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Louis [Luis] Rée, born in Edinburgh 15 Oct. 1861, died in Vienna, 75 years ago tomorrow, 28 February 1939.
Studied at St Andrews University, then at the Music Conservatoire in Geneva 1879-1880. Further studies at Stuttgart Polytechnic and Music Conservatoire (where he studied piano with Lebert and Pruckner and theory with Faißt, Seifritz and Doppler). In 1885 he studied piano with Leschetitkzy and composition with Robert Fuchs in Vienna. In 1889 he married the singer and pianist Susanne Pilz (1862-1937). With her he undertook numerous concert tours mostly playing on two pianos. Apart from arrangements for two pianos, they also played his own compositions. In 1914 he became a teacher for piano and composition at the "Neuen Wiener Konservatorium"while his wife taught piano and singing. They have an honorary grave at the "Zentralfriedhof" in Vienna.

Works for Orchestra:
Piano Concerto
Concerto for two Pianos in B flat major
Concert Piece for Cello and Orchestra in one movement. (A minor)
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra A Major

Plus some Lieder and works for piano solo and for two pianos.

I have no idea if any of his orchestral scores survive.

Here are details of two orchestra concerts in Vienna featuring music by Rée. This seems to indicate that he had quite a good reputation at the time, but the only contemporary reviews I have been able to find are not exactly laudatory.

5 February 1911
Theater an der Wien
Oskar Nedbal     conductor     
Louis Rée     piano     
Susanne Rée     piano     
Wiener Tonkünstler-Orchester:       
Franz Liszt     "Les Préludes", symphonic poem Nr. 3 S 97
Louis Rée     Concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra B-Dur
Oskar Nedbal     "Valse triste" from the Ballett "Pohádka o Honzovi"
Oskar Nedbal     "Grande Polonaise" from the Ballett "Pohádka o Honzovi"

23 November 1912
Musikverein Wien, Großer Saal
Oskar Nedbal     conductor     
Nora Duesberg violin     
Wiener Tonkünstler-Orchester:        
Brahms     Violin Concerto
Louis Rée     Concerto for Violin and Orchestra A major
Beethoven     Romance for Violin and Orchestra Nr. 2 op. 50
Saint-Saëns     "Havanaise" for Violin and Orchestra op. 83
Leone Sinigaglia     "Rapsodia piemontese" for Violin and Orchestra op. 26

I recently had an opportunity to read the autobiography of Adolf Reichel "Lebenserinnerungen" (1892), edited and written down in a private typescript by his great-granddaughter in 1981. In the foreword she mentions that his work list numbers over 500 pieces in strictly classical form, and that he wrote a textbook on harmony [published in 1862].

Here is a summary of interesting (from an UC point of view, I hope) aspects:

He was born in Turcznitz, Graudenz, West Prussia, on 30 August 1816, and died in Berne, Switzerland on 4 March1896.
From 1829 he lived in Berlin, and in 1835 he received his father's permission to study music full time. His first teacher was Ludwig Berger (1777-1839), who had been Mendelssohn's and Taubert's teacher. Music director Carl Theodor Hahn introduced Reichel to Siegfried Dehn, who immediately accepted him as his pupil. He then followed a call to the court of the Duke of Meiningen and in 1840 he left for Dresden. There he studied instrumentation with Reissiger – without great enthusiasm on either side – and composed a string quartet and an eight-part double fugue for solo and choral voices with orchestral accompaniment on the text 'Kyrie Eleison, Cristo Eleison'. Reichel's sister encouraged him to attend the first performance of Rienzi, but he left after the first act because 'I simply could not bear such music'. It was in Dresden that Bakunin and Reichel met and became friends, and they lived together for years: in Geneva, Bern, Brussels, and, from 1844, in Paris. Reichel also lived in Vienna for a short time from March 1842. Here he met Gounod; the violinist and close companion to Beethoven, Karl Holz; and the music historian Raphael Kiesewetter. In 1844 Reichel accompanied Bakunin to Paris and stayed there for 13 years. In Paris he composed more, amongst other things a Salve Regina and a mass for choir, soloists and small orchestra. He saw Gounod again and made Chopin's acquaintance. He soon found that he was able to make a living teaching the piano and later he gave concerts as pianist also featuring his own works. In the mid 1850s Reichel realised that he was no longer able to support himself and his family – he had got married in 1850 – and decided to leave Paris for Dresden. In Dresden he taught counterpoint and harmony at the newly founded conservatory and became the director of the Singing Academy. In the 1860s Reichel was seriously ill and went to Bern to recover. In January 1867 he followed a call from Bern to take over as musical director of the symphony orchestra and leader of the music school. Bern was just starting to institutionalise its musical life, and Reichel became an enthusiastic pioneer in helping to establish a regular symphony orchestra and other bodies. In 1884 he had to retire from all positions because of ill health.
An obituary in the 'Intelligenzblatt' in Bern refers to the well known fact that he was a representative of the old school. It mentions string quartets, lieder and a German Requiem that was performed by the Cäcilienverein in Bern in 1894. (I have not been able to find any other reference for this, though).

On a recent visit to Geneva I noticed the composers' names on the front facade of the Victoria Hall. On the left: Händel, Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schumann, Weber, Cherubini, Haydn, and on the right: Wagner, Liszt, Beethoven, Chopin, Berlioz, Balfe, Schubert, Raff. It was interesting to see who was considered a sung composer in Geneva in the early 1890s - and to note that my word processor (set to British English) underlined just two names that it considered misspelt. Any guesses

Pianist Laurent Martin can be heard this week on Swiss French radio in a series of programmes where he mostly talks about, but also plays music by five French unsungs: Pauline Viardot (1821- 1910), Mel Bonis (1858 - 1937), Fernand de la Tombelle (1854 - 1928), Blanche Selva (1884 - 1942) and Théodore Gouvy (1819 - 1898). I am not sure how long this will be available for - but here in the German speaking part of Switzerland at least the broadcasts can be downloaded, starting with 28 October: [http://www.rts.ch/espace-2/programmes/musique-en-memoire]

I have recently listened to a CD I bought 15 years ago and realised that even then I bought it not for the recording of Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony, but for the unsung Scot John Thomson, who knew Mendelssohn. I have no idea if the CD by the Camerata Scotland is still available (it was a production of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, with liner notes by John Purser). There are three Lieder by Thomson on that disc (sung by Colette Ruddy) and the overture to the opera 'Hermann' or The Broken Spear. This piece is available to listen to here: www.scottisharts.org.uk/resources/showcase/audio/camerata/thomson%20hermann/thomson_hermann.mp3

Have any UC members come across Thomson?

Last night I attended a concert in Bern: The 'Gemischte Chor Bern' and the Sinfonieorchester Ausserschwyz performed Schumann's Requiem and the Schicksalslied by Brahms, plus - and this was my main reason for going -  the Judgement ('Abtheilung II - Gericht')  from Raff's 'Welt-Ende', this was a Swiss premiere. I was absolutely bowled over by Raff's music, especially the orchestral intermezzi with their wealth of contrasts. As often happens, I thought this was music that many more people would enjoy and wondered how one might get more of them to attend such concerts and encourage unadventurous concert organisers to take more risks in trying to educate their (potential) audiences to like unknown music. I would love to hear news of a forthcoming recording or at least a complete performance...

Details of the concert, which will be repeated tomorrow, Sunday 11 November, in Raff's birth place, Lachen, can be found here:
http://www.joachim-raff.ch/004/default.nsf/Aktuell?OpenFrameSet
and here:
http://www.sinfonieorchester-ausserschwyz.ch/

The fifth concert at the 'Theater in Kempten' [http://www.fuerstensaalclassix.de/Festival-2012/Programm.aspx] yesterday featured this:
Emánuel Moór (1863-1931)
Suite op.103a (1909) für Bläserquintett und Streichquintett
Janne Thomsen (Flöte), Olivier Doise (Oboe), Christoffer Sundqvist (Klarinette),
Hervé Joulain (Horn), Jaakko Luoma (Fagott), Geneviève Laurenceau (Violine 1),
Sølve Sigerland (Violine 2), Hariolf Schlichtig (Viola), Jakob Koranyi (Violoncello),
Niek de Groot (Kontrabass)
Deutschlandradio Kultur will broadcast recordings from the concerts tomorrow, 25th September, from 8.03 pm (CET) - the Moór will be on after the news at 9.

Unless I simply have not found it in the wealth of information in UC, nobody has yet started a list/discussion of unsung composers who wrote just one symphony. I recently listened to a CD again that I had almost forgotten I had - and I thought the only symphony by André Messager (written when he was 22) was actually quite a charming work that merits repeated listening. It is on a Skarbo CD (SK3921), a live recording from 1992 played by the Orchestre Symphonique du Mans conducted by José-André Gendille and probably long since deleted. The couplings are the Allegro Symphonique by Fauré and the Variations Symphoniques by Franck. Does anyone else know this work? I'll also be curious to see what other single-symphony composers UC members come up with.

This week's RTE Guide announces a new feature (this coming Friday, 7 to 7.30 pm) which confusingly enough is referred to as a repeat in the Radio Times. "In the first of a new feature, Axel Klein and Jo-Ann Falletta explore the obstacles female composers faced in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They begin with an examination of the music of Augusta Holmes, who was forced to employ a male pseudonym during the early part of her career." According to the printed edition of the Guide, "the programme includes a performance of Holmes Noël d'Irlande by Elizabeth Pink." Does anyone know more about this? There is at least one more part, scheduled for Friday, 14 September.