The Swiss label Cascavelle has released a CD with two quintets, one by Gustave Doret (1866-1943) and one by Fritz Bach (1881-1930). More information and sound bites here (https://vdegallo.com/en/produit/doret-martin-bach-quintettes-suisses-adalberto-maria-riva-melos-ensemble-wien/).
Fritz Bach also wrote a symphony, and this was performed by the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet in February 1921. I'm not sure if the score has survived but there is a digitised file of the piano reduction available, together with other scores, here (https://patrinum.ch/search?p2=Bach%2C+Fritz&f1=author&f2=subject&p1=Bach%2C+Fritz&op1=o&ln=en&as=1&so=a&m2=a&m1=a&sf=title).
Thanks for alerting us to this, Wheesht. The sound bites are all very tasty indeed!
I am totally unfamiliar with the work of both composers. Grove notes that Doret was a pupil of Dubois and Massenet, and primarily a composer of operas. However, in addition to this piano quintet, he also wote an orchestral suite, a string quartet, songs and choral works. Fritz Bach isn't listed in any of the usual resources, such as Grove and Baker's Biographical Dictionary. I see from Wiki that D'Indy was one of his teachers, and that he mainly composed religious music.
While I was vaguely familiar with the name Gustave Doret, Fritz Bach was a completely new name for me.
This (https://www.musicologie.org/Biographies/d/doret_gustave.html) biography and list of works (in French only) contains a link to a recording of Doret speaking about music and then, from 2:26 a recording of his beautiful Chanson du petit chevrier (Song of the little goatherd), composed for the 1927 Fête des vignerons. This piece at least is still known – and sung – in French-speaking Switzerland today.
The Doret is very beautiful indeed. Thanks for the heads-up.
https://archive.org/details/lp_kammermusikwerke_fritz-bach-willy-burkhard-joseph-lauber
Here one can also listen to Fritz Bach's another piano quintet work, Piano Quintet in A Minor. I also just got the ALOIV LP that contains his piano quartet. These are all beautiful works and share obvious motivic connections in some parts.
Many thanks for alerting us to that recording. Despite some clicks and noise, I managed to clean the files up and they sound much better now.
I'm intrigued by the inclusion of a work by Lauber, too!