Fredric Kroll (b.1945)

[ewk]

Dear all,

As he lives near Freiburg where I am living as well, I recently met the Composer Fredric Kroll (*1945) (I did not talk to him, so presenting him here is of pure musical interest, not of my own personal interests). Though he still lives, his style is entirely romantic and influenced by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler. In Germany, he is known as the absolute authority on Klaus Mann, son of Thomas Mann (Nobel price winner).

According to Wikipedia, his relatively small oeuvre is:

    Sinfonie in g-Moll, 1959
    The Scarlet Letter, Opera in four acts, 1965, world premiere 1981 in Cape Coral, Florida and DE 2014 in Hamburg (chamber opera version)
    Lieder aus der Einsamkeit (songs from loneliness, 1966, world premiere 1982 in Wiesbaden (Germany)
    Romanze in d-Moll (Violin and piano) 1969
    Frantumi, song cycle, 1969
    Kerzenglut in d-Moll (Cello and piano) 1970
    Weiße Nächte, opera in three acts(still unfinished, he has been working on it since 1980)

Has anyone heard about him? Although he is maybe not an eminently important composer, he does not seem to be the kind of entirely unimportant regional composer as shows the 2014 stage performance of his opera "the scarlet letter" in Hamburg (chamber opera version).

There are quite some videos of his music on youtube, although uploaded by himself:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=fredric+kroll
There are also 2 CDs available at JPC.

His style seems to be very romantic and with many memorable melodies, the audience seemed to have loved the Scarlet Letter in Hamburg.

Has anyone made any experiences with his music?

EWK

[Alan Howe]

Very interesting indeed. Another Schmidt-Kowalski, perhaps? Here are the two CDs you mention - and the idiom is certainly fully romantic:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Fredric-Kroll-geb-1945-Lieder-aus-der-Einsamkeit/hnum/4414991
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Fredric-Kroll-geb-1945-The-Scarlet-Letter-Ausz/hnum/9626500
Kroll is actually American, but lives in Germany:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fredric_Kroll