Hans Franke (1882-1971)

[Mark Thomas]

Mark mentioned the "Fourth" as relating to the selfsame Rheinberger overture,in post 271 above,but he meant to type the "Fifth".

Apologies and thanks, I've corrected the error.

[terry martyn]

I am delighted to see that the German wikipedia article about Franke has now gained a short section about his plagiarisms.

And there are some comments on the YouTube upload of Kauffmann's genial,impressive symphony (the latest being added only a couple of weeks ago).

[Holger]

Just as a sidenote, maybe guys here have already heard about Tristan Foison, a story which has at least some parellels with the Franke issue. Tobias Bröker has worked on his case:
https://www.tobias-broeker.de/tristan-foison-vc

[tpaloj]

Dear friends, I was able to find one further plagiat from Franke, this time concerning his "Frühlingsmorgen, Op. 857 for soprano solo, chorus and orchestra, set to text by E. Geibel [!]".



The actual work is by Adolf Sandberger: Waldmorgen, Op. 5, to actual text by Franz Alfred Muth. Sandberger's score can be found on IMSLP for comparison purposes.

Sandberger's score on IMSLP

This instance shows the brazenness of Franke, not only in pilfering the composition but having the audacity to attach his "composition" to the name of the famous poet Emanuel Geibel, instead of its original author.

[jdperdrix]

I don't understand the role of Oliver Triendl in this story. He is a well known pianist, having an impressive list of CD's, mostly from romantic composers. How could he not notice inconsistencies in the style of "Franke"'s piano concerto, actually by Woelfl. His recording is still listed among his abundant dicography on his personal website :
https://www.oliver-triendl.com/german/diskografie-oliver-triendl.php

[Ilja]

I think that from Triendl's perspective, there were no inconsistencies. He was probably told they were going to play something by a contemporary composer working in a 19th century style, and the Wölfl conforms to that image (early 19th c perhaps, but even so). In our talks with Christian Hammer, the conductor of both the Wölfl concerto and the Kauffmann symphony, he expressed his amazement at the variation of styles. But apparently no one gave it more thought than that at the time.

[Reverie]

Then there's his Symphony No 17, yes no 17 !!!

This sounds distictly Russian - anyone have any ideas. Have a listen to the opening.

LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ak916Ez-xY

[Mark Thomas]

It does sound very Slavic. Napravnik's 1st or 2nd, perhaps?

[eschiss1]

Have no idea if those were ever published; but I would guess there are a number of other options not yet known to us that were and might have been more accessible to him (if his MO included scouring libraries nearer by where he lived- the USSR was probably mostly offlimits, I'm guessing - and publishers' archives. I'm thinking of ways he might have found out about the Kauffmann symphony and extrapolating.)

[eschiss1]

Re Förster's symphony: the whole work is now at IMSLP, I see (one is no longer limited to the incipits at RISM).

[Ilja]

I uploaded it some time ago after confirming that it was in fact the same work as Franke's "Fourth".

[eschiss1]

Thanks!

[Vitaly]

Then there's his Symphony No 17, yes no 17 !!!

This sounds distictly Russian - anyone have any ideas. Have a listen to the opening.

LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ak916Ez-xY

It's not accessible any longer. Was there a reason to delete it or?
I might be of help if it's Russian...

[Ilja]

Felix Lambsdorff emailed me with a further identification:

Hans Franke's Partita in D major, Op. 859, is probably another example of a pieced-together work: Movements 1, 5 and 6 are taken from the symphony to the opera 'The Duenna' by Thomas Linley (1756 - 1778) – the work is recorded on this album. Movements 3 and 4 (Polacco and Menuetto) are clearly taken from Bernardo Polazzi's Sinfonia in D major, although Franke did not use the Andante from Polazzi's work. I have not yet been able to identify the second movement and the second half of the fourth movement.

This brings the number of identifications to 32 (of which two are partial) out of 87.

[Mark Thomas]

That's very impressive collective detective work, Ilja.