German Music Folder

[Alan Howe]

Although David was born in Austria, the website devoted to him describes him as being "deutsch-österreichisch", so clearly some further research needs to be done. My instinct is to group everything in the Austria folder, but I'll discuss this with Mark Thomas when he returns from his current trip.

[eschiss1]

there's a US-specific political (sort of) bad joke here (about German, Austrian, and David-ian branching) that I really should just let drop

[lechner1110]

  MVS,  Again thanks a lot for your upload of David's second. I very impressed this fine work. Sometimes sounding like Mahler and Bruckner. It's on a great tradition of late romantic music. Thanks again

[Mark Thomas]

I'm no David expert but, as I understand it, although he spent most of his life in Germany, he remained an Austrian citizen. If I may be allowed to make a comparison with Raff: he was born in Switzerland, lived most of his life in Germany but held German (well Württemberg) citizenship all his life. Despite the claims of the Swiss, he is clearly a German composer. The corollory is that David, because he never renounced his Austrian citizenship, should be regarded as Austrian, despite being domiciled in Germany.

[Alan Howe]

I agree - I think. Unless he held dual nationality...

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks so much Mathias for uploading the recording of Werner Andreas Albert's performance of Raff's Italian Suite. Personally, it's doubly welcome as I visited Raff's memorial in Frankfurt yesterday. Can't wait to hear it when I get home.

[britishcomposer]

You are welcome, Mark! I am pleased to be able to offer this little present to THE Raff authority! 

Would you like to have the other suites, too? I can offer Opus 101, 194 and WoO 45 with Albert.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, yes & yes PLEASE! thank you so much!

[Dundonnell]

If Johann Nepomuk David is to be regarded as an Austrian composer-which I agree is the appropriate option-then the postings with links to uploads of his music should be moved into the Austrian section.   Sorry

[britishcomposer]

Yes, yes & yes PLEASE! thank you so much!

Honestly, I didn't hold them back consciously! I just wasn't aware until now that these recordings hadn't ever been released commercially!
I was sure you would all yawn if I had uploaded any Raff because I thought you all have these recordings! 

Please, give me a week or so, Mark! 

[swanekj]

Who might be considered a "popular only under the Nazis" composer?  Recordings of such have got to be mighty rare.

[JimL]

Ve vill play zis musik, und you vill ENCHOY it!!!

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Maybe relevant there- not sure- is Kater's The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich (Oxford University Press, 1999).

[Dundonnell]

There is a serious point here....although I really do think that it requires a separate thread to itself.

There were German composers who flourished between 1933 and 1945 but whose reputations, rightly or wrongly, were badly damaged by their associations with the National Socialist regime. Their music is, in some cases, being re-examined today as, also, are their individual records of co-operation with the regime.
Only this month cpo released a disc of music by Paul Graener, for example.

It is quite impossible to generalise. From Richard Strauss, to Hans Pfitzner, to Max Trapp.....the individual stories are different and, often, complex. Composers are not always politically aware and some were characterised by extreme naivety.

The only name I shall throw into the mix at present though would be that of Max Trapp.  His music was barely heard, as I understand it, after 1945. Trapp's Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6, his Concerto for Orchestra, the Cello Concerto and one or two other works can be downloaded from this site.

Only by listening to the music-as we listen to that by Soviet-era composers- can we or should we reach an assessment on its merits.

[BFerrell]

I have always believed (and this is a touchy spot for me) that none of us should in any way judge composers who had to live through Hitler or Stalin. Especially America and Britain, have no idea whatsoever what these people faced. They had families, needed to eat, needed health care etc.  If we judge the Germans composers in this way, so too should Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovich (both party members), etc. never be performed in the west. Stalin was an even worse murderer than Hitler, yet we have recordings of all sort of Staliniana.   I find it interesting that no German composer close to the stature  of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, etc. ever wrote a Hitler Cantata!