in your project - there are so many good radio orchestras in Germany. What are your thoughts on the quality of the YouTube performance of Symphony No.4 from Jena conducted by Othmar Maga (apart from what you mention in your post)?

[Petteri Nieminen]

The Jena performance is in my opinion OK but some interesting stuff in the score are very hard to hear, but that is probably due to the not-too-good audio quality. For instance, the electric background of the violas (beginning of 1st movement) is very hard to hear. I think that the finale works best with the sharp dotted rhythms (but in this case, the second theme group does not need to be so tranquil). We just discussed the possibility sharing of Senfter samples (some pages of scores in pdf, noteperformer audios) on our society's website (it would be good to promote with the actual music and not walls of text) and if and when it becomes allowed, I'll also keep this forum updated.

[Mark Thomas]

That would be very good. Thanks Petteri.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that assessment - it's good to have an expert opinion. As I said before, we look forward to further news in due course.

[eschiss1]

about Senfter, she's the next Radio 3 COTW.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for pointing this out, Eric.

Annoyingly, the large-scale works, e.g. the 4th Symphony and Piano Concerto, are spread over different days,
so the only solution is to listen to - or record - the whole week's programmes (12 noon to 1pm each day). Of course, this may be the only way of broadcasting these works in a one-hour programme, owing to their length.

Still, maybe some clever person will be able to do some discreet stitching...

[Wheesht]

Are the COTW programmes usually available for re-listening on BBC Sounds?

By the way, COTW is to be moved to late afternoon, see the latest article by the Spin Doctor, "Accessible Music", on the Europadisc website.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Thomas, COTW is available on catch-up.

[Mark Thomas]

Recordings of the broadcasts this week of the Symphony No.4 and Piano Concerto are now available in our Downloads Board here. The final movement of the Symphony wasn't broadcast (an odd decision) so I've added it from the poorer quality version of the same recording which is available on YouTube.

[Alan Howe]

It's very good of you, Mark, to have gone to all the trouble of piecing together these works and uploading them here. Many thanks!