Walter Rabl (1873 - 1940)

[Reverie]

Walter Rabl was a Viennese composer, conductor, and teacher of vocal music.
Largely forgotten today, Rabl left only a small number of works, all of them early ones, from the twilight of the Romantic era. At the age of 30 he stopped composing entirely and devoted himself to conducting and vocal coaching the rest of his life.

Beginning in 1903 Rabl conducted throughout Germany and championed works by progressive composers such as Gustav Mahler, Karl Goldmark, Franz Schreker, Erich Korngold, and Richard Strauss.

Symphony in D Minor op.8 (1899)

The first movement: Mässig bewegt

Second: Nicht zu langsam

Third: Rasch und sehr leicht

Fourth movement Sehr langsam - Schnell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAQ6J1krsTo&t=5s

[Sharkkb8]

The CPO disc of chamber works (Clarinet Quartet, Violin Sonata etc with Oliver Triendl at the piano) is available from Presto at a decent price of USD$10.75, or only $7.00 in MP3 download format.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8081736--rabl-clarinet-quartet-fantasiestucke-violin-sonata

[eschiss1]

There was, indeed, recently this thread on a then upcoming recording of his chamber music, though none I see yet on the composer in general.

[Alan Howe]

Great stuff, Martin - but there appear to be three movements here. Are we in fact simply missing the finale?

[eschiss1]

The full score has the finale (from p.108) so I'm not sure what you mean. (Unless there are pages missing I'm not aware of!...)

[Reverie]

Thank you for pointing this out Alan.

Gosh I must be more productive than I think I am!

[Alan Howe]

Although he originally indicated that he'd only produced the first movement, Reverie has actually posted three of the four movements on YouTube, finishing on p.107. Therefore only the finale is left to add, as his amended opening post now indicates.

Again, many thanks!

[Reverie]

The entire work is now available (ALL four movements)

Symphony in D minor (1899) It's 36 mins long.

1st:   00.00
2nd:  10.43
3rd:   18.49
4th:   24.42

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAQ6J1krsTo

[Mark Thomas]

That's great, Martin, thanks very much. What a great symphony this is!

[Alan Howe]

I absolutely loved this. Right up my late-romantic alley! Thanks so much. I was expecting this to be Brahms plus, but it's so much more.

[Reverie]

It's a youthful work but powerful. Let's hope it's given a professional recording.

[razorback]

It appears that Walter Rabl's symphony has been removed from YouTube.  Does anyone know anywhere else where it can be listened to?

[Alan Howe]

No, it's still there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAQ6J1krsTo

Don't be put off by the preceding advert!

[Alan Howe]

I was listening to Strauss' Ein Heldenleben (1898) before giving Rabl's Symphony (1899) another run-through and I am struck by how far Rabl seems to have travelled in the same direction, compositionally speaking. This is certainly not anything like Brahms (which was what I'd been expecting).

Of course, Rabl's choice to write a symphony marks him out as less of a radical than Strauss (who had abandoned non-programmatic symphonies by this point in his career); neverthless the quasi-Straussian richness of the orchestral writing surely puts Rabl in the same camp.

How do other members react to Rabl's Symphony?

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Rabl's orchestration is certainly full and very much of it's time, and Rabl clearly knew his Strauss, but in other respects this fine symphony strikes me as a more traditional work than Strauss was writing. Not simply because it is absolute music, but rather because of the directness, confidence and comparative brevity of Rabl's writing, the immediate appeal of his melodic material and the clarity and vigour which which he develops it. It's not a backward-looking work, but does indicate a different path which late romantic music might have taken had more composers of Rabl's undoubted quality had the courage and discipline to eschew giganticism and the prop of extra-musical programmes.