Other than the Sterling recording of his Symphony No. 5 there seems to be nothing much else. Even the wiki article is scant. It talks about 10 Symphonies and a Piano Concerto. Can anyone share some info on this forgotten composer? What else did he write?
An interesting article by Chris Walton for The Musical Times (vol. 147, pp. 25-38) could be worth reading. Unfortunately I have only access to a preview of it, but it seems that most of Schulz-Beuthen's compositions (they were kept by his sister) were lost during the bombings of Dresden in 1945. The list of works lost in the fire is not a pleasant reading:
6 Operas
15 Symphonic poems and overtures
8 of his 10 symphonies
Several works for choir and orchestra
Songs, piano pieces and chamber works
The complete article can be read for free online here (if you register..) I guess it can give you more details about his music.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25434381?uid=3738744&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102119556941 (http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/25434381?uid=3738744&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21102119556941)
Morten
Having read that Schulz-Beuthen rubbed shoulders in student days in Leipzig with Moscheles and Reinecke I thought him a potentially interesting composer. In fact a quick look at overviews of his biography on Wiki and elsewhere indicated this is someone to investigate. Quite a few 'names' popped up in these preliminary investigations.
However a large proportion of his compositions were destroyed in the Dresden firebombing, and thus sadly there is not much left to investigate. Presumably many works weren't actually published which would have increased the chance of their having survived the horrors of those years? The thought can't be resisted, although it may well be monstrously unfair: if they weren't published in his lifetime, then are they in fact any good?
However I suppressed such niggling thoughts, and a couple of years ago purchased the Sterling disc of the Reformation Symphony. Dreadful confession: having listened to it, it went back on the shelf and I think has gathered dust since. One problem of course is that in the case of a totally unfamiliar composer it is often difficult to make headway with a single work because you're not familiar with her or his musical language.
So I guess things will remain thus until I ascend heavenwards (grim thought: think of the sheer boredom consequent upon having no wants to pursue and having to listen for an eternity to the sound of harps) or descend to more fiery places below. Unless someone unearths a host of compositions buried in a steel trunk in a Dresden cellar, and who knows? (There have been two cases in the last year or so of long lost compositions being discovered in trunks under garden sheds or in cellars where they had been placed in Nazi years!)
There are two Guild CDs of piano music recorded by Kirsten Johnson, but I don't know them.
As Morten indicates Schulz-Beuthen was a prolific composer. He suffered breakdowns towards the end of his life, and died in an asylum. Coupled with the fact that most of his compositions are no more, what an awfully sad, tragic life.
Can't say I've ever heard anything of any real interest by him. Still, it would have been nice to judge for oneself...
And at IMSLP all we have so far is some waltzes for piano duet... so far, anyway. I should put up some wish-requests for the other stuff, as I'm intrigued to find out for myself one way-the other...
It's years since I've listened to Sterling's CD of his orchestral music (which says something in itself) but my strong memory is of works which were undistinguished in content and amateurish in execution.
Of his orchestral works the British Library has full scores of Die Toteninsel (recorded by Sterling) and the Kinder Sinfionie, Op. 11.
Also a microfilm of the Partitur of this interesting sounding piece: Befreiungs-Gesang der Verbannten Israels. : Nach Worten des 126sten Psalms für gemischten oder Männer-Chor, Soli, Orchester und Clavier componirt.
Quoteundistinguished in content and amateurish in execution.
Yes - rather disappointing. Except for
Die Toteninsel which I thought really had something. I must say, I haven't listened to the disk for a long time. Time to give it an airing perhaps.
Add me to the list of those who own the Sterling recording. (I bought it used last month, actually - part of a raft of Romantic stuff someone appears to have unloaded on a nice little used CD store near here.)
I rather liked it, actually. It's not the greatest of the great, but I found it quite pleasant, if undistinguished, listening. Can't say that I remember a note of it, but I know I liked it. Take that for what you will.
There are a few of his piano works on CD - on the Guild Label, played by Kirsten Johnson. These are excellently played and recorded and the music is really interesting. I did download an article about him ages ago which I still have - pm me if you would like a copy (it might be the same as the jstor one mentioned earlier...)
Here are the CDs:
http://www.mdt.co.uk/goetz-hermann-lose-blatter-op-alhambra-sonata-kirsten-johnson-guild.html (http://www.mdt.co.uk/goetz-hermann-lose-blatter-op-alhambra-sonata-kirsten-johnson-guild.html)
and
http://www.mdt.co.uk/schulz-beuthen-heinrich-piano-works-opp-23-28-kirsten-johnson-guild.html
(http://www.mdt.co.uk/schulz-beuthen-heinrich-piano-works-opp-23-28-kirsten-johnson-guild.html)
Hope this helps!
Thanks, Jonathan.
I have both these CDs and listened to them recently. I'm afraid that I'm just as negative about his piano music as I am his orchestral. Of course, in piano music Schulz-Beuthen can (and does) get away more easily with the merely pretty, and some of the pieces on these CDs are quite fetching salon music, but I don't think that there is any substance to any of it. A shame, and only my opinion of course, but I do think the Schulz-Beuthen was no more than a minor talent.
Well, we shall probably never arrive at a just assessment of his worth as a composer because so much of his music is lost forever, but what we have does suggest that he was not a forgotten master!
I have this vague memory that he also did good editing work, but maybe I'm thinking of his well-known arrangements/fantasies, arrangements in a broader sense, and getting that confused instead. Have to look into that... Non-master but I want to give as much credit as is due, I guess.
Quotewe shall probably never arrive at a just assessment of his worth as a composer because so much of his music is lost forever
Very true, Gareth, and I do agree. Unfortunately he hasn't been well served by his surviving music that we can hear.
There is I think an opera of his in vocal score manuscript surviving at Harvard FWIW, see this (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.consortium.hvd_009621096/default.html) link. Will have to check later if it's been scanned, but maybe sometime next visit to that area (no idea when that will be) I might see if they allow access to it for browsing anyway... (I doubt it, but worth a go. Students or staff/faculty of Harvard might have more luck in that case though than I would...)
Edit: hrmm.... and another here (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.consortium.hvd_009620997/default.html). Google points to a few of these, in fact. ... hrm indeed. Yes, probably boring, but at least this way if they've been scanned- it says networked resource, whatever that means in this particular context (Harvard people only? US only? ...), I'm off to work right now but... will find out...- well, harmless enough way I suppose to see what his operatic writing was like, maybe.
Hi Mark
I don't really think that my interpretation of Schulz-Beuthen on that Sterling CD can be considered as "amateurish".
Or you just explain why.
Regards
Adriano, Zurich/Switzerland
I suspect Mark may have been thinking of a comment such as this by MusicWeb's Rob Barnett about the orchestra on the CD:
...the Muscovite orchestra (who do enthusiastic and sterling, if not always desperately refined, service to the music)...(emphasis added)
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Dec02/Schulz-Beuthen.htm (http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Dec02/Schulz-Beuthen.htm)
However, Moscow orchestras seem to be better these days...
Thanks Alan, yes, but "not desperately refined" has nothing to do with amaterurism or professionalism!
Adriano, I phrased my comment badly. By "works which were undistinguished in content and amateurish in execution" I was referring to the music itself, not your performance of it. As you know, I have many of your recordings and have nothing but respect for your professionalism.
Thanks Mark ;)
However, I often suffer having to conduct recordings in such a short time, just because of financial limitations. Listeners and reviewer, of course, do not care about what was always behind, when they hear a finished CD. My standard is to give the atmosphere of a good live performance, and not of a sterile studio recording, based on virtuously edited sequences. There is really never the time for all this, and I am glad. I still have some seleepless nights about this or that place in some of my CDs which I simply had to accept, otherwise the recording would have costed much more and nobody would have paid for it (except myself, who had paid this or that extra a few times in the past). Of course, star conductors/soloist are treated differently. I have a long article ready about my sometimes quite grotesque and all-other-than-friendly collaboration with Marco Polo-Naxos; but one should also consider that (at often unworthy conditions) I still could realize 30 CDs in order to enrich the unusual repertoire. Of course, once Marco Polo had less obscure conductors, I was thrown out like a beggar who had been given enough... This article will be published on my website very soon. It's always good to look back with criticism and, why not, in anger.
I am sure that all of us here at UC have nothing but the greatest respect and admiration for the service you have rendered to music, and in particular to neglected music. If you have had to deal with less than ideal recording conditions in order to bring such music to the public, then perhaps we should be even more grateful for all you have done - and achieved.
My - our - message to you is therefore: thank you and keep going. We owe you more than we can say for bringing us so many musical treasures.
Thanks again, Mark
By separate messenger you will receive some more "dramatic" reports on my past collaboration with Marco Polo-Naxos.
... and now a reply to pertershott ;)
You speak about trying to make yourself an image of a composer, having only one work at disposal. In the case of my Sterling CD this is all other than the case: there are 4 different works on it. The Fifth Symphony was carefully edited by myself, working on a manuscript copy of the Symphony which, fortunately enough, was not in Dresden, so it did not burn. I also extracted all orchestral parts. The three other works were old printed scores.
Regards Adriano
So are there no other extant works of Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen?
Hmmmm? There's several operas that still exist in vocal score (as I recall mentioning just above a few posts...)- I don't know where the instrumental parts, but that's at least partially something one can make a judgment on... and perhaps conjecturally could be reconstructed, or performed as is as chamber opera...
KVK lists the following items by (or relating to) Schulz-Beuthen in some of their catalogues (Austrian and German library catalogues selected only, and not all of those, and I'm not going to reproduce every item they list... KVK is http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk_en.html (http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk_en.html), btw...)
a biographical sketch, in German, edited by Chris Walton, published 2003 (entitled, appropriately, "Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen : (1838 - 1915) ; eine biographische Skizze". (Neujahrsblatt der Allgemeinen Musikgesellschaft in Zürich : auf d. Jahr ... ; 187. 2003.)
"Der Zauberschlaf : mit freier Benutzung der Mährchen "Aschenbrödel" und "Dornröschen" ; romantische Oper in 3 Aufzügen , componiert in Zürich 1868-1878 / Text nach einer Dichtung von M. Wesendonck und Musik von H. Schulz-Beuthen " (IDC publishers, 2002 microfiche of 1879 publication, Richard Wagner Collection - found in the Union Catalog Northern Germany. Not positive if this is the libretto, vocal score, or full score or parts, though... guessing one of the first two...)
Alhambra-Sonate for piano, Op.34 (pub.1883 acc. HMB. Yes, still exists- not listing lost works, just ones listed in libraries - well, ok, some libraries list works they think they have, sometimes mistakenly - LoC comes to mind here...)
"Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen 1838 - 1915 : Leben und Werke ; Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der neueren Programmusik " (Alois Zosel, pub.1931.)
Heinrich Nikolowski: "Über Opern die Schulz-Beuthen" (article in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Jg. 83/1916. S. 181 - 182).
"Minstrel-Lieder und Tänze für Klavier : op. 26 ; ein Zyklus frei bearbeiteter Original-Melodien" (1999 publication by Amadeus-Verlag, edited by Chris Walton.)
(more piano works and songs -e.g. opp.40 (Cycle of 5 piano pieces, pub.1895), 41 ( Jugenderinnerungen, pub.1895), 43 (Das Lied vom alten Thüringer, pub.1893) - some in original editions, some in new ones - also in these libraries. Kirsten Johnson- ah, familiar name!- has recorded some of the piano music, I see.) (... posting and editing... :) )
Also, Concertromanze für violine (or cello) mit Begl. d. Orchesters oder Klavier Op.37 (pub.1888/89 according to HMB.)
Full scores of "Die Toteninsel" (pub. Oertel & Breitkopf, 1909) at Free Library of Philadelphia (Library of Congress, and some German libraries, also Fleisher Collection -score and parts available to institutions; they also have an arrangement for piano and orchestra of the Tarantella from his op.40, and the Op.28 Abschiedsklange Mr. Adriano recorded- I don't see that in HMB, though, and Google Books gives no enlightenment either...)
"Die Toteninsel" ("Isle of Death") already figures on my Sterling CD, eschiss! A very strange sounding and fascinating piece. Some critic meant that we do not play it cleanly enough, but the problem is that in many places, Beuthen uses 6-tuplets against 4/4 rhythm, and these 6-tuplets are subdivided into smaller note values, like 16th notes. I think Beuthen wanted to suggest chaos in connection with death and the music sounds quite irregular.
As far as his opera "Dornröschen" (The Sleeping Beauty) is concerned, you can imagine how some critics precipitated themselves to destroy this work, after Beuthen had, over many years, produced himself as an extremely severe critic in Zurichs newspapers.
The mentioned "Minstrel-Lieder", op. 26 are a new title invented by Chris Walton, since the original title is "Neger-Lieder" (Nigger-Songs). They also figure on my Sterling CD, you can even hear "Oh, Susannah!". Quite a lovely suite with a lot of triangle playing.
Don't forget the lovely and bitter-ending suite for strings "Abschieds-Klänge" which concludes my disc. Beuthen had to leave Zurich, after he had made more and more enemies, and that was his "Farewell"-Piece.-
Regards from Zurich
Adriano
It is a pity that Schulz-Beuthen's symphonies (apart from No. 5, it would seem) were destroyed in the Dresden bombings. While not overly impressed with the symphonic material in No. 5, I do find Schulz-Beuthen's orchestration interesting and I find "Die Toteninsel" quite fascinating, so it would have been of great interest to hear what else he did symphonically. Alas, that will now never be!
The MS of Beuthen's Fifth also burnt in Dresden. My editing work was done on the presumable copy (by unknown hand) which was handed over as a gift to Emperor Wilhelm of Germany (its dedicatee) .
Quote from: hadrianus on Tuesday 22 October 2013, 16:02
Neger-Lieder (Nigger-Songs)
Well, they could just as easily - and much less offensively - be translated "Negro Songs".
No; in German, the word "Neger" is already offensive. We have to say something like "people of color" and a (German) title like "People of color songs" would be rather funny. But on my CD, I use the offensive original title - and nobody reacted so far...
...in the same way that "negro" has become offensive in English, whereas it once was a fairly neutral word. However "nigger" has always been a term of abuse. The point is that the German word has both senses.
For example: Delius' opera Koanga has these parts: Negro 1, Negro 2. While we might not designate them "Negro 1" and "Negro 2" today, back in 1896-7 no offence would have been implied - or taken. But they would certain never have been called "Nigger 1" and "Nigger 2".
And yet sources in 1920 and 1929 call Dvorak's quartet in F major exactly this.
Funny how now it's called the "American" quartet. BTW, I think there's a string quintet by Dvorak, Op. 98 or 100, also called "American", composed around the same time.
He wrote several works- American Quartet, American Quintet, American Suite for piano or orchestra, 9th symphony, an almost never-played Cantata ("The American Flag" Op.102/B177, 1892-3. Only one recording listed and a rather negative review- for what little that's worth- at AMG), etc. - in that general sort of wise, while in or just back from the USA, I believe, yes. (Hrm. Well, I think almost never recorded; maybe played a little more. I see that the cantata was played on July 6 (this year) by the Kentucky Symphony.)
FWIW, I like The American Flag. It's not anything special, but if you like Dvorak it should be enjoyable. Has a good recording of the 5th Symphony along with it.
Meanwhile, back at the Schulz-Beuthen ranch...
... or to his padded cell? 8)
...oh dear, yes, I see he spent his last years in an asylum.
Interesting reading!
Tom :)