Kauffmann, Fritz (1855-1934)

[Reverie]

Very little to be found about this composer. He was a pupil of Friedrich Kiel and lived/worked most of his life in Magdeburg, Germany. His cello concerto (1899) won considerable recognition.

Any help with his biography would be much appreciated.

Here is my rendition of his Symphony (1886)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdf9dqKoV_g

[eschiss1]

Thanks! (What I've seen of his music on IMSLP intrigues me, and there seems to be more out there in libraries.) Also: "The conductor and composer Fritz Kauffmann  (1855-1934) [a student of Friedrich Kiel...] was significantly involved in the founding of today's Magdeburg Philharmonic in 1897, of which he became its first general music director." from Startnext.com-Kauffmann Piano Trio (page of an abortive Kickstarter-ish project to record Kauffmann's 2 piano trios.) (He wrote concertos for piano, violin (2), and cello and an early string quartet (Op.14, and variations for quartet Op.8... edit: Abendmusik Op.51 pub. 1910 for string quartet also.) among other works too, but his only commercially- ...er, well, hrm. Available on YouTube in a live performance or two?- recorded work that I know of offhand- at this time- is his wind quintet Op.40. I believe...)

[eschiss1]

Also, this brief-at-present Wikipedia biography in Swedish.

[Alan Howe]

Toskey has entries on Kauffmann's two Violin Concertos: No.1 in D minor, Op.27 (1894) and No.2 in B minor, Op.50 (1909). No.1 is described as being in the tradition of Brahms' VC and, although melodious, features 'modern-style' chromatics', so I imagine we're dealing here with a composer something like, say, Wilhelm Berger.

Now to give the Symphony a listen...

[Alan Howe]

...and I'm glad I did, because (unless I'm very much mistaken), this is identical with what we have known up to now as the Symphony No.6 in A minor, Op.790, by Hans Franke. They're both in the same key.

So: what's going on here? Is 'Hans Franke' in reality a fiction? After all, we have been led to believe that his oeuvre consisted of 869 opus numbers, most of which were supposed to have been destroyed in the bombing of Dresden on 14th February 1945. Have we been well and truly hoodwinked?

I smell a rat of Joyce Hatto proportions...

[Ilja]

I had coincidentally just gone through the Franke symphony last week, so I recognized it immediately from its (fine but rather obscure) recording by the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, Frankfurt/Oder under Christian Hammer.

It'd be interesting to know (Martin?) who originally published the music. If it was Peters or Breitkopf, if I remember correctly most of their material was lost WW2 bombings. One could easily see a scenario where Franke (who appears to have been real enough) passed off a rare copy of an unplayed symphony as his own - similar to how Brazilian "composer" José Alberto Kaplan used only marginally modified versions of concertos by Shostakovich and Bartók.

However, this sounds note-for-note the same, albeit with somewhat modified movement indications (Kauffmann's finale is titled "Allegro energico", while Franke's is "Allegro risoluto", and the middle movements are swapped around) - which doesn't make Franke look much better and seems to argue against a possible mixup at the recording (but who knows?). This discovery might explain why Franke's other works sound very different from this one - and start an investigation of how much actual Franke there is in his "Piano Concerto in F major, Op. 796" on the same disc. That work sounds like it's been composed by Ferdinand Ries's brother.

I've just written an email to conductor Christian Hammer to ask for his opinion on the matter. But in short, if the provenance of Martin's score is solid we can re-assign at least Franke's "Sixth" to Kauffmann.

[Alan Howe]

Franke (who appears to have been real enough)

I think more investigation is needed. I mean, 869 opus numbers?

Here's the (German) Wikipedia article on the composer:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Franke_(Komponist)

Anyway, I'm with Ilja: the Symphony in A minor is by Kauffmann, not Franke! And from Reverie's video it can be established that the publisher was Carl Paez - info here:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Paez
Now this information on the publisher mentions Fritz Kauffmann, Emilie Mayer, Taubert and Raff! So is the Piano Concerto claimed by Franke actually by, say, Emilie Mayer? (Edit: this is not the case - Mayer's PC is a totally different piece - which leaves that particular mystery as yet unsolved.)

[Ilja]

Frankes Werkverzeichnis contains 87 works; the alleged loss of about 800 others in Dresden may or may not be true. His works are archived in the German composers' archive in Hellerau (right beneath the approach path to Dresden airport) so some sleuthing there might be in order.

Addition: from the Illustriertes Tageblatt, sächsische Heimatzeitung of 7 October 1940:

The 6th Symphony in A minor by the Dresden composer Hans Franke was accepted by music director Bruno C. Schestak, Teplitz-Schönau, for performance, and will be premiered alongside Brucker's 4th Symphony on October 11th in the Teplitz [near Königsberg] Opera House.

Of course, the interesting question is whether this was the same work.

[Reverie]

Anyway, I'm with Ilja: the Symphony in A minor is by Kauffmann, not Franke! And from Reverie's video it can be established that the publisher was Carl Paez

Both the violin and cello concertos are also published by Carl Paez

[Alan Howe]

Interesting!

Having just chatted with Mark Thomas, I'd say the most likely scenario is that Franke was a real person who passed off certain works as his own. Whether there were actually close to 900 pieces of music or whether Franke made this up following the bombing of Dresden, who knows? But that would be my suspicion, i.e. that Franke was a deceiver who claimed authorship of a number of works that weren't his own and probably made up a fictitious list of works that conveniently disappeared during the fire-bombing of February 1945.

[Ilja]

First, my commiserations to Martin, whose diligence seems to have been partly for naught. On the other hand, we'd never have found out about Franke's handiwork without him.

A bit more background information on Kauffmann and his oeuvre, from Sonneck, Oscar (1912). Orchestral music (Class M1000-1268) catalogue. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Music Division.

• Sinfonie in A-moll für grosses orchester componirt von Fritz Kaufmann. Op. 18. Orchester partitur. Berlin, Carl Paez (D. Charton), [1886]. Publ. no. 211a. 1 p.l., 104 p. fol. M1001.K22
• Dramatische ouverture für grosses orchester componiert von Fritz Kaufmann. Op. 23. Partitur Berlin, Carl Paez (D. Charton), 1893. Publ. no. C. P. 605. 43 p. fol. M1004.K27
• Concert (C-moll) für pianoforte und orchester componirt von Fritz Kaufmann. Op. 25. Partitur Berlin, Carl Paez (D. Charton), [1892]. Publ. no. C.P.590. 131 p. fol. M1010.K24 Op. 25
• Concert (D-moll) für violine und orchester von Fritz Kaufmann. Op. 27. Orchester-partitur . • Berlin, Carl Paez (D. Charton), 1894. Publ. no. C. P. 732. 82 p. fol. M1012.K23 Op. 27
• Concert (C-moll) für violoncello und orchester von Fritz Kauffmann. Op. 29. Orchester-partitur Berlin, Carl Paez (D. Charton), [1899]. Publ. no. C. P. 979. 51 p. fol. M1016.K22 Op. 29
• Zweites violonkonzert (in H moll) von Fritz Kaufmann. Op. 50. Orchester-partitur . Magdeburg, Heinrichshofen's verlag, 1909. Publ. no. H. V. 9614. 73 p. fol. M1012.K23 Op. 50

Also, I found this detailed review of Kauffmann's Violin Concerto No. 1 in the Musical Courier of 1 November, 1893 (Vol 27, Iss 712):

For those who are tired of the eternal repetition of the Mendelssohn and Bruch G minor violin concertos, and their number, beautiful as these two works are, is legion, Felix Berber's first concert this season brought a novelty which they will hail with pleasure. The fiery, young, handsome and talented Magdeburg concertmaster last Friday night at the Singakademie played to a good sized and friendly audience for the first time a new violin concerto, yet in manuscript, by Kauffmann the musikdirector of Magdeburg. The composer conducted his work in person, and with the executant shared the applause of the public, though not unanimously that of the press. The score was in my hands some six or eight weeks ago, and upon only cursory examination I found it to be the work of an excellent musician. Now, after hearing the concerto, I deem it an important augmentation to the not overburdened violin literature of the concerto genre. Kauffmann is already favorably known through his symphony and his piano concerto, but his op. 27, the D minor violin concerto will do more for him in this respect than both these preceding works. So much I am prone to predict. The first movement, though a trifle too long drawn out and a little prolix generally, is of considerable musical importance, finely conceived and masterly carried out, both as to the treatment of the solo instrument and the symphonic mold, which also permeates the orchestral accompaniment. The slow movement in B major is a lovely romanza, with a beautiful cantilene theme and an ethereal Tristan ending, while the last movement is fresh and unflagging. The second theme in A major especially is very taking. The solo part of course is extremely difficult, but in the hands of a technically so skilled and musically so gifted artist as Felix Berber, it is a work worth hearing. I recommend it to the attention of Mr. Brodski, Berber's teacher, as well as Kneisel, Miss Powell, and a very few others. Second rate violinists, however, should not touch it.

[eschiss1]

Several of those works by Kauffmann are already in some form at IMSLP, if it matters- the 2 violin concertos, the cello concerto, etc.

[Gareth Vaughan]

And Fleisher has scores and parts of all the works listed above, apart from the symphony.

[Ilja]

Now that we have the whole Franke thing out of the way, we can assess Kauffmann's symphony in its natural habitat, and I have to say that it doesn't cut a bad figure at all compared to contemporaneous German works such as Draeseke's Tragica, Bruch's Third and Fuchs's Second. It's an attractive, tuneful and somewhat muscular symphony that doesn't outstay its welcome and is neither particularly advanced nor backward-looking. A work that I will return to with some regularity.

[Alan Howe]

It's certainly 'of its time', although Draeseke really belongs with the more progressive symphonists such as Bruckner, Franck, etc. I'd prefer to group him with more conservative figures such as, say, Bruch, Gernsheim and Reinecke.

All in all, it's great to have discovered where it belongs chronologically and, most importantly, who actually wrote it. Prosit, Fritz Kauffmann!