Richard von Perger 1854-1911

[matesic]

A bit of a conundrum. After studying composition with Brahms and others he had a multifaceted career in Rotterdam and Vienna but it seems extraordinary that the 7 chamber pieces listed by Cobbett (the only works of Perger's on imslp) were all published between 1886 and 1889. Eric mentions a violin concerto, but what else did he write? The second and third string quartets and the string trio are all fine pieces in a somewhat Brahmsian mould (maybe that's what became of Brahms's 'prentice works..?) that could definitely be ranked alongside Herzogenberg, Gernsheim etc. Writing in Cobbett, Rudolf Felber goes into some detail about the trio and two of the quartets before dismissing Perger for having "no background of strong emotional experience", whatever that means.

[matesic]

Why don't I do my own research? According to Worldcat it looks like the Violin Concerto Op 22 was his last work (date unknown) and his Op 21 was a Serenade for cello and strings. There are some pieces for piano 2- and 4-hands and three or four opera/singspiels including "Signor Formica" of 1879. If reputation = quality x quantity, I guess he just didn't compose enough to make the Hall of Fame.

[eschiss1]

His violin concerto was published in 1894, according to Hofmeisters. His "Das stählerne Schloss " was published in 1909. What do you mean "according to Worldcat", by the way? It _always_ lists "n.d." (you know, published without date) items in a particular place in a date ordering when searching by publication order, whether they were composed first or last- you sort of have to ignore them... (Sorry, I sound like I'm hectoring ) (Also, it sort of is true that publication order and composition order have only one relation, and that only most of the time- one is greater than the other - and even that apparently obvious fact is not quite true because of revisions, etc. etc. etc. - but it does mean that even with the above, it's of course quite possible that stählerne Schloss may have been composed before the violin concerto. According to Meyer, it was premiered or composed in 1904 (stählerne Schloss, I mean.)) Actually, stählende Schloss also appears in HMB in 1903/1904 (HMB 1904, p.32) as I mentioned on IMSLP in your discussion forum, I think...

[matesic]

But what do you mean by "mean"? Sometimes we can look too hard for meaning where there is none, or not much

[Aramiarz]

Interesting composer for research!