Franz Lachner's 2nd & 4th symphonies; an appeal.

[John H White]

Hello Gerd,
  In case you didn't get my private replies to you, I can say that I'll get my son to help me with those xml files.  That fine adagio, to me, is like Haydn's Surprise Symphony on steroids!
      Cheers,
            John.

[gprengel]

After 2 weeks of much editing the many many notes I made it to finish the first movement. I cannot express how much I adore this movment - a wonderful slow introduction and a great Allegro (with many beautiful passages, especially the dramatic development and ending). In this first solution I left out 3rd/4th hornes and trombones - I will add them sometime  later. Please take the time to listen to it and share your impressions so that my efforts are not in vain ...

www.gerdprengel.de/Lachner_symph_2_Allegro.mp3
www.gerdprengel.de/Lachner_symph_2_Allegro.pdf

Gerd

[Hector]

Thanks Gerd. Good stuff.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree. That 1st movement is really splendid. What I have heard (and seen) so far of Lachner's 2nd and 4th symphonies, thanks to members of this forum, convince me that he is due a reappraisal (at least by me!). Based largely on the 5th symphony, I had found his music pretty dull up to now.

[eschiss1]

Thanks for uploading the first three movement recordings to IMSLP, too.

[Alan Howe]

Now all we need is a recording of the whole symphony.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Perhaps an email to Herr Schmilgun at CPO. They may be more interested if we can provide them with a clean full score and set of parts.

[Alan Howe]

I someone could prepare an email in English, I could translate it...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Well, let's make sure our splendid workers on this forum are happy to produce a full score AND parts before we get in touch. Once that has been done, I am happy to draft a message. Thank you, Alan, for your kind offer.

[gprengel]

Should I first finish the 4th movement? And as I said above - the trombones and 3rd and 4th horns are still missing. And the clarinetts and brass still need to be transposed to the correct key in the score.
But it would help to have a preliminary assessment of some conductor whether all this work would find an interest ...

Gerd

[Alan Howe]

Yes, by all means! It would be great to be able to provide an audio file plus the score and parts for a CD label (e.g. cpo) to assess the work. My target as far as conductor and performers are concerned would be Gernot Schmalfuss and the (Taiwanese) Evergreen Symphony Orchestra who have already recorded Symphony No.3.

[eschiss1]

and even at "only" 3 movements so far, going from manuscript to mp3s (and I assume you made some form of typeset score or parts you've produced too from which the mp3s are actually just a byproduct, you may have mentioned ) is remarkable stuff already (I try to do such things and realize it's not near easy at least for me...- except for the midis/mp3s, I can't figure out how to do that reliably (with Lilypond) the way I used to with Finale once upon a time, but other features of Lilypond make up for it...)

[tpaloj]

Thank you again for your industriousness, gprengel! From what we've heard of the 2nd Symphony (and a few others, too) I'd be amazed if it did not achieve great success in its own time. Its neglect is a most unjust state of affairs.

It would really be excellent to have real recordings of these works. But, were it to happen, I would NOT want to hear a chamber ensemble arrangement with missing instruments! And with scores and parts edited/proofread by a professional editor.

Again, it's wonderful to witness your passion in recreating the 2nd Symphony's audio. If I may say, in regards to the scores? -- I would suggest you rethink your approach/methods in applying dynamic markings (hairpins, pp-ff etc.). They are all over the place, irregular, obscured by notes and other elements of the score. This would improve readability by a great amount 

[eschiss1]

... oh that's right, you did provide downloadable typeset (if improvable) scores, please ignore  certain statements I made about that

As to parts, if I remember another case, it's hard to overestimate (though I suppose it's fairly obvious, then again) how important even to a very interested conductor, planner and ensemble just the existence of good performing parts especially will be. (Preferably - this is not always the case even with the original parts when they are available - ones that agree with each other and with the score.)

[gprengel]

Dear friends, thank you for your encouraging remarks! I just made some corrections in the score of the 1st movement regarding dynamics.

Dear taploj, here is an exported XML file of the first movement:  www.gerdprengel.de/Lachner_symph_2_Allegro.musicxml

Can you import that into Sibelius? Could you please take a look especially at the brass voices and make some neccessary corrections? Regarding these I had the greatest difficulties ...

I am working now on the 4th movement, but it probably will take me 3 weeks - about 120 pages!

Gerd