Robert Radecke's [1830-1911] rhinoceros

[Scion7]

    

There is not that much on the web on this composer, and my copy of The New Grove mentions him not at all.  He's one of those chaps that CPO has dug out of the woodwork.
I don't respect Wiki and since it is full of errors and unreliable, I'll pass on that.

His grandson wrote the bio notes on the two CPO releases that I know about.
Temporarily I am posting parts of the biography portions - I will edit them down later on:

The composer Robert Radecke was born in Dittmannsdorf bei Waldenburg, Silesia (today's Dziecmorowice, Poland), on 31 October 1830. At the time Clara Schumann's half brother Woldemar Bargiel was two years old, and shortly thereafter Joseph Joachim, Johannes Brahms, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Max Bruch came into the world all of them during the 1830s.
Radecke displayed his talent at an early age and learned the musical fundamentals from his father, the church music director Siegemund Radecke, substituting for him at the organ during religious services when he was only ten years old. He attended secondary school in Breslau (Wroclaw) and then studied from 1848 to 1850 at the Leipzig Conservatory, which had been founded by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and was then Germany's most renowned institution of higher learning in the field of music. His teachers included Ignaz Moscheles, Ferdinand David, Julius Rietz, and Moritz Hauptmann, the music director at Leipzig's St. Thomas Church. During his final examination Radecke performed as a violinist in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, as a pianist in Schumann's Piano Concerto, and as a conductor of a symphony of his own composition. A sentence in his diploma attests to his excellent achievement: "Radecke will always be counted among the outstanding pupils of the Leipzig Conservatory." His acquaintanceship with Robert and Clara Schumann was an important experience for him. As the conservatory's best organist, in February 1850 it fell to him to play Schumann's BACH Organ Fugues op. 60 for this master, who had not yet heard these pieces on the organ. In June 1850 Radecke attended the premiere of the opera Genoveva in Leipzig, and in 1851 he visited the Schumann family in  Düsseldorf. After Robert Schumann's death he remained on friendly terms with Clara Schumann and her family throughout his life.
From 1850 to 1853 Robert Radecke initially performed as a violinist, pianist, and conductor in Leipzig. He became a violinist in the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the assistant conductor of the Singakademie, and the choir and music director at the City Theater. He composed piano music, songs, piano trios, and sacred works and had the opportunity to meet other important masters, including Richard Wagner in Zurich and Franz Liszt in Weimar. A year of military service took him to the Emperor Alexander Regiment in Berlin in 1853, and he subsequently established himself as a versatile musician in Prussia's capital city, performing as the second violinist in the Laub Quartet and as a piano virtuoso, functioning as the organizer of grand orchestral concerts from 1858 to 1863, and everywhere lending his support to Beethoven's late oeuvre (e.g., with an annual performance of the Ninth Symphony) and in particular to Schumann's music. Clara Schumann herself appeared in his concerts. He performed a new Symphony in D minor of his own with the Royal Orchestra in 1856 but did not have it printed. In 1859 he penned Aus der Jugendzeit to a text by Friedrich Rückert, producing a moving little piece performed as a folk song in Germany well into the twentieth century.
In 1862 Radecke married Charlotte Jonas, a daughter of the preacher Dr. Ludwig Jonas, who numbered among Friedrich Schleiermacher's friends and was the administrator of the estate of this man regarded as one of the most important theologians and philosophers of the nineteenth century. A year later Radecke received an offer to serve as music director at the Royal Opera. For twenty-five years, until 1887, he led the Orchestra of the Opera House Unter den Linden beginning in 1871 his  official title there was "Royal and Imperial Court Music Director" and conducted operas representing a wide range of stylistic currents, from Offenbach's Le mariage aux lanternes to Wagner's Tristan and Siegfried. After some time the conducting duties at concert soirées of the Royal Orchestra were also assigned to him, and in this capacity he sometimes presented his own compositions such as his overtures or the Symphony in F major op. 50 completed in 1877. Although he received offers for conducting posts in Hamburg, Barcelona, and New York, he declined them and remained in Berlin. However, he did accept an appointment to the Musical Senate of the Royal Academy of the Arts in 1875, serving as its president beginning in 1881 and joining forces with his friends Joseph Joachim, Heinrich von Herzogenberg, and Max Bruch to support the artistic development of Berlin's music culture. In addition, he served as artistic director at the Stern Conservatory beginning in 1883 and held the post of director of the Royal Institute of Church Music from 1892 to 1907. The magnificent public celebrations of his seventieth and seventy-fifth birthdays in Berlin demonstrate the high esteem enjoyed by him among his colleagues and students not only as a musician but also as a human being.
Every year Radecke composed shorter pieces, often in the form of songs, as birthday presents and Christmas gifts for his wife. During the 1860s he published two highly regarded piano trios. His many official duties meant that he later did not have much time for composition. When his wife died unexpectedly after the birth of their eighth child in 1880, the widower was left alone to take care of his growing children. Nevertheless, compositions by him, a total of fifty-eight opus numbers, continued to appear in print through to 1905. In addition, 126 works without opus numbers, most of them finished, have been preserved by his descendants and were  donated to the Berlin State Library in 1997. Although Radecke aligned himself with the classicistic romantic style, he was also always open to the New German school. When the young Richard Strauss asked him to arrange for the performance of his Second Symphony in Berlin in 1885, Radecke agreed to do so, thereby enabling the young composer to publish this work. At the age of seventy-seven Radecke completely retired from his work and resided in Wernigerode in the Harz region, which had become dear to his heart as a vacation spot ever since his youth. He died there at the age of eighty on 21 June 1911 and was buried in a tomb of honor at the Old Twelve Apostles Cemetery in Berlin-Schöneberg. The grave continues to exist today.
For half a century Robert Radecke contributed significantly to the music history of Berlin and Germany, was personally acquainted with great masters like Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, Brahms, and Richard Strauss, and developed friendships with Bargiel, Joachim, von Herzogenberg, and Bruch. He bequeathed to posterity a manifold oeuvre including more than a hundred songs, chamber music, piano pieces, symphonies, overtures, a singspiel, and some sacred songs, choral works, and organ pieces.

'Radecke will always be counted among the most outstanding pupils of the Leipzig Conservatory.' Robert Radecke, who was born in Dittmannsdorf bei Waldenburg, Silesia, on 31 October 1830, received this outstanding evaluation when he graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory in the fall of 1850 and then with diploma in hand went out into the world to pursue a multifaceted career as a violinist, pianist, and organist. This versatile musician had learned the fundamentals from his father, the church music director Siegemund Radecke, and substituted for him at the organ during religious services when he was only ten years old. His renowned teachers in Leipzig included the piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles, the violinist Ferdinand David, the conductor and composition teacher Julius Rietz, and Moritz Hauptmann, the music director at Leipzig's St. Thomas Church. During his final examination Radecke performed as a violinist in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, as a pianist in Schumann's Piano Concerto, and as a conductor of a symphony of his own composition. Additionally, as the best organist of his conservatory class, in February 1850 he had the privilege of performing Schumann's Sechs Fugen über den Namen B-A-C-H op. 60 for this master. This encounter became an important source of inspiration for the young Radecke, who remained on friendly terms with the Schumann family throughout his life. Schumann's influence is quite palpable in the Fantasy Pieces op. 7 for violoncello and piano dedicated to the cellist Andreas Grabau, published by Kistner in Leipzig in 1853, and recorded for the first time on this CD. The same cellist was the dedicatee of Schumann's Fünf Stücke im Volkston op. 102 (1849).  Following his studies Radecke initially performed as a violinist in the Gewandhaus Orchestra and served as the assistant conductor of the Singakademie and as the choir and music director at the City Theater. During this time he composed piano music, songs, sacred works, and chamber music. When the twenty-year-old set out on a journey through Germany and Switzerland in May 1851, he had with him a Piano Trio in A flat major that only much later, in 1864, would be published as his op. 30. The work was performed on the occasion of a visit with Robert and Clara Schumann in Düsseldorf, and according to Radecke's travel journal, it made a positive impression on Schumann: 'It pleased Dr. S quite well.' Franz Liszt too had the pleasure of hearing this work in Weimar in an outstanding interpretation with the composer at the piano, the young violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, and Bernhard Cossmann, the 'Joachim of the violoncello.' As the Deutsche Rundschau later reported in an article on the occasion of Radecke's seventieth birthday, Liszt was supposed to have been so delighted by this work that he 'himself sat down at the grand piano in order with colossal invention to transform the score for piano.' More than fifty years after this event Joseph Joachim again played the Trio in A flat major in public in Berlin along with Robert Hausmann and the pianist Heinrich Barth. And on this occasion, in conjunction with the festivities in honor of Radecke's seventy-fifth birthday in October 1905, the work convinced the audience as a 'Great Attraction' (report in the publication of the Organum society.)
Radecke took up residence in Berlin in 1853 and significantly influenced the city's music culture through to the turn of the century. He initially performed in public as a chamber musician as the second violinist in Ferdinand Laub's quartet and as a pianist who created a sensation with his renderings of Beethoven's last sonatas. His mastery as an instrumentalist is reflected especially in the brilliant piano part of the Trio in B minor, which not coincidentally is dedicated to Anton Rubinstein. Radecke composed the first movement quite likely while he was still in Leipzig (1853) and added the cantabile andante two years later. However, it was not until 1868 that he supplied a scherzo and a finale to complete the work for publication as his op. 33 by Bote & Bock of Berlin.  The circumstances of the composition and reception of his two piano trios have very little documented. Along with the Fantasy Pieces op. 7,  almost all of the composer's published chamber compositions, that is, three of his total of four such works of this genre, have now been recorded. (They had been preceded only by the Four Pieces for Violin and Piano op. 1.)
In 1859 Radecke gained instant fame with his setting of Friedrich Rückert's Aus der Jugendzeit, a poem performed as a folk song well into the twentieth century. At the age of thirty-two he married Charlotte Jonas (1837-80), the daughter of the theologian Ludwig Jonas. The couple had eight children, three of whom died during childhood. In 1863 Radecke was appointed to the post of music director of the Berlin Royal Court Opera. For a quarter of a century he led the Orchestra of the Opera House Unter den Linden beginning in 1871 as the Royal and Imperial Court Music Director and annually conducted some 120 operas representing a wide range of stylistic currents and including some premieres. The conducting duties at concert soirées of the Royal Orchestra were also entrusted to him, and in this capacity he sometimes presented his own compositions. The offers he received all of which he declined for conducting posts, for example, from Barcelona and New York, attest to his great prestige as an internationally sought-after musician. His services in Berlin  were honored with membership in the Prussian Royal Academy of the Arts, where he advanced to the post of senator and eventually became the president of the senate of its music section. Concurrently, he served as a teacher and artistic director at the Stern Conservatory during the 1880s. His last place of work was the Royal Institute of Church Music, where he served as director beginning in 1892. Radecke resigned from all his posts at the age of seventy-seven and withdrew from the public spotlight. He died on 21 June 1911 and was buried in a tomb of honor at the Old Twelve Apostles Cemetery in Berlin-Schöneberg. The grave continues to exist today.
Although Robert Radecke held many posts during his long life, he bequeathed an astonishingly large oeuvre to posterity. During his lifetime fifty-eight opus numbers by him appeared in printed form. In addition, his papers housed in the Berlin State Library contain more than a hundred works without opus numbers. Three symphonies and other orchestral compositions, numerous songs for choir, piano and organ music, various chamber works, and more than a hundred lieder have come down to us. Like his compositions, his numerous extant letters as yet await closer study. His extensive correspondence attests to his friendly dialogue with Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms, Joachim, Herzogenberg, Bargiel, Liszt, Wagner, Strauss, Bruch, and many other important musicians of the nineteenth century.


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I know of no formal list of works so I will assemble what I can from IMSLP:


   -   Op.1 - 4 Stücke für Pianoforte und Violine (Breitkopf und Härtel, 1851)
   -   Op.5 - 2 Fantasiestücke im heitern Ton. (Breitkopf und Härtel, 1852)
   -   Op.7 - 3 Fantasiestücke for cello or violin with piano
   -   Op.8 - La Fontaine. Pièce caractéristique. (Leuckart, 1856)
   -   Op.18 - Scherzo for Piano 4-Hands
   -   Op.25 - Ouvertüre zu Shakespeare's 'König Johann' for large Orchestra (Berlin: T. Trautwein, 1860, Plate 1200. Dedicated to Julius Rietz.)
   -   Op.30 - Piano Trio No.1 in A- major, 1851-- (pub.ca.1868.)
   -   Op.33 - Piano Trio (Piano Trio No.2)
   -   Op.34 - Festmarsch for large orchestra (Berlin & Posen, Bote & Bock, 1869, Plate 8408.).
   -   Op.40 - Am Strande, Overture for large orchestra (Berlin, Bote & Bock, 1875, Plate 10697.).
   -   Op.50 - Symphony in F major for Orchestra (1877. Berlin & Posen, Bote & Bock, 1878, Plate 11733.).
   -   Op.52 - 2 Scherzi for Orchestra (Leipzig, Peters, 1888, Plate 7221.).
   -   Op.55 - Nachtstück for large orchestra (1890, Berlin: M. Bahn 1892, Plate M.B.3824.). (dedicated to Joachim)

   -   WoO.108 - Sonata for Violoncello and Pianoforte (12. Oct. 1849)
   -   WoO.111 - Piano Trio in B- major (1851)
   -   - Weihnachten
   -   Kaiser Max. Dramatisches Gedicht, nach einer Sage bearbeitet von Beringer; für Chor, Soli und Orchester. (Trautwein, ca.1855- At Sta. Bibliothek Berlin.)


   -   Op.2 - 4 Lieder
   -   Op.6 - Allegro appassionato. (Breitkopf und Härtel, 1852)
   -   Op.9 - 5 Lieder for Soprano or Tenor. 1854)
   -   Op.10 - Erinnerung an den Harz., 1853)
   -   Op.11 - 3 Lieder. 1855)
   -   Op.12. - 4 Lieder aus dem Liebesfrühling von Rückert. 1855)
   -   Op.13. - 4 Lieder für Mezzo-Sopran. 1855)
   -   Op.14 - 3 Duetten f. Sopran u. Alt mit Pfte. (1856)
   -   Op.15 - 5 Gesänge von R. Reinick
   -   Op.16 - Zwiegegesang der Elfen, duet
   -   Op.17 - 3 Terzette f. weibliche Stimmen (Chor od. Solo). (Berlin: Bahn, 1857)
   -   Op.20 - Weihnachtslied (Women's chorus, soloists, piano) (published 1859)
   -   Op.22 - 4 Gedichte im Volkston (Lieder, published 1860)
   -   Op.23 - Wehmut No.1
   -   Op.24 - Das Abendleuten. Duett f. S. u. A. und kleinen Frauenchor m. Pfte. (Trautwein, 1862)
   -   Op.27 - 4 Terzette for Women's Voices (Trautwein, 1862)
   -   Op.28 - Lieder f. S., A., T., B. (Trautwein, 1865)
   -   Op.28b: Heraus! (text by Reinick).
   -   Op.28c: Und die Blümlein, sie blühen so lieblich.
   -   Op.28d: An die Lerche. (pub.1872)
   -   Op.28e: Auf dem See von Fr. Beck. (pub.1873)
   -   Op.31 - 2 geistliche Duette f. S. u. A. (Chor. & Solo. and Piano.) (Trautwein, 1865)
   -   Op.32 - 6 Lieder for Soprano or Tenor (Trautwein, 1868)
   -   Op.35 - Immergrün der Liebe. 6 Lieder f. T. (od. S.) (Simrock, 1870)
   -   Op.37 - 6 Lieder
   -   Op.38a - 6 Geistliche gesänge (pub.1888)
   -   Op.38b - 6 geistliche Gesänge (pub.1908) (same songs as Op.38a, for men's chorus)
   -   Op.39 - Frühlingslied No.6
   -   Op.42 - Die Monkgüter, or "Die Probe-Ehe" (Liederspiel/Singspiel. Given in Berlin opera house around April 1874 according to AMZ April 1 1874, Nr.13, p. 205.)
   -   Op.43 - Silberhochzeitlied (text by Julius Rodenberg) for 4-part Men's Chorus and Harp or Piano (Berlin: Bahn, 1875)
   -   Op.44 - 5 Gedichte for Soprano or Tenor and Piano
   -   Op.45 - Das alte Lied (Sechs Lieder) No.6.
   -   Op.46 - 6 Lieder
   -   Op.47 - 3 Duets for Soprano, Alto and Piano (pub. 1877 by Bote & Bock)
   -   Op.48 - Lieder (Challier & Co.)
   -   No.2: Des Kronprinzen Lieblingslied (pub.1888.)
   -   Op.49 - Der 1te Psalm: ,,Wohl dem, der nicht wandelt" for 6-part womens' chorus (Berlin, Bote & Bock, 1880)
   -   Op.51 - Gott erhalte den Kaiser. Festgesang for chorus, soloists and orchestra (vocal score published Berlin, Bote & Bock, 1886)
   -   Op.53 - 3 Lieder f. 1 Singst. m. Pfte. (Berlin, Siegel & Schimmel, 1889.)
   -   Op.56 - Ein Lobgesang (double men's chorus. published in an arr. for mixed choir in 1916 by Hameln: Oppenheimer-Verlag)
   -   Op.57 - Weihnachts-Lied (Lasst uns das Kindlein grüssen) (for mixed chorus. Published 1903
   -   Op.58 - Weihnachts-Hymne ("Friede deckt sein weich Gefieder"). Soprano solo, mixed chorus with piano or organ or harmonium . 1905.)

[Scion7]

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