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[Harwood, Basil (1859-1949)]

Harwood, Basil  (1859-1949)

"In an Old Abbey"

Organist and composer very much in the English church music tradition. All of his output was either choral or for the organ. His organ style is known for being technically challenging.

After gaining his music degree at Oxford he continued his education in Leipzig and studied composition with Jadassohn.

His subsequent professional positions were held at St Barnabas', Pimlico followed by a five year stint at Ely Cathedral. His final move was back to Oxford where he remained at Christ Church Cathedral until his retirement.

"In an Old Abbey" was composed in 1923 towards the end of his life. I have made an orchestration of this short but evocative work which I hope will not offend the organ officiandos too deeply.

It runs for just over 5 minutes.

In an Old Abbey for orchestra (arr. Martin walsh)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiXYN711vyc

Bonvin,Ludwig  (1850-1939)

Ludwig Bonvin was born in Sierre, Switzerland on February 17, 1850.  As a young child, Bonvin took piano lessons for two years but eventually stopped - not because he was disinterested but because his music teacher failed to keep many of his appointments.  These were his only music lessons.

As Bonvin grew older and it came time for him to choose a career, he decided to enter medicine, a field he was not particularly interested in but was the profession of his father.  One year into his studies, he became sick and was removed to the mountains of Switzerland for recovery.  There, while walking among the woods, he was inspired to write his first composition, "Das Voeglein", "The Little Bird".

After Bonvin's recovery, he decided to study law.  This he did for two years until his religious calling drew him to Exaten, Holland where he began his novitiate with the German Jesuits.  In the third year of his religious life, Bonvin was appointed organist and choirmaster. 

It was at this time that Bonvin decided to study music theory, of which he was only able to do ten minutes every day due to the rigorous demands of the novitiate.  After completing his philosophical studies in Holland, Bonvin continued his theological studies in England and was received into the priesthood on August 30, 1885.  During this time, he continued writing his compositions and was in charge of the community choir and children of the parish school.

Sent by his superiors to America, Bonvin arrived in New York on July 31, 1887.  From 1887 to 1905, he directed the Canisius College choir, from 1888 to 1907 the Canisius College Orchestra, and from 1922 to 1929 the S.H.A. Orchestra at Sacred Heart Academy.

In 1891, after attending a symphony orchestra concert Bonvin decided he had a compelling urge to write orchestral music and composed his first orchestral work entitled "In Gehobener Stimmung" (Elevation).  So impressed was the conductor with this piece that he played it at his next concert.  The composition was a success.  A pupil of Lizst, who happened to be present, wrote to him immediately after the concert in an enthusiastic letter of congratulation.

Bonvin's compositions are now completely forgotten.

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Bonvin's music is very much under the influence of Wagner. The orchestral texture is quite thick and to my ears rendolent of Delius in its harmonic shifts and phrasing.

Here is the Allegro movement from the "Zwei Symphonische Sätze" Op.71 (1905)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i28h4klg-XQ&t=29s

There is a recording of this by the St. Olaf College Orchestra, with an unknown conductor. However, sadly, it really is very, very poor quality and does the great work little justice.

So here is my squeaky clean rendition. It has taken a long time but I have enjoyed every minute of exploring Herr Stöhr's wonderful thematic and harmonic inovation and his orchestral brilliance in scoring for a large orchestra.

Four movements: (40 mins)

Andante maestoso - Allegro

Scherzo  - 10' 27''

Andante Religioso - 23' 00''

Finale - allegro  - 29' 45''

LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJg8FWKNnTs

[Crudely translated from the Swedish as:]

Fritz Arlberg was a celebrated Swedish singer who also left behind a substantial portfolio of musical compositions.

He appeared as a guest-singer at several theatres in Stockholm, but in 1883 he gave up his singing career. He then worked as a singing teacher, first in Stockholm and then in Copenhagen and finally in Christiania from 1894, where he died in 1896.

From 1864 to 1865 he was director at the Royal Swedish Opera. However, he left there in 1874 owing to a medical ill-treatment and instead took up employment at the Opera in Christiania, where he stayed until 1877.

As well as becoming known as an aspiring composer he was also active as an arranger. He translated and edited a number of operatic texts, including Rienzi and The Flying Dutchman. He also became one of the champions in Sweden for the works of Richard Wagner.

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"I Stokgen" is a short Tone Poem for orchestra lasting about 8 mins. It translates from the Swedish as "In the Woods". The inspiration is from a text by Lorenz Dietrichson:


Skogen ar den herrligaste uppenbarelse at naturlifvets groende friskhet och aningsfulla dunkelht; derfor griper dess inre ocksa menniskan med en upplyftande, helig kansla; den ar pelargangen i naturens stora kyrka - och mellan stammarna vanta vi derfore att plotsligen fa se naturens ande, skogens herrskare, uppenbara sig; en helig skrack genomtranger oss, kanslan af var andlighets upplosning i universums lif har sitt hem i skogens djup

Crudely translated from the Swedish as:

The forest is the most glorious revelation of nature and wildlife; its heart grips man with an uplifting, spirituality; it is the heart of nature's great kingdom - between the forest trunks we feel the spirit of nature, the ruler of the forest, beholden before us.

I Stokgen Op. 10 - (presumably an early work maybe dated about 1850/60 ?)

LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnR2TWi8mec

[Sunday, July 14, 2019]

Carl Brambach spent most of his life in Bonn.

He started out on his career as first violinist at the Bonn Opera House (1847-1850) and studied at the Cologne Conservatory (1851-1854) as a private pupil of Ferdinand Hiller and Carl Reinecke before he himself became a teacher in 1858.

In 1869 he chose to devote himself entirely to his compositions and the musical life in Bonn. He was admired particularly for his choral writing.

His insrumental writing is best described as post-Mendelssohn but there are also elements of chromaticism evident.

On 20 June 1902 Brambach died in his home in Bonn. His funeral was accompanied by singers from all over Germany. A memorial was built on his grave at the cemetery in Bonn-Poppelsdorf.

On Sunday, July 14, 2019, a memorial plaque was set up at the Rebstock car park in Königswinter-Oberdollendorf (a village across the river Rhine from Bonn), at the place where Brambach was born and spent his childhood and youth.

https://virtuellesbrueckenhofmuseum.de/vmuseum/historie/zeige_objekt.php?auswahl=13084&suche=&reihe=-13084-10-13122-1-13156-13129-13124-13114-13128-13131-13111

The overture to the opera Ariadne (1885) follows. It is about 8 minutes in length.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjB44wAiYBM

Friedrich Koch was born in Berlin and studied cello with Robert Hausmann and composition with Woldemar Bargiel at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. He served as a cellist in the Royal Orchestra of Berlin between 1882 and 1891, after which he accepted a position of music director (Kapellmeister) at Baden-Baden.

A year later, he returned to Berlin, where he concentrated on composing and teaching, eventually becoming a professor and director of theory at the Musikhochschule where he had studied.

His Symphony No.2, Op.10 dates from 1891. It is dedicated to Hans von Bulow. I have completed a rendition of the first movement.

Here is the link  (12:30) I'd be interested in hearing what you think of this. The last decade of the 19th century was a period of rapid change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EgQcERjrtc

[Esser, Heinrich Joseph (1818-1872)]

Esser, Heinrich Joseph (1818-1872)


Heinrich Esser was a violinist, conductor and composer born in Mannheim and active in Vienna.

After studies with Franz Lachner (1803-1890) in Mannheim and in Munich he went to Vienna in 1839 to study with Simon Sechter (1788-1867).

In 1840 he worked briefly as Kapellmeister at the National Theater in Mannheim. In 1841 he became conductor of the Liedertafel (Singing Society) in Mainz. In 1845 he became Kapellmeister at the Mainz Theater. During these years he taught composition to Peter Cornelius (1824-1874).

In 1847 he moved to Vienna to become Kapellmeister at the Vienna Court Opera. In the 1860/1861 season he functioned as its interim Director.

During his years in Vienna Esser also directed concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1859 he became an honorary member of the Vienna Male Choral Society and in 1862 he was on the Board of the benevolent Tonkünstler-Societät (Society of Musicians).

In 1858 Esser conducted the Viennese premiere of Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) Lohengrin. As a consultant for the Franz Schott publishing company, he came in contact with Wagner in 1859.

Esser was one of the first to appreciate Hans Richter (1818-1872) who played in Esser's orchestra. Esser recommended him to Wagner as copyist and arranger. Richter would later be the first to conduct Wagner's entire Ring cycle in Bayreuth.

Esser retired in 1869 to Salzburg because of ill health and died in 1872 from tuberculosis. Richter succeeded him in 1875 at the Vienna Court Opera.

In late 1869, Esser retired and moved to Salzburg where he died of tuberculosis in 1872.

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Listen to the The Symphony in B Minor - Op.79 (1869)


1.Lento / Allegro
2.Adagio
3.Scherzo
4.Finale / Allegro

LINK TO THE SYMPHONY: (30 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsqHO1fCjVY

[Ferdinand Lavainne]

Oh and to add. I wonder how many of you have heard of Ferdinand Lavainne (1814-1893) ??

His harmonies even flumoxed Berlioz apparently. His Symphony (1840 ish) is quite extraordinary from what I have discovered.

Another project in the never ending pipeline.

[Nordic Overture Op.7 - 1864]

August Henrik Winding was born in Tårs, Denmark, near Sandby on the island of Lolland. His father was a clergyman who collected and arranged Danish folk songs; he was also an excellent pianist who became his son's first music teacher.

In 1847, August's parents sent the 12 year old to Copenhagen for musical education. He stayed there at the house of J.P.E. Hartmann and was given piano lessons by Carl Reinecke until the latter's departure for Paris in 1848. He was also taught theory and composition by Niels Gade.

In 1856 he went to Leipzig for further studies, and then had lessons with Alexander Dreyschock in Prague.

His public career was originally as a pianist; he became rapidly the leading pianist of his day in Denmark, but also played throughout most of Europe, specialising chiefly in the repetoire of Beethoven and Mozart.

In 1867 he injured his arm through overwork, which forced his retirement as a performer but also enabled him to devote himself to composing.

Most of his work is forgotten. The Piano Concerto Op.16 is his most famous work today.

August Winding was one of Edvard Grieg's closest friends.

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Nordic Overture Op.7 - 1864

It's an early orchestral piece but confident and assured. It's dedicated to Grieg himself.

It's runs for about 13 minutes. Link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMzQMNqjeHI

[Traum und Wirklichkeit]

Published in 1894 whilst Director of the Berlin Conservatory.

Traum und Wirklichkeit seems to be catalogued as a tone poem as it runs without a break. However, at over 30 minutes in length and in terms of its formal structure it leans more towards a symphony of sorts.

It begins with an opening Allegro movement followed by a Scherzo. The scherzo 'dissolves' gradually to an Andante Tranquillo movement. It's a wonderful transition featuring the harp.

Muted brass fanfares prelude the last movement. An almost baroque sounding introduction leads into a fugue and then into the finale proper. Towards the end the high energy subsides and we hear Bach's "Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden" (When I must depart one day, do not depart from me then) played on full brass, softly.

I have enjoyed exploring every bar of this work whilst working on it. The last time I felt that was working on Wilhelm Berger's 1st Symphony so that says everything!

LINK BELOW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLtha9F0XrQ&t=133s

[complete]

Symphony in D major first performed 1867

Here is the entire symphony complete. It has a memorable and uplifting opening theme which I hope you all come to love as much as I have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJJuk_fMch4

[Symphony in D Minor op.8 (1899)]

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

[Abert]

Abert, Johann Joseph (1832-1915)

Symphony No.5 (1869)

I. Adagio - Allegro
II. Scherzo   -  12'  25''
III. Adagio  -  19' 40''
IV. Finale. Allegro maestoso  -  28' 20''

40 mins in length. All the princial themes for each movement are introduced from the ouset in the opening Adagio



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

In 1907 Holbrooke was approached by the poet Herbert Trench who suggested he might set his extended poem on immortality Apollo and the Seaman to music.  The completed work, entitled "An Illuminated Symphony", was first performed at Queen's Hall on 20 January 1908, conducted by Thomas Beecham. It was a multimedia event. The orchestra and chorus were hidden from the audience behind an elaborate screen in a darkened hall whilst the text of the poem was projected onto the screen using lantern slides at corresponding points in the music.

Only the final section of the poem (The Embarkation) is actually sung (by a male chorus), the rest of the score being a purely orchestral illustration of the verses.

Allegedly the lantern slides in this first performance got out of sync with the music which led to some confusion.

Interestingly the funeral march from Apollo was a favorite of Captain Robert Scott and was much played at memorials held for Scott after he perished on an ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1912.

The work is for a huge orchestra and is in four parts. The first two parts follow:


Part 1:  Full orchestra (11 mins)
Part 2:  For wind and tuned/untuned percussion (3 mins)

(Parts 3 & 4 are to follow)


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PART 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eZp3YbJ-Tc



PART 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjWS227_7pw

[Fest-Ouverture (1888)]

Meyer-Olbersleben studied with Carl Müllerhartung and Franz Liszt at the Weimar Orchestra School, and with Josef Rheinberger, Franz Wüllner, and Peter Cornelius at the Munich Conservatory. After graduation, he became Professor of piano and theory in Weimar. Later, he was Professor of counterpoint and composition at the Bavarian State Conservatory of Music in Würzburg, and became its director from 1907 to 1920.

Meyer-Olberleben became known primarily as a composer of songs and choral works. However he wrote a concerto for viola, two overtures and a tone poem entitled Sonnenhymnus. A piano trio in E major is a beautifully crafted work. An opera, Clare Dettin (in 3 acts) was completed in 1894.

The Fest-Ouverture Op.30 (1888) demonstrates Max's strength in melodic composition and associated counterpoint along with a confident grasp of orchestral balance.

It's a late romantic work, obviously conservative for its time but nevertheless an enjoyable 8 minutes of indulgent schmaltz. Drink it in. I love it!

Fest-Ouverture (1888)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCPste3FaWk

[1st mov:]

Hugo had a difficult start to life losing his father at the age of nine. Aged barely twelve he also lost his mother.

His musical talents were encouraged by influential family friends and eventually he ended up at the Stern Conservatory on the recommendation of Giacomo Meyerbeer, who was then Director General of the Berlin Opera.

His Symphony Op.6, which appeared in 1852, soon made the round of the concerts of Germany, and with his Symphonie Triomphale he won the grand prize of the Royal Belgian Academy in Brussels in 1853. When he attended the public premiere in Brussels on September 27, 1853, he received the enthusiastic applause of the public. From then on, the new composer's new creations were eagerly awaited.

Sadly not many more works appeared except for an opera: "Bertran de Born," and the start of a third symphony. In the final years leading to his death, aged just 45, he devoted himself chiefly to arrangements for piano. Indeed, today, Hugo Ulrich is mainly known for his numerous (more than 200) piano arrangements for two and four hands of various works, including complete sets of symphonies and quartets by Haydn and Mozart in practical home editions.

Symphony in B minor Op. 6 (1852)

1st mov: Largo - Allegro

The opening slow section features the solo clarinet. A haunting minor melody kicks off the main allegro. The movement ends quietly.

2nd mov: Vivace

A lively scherzo with a softer lyrical middle section, again featuring the clarinet.

3rd mov: Andante

Theme with variations using a hymn like melody in 3/4 time

4th mov: Allegro moderato

Harmonically the most adventurous movement and the galloping theme stops and starts erratically at moments you don't expect. A broad contrasting chorale like section acts as a second subject and it is this that eventually ends the symphony in triumph.

Symphony in B minor Op. 6 (1852):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFbbxtao2vc

[1st mov]

As there is no recording that I'm aware of here is a very brief programme note to accompany the realisation.

1st mov - Slow introduction followed by standard Allegro in which this driving rhythm dominates. D minor on the whole.

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   3

At over 13 minutes (and that's without repeating the exposition) this is a heavyweight movement. Solid exposition / development which is quite eccentric then recapitulation with coda as standard.

2nd mov - Trauermarsch but surprisingly with much in the major key. A very beautiful string section (marked p and ppp) after the initial brass fanfares. 8 minutues in length.

3rd mov - Scherzo in 3/4 time but exploiting a ||_| 2/4 cross rhythm across the barlines which adds to the playfulness of this movement. It's 6 minutes in length and I think I have the tempo about right. It shouldn't be too rushed.

4th mov - Allegro. This is a perpetuum mobile and provides a good workout for the 1st violins. It is a thoroughly delightful movement, bright and cheerful and predominately in the major key. It's just under ten minutes in length.

This symphony runs for about 40 minutes in total and is clearly a significant work. It seems to be labelled as D minor but to be honest most of it is in the major key. It begs for a decent recording. Hope for the future maybe?

I initially didn't warm to this symphony but I have to conclude that after two or three auditions I find myself in complete admiration of Otto's achievement. His magnum opus?

I hope you find it enlightening at least.

Symphony in D minor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnYB2v7Q2t4

Henry Hadley was one of the most performed and published American composers of his day. He considered himself first and foremost an orchestral composer, and then a conductor.

His Symphonic Fantasia for large orchestra was first published in 1907. It's about 15 minutes in length and demonstarates his mastery of orchestration perfectly. The orchestral brass writing is especially fine.

The Sibelius software was driven hard controlling all the forces in this short but brilliant work but it coped admirably I think.

Symphonic Fantasia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsxMZCaUA64

[The Overture to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1867)]

A renound and highly accomplished conductor and pianist. In 1857, he premiered Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor in Berlin. He conducted the priemieres of Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. He also conducted the revised version of Brahms Symphony No 1. He was the soloist in the world premiere of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor in Boston in 1875.

Not a bad CV is it!

He also composed. His works are definitely unsung. Very few recordings. Wagner thought his efforts were highly commendable.

Do offer your opinions. I hear the influence of Tchaikovsky myself (although Wagner is ever present of course).

The Overture to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (1867)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGcTcYKzTt0