Completed most likely in 1883 soon after Scholz took over from Joachim Raff at Breslau. A performance at Crystal Palace makes a passing refernce to this. A Leipzig performance certainly took place in 1886.
Bernhard Scholz (1835-1916) belonged to the circle of Brahms, Joachim and Clara Schumann, and was among those who signed the famous manifesto of March 1860 against the New German School. Bernhard worked assiduously to promote the works of Brahms whose influence is evident in his compositions.
Scholz's first symphony achieved fruition at about the time of Brahms' third symphony. From the outset of the first movement it exudes a Brahmsian feel but in the development section and recapitulation a more individual stamp is affirmed, at times intensley passionate.
Bernhard Scholz is one of my top three unsung composers and I look forward to exploring more of his forgotten work.
Here is a realisation of the first movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JABf2BY6nGs
Thanks very much for this. A small, and not ungrateful, correction: Scholz replaced Raff as director of the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, not Breslau.
Just returned to this: what a fine movement! Any chance of working on the remainder of the symphony?
I'm sure someone would be interested in performing such an involving, indeed passionate symphony. It reminds us how much really good music is overshadowed by the 'repertoire' composers. And by the way, I think the similarities with Brahms are largely superficial; this is the work of a confident, independent-minded composer.
Wikipedia article on Scholz here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Scholz
Oh most certainly. It's been on the back boiler for a while.
I've also started working on the second symphony (1896) The opening of the last movement is extremely moving guaranteed to move the most hardened of spirits!
It's odd. When working on Scholz's music I have to take longish breaks from it as it's quite demanding. Then, when I come back to it I think my G** this is actually very good stuff.
Anyway onwards and upwards as they say.
I'm sure we're not only grateful for your sterling efforts but also for the actual quality of the renditions you produce.
I heartily concur on both counts, we're all very much in your debt, Reverie.
Thirded! :)
4th. Very much influenced by Brahms
All four movements of the 1st Symphony now complete. :)
I have created a playlist which can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLimfvh-IS22yZZvSmga2vjLmf8x5GuO9n
Oh, wonderful! Thanks so very much. It's a really fine romantic symphony, a vigorous, confident, thematically strong work with plenty of variety and just the right length. Perhaps just a little dated for 1883, but that needn't bother us now. I'm very pleased to get to know it in such a convincing realisation.
I've sampled the finale and am looking forward to hearing the remainder of this fine work in such a fine realisation. Thanks in advance...
I'd put it on a par with Reinecke's later symphonies both in stature and style. Impressive.
I'd certainly put it on a par with Reinecke in terms of quality and conservative orientation, but I find Scholz rather heavier.
I don't disagree with that.
It's fine music indeed. Was your realisation completed in NotePerformer?
I used the Noteperformer sound library but Sibelius was the engine.
It's a brilliant realisation.
Thank you, Reverie for finishing this long and tough task.
I especially enjoyed the second movement. After the opening as the music finds its stride, it's very passionate and moving. Nice fun scherzo with its bouncing horns in the start, later developed into other instrument combinations. I find no great flaws with the symphony and its orchestration, conservative as it is (no problem! it's not a detriment). Your error-free – atleast to my ears – and thoughtfully phrased rendition made a pleasant listen all the way to end.
Can I ask what video editing software or other methods you used to sync the sheet music pages to the audio? I'm wondering what would be the most convenient way to do it for large scores in mind, and I'm not sure how to go about it.
This is as magnificent an unsung symphony from the latter years of the nineteenth century as I have ever heard. It has everything: immensely powerful tutti, yearning lyricism - and all contained in what feels like an iron grip of compositional logic. More than ever it becomes clear that the 'standard repertoire' has in effect robbed us of hearing the vast range of fine music written by composers that have simply been forgotten - for no good reason that I can fathom.
Yes, this is a conservative work. But who cares? Commentators are going to compare it to Brahms, but they should be taking the time to work out what is specifically 'Scholzian' about this imposing, memorable symphony.
By the way, has anyone come across any contemporary reviews of the work?
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Bernhard-Scholz.jpg)
I completely agree with that - it's a masterwork of real quality and strength. Reverie deserves some respite after such a tremendous effort, but one can't help but hope that we'll get to hear Scholz' Second too in the future.
earliest performance I know of offhand in Leipzig in 1886 January followed by one in the US in March of that year; looking to see if I can find evidence of one in 1885 or earlier, though, together with a review. here (https://books.google.com/books?id=LkwvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false) is a review of the 1886 concert. NZM lists an announcement of a 1885 Frankfurt "Museums-concert" containing the symphony on p.157 (Apr. 3 1885 issue.)
The review dismisses Scholz's Symphony out of hand, apart from the Scherzo in which the composer is described as abandoning his academic reserve and affording us some attractive ideas. Comparisons are not to be made with Brahms!
All this is, of course, totally unfair - and based almost certainly on one hearing. We, on the other hand, are able to listen to the work 'on repeat', as it were, so as to get to know it better. How fortunate we are!
Some reviewers make a point of stating whether they had the opportunity to review the work with the score, which would usually give them better ability to judge the work itself. As we know, first performances back in the day tended to be under-rehearsed and unevenly performed for even some of the best and most longstanding pieces in current repertoire. So no surprises for the dismissals there.
tpaloj
Thank you. I use Youtube Moviemaker. Getting the score pages to fit with the music timings etc ... is done manually. I don't think there's any other way of doing it?
It reminds me of when I turned pages for a very accomplished pianist. It was a quite nerve racking experience. You had to flip the page just a bar or two before. Okay in slow passages but when it was presto .... Then the additional worry of turning two pages by accident!
Martin, many many thanks for working on this - a bit weightier than Reinecke, yes, but to me that is a good thing.
Here's another review, btw, from Signale für die Musikalisches Welt (https://books.google.com/books?id=jca1eyCyFE8C&pg=PA343), May 1886 probably, apparently about a Berlin concert.
Martin, thank you so much for all your hard work on this very fine symphony. How marvellous that we can actually hear it and appreciate its magnificence.
The obvious question now is whether anyone will consider an orchestral recording. Recordings of music by Scholz appear to be few and far between.
I know of hardly any commercial recordings. The Hyperion CD...
A disc of some of his sonatas or his first quartet and quintet for strings might be more practical right just this moment but I'd like a disc- of both symphonies- maybe on cpo sometime, seems a good match.
I have had the opportunity to listen to it twice and I am quite impressed with it especially the second movement. One can only hope that CPO will offer this work.
Scholz 2nd Symphony (1896) -
THIS IS A SHORT TEASER
The opening bars of the final movement (3 mins) - all I can think of are cliches to describe this beautiful music.
For me it's a brief farewell to Romanticism - melancholy and resignation. The clarinet towards the end sums it up. It's a must listen 3 mins I think.
All four movements are near completion. Hopefully the symphony won't disappoint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w18bv5b75ww18bv5b75w
It's really lovely, Martin - I can hardly wait to hear the whole work. Bernhard Scholz - who knew?
Symphony No.2: sounds like a project, Martin!