Pejacevic Piano Concerto etc.

[Alan Howe]

Just as we had been talking about her, cpo bring out this CD:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/dora-pejacevic-klavierkonzert/hnum/5434238

[Mark Thomas]

It's good to see that Pejacevic is getting her due at last. Although, I must admit, I wasn't particularly enthused by the Overture kindly uploaded the other day by Music33, and which I see is on this new cpo CD.

[eternalorphea]

(excerpts, 1 minute each. Mp3 audio format)

Songs for voice and orchestra (1915 – 1920)

Verwandlung for voice, violin and orchestra, op.37b, (text: Karl Kraus)
LINK

Liebeslied, op.39, (text: Rainer Maria Rilke), (dedicated to her sister Gabrielle Kochanovsky)
LINK

Zwei Schmetterlingslieder, op.52
No.1
Gold'ne Sterne, blaue Glöckchen, (text: Karl Henckell)
LINK
No.2
Schwebe du Schmetterling, schwebe vorbei, (text: Karl Henckell)
LINK

Katja Markotić, mezzo-soprano
Croatian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra
Mladen Tarbuk, conductor

[eternalorphea]

Dora Pejačević's "Verwandlung" and Arnold Schönberg

SOURCE LINK
«Heute war Schönberg bei mir. Er findet natürlich, dass eine Frau keine Schöpferin von Musik sein kann, lobte aber ihre Komposition". So berichtete der österreichische Schriftsteller Karl Kraus über das Urteil von Arnold Schönberg zu einem Werk von Dora Pejacevic.

SOURCE LINK
Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923) wrote 1915 an occasional composition Verwandlung for alto, violin and organ or piano on verses by Karl Kraus for the wedding of her friend Sidonija Nádherný von Borutin which eventually didn't take place. Kraus planed to have performed the piece on one of his literary readings on 4th of December 1916 in Vienna and he showed the work Arnold Schonberg who praised it and especially commented one place in the score. Three strophes of Kraus's poem are the foundation for an extensive lyrical scene with instrumental interlude between the second and the third strophe which has a special place in the whole work. Late romantic harmony with labile tonality carries the emphasis of the expression. Kraus's verses evidently pushed the composer towards free musical flow and original harmony.

SOURCE LINK
Als Karl Kraus ihre Vertonung seines Gedichts "Verwandlung" für Singstimme, Violine und Orgel Arnold Schönberg vorlegte, fand er sie so gut, dass er eine öffentliche Aufführung in Wien vorschlug, aber, so Kraus: " Er findet natürlich, dass eine Frau keine Schöpferin von Musik sein kann, lobte aber ihre Komposition".

SOURCE LINK
Arnold Schönberg lobte ihre Werke, blieb angesichts der ,,komponierenden Frau" aber skeptisch. Sie war mit Karl Kraus und Rainer Maria Rilke befreundet und vertonte deren Gedichte: Dora Peja?evi? (1885-1923) aus dem Altösterreichischen Hochadel war nicht nur eine ,,komponierende Frau". Sie war eine ernst zu nehmende Komponistin, deren Werk neben dem ihrer Kollegen bis heute bestehen kann.

SOURCE LINK
Schönberg revela al público vienés su Verwandlung, para voz, violín, y órgano, sobre el poema homónimo del creador de Die Fackel, y Oskar Nedbal interpreta en 1918, al frente de la Tonkünstlerorchester de Viena, dos movimientos de su única sinfonía.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thank you so much for the snippets from her orchestral songs. They are truly beautiful. I am so looking forward to the CD.

[eternalorphea]

Today I found about a past performance of her PC by..

Sinfonietta dell'Arte

Ursprünglich "Internationales Jugendorchester" - mit Recht: Die Mitglieder kommen aus Ungarn, Bulgarien, Moldawien, Deutschland, Italien, Rumänien, Polen, China und Japan. Seit 2007 nennt sich das Orchester "Sinfonietta dell'Arte" und erreicht nun die Größe bis zu 60 professionellen Musikern. Neben Werken berühmter Komponisten wie Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Schubert, Haydn usw. finden sich außerdem Kompositionen weniger gespielter Komponisten im Repertoire. Schon vor Jahren wurden Raritäten wie Boccherini-Sinfonien, Mendelssohn-Streichersifonien, Stamitz und Spohr-Klarinettenkonzert, Pejacevic-Klavierkonzert u. a. im Programm aufgenommen.

A G-Translator translation (without my interventions)
Originally "International Youth Orchestra" - and rightly so: The members come from Hungary, Bulgaria, Moldova, Germany, Italy, Romania, Poland, China and Japan. Since 2007, the orchestra called "Sinfonietta dell'Arte" and is now reaching the size up to 60 professional musicians. In addition to works by famous composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Schubert, Haydn, etc. They also find compositions less played composers in the repertoire. Years ago, rarities such as Boccherini symphonies, Mendelssohn Streichersifonien, Stamitz and Spohr Clarinet Concerto, Pejacevic Piano Concerto have been included in the program, among others

[eternalorphea]

Powerful Symphonic Music from Croatia

And once again it is time to continue our Pejačevič edition, now with her piano concerto and orchestral songs. After her initial experience with vocal lyrics and instrumental miniatures, it was not until after 1908 that Dora Pejačevič took up the individual genres of chamber music and then gradually ventured on to the classical forms of instrumental music. On this path she was primarily an autodidact. She composed her first orchestral work, the Piano Concerto op. 33, at the age of twenty-eight, and it adheres to the tradition of the classical and romantic virtuoso solo concerto with the usual three-movement structure. The finely crafted instrumentation produces highly effective contrasts in the concentration of texture and color. We recognize the composer's feeling for inner dramaturgy in her flair for the distribution of intensifications and high points. Four of Dora Pejačevič's thirty songs for voice and piano are presented here in the version for voice and orchestra. With them the composer also made a valuable contribution to Croatian music of the modern period in the genre of the orchestral song and did so with the expressive worlds that were uniquely her own. To round off this CD: her last orchestral work, the Overture in D minor, with its dramatic tension deriving from its rhythmically striking, syncopated main theme.

[mjkFendrich]

Still missing is a recording of her 1st piano trio Op.15.

[eternalorphea]