Alexander Stadtfeld(t) 1826-1853 ?

[eschiss1]

Anyone know anything about the music of Stadtfeld? I've found that Brussels library has a lot of his autograph manuscripts (including some of his five symphonies, piano concerto, his first string quartet, etc) but of his few-ish works that may have been published, not much is listed in Worldcat (under either alternative name). There is a book

   
Alexander Stadtfeld Leben und Werk : ein Beitrag zur belgischen Musikgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts / Magdalena Weber (1969)

and the libretto of his opera Hamlet has been scanned in by Munich's library, but... well, so unsung I have no idea if this is worth any time; I ask out of curiosity.

[Alan Howe]

his five symphonies

Wow. A 19thC Belgian symphonist, eh? Any more info on these, Eric? BTW the book's available at Amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexander-Stadtfeld-Belgischen-Musikgeschichte-Jahrhunderts/dp/B0014IOLRU

[eschiss1]

Ah, thanks. On his symphonies? I don't know yet... the first symphony is in C minor, the 5th is in A minor,  (On 19th-century Belgian symphonists? Adolphe Samuel (1824-98) also comes to mind, a little less unsung since his 6th symphony has been reprinted by Musikproduction Höflich. The overture to Stadtfeld's opera Hamlet was performed in one of Samuel's concerts in 1869 in Brussels, I see mentioned, to some good reviews.)

(Here's a brief biography readable @ Google Books... here. Born in Wiesbaden, died in Brussels.)

Actually, RISM online at least does have incipits for them (I wish Brussels library would get funding to do some heavy scanning ) - most of them autograph scores- no.1 in  C minor 1845-46 (Allegro moderato / Adagio sostenuto / Scherzo / Finale. Agitato), no.2 in F 1847 (Largo - Allegro moderato / Andante / Scherzo / Final. Allegro), no.3 in G 1847 (Allegro - Quasi andante - Scherzo - Final. Allegro), no.4 with piano 1851-52 in D minor (Allegro ma non troppo - 2. Andante- 3. Scherzo con molto leggerezza - 4. Final Allegro impetuoso), no.5 in A minor 1853 (Allegro - Scherzo - Scherzo 2?) (Finale missing? may have died while composing, it's true...).

[Mark Thomas]

So, really German rather than Belgian (although naturalised in the year he died) and the same generation as Franck, Bruckner and Raff. But five symphonies in eight years and dead by the time he was 27? Sounds a bit like Schubert! It would be fascinating to hear something of his.

[eschiss1]

I do tend to get curious when a library has 140-odd manuscripts of music by someone I've barely heard of (it turned out I had run across his name once before, when looking for some things in HMB - his (first and possibly only?) string quartet... (Admittedly, with some composers like Huber and a fellow named Bühler libraries preserve even more- but I put that down to "that's (part of) why I like libraries" in the first place, for one thing... (and also I like Huber.))