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Today sees what seema to be a complete performance of Korngold's Schneemann Pantomime - 2d act yet unrecorded - in Munich (Munich philharmonic orchestra). Same orchestra, next week Friday and Wednesday, plays a newly-constructed suite of Korngold's Devotion film music (among other American compositions, including the resurrection of Theo Mackeben's "symphonic ballade" for Cello and orchestra (1946, but sure about our remit)).

Thanks for the upload!

Dear all,
Berkant Haydin, founder and general secretary of the Joseph Marx society, alerted me that Marx' "Sinfonische Nachtmusik" (Symphonic Night Music) is going to be broadcast on 8 Jan 7:30pm CET on Ö1 radio (Austrian public radio channel 1).
Orchestra: Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich, Fabien Gabel.
Programme:
- Wagner Prelude to Tristan and Isolde
- Zemlinsky: Sechs Gesänge für mittlere Stimme
- Berg: Sieben frühe Lieder
- Marx: Sinfonische Nachtmusik

broadcast of a live performance 14&16 Dec 2025 from the Musikverein Vienna, Review in German here (although not a lot about Marx).
Best wishes,
ewk

Oh dear that's indeed bad news. All the best wishes, Alan, for best possible recovery!

Franz Lachner's oratorio "Moses" is going to be performed near Munich on 11 October in an amateur performance:
https://www.agv-muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/moses/
 
Teresa Boning, Sopran
Michael Birgmeier, Tenor
Thomas Ruf, Bariton
Jussi Järvenpää, Bariton

Junger Chor des Akademischen Gesangsvereins München [Young choir of the Academic singing club Munich], STEFAN GRÜNFELDER (dir.)
accompanied by an ad-hoc orchestra.

The piece is going to be performed near Munich on 11 October in an amateur performance:
https://www.agv-muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/moses/
 
Teresa Boning, Sopran
Michael Birgmeier, Tenor
Thomas Ruf, Bariton
Jussi Järvenpää, Bariton

Junger Chor des Akademischen Gesangsvereins München [Young choir of the Academic singing club Munich], STEFAN GRÜNFELDER (dir.)
accompanied by an ad-hoc orchestra.

Maybe also worth adding this to the unsung concerts thread.

All the best wishes for recovery, Alan!

I recall Tiefland being described as such in the booklet of my copy. I'd say this description is quite fitting.
But then, also Max Von Schillings' Mona Lisa was described as German Verismo -- as much as I like this opera, not quite what I feel is Verismo (maybe more because of the historical topic than because of the music) ...

In the last weeks, maybe as copyright for the composisions has now expired in Germany, YouTube suggested a few obscure recordings of Furtwängler, mostly radio recordings that have never been released. I know about the Mehta/Furtwängler recording of the enormous piano concerto, but I had never thought there were more performances by major orchestras/performers of Furtwängler's works. A shame they never appeared on CD apart from the Barenboim/Symphony 2.
At the moment, listening to Andras Schiff playing the Piano concerto (!!), what a difference this makes to the Marco Polo recording I have sitting on my shelf!

(this video even has a score of the two-piano reduction running along).

Apart from this, I have come across various Symphony II recordings (Neeme Järvi (now released on CD and reviewed by Dave Hurwitz) and I believe a Berliner Philharmoniker Recording I cannot find anymore)

Ever since Brendan Carroll mentioned it somewhere here (cannot find it anymore), I hoped this woukd be released someday, having waited in the Korngold famy archive for quite so long:
I discovered this only today:
https://musicwebinternational.com/2025/03/korngold-symphony-in-f-sharp-supertrain-records/

It ia combined with a 90s live recording with Mauceri conducting the orchestra della svizzera italiana which was prepared using this Piano recording.

There is a podcast episode interviewing both Mauceri and a Korngold grandson, very interesting: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.wgte.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/John-Mauceri-and-Leslie-Korngold-Interview-Export.mp3 (they hint at a similar piano recording of the symphonic Serenade!)

Well I cannot get enough of Korngold's piano playing, so this might be a must...

Best wishes, ewk

Meanwhile, we have a recording of the Vampyr but as far as I know still no recording of the 2d act of the "Schneemann". However, it has been performed in Munich as a children's Christmas concert some years ago (could not attend although I live there since it was on morning if a work day) and they (Munich Philharmonic) will do it
again next January (16 January). Last time I asked them, they did perform the entire piece.

Dear all,
Ever since I played the wonderful overture to Humperdinck's equally wonderful Hänsel und Gretel in a youth orchestra, I thought it would be nice to have a longer piece including more of the wonderful music of the opera.

Some time ago, I came across Hans Fried's wonderful, through-composed 20 minute "Fantasy on themes from Hänsel und Gretel" which is a fantastic addition to the overture:

(unbelievable it only has 500 views, I believe half of which are mine). I loved how this is not a mere suite but feels like a composition on its own, knowing it of course heavily relies on the orchestral parts from the opera but not only, but it's cleverly done. I really like the idea of having an orchestral piece that does not feel like a "best of the opera" (as with Maazel's "Ring without Words" or some of Henk de Vlieger's Wagner arrangements) or a mere sequence of nice passages, but really works on its own, is through-composed, probably also incorporating originally vocal parts. As if the composer had written an additional super-long prelude. Or a short symphony / tone poem using the themes of an opera.

When searching for orchestral fantasies from other operas, I found it surprisingly hard to find anything that matches the standard in this regard that Fried had set for me. Of course, there are countless orchestral suites from operas, but this is not what I was looking for. A quick search on this board did not bring up much, either -- a fantasy on themes from Humperdinck's Die Königskinder by Leo Blech (another assistant/pupil of Humperdinck's, just as Fried) was all I could find (it does not match Fried's, though -- probably the musical material is also not quite as charming as in Hänsel und Gretel). The only other comparable piece I can think of are the Symphonic dances from West side Story by Bernstein, although probably far outside our remit even though it's mostly tonal.

Of course, there are piano fantasies by Liszt and many others, but this is not orchestra (maybe one could re-orchestrate some of them...) and many are far shorter than Fried's 20 minutes.

There are other comparable categories that I perceive as equally enjoyable: e.g. with soloists, the "Carmen Fantasy" by Sarasate (and then Waxman), or Waxman's charming Tristan and Isolde fantasy. And then there are long orchestral passages/preludes in some operas that are long enough themselves – Tannhäuser overture including Venusberg or some of the Schreker preludes are part of this category. Or the Mathis der Maler Symphony by Hindemith, although outside or remit.

Do you know of any other orchestral opera fantasies, or even some that I could find equally enjoyable as Fried's?

Best wishes!
ewk

P.S.: Funny thing, I asked ChatGPT more or less the same question – it came up with quite an impressive list I was eager to explore. Turns out, not a single piece it mentioned existed in reality...

Hi all,
Linus Roth under the baton of Constantin Trinks played the posthumous world premiere of Wilhelm Petersen's late romantic violin concerto last weekend in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Quite an interesting piece. I could not quite get into the first movement, but the 2d and 3d movement are more easily digestible and quite beautiful in my opinion.
The entire concert performance can be heard here:
https://www.mdr.de/klassik/hoeren-sehen/leipzig-gewandhaus-konzert-mdr-sinfonieorchester-constantin-trinks-100.html

Petersen is probably best known for his 3d symphony due to the recording by Trinks and the Frankfurt (hr) radio symphony orchestra some years ago.

Best wishes
ewk

28 Jan 2024: The Münchner Rundfunkorchester (the second orchestra the Bavarian Radio has next to the better-known Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks, BRSO) is going to play two early operas by Rachmaninoff – of course not completely unsung, but I think they can both be considered a rarity for a live performance:

Francesca da Rimini
Aleko

(7 pm, Prinzregententheater Munich)

I'm not surprised their reprint wasn't available before, it's their reprint. The 1898-published original is at some libraries though (at least at the French National Library), see Worldcat.

Well, of course their reprint was not available before as it is their own ;-)
However, my bad, I had only searched for "Titus et Bérénice" at worldcat and did not find it therefore, as it is listed as "sonate dramatique pour piano et violoncelle". Thanks for the hint! I had already wondered where all the recordings got the score from.