Unsung Composers

The Music => Recordings & Broadcasts => Topic started by: Wheesht on Monday 19 May 2014, 15:02

Title: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: Wheesht on Monday 19 May 2014, 15:02
Swiss Radio SRF 2 Kultur 20 May, 22.35 pm local time: Concert, Zurich, December 2013 'Old and new chamber music':

Friedrich Eugen Thurner: Quatuor brillant in C-Dur op. 33 für Oboe, Violine, Viola und Cello

Heinz Holliger, Oboe
Hanna Weinmeister, Violine
Jürg Dähler, Viola
Daniel Haefliger, Violoncello

So far, I have just found a lengthy German obituary in the Allgemeine Musikzeitung, 9 May 1827 including a list of some works, among them oboe concerti and three symphonies.
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: eschiss1 on Monday 19 May 2014, 16:33
Ah, we have Eugene/Friedrich Eugen's horn sonata Op.29 on IMSLP. There's also composers Théodore Thurner (two of them? Sr. and Jr.? one is called aîné, one jeune...) - I wonder if they're related to Friedrich Eugen. We have works by them-possibly mixed up, unfortunately, but fixable!...- also @ IMSLP- including a 3rd piano concerto...)

Anyhow- thanks, very interesting and intriguing! Doubt I'll be able to hear the program, but hopefully it's not the beginning and the end of interest in Friedrich (... or either Théodore...) (Have added/quoted your summary of the obituary to IMSLP, with link and attribution ("according to a...") - if better attribution is desired, contact me, of course; it still is your summary for all of that, and credit-where.)
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: jerfilm on Monday 19 May 2014, 18:02
Hopefully someone wil record it.....

J
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: Wheesht on Monday 19 May 2014, 18:08
I'll give it a try in any case - @Eric: I'll read through that obituary and summarise it in English as soon as I get round to it, no better attribution is desired, I am happy to help.
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: eschiss1 on Monday 19 May 2014, 18:22
Thanks very much!
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: Wheesht on Monday 19 May 2014, 19:47
Here is a first list of major works extracted from that obituary:

Oboe concerto in F major
Symphony in E-flat major
Symphony in D major
Ballet: The Judgement of Paris
Oboe concerts (2) in C major
Oboe concert in D minor
Symphony in D major (unfinished)
Ballet: Socrates and Alcibiades (unperformed, but most musical numbers were used in another ballet: Zephyre und Flore).

He was born in Montbéliard (then called Mömpelgard in German), the first child of Anton Thurner, a famous flute player (originally from Vienna) who often gave double concerts with his brother Franz. Apparently Friedrich Eugen Thurner started to lose his mind when he was in Vienna and although he seems to have recovered intermittently, he finally ended up in a mental institution in Amsterdam and died there. He had continued composing, though, when he was better, and dedicated some of his last works (not listed in the German obituary, written by a cousin of his) to Amsterdam friends.
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: eschiss1 on Monday 19 May 2014, 21:08
Thanks- and this thread is linked from IMSLP now.
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: eschiss1 on Monday 19 May 2014, 22:55
I see a recording of "Kammermusik für Oboe" listed on Worldcat that contains something by Thurner (and a fair number of other composers. (http://www.worldcat.org/title/kammermusik-fur-oboe/oclc/315647012))
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: jerfilm on Thursday 22 May 2014, 15:34
Thanks, Wheesht, for the upload.  Interesting piece....

jERRY
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: semloh on Thursday 22 May 2014, 23:47
Yes, thanks for posting this. The composer, and this enjoyable work, are entirely new to me.

Can someone just please tell me what the connection is to Beethoven, that is mentioned in the German language introduction?  Thanks!  :)
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: Wheesht on Friday 23 May 2014, 07:11
The obituary (more of a biographical article really) in the Allgemeine Musikzeitung mentions that Thurner spent three years in Munich, where his first compositions became publicly known (he was just 16). Later, he stayed in Vienna, his father had been born there, and met Beethoven. According to the author of the obituary it is easy to see that Beethoven was not without influence on Thurner's later works. The radio announcer just mentions that he was a contemporary of Beethoven.
Title: Re: Friedrich Eugen Thurner (1785-1827)
Post by: semloh on Friday 23 May 2014, 13:44
Ah, thanks for that, Wheesht!