Composers in Germany 1933-1945

[Roy Bland]

[Louis]

Johann Ludwig Trepulka (1903-1945)

until recently he was so obscure he wasn't even featured in any composer dictionaries. He was a student of Hauer in Vienna, who called him his best and most gifted student. He used Hauer's technique but rather freely (A sort of Hauer's Alban Berg maybe?)

So freely that Hauer eventually came to disklike him.The pianist Herbert Henck recorded Trepulka's early piano works some years ago.

He also wrote a symphony "die göttliche" many years later. But the only available recording is from 1937.

He joined the NSDAP and later joined an orchestra in occupied Poland.Henck suggests he did both mainly for opportunist reasons as a father who couldn't live off his compositions. I can't comment on this cause I know next to nothing about Hauer's biography.

He got killed in action at the very end of WW2.

[André]

Since there's no any other thread devoted to German composers, I put this here. Already available for streaming. There's a very fine recording of his Symphony No. 4 on Sterling. Hopefully this release will be the beginning of a project.

On the shopping list it goes !

I have the 4th symphony and it's excellent. The finale is very brucknerian - in a good way.

[Roy Bland]

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/vintage-vibe-from-paul-graener-the-jolly-nazi/

[Roy Bland]

From 1940 to 1945, Komma was the head of the music school in what is now Liberec, and was awarded for his achievements. He also appeared in 1935 with a cantata for a NSDStB-Kundgebung in appearance, composed by a jubilant chorus for the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler in 1938 and came with a pamphlet against Gustav Mahler in 1939 (Fred Prieberg [de] in Musik im NS-Staat), 1982, and Macht und Musik, 1992).

[Symphonic Addict]

The kind of releases that keeps refreshing the music industry (and the ones I wait for). The rest of his symphonies are recorded on CPO. To be released on 9 May according to JPC.



Presto offers more details: it's a big work in three substantial movements, lasting roughly 1 hour + 6 minutes.

[Roy Bland]

[foxandpeng]

How frustrating that this is not available on Spotify 😕

[Symphonic Addict]

The kind of releases that keeps refreshing the music industry (and the ones I wait for). The rest of his symphonies are recorded on CPO. To be released on 9 May according to JPC.



Presto offers more details: it's a big work in three substantial movements, lasting roughly 1 hour + 6 minutes.

Listening to this new release. An ambitious piece for a 23-year-old composer in a sort of late-Romantic idiom, weaved with fine counterpoint, containing luxuriant harmony writing in spots (Schmidt came to mind sometimes) and denotating several nods to Bruckner, chiefly in the climaxes. For a first symphony and one that lasts 1 hour 6 minutes is normal that there are longueurs and they do occur here, but fortunately the good moments outshine the bad ones, especially in the 3rd movement which I consider more consistent and cohesive. The 2nd movement is interesting for it combines the slow movement with a sort of scherzo and there's no an important break between the two parts. I think this work can grow on the listener with repeated listens. Probably not indispensable stuff for most of people. However, for completists like me, this is a most welcome release. My only quibble is the relative low volume of the recording. Otherwise, the performance feels committed.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Listening to this new release. An ambitious piece for a 23-year-old composer in a sort of late-Romantic idiom, weaved with fine counterpoint, containing luxuriant harmony writing in spots (Schmidt came to mind sometimes) and denotating several nods to Bruckner, chiefly in the climaxes. For a first symphony and one that lasts 1 hour 6 minutes is normal that there are longueurs and they do occur here, but fortunately the good moments outshine the bad ones, especially in the 3rd movement which I consider more consistent and cohesive. The 2nd movement is interesting for it combines the slow movement with a sort of scherzo and there's no an important break between the two parts. I think this work can grow on the listener with repeated listens. Probably not indispensable stuff for most of people. However, for completists like me, this is a most welcome release. My only quibble is the relative low volume of the recording. Otherwise, the performance feels committed.

Thanks for the write-up. If I'm not mistaken, I believe @André is a fan of Raphael's music. I've heard of this composer, but I never listened to any of his music. Perhaps I'll give this an airing through Presto Music.

[Cato]

How frustrating that this is not available on Spotify 😕

If you want to hear it...

I need time to investigate both Scherber and Raphael!

[kyjo]

Listening to this new release. An ambitious piece for a 23-year-old composer in a sort of late-Romantic idiom, weaved with fine counterpoint, containing luxuriant harmony writing in spots (Schmidt came to mind sometimes) and denotating several nods to Bruckner, chiefly in the climaxes. For a first symphony and one that lasts 1 hour 6 minutes is normal that there are longueurs and they do occur here, but fortunately the good moments outshine the bad ones, especially in the 3rd movement which I consider more consistent and cohesive. The 2nd movement is interesting for it combines the slow movement with a sort of scherzo and there's no an important break between the two parts. I think this work can grow on the listener with repeated listens. Probably not indispensable stuff for most of people. However, for completists like me, this is a most welcome release. My only quibble is the relative low volume of the recording. Otherwise, the performance feels committed.

Thanks for the report, Cesar! I recall listening to a few of his other symphonies on CPO which, unusually for that label, are taken from old radio recordings in decent but limited sound. I recall being particularly impressed with No. 2, a dark, dramatic work in a slightly more advanced style than that which you describe of No. 1. His later symphonies became more astringent in style, approaching but not embracing atonality.

[André]

Thanks for the write-up. If I'm not mistaken, I believe @André is a fan of Raphael's music. I've heard of this composer, but I never listened to any of his music. Perhaps I'll give this an airing through Presto Music.

Boy, you have a good memory ! 👍

Indeed, Raphael (1903-1960) is one of those outstanding German composers whose artistry was shunned and instantly forgotten when Avant-Garde music and its zealots took over the european musical scene. I own 8 CDs of his works on the CPO and Querstand labels. Most contain performances that date from 1945-1960 and originate from the archives of the WDR or other German Radio tapes (most in very good sound).

That recording of the 1st symphony will happily complement the CPO 3-disc set that offers symphonies 2-6. It will be the FIRST recording ever of that work, yeah !!

[foxandpeng]

If you want to hear it...

I need time to investigate both Scherber and Raphael!

Thank you!

[Cato]

If you want to hear it...

I need time to investigate both Scherber and Raphael!

I just heard the opening 20 minutes of Scherber's Symphony #3 above!

For a few minutes, I thought: "Okay, I think I get the point, move on!"

And then...

OOO  MMMM  GGG!!!        MARTIN SCHERBER!!!  AUSGEZEICHNET!!!  😇😇😇

Tomorrow I hope to hear the entire work: "Metamorphosis symphonies" is right!

[André]

Odds and ends from external sources (loaned by a friend):

- Franz Schmidt: symphony no 2. Erich Leinsdorf, WP, 1983. Very good.

- Honegger: symphony no 5. Ansermet, WP, 1951. Excellent but the dated sound dims the picture somewhat. Still, a riveting performance.

- Stravinsky: Rite of Spring. Markevitch, WP, 1952. DNF. Muted, dull sound. Shaky execution with some atrocious solos (the bassoon in the Introduction !). Proof that the WP was in quite parlous shape at the time, only improving when Böhm and Karajan stepped in in the second half of the Fifties.

- Janacek: Sinfonietta, WP under Kubelik, 1955. DNF. Vienna's augmented trumpet section couldn't play together and everybody seemed to have a different idea of the sound they should aim at. Some 3 decades later Mackerras would show off the same orchestra playing Janacek to perfection. The time was not ripe yet.

All the above WP performances are from an Andante set. Clearly the Vienna, Munich and Berlin orchestras didn't come into their own before the late Fifties-early Sixties, when a postwar generation of musicians started to benefit from the emergence of high quality music schools across the FDR, GDR and Austria - coinciding with the advent of the stereophonic sound.

NB: DNF = did not finish, an extremely rare occurence in my listening room.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Boy, you have a good memory ! 👍

Indeed, Raphael (1903-1960) is one of those outstanding German composers whose artistry was shunned and instantly forgotten when Avant-Garde music and its zealots took over the european musical scene. I own 8 CDs of his works on the CPO and Querstand labels. Most contain performances that date from 1945-1960 and originate from the archives of the WDR or other German Radio tapes (most in very good sound).

That recording of the 1st symphony will happily complement the CPO 3-disc set that offers symphonies 2-6. It will be the FIRST recording ever of that work, yeah !!

Hopefully, this new recording will spark some renewed interest Raphael's music. I don't know why but when I first thought of Raphael, I thought of Hans Gál. I guess it's because they kind of look like they could be related:

Günter Raphael


Hans Gál

[Symphonic Addict]

Raphael's unnumbered symphony Sinfonia breve, op. 67 appears on this set: