Franz Lachner

[gprengel]

Lachner again surpises me with a for me new discovery  - his Requiem! What beautiful gems can be found here! Please listen to these tracks :

https://youtu.be/5wOB5G0f6rw
https://youtu.be/5Aki76u6f2c
https://youtu.be/1XdMkkaSQaM
https://youtu.be/bDUT2a2u9x8  (!!! Sanctus !!)

[mikehopf]

I was hoping that someone would get round to his Requiem.
Definitely one of my Desert Island discs!

[adriano]

I have the cpo recording of Lachner's "Catharina Cornaro", which I find an excellent work - also thanks to Maestro Ralf Weikert's committed interpretation.
Yes, mikehopf, I too I am of your opinion: The Requiem is great; the 2006 Carus CD recording is very recommendable!

[Rainolf]

Not to forget Lachner's six string quartets. They were all recorded in good performances by the Rodin-Quartett several years ago (as it was the case with the complete string quartets of Ignaz and Vinzenz Lachner). I think of these quartets as masterworks of a late vienesse classical style, following more the tradition of Mozart than of Beethoven. They are excellently written, with many fine contrapuntal episodes and ingenious use of traditional harmony. The great chamber music expert Wilhelm Altmann did severe injustice to these beautiful works when he thought them (in 1929) not worthy to be played in concert. I think the contrary is right: There is not one weak movement in all of the six quartets, and they would make a great addition to the concert repertoire of 19th century chamber music.

[gprengel]

I don't know his quartets yet, but I fully adore this string quintet- marvellous!!

[Maury]

I'm very taken with Franz Lachner's string quartets which are of consistently interesting quality to my ears. Unfortunately a lot of his music came out on what I call hodge podge albums in the LP era and even the CD era seems to have passed him by with only scattered recordings. Is there even a set of symphonies anywhere yet?

[eschiss1]

The complete string quartets were released on Amati, but I don't know if that set, or their set of Ignaz Lachner's quartets, is still available. His quartets are interesting enough to be recorded again at -least- once !

[Maury]

Yes at least the SQts are available but I can't see any indication of a symphonic canon available just a few scattered recordings. I may be missing something of course. I find him to be a very significant composer, just below someone like Raff who to me should be mainstream repertoire. 

[eschiss1]

it seems to me with the releases of recordings of more of the unavailable symphonies by cpo and other labels over the last few years that there is an attempt to fill in the gaps, though not yet to create a single cycle under a single conductor and label; that is not unheard of- the first consistent cycle often comes out rather awhile after the first cycle of a composer's works in a medium if the latter and former are issued at all.

[Maury]

Thanks for the reply. So is there  a heterogeneous complete set of the symphonies or is even that a "work in progress"?

[eschiss1]

I know of no commercial recordings of #s 2, 4 or 7 yet, but there are recordings across various labels of the others. There are synthesized recordings of nos.2 and 4 (available here I think but also on YouTube). No.7 is an interesting case that's been discussed on this forum- ah. See this thread (but the "Easyupload" link to a version of part of the 7th symphony no longer works, unfortunately.)

[Maury]

Thank you very much for the updated info. Oh well, maybe future generations of listeners will hear more of these unsungs in the year 2525.

[eschiss1]

Also... ! ... Amati, according to Presto, is reissuing at least one of the Rodin quartet recordings soon (the first volume of Ignaz Lachner's quartets, but I presume the Franz Lachner series can't be far behind.)

[tpaloj]

The lack of printed scores and parts for symphonies 2, 4 and 7 is probably the main reason why no complete cycle has appeared yet. Only ms full scores for these works are available at the moment. As result of making the synthesized "recordings" myself I have no objection to supplying the musicxml files to a party/company dedicated enough to finish editing them.

[Maury]

The lack of printed scores and parts for symphonies 2, 4 and 7 is probably the main reason why no complete cycle has appeared yet. 

I certainly appreciate and understand the labor hours involved in editing and preparing music manuscripts. However, there are quite a few unsungs whose main works are at least ready for performance. So it seems that for whatever reason Franz Lachner has dwelt in obscurity even relative to others. This is doubly surprising given the Bachian music genes of the Lachners and the high standard of his compositions.