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In 2024 the Richard-Strauss-Tage in Garmisch-Partenkirchen will take place from 1 June to 11 June. The program includes two works by Heinrich Gottlieb Noren.

Heinrich G. Noren (1861-1928, born Heinrich Gottlieb) was an Austrian composer and violinist. His compositions for orchestra achieved international success in the early 20th century. In 1907 his work Kaleidoskop was premiered, a set of variations on an original theme, culminating in a double fugue. As an admirer of Strauss, Noren quoted (with Strauss's permission) two themes from Ein Heldenleben, but was accused of plagiarism by Strauss's publisher Leuckart. The lawsuit was put to an end by a court in Dresden in Noren's favour. The court declared that only melodies were protected by law, but the quoted themes were no melodies. This judgement was used by satiric writers, most prominently by Edgar Istel in a parody on the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein, of which Strauss was president.

Here you can find a good introduction to Noren and his work:

https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/wp-content/uploads/vorworte_prefaces/1827.html

Kaleidoskop will be played together with Ein Heldenleben by the Pilsen Philharmonic, conducted by Rémy Ballot on 8 June 2024.

https://www.richard-strauss-tage.de/event/sinfoniekonzert-5/

On 11 June the Phaeton Piano Trio will play Noren's Piano Trio in D minor, together with Strauss's piano trios.

https://www.richard-strauss-tage.de/event/kammerkonzert-iii/

Cellist Julius Berger has recorded a CD called "Soldanella" with works for violoncello solo from the early 20th century. The  programme consists of Max Reger's Suite op. 131c/2, the Passacaglia from Donald Francis Tovey's Sonata op. 30, the Suite, and the Prelude and Fugue which together form Adolf Busch's op. 8, and the Suite op. 32/2 by Walter Courvoisier, of which Julius Berger played the premiere public performance in 2022. As editor of the last work, this recording makes me especially lucky. The CD is produced by Wergo, and will be released on 17 March:

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/tovey-soldanella-werke-fuer-violoncello-solo/hnum/11153460

Sheva Collection has released a CD of works for solo violin, played by Anna Kakutia, a violinist from Georgia living in Munich.

http://www.shevacollection.co.uk/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=230

The album can be listened to via Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dXm_WTReY8&list=OLAK5uy_kdv3ZS-o3x8zmncatK3PgzLVuaFi5x67E

It contains:

Max Reger: Prelude and Fugue in E minor op.117/3
Richard Wetz: Sonata in G op. 33
Max Reger: Prelude and Fugue in A minor WoO II/16
Donald Francis Tovey: Sonata Eroica in C major op. 29
Max Reger: Prelude in E minor WoO II/19

Felix Draeseke's Sonata quasi Fantasia op. 6 has found a staunch advocate in Charlotte Steppes, a young German pianist from Leipzig. She had played the work several times during the last year, e.g. at the annual conference concert of the International Draeseke Society on 16 October in Bad Rodach. Here you can hear her performance from 20 March 2022 in Leipzig:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pumG9G_-D70

The Youtuber "Lost and Sound" has given us the opportunity to listen to Draeseke's scandal piece of 1861:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VIrOTDDFOQ

[Bjarnat Krawc / Bernhard Schneider]

Bjarnat Krawc / Bernhard Schneider (born 5 February 1861; died 25 November 1948)

Bjarnat Krawc (pronounced like ,,crowds") was a Sorbian composer. The Sorbs are a slavic people of today ca. 60 000 members, living in Lusatia, a landscape in the eastern part of Germany of which a part is in Saxony the other in Brandenburg. Because the native land of the Sorbs is ruled by Germans since more than 1000 years there have been many attemps by German governments to germanise the Sorbs, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries. This resulted in giving the Sorbs German names. Bjarnat Krawc was officially called Bernhard Schneider in German ("Schneider" is the German translation of "Krawc", both meaning "taylor"), the compositions of his which were not especially designated to a Sorbian audience were published under his German name. His bilingual publications were published under ,,Schneider-Krawc" or ,,Krawc-Schneider".

Krawc was the first Sorbian composer who had studied at a major German music school. In 1883 he went to Dresden were he studied first privately with Heinrich Schulz Beuthen, than at the Dresden Conservatory with Felix Draeseke, graduating in 1893. He worked in Dresden as a music teacher and choir conductor, becoming one of the highest esteemed choir masters in Saxony. In 1918 the king of Saxony bestowed upon him the title of a Royal Music Director. While living in the Saxon capital Krawc nevertheless cared much for the music life in Lusatia, organising music festivals and conducting choirs. He visited Bohemia many times where he could gain support for the cause of Sorbian music. After the First World War Krawc unsuccessfully tried to establish a Sorbian national orchestra, but made successful concert trips with his choirs to Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Under the rule of the Nazis, who tried to dissolve Sorbian culture, Krawc was forced to give up his work as a conductor. In the allied air raid on Dresden (13 February 1945) all his possessions were lost in fire. The most of his compositions did survive only because he had them secretly archived by friends in Prague. After the war Krawc went to the Bohemian town of Varnsdorf were he died in 1948.

Krawc wrote compositions in nearly all genres, excluding works for the stage. The most of his work consists of vocal music, from songs for voice and piano to his monumental Missa solemnis. He was most famous in his live time for his arrangements of folk songs, both Sorbian and German. His instrumental music consists mostly of piano and chamber pieces, but there are some orchestral works to, e.g. a cycle of symphonic poems called "From Sorbian Soil".

The two main influences on Krawc's style of composition are Sorbian folk music and his teacher Felix Draeseke. Krawc was one of Draeseke's most devoted pupils. He regularly performed choral works of his teacher, and led the choir at Draeseke's funeral in 1913. Draeseke's art of polyphonic thinking is shown all over Krawc work, in his folk song arrangements as well as in his chamber music. Krawc's Missa solemnis can be called a direct successor of his teacher's late a cappella masses. As much as Draeseke influenced the composition technique of his pupil, considering the melodic invention Krawc stayed in the tradition of slavic songs and dances. The most of his instrumental music has its roots in folk dance.

A selective work list

Orchestral works

From Sorbian Soil, suite WoO (1894)
On the redoubt, ouverture op. 34 (1924)
Recollection, symphonic intermezzo WoO (1925)
Three Sorbian Dances op. 77a (1931/34)
Six Sorbian Dances op. 77c (1931/34)

Chamber music

String Quartet in C minor op. 4 (1893)
Sorbian Rhapsody for violin and piano op. 63a (1921)
Four Miniatures for violin and piano op. 63b (1929)
Sorbian Dance for violin and piano op. 63c (1928)
Elegy for three violins WoO (1933)
The Prankster, Burlesque for cello and piano op. 80 (1933)
Little Chamber Septets for flute, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violin, viola, violoncello op. 82a (1933)
From Sorbian Heath, 14 Pictures for string quartet op. 82c (1934)
Wendian Round Dance for violin and piano op. 88 (1937)
Divertimento for string quartet op. 89 (1942)
Signal for 4 winds WoO (1947)

Piano music

From Wendian Countryside, eight pieces op. 6 (1896)
Ten pieces (1940)
In memoriam (1947)

Works for choir

The Orphan, cantata for soloists, choir and orchestra op. 9 (1901)
Missa solemnis for choir a cappella and organ ad libitum op. 79 (1932)
War and Peace, oratorio for choir and piano WoO (1942/44)
To the Wind, a Spring Song for choir a cappella

Songs

At the Lake, terzetto for soprano, alto and tenor op. 1 (1886)
Three Songs op. 2 (1886)
Four Duets for soprano, baritone and piano op. 5 (1900)
Six Songs op. 21 (1910)
Eight Duettini for sorano and alto and piano op. 22 (1909)
The Sorbian Angel, song for soprano and violin op. 46 (1927)
33 Wendian Folk Songs for voice and piano op. 52 (1925)

Scores and CDs

New editions of Bjarnat Krawc's works have been published by Edition Roy. The scores of the works for string quartet, for violin and piano, for violoncello and piano, and for piano solo can be purchased from

www.shop.sorben.com

There you can find recordings of Krawc's works, too. The most important releases are:

- Chamber Music (3 CDs): Arcadia-Quartett, Annette Elster (soprano), Jan Paul Kussmaul (violin), Paul Rosner (violin), Ana Topalovic (violoncello), Christoph Staude (piano); Edition Roy 2012.
- Missa solemnis op. 79: Prager Philharmonischer Chor, Friedemann Böhme (conductor); Stiftung für das sorbische Volk 2003.
- 33 Wendische Volklieder op. 52: Tanja Donatec (mezzo soprano), Stefan Baumgärtel (baritone), René Speer (piano); SERVI 1999.

Pianist Andrea Vivanet, who in 2019 had published a well recieved Szymanowski album, now has recorded Preludes of three Russian masters of different generations. His Russian Album starts with Sergey Taneyev's Prelude and Fugue in G sharp minor and ends with Dmitry Shostakovich's 24 Preludes op. 24. Between you will find the first recordings of three cycles of pieces by Nikolai Tcherepnin:

6 Preludes op. 17 (1900)
5 Morceaux op. 18 (1901)
"Primitifs", 12 Adaptions d'anciennes melodies russes (1926)

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/russian-album/hnum/10699393

Organist Ruth Forsbach has recorded Felix Woyrsch's complete music for organ at the Reformed Church in Wuppertal-Ronsdorf. The CD will be released by Toccata Classics on 3 September 2021.

The recorded works are:

Festive Prelude on the chorale "Nun danket alle Gott" op. 43
Ten Chorale Preludes op. 59
Passacaglia on Dies Irae op. 62

https://toccataclassics.com/product/felix-woyrsch-complete-organ-music/

A few days ago the "Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt" in Weimar has uploaded a video of a song recital which took place on 29th June 2020 in the Highschool's concert room. The program included songs by Richard Wetz and Conrad Ansorge, which seem to be recorded for this first time at this opportunity, as well as songs by Franz Liszt and Hugo Wolf.

Pianist is Teodora Oprisor. She accompanies Michael Rakotoarivony, baritone, and Emma Moore, soprano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qpUyxgTrlM

[Walter Braunfels]

On this day, 138 years ago, Walter Braunfels was born. So this is maybe a good opportunity to ask you for help considering a special recording of his Prelude and Fugue for orchestra op. 36.

The label Aldilà Records plans to release an edition with recordings of Joseph Keilberth which show this famous conductor as an advocate of music by his contemporaries. It will contain works by Heinrich Kaminski, Paul Hindemith, Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling and Karl Höller. Also it was planned to include Keilberth's recording of Braunfels's Prelude and Fugue. That Keilberth made a radio recording of this work for the WDR is documented, but unfortunately the tape of this could not be found yet.

So I want to ask you, if someone of you possesses a copy of Keilberth's recording, which could be used as source for Aldilà's publication. 

Our user Holger, to whom I am very grateful, has found an old recording of Braunfels's op. 36, but unfortunately his source could not provide him with any information about the conductor or orchestra, only that it was recorded by West German radio could be granted for sure.

You will find it posted in the Downloads section.

Christoph Schlüren, founder of Aldilà Records, told me that, except Keilberth's, there were at least two other radio recordings of Prelude and Fugue made during the 1950s, one conducted by Günter Wand, the other conducted by Otto Matzerath.

So my other question is: Can somebody identify this recording, and say if it is Keilberth's or not?

Grateful for every help,

Rainolf

Today I found a historic recording of Draeseke's Clarinet Sonata op. 38 on Youtube, played by Jost Michaels, clarinet, and Maria Bergmann, piano.

It was made by the SWR (South West German Radio) and provided to Youtube by Naxos, were it is listed since April, but according to the view numbers was heard only by very few people. Because this is a very beautiful performance, I want to recommend it to you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56a99FI2gJk&list=OLAK5uy_kLTD1WqLPkRjrz2wYeBVQwGYZIyT5JACE&index=1

Jost Michaels (1922-2004) was an allround musician, who worked as clarinetist, pianist and conductor, and is maybe most well known for his commitment to the works of Wilhelm Berger, of which he made some first CD recordings. Maria Bergmann (1918-2002) had a fixed engagement as radio pianist at the SWR from 1946 to 1982.

Aldilà Records is a Munich based label focussing on the presentation of great musicians of past and present times as well as on promoting unsung masterworks. It is led by Christoph Schlüren, conductor, music pedagogue, and one of Germany's most distinguished writers on music.

The programmes of Aldilà's CDs regularly show how the different aspects, on which the label focusses, come together. You will often find CDs dedicated to special performers, on which unsung works are presented along with well known pieces to show how good they can stand together with each other in terms of quality. Most CDs contain works of different composers, often from different times, with a special idea in the background on which the programme is built. There is, for example, a double CD by Hugo Schuler, an Argentinian pianist with a special talent for polyphonic music. Here Bach's Goldberg Variations and three Preludes and Fugues from the Well Tempered Clavier are combined with pieces of contrapuntal art from different times: a Fantasia by Froberger, and works by Heinrich Kaminski and Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling.

One of the next CDs, the publication of which is scheduled for February, will deal with the genre of String Trio. The Trio Montserrat (Joel Bardolet, Violin; Miquel Córdoba, Viola; Bruno Hurtado, Cello) will play Mozart's famous Divertimento, and then follow the path into the 20th century. Friends of Paul Büttner maybe will be interested in the next piece, Büttner's Trio Sonata, which shows this great late romantic symphonist as a master of canonic writing in the tradition of his teacher Felix Draeseke. The programme is finished by Trios of Heinz Schubert and Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling, both recurring on Bach's art of contrapuntal writing from the background of late romantic expressiveness.

The Youtube channel of Aldilà Records contains videos from the rehearsal sessions for this new CD, in which some movements of the pieces can be heard in full. You can get vivid impressions, too, of the Trio Montserrat's formidable musicianship and Christoph Schlüren's profound work as a chamber music coach (the sessions were made in English language):

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHdzLpiL6Yldrnz5_Z196kg

Ernst Rudorff studied piano with Clara Schumann and Ignaz Moscheles, and worked for four decades (1869–1910) as professor for piano at the Royal Academy of Music in Berlin, were his pupils included Wilhelm Berger, Leo Blech, Paul Juon and Carl Schuricht. While frequently working as a choral and orchestral conductor, he refused to play the piano in public, but was described as a fine pianist by them, who heard him play. As a pedagogue, Rudorff trained his students in thoughtful interpretation and opposed virtuosity for virtuosity's sake. So he was on one line with his friend and headmaster Joseph Joachim.

Rudorff was not a prolific composer, producing only 60 opus numbers in his career, 13 of them for pianoforte. His production of piano music has some similarities with Brahms's. He prefers small scale ternary pieces with densely worked motivic and harmonic devices.

Here is a list of the compositions Ernst Rudorff wrote for the pianoforte:

op. 1 Variations for two Pianos
op. 4 Six Pieces for Piano, four hands
op. 10 Eight Fantasy Pieces
op. 14 Fantasy
op. 29 Two Concert Etudes *
op. 38 18 Waltzes for Children
op. 48 Three Romances *
op. 49 Capriccio appassionato *
op. 51 Impromptu
op. 52 Six Piano Pieces *
op. 54 Four Pieces for Piano, four hands
op. 55 Variazioni capricciose
op. 56 Two Ballades (not published)

* Recorded by Viller Valbonesi, MDG

Imslp has the scores / parts of opp. 1, 4 and 10

The Fantasy in three movements op. 14, Rudorffs largest piano work, was dedicated to Brahms, so its score is presented by the Brahms Institute Lübeck in a gallery of dedication pieces:

http://www.brahms-institut.de/web/bihl_digital/widmungswerke_units/RudorffE_op_014.html