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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.

There's also this one, from Die Heimat am Mittag of 18 April 1944, p. 4:

"Der Dresdner Komponist Hans Franke hat eine Sinfonie in F-Dur komponiert, die von dem Städt. Orchester Teplitz-Schönau uraufgeführt wird."

Translation:

"The Dresden composer Hans Franke composed a symphony in F major, which will be premiered by the City Orchestra Teplitz-Schönau".

FWIW, this is the original reference to the A minor symphony (i.e., probably Kauffmann's) that I referred to earlier (link). From: Illustriertes Tageblatt : sächsische Heimatzeitung des Stolle-Verlags; Ausgabe E ; Für das obere und untere Elbtal : (Elbtal-Abendpost, Sächs. Dorfzeitung u. Elbgaupresse), 23 October 1940, p. 5. Not easily forged, I think, unless it was done at the time.

"Gruna. Aus dem Musikleben.
Der Grunaer Kapellmeister und Komponist Hans Franke, Rothermundstraße 3, hat eine Sinfonie in a-moll vollendet, die jetzt in Teplitz-Schönau zur erfolgreichen Uraufführung gelangte"

Translation:
"Gruna. Musical life. The Gruna bandmaster and composer Hans Franke, Rothermundstrasse 3, has completed a symphony in A minor, which has now had its successful premiere in Teplitz-Schönau".

Excerpts from the Kleine Suite can be heard here (scroll down as this 3-movement work is last on the CD):  https://barbara-hoelzer.de/cd-musik/

Does anyone recognise the music?

I can't say that I do, but it should be relatively easy to identify; it's basically three fugues, and on first glance it sounds a bit more modern than most of the other stuff Franke's appropriated.

[It was like this: Because it fit into our theme of "hunting", we played the finale "Der Jäger und die Jagd" from the 5th Symphony in E major op. 785 "Deutscher Wald" by Hans Franke in Dessau in September 2006. At that time there was a printed catalog of his works from 1996. There was also an exchange of letters with a Prof. Günter Klaus from Oberursel, probably an acquaintance of Franke's daughter Ms. Prokop, and then correspondence with the Vogt publishing house. However, I was able to identify the music as a plagiarism of the overture to "Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung" by Joseph Rheinberger.I would be happy if you would keep me updated!]

I've now received this reply from conductor Golo Berg (in English):

It was like this: Because it fit into our theme of "hunting", we played the finale "Der Jäger und die Jagd" from the 5th Symphony in E major op. 785 "Deutscher Wald" by Hans Franke in Dessau in September 2006. At that time there was a printed catalog of his works from 1996. There was also an exchange of letters with a Prof. Günter Klaus from Oberursel, probably an acquaintance of Franke's daughter Ms. Prokop, and then correspondence with the Vogt publishing house.

However, I was able to identify the music as a plagiarism of the overture to "Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung" by Joseph Rheinberger.

I would be happy if you would keep me updated!

This is very enlightening - and seems to affirm the idea that Franke doesn't seem to have been the most careful plagiarist -The Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung overture doesn't sound like a symphonic movement in the slightest. It's Rheinberger at his most Rossinian, and I'm almost beginning to see John Boyer's point in accusing Franke's heirs in scrambling together seemingly random scores in order to create an oeuvre.

Small (or Little)Suite for String Orchestra (op. 863) on that South Bohemian Chamber Orchestra CD.  Now the only "Little Suite" I know is the  Carl Nielsen....

And of course the Petite Suites by Debussy and Roger-Ducasse, Dubois' Suite Miniature, and Volkmar Andreae's Kleine Suite.

I would check on the common factors between the publishers and the Hans Franke Foundation,Alan.

The contact given on the Hans-Franke.de website is Elke Tober-Vogt, who is also the "Vogt" in Vogt & Fritz. So there's a fair bit of overlap there.

But at the risk of sounding repetitive, I have to emphasize that we have simply too little information at this point to make a convincing accusation against anyone - or to proclaim anyone's innocence, for that matter. Hopefully a perusal through the catalogue and some reactions from the performers involved will give us more to go on.

I have as yet had no reply from Golo Berg - he's probably very busy.

However, of more concern is the silence from Vogt & Fritz. Remember - this was their one-line reply (in English):

<<This seems to be very interesting, indeed. We will check it and keep you informed.>>

So, will they keep us informed? Surely they must know at least something already, following the incident with Golo Berg?

No reply yet from Triendl, either. But let's remember it's the week after New Year's, when people tend to recuperate from that ordeal and Christmas.