Rauchenecker Symphony No. 1 in F minor, etc.

[black]

Hi everybody,
Recently I found a recording of the 1st String Quartet by Georg Rauchenecker
(1844-1906). Not great but rather pleasant to hear and in any case good enough to get interested in his oeuvre. According to Wikipedia (Grove pays no attention to him) he left a great amount of compositions: chamber music, symphonies, opera's and choral music, but as far as I know only his 1st String Quartet has been recorded and it also seems the only work that is still available in print. I hope I'm wrong.
Anybody?

[Mark Thomas]

How odd. A week ago I was browsing through my CDs and came across the Jecklin CD of the Goetz and Rauchenecker String Quartets, which I hadn't played for years. Whilst it is clearly not of the same quality as the Goetz, Rauchenecker's piece is certainly a likeable and charming work even though it's quite derivative of Schumann via Brahms and, in places, reminded me of Schubert's later quartets. Mind you the same is also true, if to a lesser extent, of the Goetz .

To answer your question, I was prompted to look for more by Rauchenecker on disk but I too came up with a big fat zero.

[Hofrat]

The score and parts of Rauchenecker's C-minor string quartet can be purchased at the following website:

http://www.editionsilvertrust.com/

Edition Silver Trust specializes in the chamber music of unsung composers and in the unsung chamber music of well known composers.  It is well worth your while to visit the website.  Their list of unsung composers is most empressive.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Members may like to know that the British Library has scores of the first & second String Quartets, an "Oriental Phantasy" for violin accompanied by string quintet or piano, and the full score of the Symphony in F minor (1883).

[thalbergmad]

Although off topic (albeit Gareth has mentioned them) I had an e mail from the British Library yesterday which I find rather amusing.

Here it is:


Dear Mr. Britchfield,



I am writing to check if you  require the entire book in a standard digital image format? (325 pages)

As a standard digital it would 325 at £24.95 each totalling £8108.75 plus VAT

the alternative process is either scanned to CD or A4 paper copies 1-100 pages per £24.95 totalling £99.80 plus VAT.



Please let me know as soon as possible so we can proceed with the order.





Regards

Christine Holmes

Customer Services, Account Enquiries
The British Library
Document Supply Centre
Boston Spa
Wetherby
West Yorkshire  LS23 7BQ
Tel:  + 44 (0) 1937 882462
Fax: + 44 (0) 1937 546333
Email:christine.holmes@bl.uk   

[John H White]

I gather you chose the 2nd option!

[Gareth Vaughan]

THE BL costs of document supply are really outrageous. Scanning or photo-copying cost next to nothing - OK, I know there is staff time involved, and those costs need to be covered, but many other libraries, particularly those in Italy, charge a fraction of what the BL expects researchers to pay. They are supposed to be a public service.

[thalbergmad]

I think this warrants a new thread

[black]

It is a pity that within a couple of hours this thread has gotten bogged down in babbling about the costs of photo-copying!

[Mark Thomas]

I'll bring it back to Rauchenecker, then. I listened again to his First String Quartet this morning. Although I can't find a trace of Wagner in it (the insert notes suggest that he was influenced by him), it really is the most charming work, chock full of lovely melodies and it sounds like it's a grateful thing to play. I wouldn't describe it as deep, though.

The German Wikipedia article about him noted by Black in his original post has a very comprehensive work list which is full of potentially tempting stuff. I'll certainly be dropping a line to Bo Hyttner about the orchestral music: three symphonies, pairs of violin and piano concertos, a cello concerto and half a dozen or so symphonic poems and overtures. Maybe that some of the smaller labels might be interested in exploring his chamber music: another five string quartets, two string quintets and a Piano Quintet. There's a mountain of choral music besides. I suspect that Rauchenecker wasn't the most profound of composers but, if this quartet is anything to go by, he was certainly a diverting one.

[black]

Thanks, Mark.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, yes, Mark - the symphonies and concerti sound interesting; but now we have to find the scores. And I can tell you they are not exactly leaping out of the woodwork. There don't seem to be many of his chamber works available either - except (principally) the first and second string quartets.

[Mark Thomas]

No, I hadn't bothered to look, you're right, Gareth. However, Zürich, Bremen and Munich have the F minor Symphony. No doubt all as partitur rather than sets of parts. A couple of the String Quartets are also available and what looks like most of the operas, although some of those may just be the books and those that aren't will no doubt be in piano reductions. I had assumed that his manuscripts would be somewhere in Winterthur, as that was where he was based for most of his career, but a quick search of the Conservatory and municipal libraries there has drawn a blank too. I'll keep digging....

[John H White]

Maybe some of this music may have perished due to Allied bombing during the 2nd World War, when some German cities were completely flattened. Lets hope I'm wrong in this case.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I checked out Winterthur for his MSS, but, like Mark, drew a blank. The score of the F minor symphony seems to be in the holdings of quite a few libraries, but not the other symphonies.