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Thank you, Reverie, for making possible to hear Reinthaler's Symphony!

Reinthaler was foremost a composer of songs and choral music. There are only a few orchestral works alongside the symphony: a concert overture to Shakespeare's Othello, the overture to the opera Edda (the other opera Das Käthchen von Heilbronn only has a short prelude), and three pieces for wind orchestra (Andante, Triumphal march and Polonaise). Of these only the Edda Overture was published (the rest of the opera was not except a short choir piece).

Not long ago a very fine book on Reinthaler was published (in German language, with many pictures and a complete work list):

Arne Langer and Christian Kämpf: Carl Reinthaler. Zwischen Orgelempore und Orchestergraben, Bremen: Schünemann.

Having heard Noren's Kaleidoskop in a great performance in Garmisch (Rémy Ballot's performances of Strauss and Wagner were equally fine), I now can say more about the work and its style. Here you can find my review of the Strauss Festival concerts (in German):

http://www.the-new-listener.de/index.php/2024/06/28/richard-strauss-tage-2024-1-heinrich-gottlieb-norens-auferstehung/

The passages on Kaleidoskop in English:

"In the last variation, which he expressly dedicates "To a famous contemporary," Noren quotes (not quite literally, but clearly recognizable) the themes of the Hero and the Adversaries from Ein Heldenleben. The Adversaries's theme then becomes the starting point of the double fugue, in which the original theme of the variations returns as a contrast. Can you interpret all of this other than that Noren rushes to the aid of Strauss' hero to fight against the same opponents? As far as the attitude against the Adversaries is concerned, Noren is more optimistic than Strauss: In Ein Heldenleben there is an unbridgeable gap between the Hero and his Adversaries until the end, but Noren in his work allows his variation theme to triumph as a chorale, supported by the first fugue theme, which had changed its character totally: The Adversaries obviously turned into supporters here.

Apart from the value of Noren's variation cycle as a historical document [from the time of the Draeseke-Strauss-debate on "Confusion in Music"], it is a highly remarkable work, especially since Noren in no way seeks to imitate Strauss's style. The theme of the variations begins in a very un-Straussian way as a simple cor anglais melody in a modal E minor, somewhat like a mixture of a Slavic folk song and a Protestant chorale. The subsequent variations do not follow the classical practice of essentially retaining the dimensions and form of the theme, as Brahms did, but only take up its motifs and develop completely new structures from them in free variations. "Kaleidoscop" is exactly the right name for this type of variation composition. The individual variations are bursting with ideas! Slavic temperament comes to the fore again and again, and not just in the variation explicitly referred to as "Slavic dance". Using refined post-Wagnerian harmony, Noren creates an arc of contrasting pictures from the material of his theme. The size of some of the variations makes them appear as small tone poems, especially since they have characteristic titles ("In the Cathedral", "From Bygone Days"). In contrast to Strauss's Don Quixote, they are not intended as parts of an overarching plot, and therefore the whole work cannot be addressed as essential program music. The tendency towards symphonic expansion that characterizes the work - particularly noticeable in the final fugue, especially in the "cathedral" variation and in the powerful central funeral march - is also evident in the fact that Noren precedes the theme with a slow introduction in which its motifs are prepared, and in fact that the crowning chorale ends in a quiet coda that corresponds to the introduction. Noren's instrumentation is not inferior to Strauss's in terms of color and brilliance. What is striking is his preference for percussion instruments, which in some sections of the work almost form an independent orchestral layer."

Thank you, Alan! Haas's Quartet op. 8 is a worthy precursor of his later Quartet op. 50. It shows yet the typical style of the composer, with refined Regerian harmonies, but more playful and light-hearted in character, without Reger's heaviness.

The work remained unpublished and unperformed during the composer's lifetime, but he did never withdraw it. Te manuscript shows that it was first numbered as op. 9, later becoming op. 8. So Haas must have withdrawn another piece, but he kept the string quartet in his official opus list. 

[String Quartet No. 1 in G minor op. 8 by]

As editor of the piece it makes me proud to announce that the String Quartet No. 1 in G minor op. 8 by Joseph Haas will be performed for the first time on 4 June in the Bürgerhaus of Pullach, Bavaria. It will be played by the Diogenes-Quartett. Haas composed his op. 8 during his studies with Max Reger. Score and parts were published by Schott Music last year:

https://www.schott-music.com/de/streichquartett-noc609700.html

Hermann Zilcher's 5th Symphony ends with a variation movement, the last part of which includes a soprano solo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKPf05CV8fM

Werner Trenkner's 1st Symphony has a middle movement with soprano solo on verses by Mörike. The outer movements are purely instrumental.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe6i3GIuDgQ

Tobias Bröker, German music collector and publisher, will publish the scores of some of Paul Büttner's most important works online. The first one has been released yet:

-Das Grab im Busento, a ballad for men's choir and orchestra.

The other pieces will follow:

-Symphony No. 4 (first publication of the original score - the score issued by Peters is an arrangement in reduced orchestration)
-Anka, opera
-Waldesrauschen for men's choir and orchestra
-2 four-part canons on texts by Goethe

https://www.tobias-broeker.de/newpageb5193fd1

Surely, the contemporaries of Noren and Strauss would never have placed both, Kaleidoskop and Heldenleben, on the same concert programme (at least there is no such case known to me), but for a Strauss festival that wants to show the composer in dialogue with his contemporaries, Kaleidoskop is the ideal piece to be coupled with Strauss's tone poem.

Noren's music was played regularly during the years before the First World War, but the composer fell in obscurity during the 1920s. In his last years he seems to have spend all his energy for securing a performance of his opera Der Schleier der Beatrice, which never materialized.

After his death, Noren's wife Signe, who was a Norwegian singer, went back to Bergen, where she must have lived until at least 1955. In this year she renewed the copyright of one of her husband's songs:

https://www.google.de/books/edition/Catalog_of_Copyright_Entries/MTohAQAAIAAJ?hl=de&gbpv=1&dq=signe+noren&pg=RA1-PA30&printsec=frontcover

It seems very possible to me that Noren's estate, including his unpublished compositions, is located in Norway.


 

In 2024 the Richard-Strauss-Tage in Garmisch-Partenkirchen will take place from 1 June to 11 June. The program includes two works by Heinrich Gottlieb Noren.

Heinrich G. Noren (1861-1928, born Heinrich Gottlieb) was an Austrian composer and violinist. His compositions for orchestra achieved international success in the early 20th century. In 1907 his work Kaleidoskop was premiered, a set of variations on an original theme, culminating in a double fugue. As an admirer of Strauss, Noren quoted (with Strauss's permission) two themes from Ein Heldenleben, but was accused of plagiarism by Strauss's publisher Leuckart. The lawsuit was put to an end by a court in Dresden in Noren's favour. The court declared that only melodies were protected by law, but the quoted themes were no melodies. This judgement was used by satiric writers, most prominently by Edgar Istel in a parody on the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein, of which Strauss was president.

Here you can find a good introduction to Noren and his work:

https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/1827.html

Kaleidoskop will be played together with Ein Heldenleben by the Pilsen Philharmonic, conducted by Rémy Ballot on 8 June 2024.

https://www.richard-strauss-tage.de/event/sinfoniekonzert-5/

On 11 June the Phaeton Piano Trio will play Noren's Piano Trio in D minor, together with Strauss's piano trios.

https://www.richard-strauss-tage.de/event/kammerkonzert-iii/

17 May 2024, Kronach, Kreiskulturraum

Richard Wagner: Prelude to Lohengrin
Felix Draeseke: Symphonic Andante for violoncello and orchestra
Max Baumann: Symphony No. 1

(a concert in memory of the 25th aniversary of the death of Max Baumann)

Jörg Ulrich Krah, violoncello
Hofer Symphoniker
Manuel Grund, conductor

Grieg-Begegnungsstätte Leipzig, February 25

Pianist Haruka Izawa plays, together with works by Skryabin and Beethoven, Felix Draeseke's Petite Histoire.

https://www.edvard-grieg.de/events/petites-histoires-et-grande-sonate

Würzburg, 9 and 10 December 2023, Neubaukirche

The MonteverdiChor Würzburg and the Jena Philharmonic, conducted by Matthias Beckert, will perform the following Christmas concert:

Gabriel Pierne: Les enfants à Bethléem
Felix Woyrsch: Die Geburt Jesu
Hermann Zilcher: Abend senkt sich nieder

https://www.monteverdichor.com/konzerte.html#start

Aris Alexander Blettenberg will play piano music by Felix Draeseke and August Bungert on 9 April 2024 in Munich:

https://events.in-muenchen.de/muenchen/aris-alexander-blettenberg-r2512191469.html

There is no information, yet, which works will be performed, but its possible that the pianist will play Draesekes Sonata op. 6, of which he is a champion for years. Bungert has composed only one major piano work, the Variations op. 13.

My recommendation for Bruckner's 2nd symphony is the recording with Rémy Ballot conducting the Altomonte Orchestra St. Florian. After this performance I felt that I have heard this work the first time in its full beauty.

A problem of the 2nd Symphony is that you cannot take any version of it as definitive. Bruckner himself published it late in his livetime after having it severely cut, disturbing the ballance of form in movements 2 and 4. For each performance of the work before publication he did rewrite some passages, so it was never the same work that was played. Robert Haas made an arrangement - and a good one -, based on the last version with many passages inserted from earlier versions. William Carragan published two versions, each one problematic from a philological point of view. E.g. Carragan put the Scherzo on 2nd place in version 1. Bruckner had this thought, but before the 1st performance he put the Scherzo after the Adagio. In version 2 Carragan mostly follows the text of the first published edition, but in the Adagio he inserts bars that were cut by Bruckner. So his edition must be called an arrangement like Haas's. 

I do not think that Haas had made the best of the Finale. In Carragan's version 2 this movement is too short. In Carragan's version 1 it is very long, but I think that in this form, with some development-like passages in the recapitulation, not used by Haas, the movement is most convincing - when conducted by a musician who has the overwiew over the Whole.

Ballot has done this in a very convincing way.

 

Having heard the performance in Bern I can say that it was superior to the Weimar performance last year in every respect. The singers were first rate, even in the smaller roles, and everyone sang the text perfectly, the native German speakers as well as the singers of other mother tongues. As I heard in the theatre the recording is scheduled to be released in December.

The performance was not complete, but the recording, which was made during the week before, will contain the unperformed music, too.

This is the recording of this concert:

https://franzschubertfilh.com/es/programas/bach-mozart-i-la-simfonia-de-paul-buttner/

I can recommend it very much. It was a great performance.