NB This is NOT an April Fool posting!!
I have heard from an impeccable source that another C minor Symphony by Rufinatscha has been unearthed. It appears that what was assumed to be a strings-only piece is actually a symphony with all the other parts missing. Accordingly, a completion is being made by a leading Austrian composer and a first performance is planned for the autumn of 2012 in Mals, Austria, Rufinatscha's birthplace.
What I am currently trying to find out is (a) whether there is any connection between this piece (apparently 45 mins long) and the three-movement torso of Symphony No.4 in C minor which we only have in piano four-hands form, and (b) what period it dates from if this is a completely different piece.
More news as I get it...
Fascinating news, Alan - Chandos might have to seriously consider a volume 4! :o
Please keep us up to speed with any more information on the work and it's discovery.
What a fascinating development, Alan. Do make sure to keep us posted.
Mals is in Italy...
Mals is indeed in Italy (just!) - although in the very north of the South Tyrol which up until WW1 was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today the majority of its population are still German-speakers. Apologies for the error!
Mals is in Italy since 1918 (the Italian name is Malles).
Rufinatscha was German speaking (that would be anyway today) and was citizen of the Austrian Empire.
Indeed things are not always so simple. For instance Antonio Salieri was by birth citizen of the Austrian Empire and lived at long in Wien (like Rufinatscha). Did Antonio Salieri know German language? I never raised the question, but I would reply: yes.
Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart know Italian language? Yes, he did.
Where did Gustav Mahler compose Das Lied von der Erde and the ninth Symphony? In Toblach (Austria, Austrian Empire) around 1908-1910.
Toblach (or Dobbiaco) became Italian in 1918.
The first piece of news from Austria is that the symphony currently being reconstructed is indeed Rufinatscha's 4th of 1846. This is, of course, tremendously exciting news as this would be the companion piece to Symphony No.5, dating from the same year (1846) and a work from the composer's mature period. More news as I get it...
Now things become a little less clear. It appears that assumptions have been made about the identity of the string parts that have been found in Vienna (i.e. whether they relate to the same symphony - No.4 - of which we so far have only had three movements in a piano four-hands version). However, checks are going to be made over the next few days. I am also trying to ensure that the gentleman commissioned to do the reconstruction work knows about the piano score - if it's the same piece! He hasn't yet seen any of the music...
Hopefully the string parts will match up with the reduction, and will include the finale as well. Do you think there's a chance the 3rd will turn up somewhere in the vicinity?
The 3rd seems to have disappeared altogether. But who knows....?
Anyway, more news about the 4th (if the assumptions are correct) later in the week, hopefully by Thursday.
And whether it's the Fourth or not, what great timing for the Chandos series!
Exactly! What I am very much hoping is that the remains of whatever is currently being discovered in Austria turns out to be especially significant, and that this in turn creates a whooping great houhaha in the musical press. And if Chandos go on unveiling their new series in that climate, then, great larks, we might get a Volume 4!!!
Quote from: alberto on Saturday 09 April 2011, 17:54
Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart know Italian language? Yes, he did.
Since you ask in passing - of course Mozart knew Italian. He travelled to Italy to study with Martini, and generally learned Italian operatic music which had a huge influence on his music from that point forward; I believe he spent not a little while there.
At what time did he
learn Italian, much earlier or just before his trip for example, however, is a question I should check the answer to - I admit I'm not sure offhand.
Your overall point I grant.
BTW I'm also making sure that Chandos know about the latest developments through one of the producers who works for the BBC in Manchester.
This is great news, Alan.
I sincerely hope that this new discovery does lead to the possibility of an orchestral 'reconstruction' of Rufinatscha's 4th Symphony. With a knowledgable 'middle-man' such as yourself ideally placed, it is of the utmost important than everyone concerned is kept up-to-date with any developments in this story.
Were the all-important string parts (fundamental in any nineteenth-century scoring, carrying the bulk of the orchestral argument) discovered in a library, a commercial enterprise or a private collection? ???
They were in the Library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna!!
I apologize in protracting a mere digression. Salieri (reply 5) was by birth (1750) citizen of the Republic of Venice. He emigrated to Wien around 1770. Anyway the Republic of Venice was annexed to the Austrian Empire in 1798.
Well, now that scores have been examined and experts consulted, it turns out that the string parts discovered are from a hitherto completely unknown Symphony in C minor and definitely not No.4 in the same key. This is the definitive news that has come from Innsbruck this afternoon...
What an exciting news.... What can we expect in the (hopefully near) future?
...
Quotea completion is being made by a leading Austrian composer
May I ask what the basis is for this "completion", other than the string parts? I mean are there any short score sketches, or even a list of the instrumentation, which would usefully inform any completion - or will it be an imaginative realisation of the work based solely on the string parts?
offtopic, did Johann Rufinatscha have a relative named Josef or Joseph? a Jos. Rufinatscha published two sonatas around the same time Johann published his music, but in different keys, with a different publisher,...
Quote from: eschiss1 on Saturday 16 April 2011, 22:57
offtopic, did Johann Rufinatscha have a relative named Josef or Joseph? a Jos. Rufinatscha published two sonatas around the same time Johann published his music, but in different keys, with a different publisher,...
Dunno, Eric. More details, please!
Quote from: Gareth Vaughan on Saturday 16 April 2011, 20:46
...Quotea completion is being made by a leading Austrian composer
May I ask what the basis is for this "completion", other than the string parts? I mean are there any short score sketches, or even a list of the instrumentation, which would usefully inform any completion - or will it be an imaginative realisation of the work based solely on the string parts?
All I can tell you is that only the string parts have survived, so the completion must be a work of imaginative re-composition.
Are all four movements extant, Alan? Presumably the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde's library has ben scoured for the missing parts before deciding to embark on a reconstruction?
If they can find something like that there, I still insist that there's probably a whole lot of undiscovered stuff waiting to be found.
Actually, I'm not sure about the Josef. It's "Jos." if I'm reading right and the rest is conjecture. Works attributed by Hofmeister to Jos. Rufinatscha include a piano sonata in F op9 (November 1857 HMB (http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-buch?apm=0&aid=1000001&bd=0001857&teil=0203&seite=00000165&zoom=4)), perhaps also this piano sonata in F minor op.5 (attributed to J. Rufinatscha but the publisher is the same - Witzendorf- as for the F major sonata and matches no work I, anyway, know of for Johann- see November 1847 HMB (http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-buch?apm=0&aid=1000001&bd=0001847&teil=0203&seite=00000172&zoom=4).)
I see that Taufere Musi.com (http://www.tauferermusi.com/geschichte/geschichte.htm)?? mentions a Josef Rufinatscha... oh. that's a 20th century one. never mind that one...
musicsack.com and viaf know of only Johann, it's true.
I was trying to prepare, earlier- this is tangentially connected but informs my attitude as it were - a worklist for Robert Radecke (or rather to add to the one that exists on IMSLP ) - and noticed that in HMB-at-rhul.ac.uk there are multiple entries, e.g. two opus 1's attributed to "Radecke, R."; then I found out that Robert had an older brother named Rudolf (R.!) who was also a composer - and some of the "Radecke" hits were, indeed, "Radecke, Rud.", further clarifying, and consistent with a hypothesis that some of the earlier "R."s had been Rudolf, starting composition a bit later than his younger brother... this increases my caution (already existing of course) with HMB and other goodish references (Worldcat is not a "good" source) by a bit.
this mentions (http://www.annetteseiler.at/Termine.htm) lieder von Joseph Rufinatscha from the Tirol museum, tho'...
Eric
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Sunday 17 April 2011, 01:42
Are all four movements extant, Alan? Presumably the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde's library has ben scoured for the missing parts before deciding to embark on a reconstruction?
Yes, all four movements are extant - and the library has been duly scoured!!
Whilst listening to Rufinatscha's majestic Sixth on Chandos, I was wondering if there is some more news?
And I must say what Eric has discovered is quite interesting as well. Who is the composer Joseph Rufinatscha, whose songs were performed on 23 October 2009 in the Tiroler Landesmusem? The same Jos. who composed a sonata in F, op. 9? But then, did our Johann use opus numbers? Maybe Manfred Schneider knows the answer.
yes- Johann Rufinatscha's symphony no.6 was his opus 13, for instance (and his last published works of 1878 were around opus 15 or so. His works that appear in the Hofmeisters Monatsberichte generally do appear with opus numbers, in fact :) )
I have heard:
The "new" C minor Symphony by Rufinatscha is NOT identically with the piece and the three-movement torso of Symphony No.4 in C minor which we only have in piano four-hands form: It is a completely different piece. It is uncertain what period it dates from, probably later than the 6th or before? It was found not in the Library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna – but in the Library of the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum.
There is a reconstruction (re-composing) of the wind-parts by Michael FP Huber.
There will be two performances this year:
Symphony in c-Moll & 3 Concerto Arias (Der Schwur am Grabe der Mutter,
Die Erwartung, Ingebors Klage)
Sunday 24. November 2012, 20 h
Mals, Aula Magna Oberschulzentrum, Italy
Saturday, 25. November 2012, 17 h
Innsbruck, Kaiser-Leopold-Saal der Theologischen Fakultät
Belinda Loukota (Soprano), Andreas Mattersberger (Bassbariton)
Orchestera of the Akademy St. Blasius
Karlheinz Siessl
www.tiroler-landesmuseum.at/userupload/9468_TLM_Folder_rufinatscha.pdf (http://www.tiroler-landesmuseum.at/userupload/9468_TLM_Folder_rufinatscha.pdf)