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Gareth, the library catalog seems to contain only Symphony No. 5; can you tell me where you found references to the other ones?

On Thursday 7 (Badajoz) and Friday 8 March (Plasencia), the Orquesta de Extremadura is playing Alexander von Zemlinsky's Symphony in D minor in Badajoz, Spain (along with Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto), conducted by Jaume Santonjo. They seem to engage in such relatively adventurous repertoire often; two years ago the orchestra performed Felix Woyrsch' 1st Symphony.

Ehm, there IS still Dvořák's concerto, of course... 

Great observation: if someone includes both "fantastic" and "symphony" in the title, it's inevitable to draw comparisons with Berlioz, leaving poor Franz with little opportunity to shine.

The only Schreck I know is his really rather excellent oratorio Christus, der Auferstandene (Christ, the Resurrected) from 1896*. And I have to say that I like this nonet. It's a pleasantly lightweight piece - in a good way - and exquisitely crafted.

* I am a sucker for large-scale oratorios, so your mileage may vary.

I think it is partly entertaining trash, but trash nonetheless. It just baffles me that someone who is such a master in one musical genre can show such an utter lack of understanding of another. Set that against people like Bretón and Chapí, Zarzuela (similar to Operetta) composers who composed really worthwhile orchestral music.

The scrappy strings are a bigger problem than the repertory as far as Mr. Rudner's reputation is concerned, I think.

I've finally been able to digest Suppé's Fantasia Symphonica and while it may be fantastic, it certainly doesn't appear to be particularly symphonic. "Awkward symphonies by representatives of other genres" is something of a subgenre in itself, it seems - one characterized by the composers' steadfast refusal to conjure up anything approaching a "symphonic argument". There's Bellini's symphony and Verdi's three Sinfonias", all of which wouldn't sound out of place as orchestral sinfonias in the middle of one of their operas (and in Verdi's case, were in at least one case). A particularly interesting parallel case is the Maltese Paolino Vassallo, a composer of predominantly sacral works whose single symphony always sounds as though the choir may come in any moment - but never like a symphony. But even set against all of those, Suppé's work mostly feels like a waste of three overtures.

I've been waiting for this for a long time. And yes, I survived the NotePerformer (not MIDI, not sorry for the nitpick) rendition and actually liked it enough to be really excited for this release. Hobson falls into the "safe hands" category as far as I'm concerned, although sometimes I wish he'd give in a bit more to romantic excess in repertory such as this..

It doesn't have to be a competition, of course. The comparison is interesting, however, because in some ways Beecham and Järvi are quite similar conductors, and Lalo's work suits their temperament. Both recordings are very good. Beecham is perhaps just a tad too quick in the opening movement, and Järvi in both middle movements. But in general approach they're quite similar, despite the 65-year gap between them. Remarkably, the older recording sounds quite a bit better than the (untypically) rather dry sonics in Järvi's Chandos version.

Having said all that, my favorite is still Jean-Pierre Haeck with the Liège Philharmonic on Cypres, a recording which seems a bit "sharper", and effectively bringing out the lightness and fleet-footedness of Lalo's music.

True as that is, the cultural connections and exchanges between Teplitz (and the Sudetenland) and Germany go back much further. Particularly considering the activities of the Sudetendeutsche Partei, nazification of the area had been going on well before that date. Teplitz itself appears to have been a very NSDAP-friendly city throughout the 1930s.

That's very true. The removal of anything Jewish or otherwise "Entartet" and "Un-Völkisch" (and this went way beyond just Jewish influences) left a sizeable gap in the repertory - one that it has never entirely recovered from.

Mr. Boyer, we disagree - and that's fine.

Having said that, to discuss a case of musical plagiarism that (sofar as I can see now) took place entirely during the Nazi years and in which a semi-prominent Nazi cultural official played a role, and dismiss the possible influence of specific and well-known Nazi cultural politics and its proclivities beforehand, seems ... careless.

But it fits. The performance of a new piece of music in the Nazi years was never coincidental. This is one of the reasons the RMK was formed in the first place: to ideologically screen performances and certainly new works.

By the way, around that time there was an art and music critic in the Stuttgart area called Hans Franke - not our guy, though.

[Bruno Schestak]

At that time (from 1938 onwards) Teplitz-Schönau was part of Germany and a rather posh spa town, which explains the presence of its own symphony orchestra.

Bruno Schestak was quite an active Nazi (source: Fred K. Prieberg, Musik im NS-Staat), who was Landesleiter for the Reichsmusikkammer in Saxony in 1935 (p. 184). Prieberg mentions him one other time (p. 168):

[Speakers at a National Socialist meeting in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin] drew up a general plan for the German music industry, announced the introduction of a licence card to streamline the profession and screen members, and made it clear that the Reichskartell already formed the preliminary stage of a German Chamber of Music [Musikkammer]. It was the first organisational united front. Pressures brought about corporate membership of existing music associations. Even at this stage, the aim was to achieve total control, and this claim did not even stop at the border:
We will gladly open the gates to Germany for foreign artists of world renown, but not through business-minded and capitalist Jewish concert organisers, whether they are in Germany or abroad. But all foreign artists must also receive their licence from the Reichskartell or later from the Musikkammer, which entitles them to be engaged as soloists.

To prepare for this, the NSDAP Gauleitung Sachsen made local preparations and commissioned Bruno Schestak on 16 August 1933 to organise the Saxon musicians in a "Department of Music of the NSDAP Gau Sachsen". At this time, work on the Reich Chamber of Culture legislation had already reached the final drafting stage and existing musicians' organisations had largely been brought into line - often through the actual occupation of their executive offices and the replacement of the once democratically elected board of directors with one that was determined according to the "Führer principle" and loyal to the system.

I think it's important, and possibly relevant, to realize just how many brownie points could be won in the Nazi years by producing "real" German music. The farce of the attempts to replace Mendelssohn's music to A Midsummer Night's Dream by an "aryan alternative" is the most eye-catching episode perhaps, but far from the only one.