The German WDR3 will broadcast next Tuesday, 23.10.2012, 20:05
a forthcoming concert from Oct. 21th featuring a performance of
Erich J. Wolff's violin concerto Op.20 with soloist Sophia Jaffé
(together with Mahler's 7th symphony).
http://www.wdr3.de/musik/sinfonischemusikbeiwdr3/sechzigjahrewdrstaedtekonzertenrw102.html (http://www.wdr3.de/musik/sinfonischemusikbeiwdr3/sechzigjahrewdrstaedtekonzertenrw102.html)
http://www.neue-philharmonie-westfalen.de/monat-10-2012.php?showid=10961 (http://www.neue-philharmonie-westfalen.de/monat-10-2012.php?showid=10961)
I've never heard anything about or from Erich J. Wolff, but I hope it will be a bit like Waghalter's newly rediscovered concerto.
All the references which I have found (and there aren't many) refer to him as being a friend and colleague of Zemlinsky and Schoenberg, so maybe that gives us some stylistic clues....
I've set it up to record......we'll see
Jerry
all I've heard is of a recording of some of his lieder, along with Urspruch and Thuille (assuming this is the same Wolff). Look forward to hearing.
Try this CD of songs by him to gauge the idiom:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Erich-J-Wolff-1874-1913-Hafis-Ges%E4nge-op-posth/hnum/1701442 (http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Erich-J-Wolff-1874-1913-Hafis-Ges%E4nge-op-posth/hnum/1701442)
Quote from: jerfilm on Wednesday 17 October 2012, 20:48
I've set it up to record......we'll see
Jerry
Many thanks. I'll have a go too.
Erich Jaques Wolff (I assume the same fellow!), violin concerto op.20, manuscript copy (described as opus 19 - the RISM page even says, basically, rechte opus 20 :) and published 1909...), in E-flat major dedicated to Miss Kathleen Parlow in score, at Staatsbibliothek Berlin. (RISM ID no. 461006700, orchestration and other information available there. Can provide a link. It can be a useful site when information is available there. SBB sometimes has good stuff scanned in, will check later to see if the Wolff is one such item- he died early enough, alas, to be PD-EU/CA/US (for scores published early enough too), I think, so it's quite possible...) (a slight digression, apologies.)
Thanks, Eric.
Toskey describes the style of the VC as "late romantic" and times the piece at 25 minutes. This music is apparently...
"of a dramatic nature, with lyrical tendencies in the slow movement and dance-like rhythms in portions of the final movement. The mood is somewhat sentimental...the tonalities are moderately chromatic and the music is melodious."
From this description we might perhaps expect something similar to Waghalter or Weingartner rather than Reger or Schillings.
More Erich for Eric
Another recommendation for my swashbuckling buddy:
Ein solcher ist mein Freund
Muisc of Erich Wolff ( Thorofon label)
Rebecca Broberg, Ilona Weimer, Jerome Weiss, Ulrich Urban
Songs; melodramas; 4 hand piano works et al.
Resonances of Brahms, Wolf and early Schoenberg. Lovely stuff.. can't wait for the violin concerto
Sorry, I post-empted Mark's recommendation.
...or even Alan's recommendation. ;)
Thanks to mkjFendrich for the fine recording of this, to me at least, totally unknown work. I don't know where Toskey got his 25 minutes duration from - this performance comes in at around 40 minutes. To my ear, at first hearing the overwhelming tenor of the work is rhapsodic although that doesn't mean that it is without drama. It is lyrical but without being memorably melodic - perhaps that'll come with repeated hearings. Overall, though, a very welcome late-romantic acquaintance.
Looking forward to downloading it very soon.
BTW I see that Wolff's songs were the subject of a commemorative article by Ernest Newman very soon after the composer died... (Musical Times and singing-class circular, May 1 1913, pp.302-303. Mentions the violin concerto at the beginning though only as something he hasn't heard as yet. Gives death date as Mar. 19 1913, in America while on tour with Elena Gerhardt.)
(Some of the songs are in score @ IMSLP.)
re biography, by the way, Baker 1919 p.1050 says that that final concert tour was with Julia (Bertha) Culp, not Elena Gerhardt (mezzo-sopranos).
Thank you very much for recording and uploading the Wolff concerto, mjk!
I had problems with my stream and would have had to spend hours to cut the many pauses.
Much appreciated! :)
Wolff's VC turns out to be pretty much what one might expect from the composer of the very fin-de-siècle songs on the Thorofon CD - only more so! It has none of Reger's post-Brahmsian rigour or Waghalter's easy melodiousness; instead this a violin concerto that a less hysterical Scriabin might have written. It's absolutely gorgeous in its sense of late-Romantic yearning - perhaps a piece such as Chausson's Poème offers some points of comparison, except that this is a full-scale concerto (lasting 40 minutes). I have heard nothing like it and am actually rather bowled over by it. Many, many thanks, mkj, for making such a wonderful job of the recording.
Can anybody get the movement titles?
there are at least 4 libraries that have this that I can see. three have the original 1909 published reduced score. one has the 2012 Ries & Erler full score (I think it is, ed. Pachl.) Will see if I can find out more... (and performance/revival in the same year as "re"publication/first full-score publication/etc. - well, that has happened before too :) )
For those who can read German, here's a link to an extremely complimentary review:
http://www.nmz.de/online/ur-oder-erste-wiederauffuehrung-das-violinkonzert-op-20-von-erich-j-wolff-in-recklinghausen (http://www.nmz.de/online/ur-oder-erste-wiederauffuehrung-das-violinkonzert-op-20-von-erich-j-wolff-in-recklinghausen)
anyone know when the premiere was?
The Musical Times reported a performance in Berlin in its Dec. 1 1909 issue (along with the symphony in B minor of Volbach and a violin concerto by Gustav Ernest- not all 3 in the same concert) but this may not have been its premiere. (Or maybe it was... anyway, Alexander/Aleksandr Petschnikoff was the violinist.)
A more detailed report of an early performance may list the movements...
(The solution to the mezzo question fwiw- I expect I'm the only one confuzzled by that -- is that he was accompanying both of them at different times, according to various contemporary accounts that mention Julia Culp as his accompanist soon after his death here, Elena Gerhardt as his accompaniment soon before his death there...)
I've just got an authoritative answer to several questions concerning this violin concerto
from Prof. Peter P. Pachl (who has prepared its new edition for Ries & Erler):
the individual movements are
1. Allegro moderato
2. Schwermütig, nicht zu langsam – bewegt, leidenschaftlich drängend
3. gemächlich, nicht zu schnell - Vivace
The initial J really stands for Jaques (not for "Julius" as announced in WDR3).
Thanks very much for completing the picture.
Thanks, and I was wondering re Jaques/Julius as they aren't the same name even translated :)
Many thanks mjkFendrich for uploading this VC. Going by the comments on this forum re-Wolff has prompted me to download this VC. I am looking forward to listening to it later today.
Actually, I think a fairer comparison might be with the (earlier) music of Schreker.
Now that I have the full info, I, too, will, as I've heard said here, give it a punt. :)