Schreker

[Katzelmacher]

I’m an admirer of his operas and much of his other music. Not a major composer but interesting and with a distinctive voice - and I was glad when he found a belated advocate in James Conlon and his works started being performed after decades of neglect. As an early victim of Nazi tyranny (it was good that ill health killed him before the concentration camps did), it’s no less than he deserves.

My final shoot across the channel last year was to see a rare performance of his final opera Der Schmied von Gent (in Antwerp). A gimmicky production, but it was good to see it staged.

Any other admirers of Schreker on here?

[Richard Barrett]

Yes indeed. His Kammersymphonie is a piece I often return to, as a striking example of how opulent he could make even a small orchestra sound. I haven't seen any of his operas live but I have a DVD of Die Gezeichneten from its Salzburg Festival production, a startlingly decadent piece of work and memorable in many ways, thematically and in its orchestration.

[Simon B]

Any other admirers of Schreker on here?

Yes. I'll be surprised if there aren't others.

My first encounters with Schreker's music were thanks to Vasily Sinaisky also becoming an advocate (albeit in a smaller way than Conlon) for his music during his long years in various conducting roles with the BBC Philharmonic from the 1990s. As I recall there were a few late-1990s performances and then CDs of a larger range of works from these forces. Most are purely orchestral works but the origin of these was largely excerpting and suites from the operas I think.

The fin de siecle opulence of the soundworld is the kind of thing that appeals to me and thus I made my way to Die Gezeichneten, Der ferne Klang etc. I always kept an eye out in the hope that one of the UK opera companies would turn to one of these in the same manner that Korngold's Tote Stadt, Szymanowski's Krol Roger, Martinu's Greek Passion and the like would occasionally be risked - but no luck. Doubtless even less chance now...

A composer very much in the wrong place at the wrong time both professionally and personally in the latter part of his life from what I've gathered - at the risk of monumental understatement.

[Katzelmacher]

Yes indeed. His Kammersymphonie is a piece I often return to, as a striking example of how opulent he could make even a small orchestra sound. I haven't seen any of his operas live but I have a DVD of Die Gezeichneten from its Salzburg Festival production, a startlingly decadent piece of work and memorable in many ways, thematically and in its orchestration.

Die Gezeichneten is widely considered his masterpiece. Decca recorded it for their Entartete Musik series and I have that version as well as the Salzburg DVD. It’s fascinating but a fatiguing piece to listen to, as it requires maximum concentration and familiarity with the libretto. It didn’t help Schreker that its successful premiere, in November 1918, coincided with Germany’s defeat in WW1, so it - and, by extension, its composer - became associated with ‘national humiliation’.

[Katzelmacher]

Yes. I'll be surprised if there aren't others.

My first encounters with Schreker's music were thanks to Vasily Sinaisky also becoming an advocate (albeit in a smaller way than Conlon) for his music during his long years in various conducting roles with the BBC Philharmonic from the 1990s. As I recall there were a few late-1990s performances and then CDs of a larger range of works from these forces. Most are purely orchestral works but the origin of these was largely excerpting and suites from the operas I think.

The fin de siecle opulence of the soundworld is the kind of thing that appeals to me and thus I made my way to Die Gezeichneten, Der ferne Klang etc. I always kept an eye out in the hope that one of the UK opera companies would turn to one of these in the same manner that Korngold's Tote Stadt, Szymanowski's Krol Roger, Martinu's Greek Passion and the like would occasionally be risked - but no luck. Doubtless even less chance now...

A composer very much in the wrong place at the wrong time both professionally and personally in the latter part of his life from what I've gathered - at the risk of monumental understatement.

Opera North produced Der Ferne Klang way back in 1991. A brave thing for them to do in those days and not something you’ll find them doing in the future (assuming they have one).

[Roslynmuse]

Opera North produced Der Ferne Klang way back in 1991. A brave thing for them to do in those days and not something you’ll find them doing in the future (assuming they have one).

Yes, I saw that. Brigitte Fassbaender directed, IIRC. Was it really thirty years ago? Can't believe how quickly the time has flown.

[Simon B]

Opera North produced Der Ferne Klang way back in 1991. A brave thing for them to do in those days and not something you’ll find them doing in the future (assuming they have one).

That must have been particularly brave given that the minor Schreker revival hadn't really got going at that time as I understand it. Regrettably it does seem an unlikely risk for anyone to take now.

What has struck my (possibly tin) ear is that these operas seem to me to be of a similar calibre to examples such as the above - in their different ways. Presumably the dense symbolist plots and the sheer scale of the orchestration (it's not a coincidence that words like "opulence" and "decadence" have been used already above) count against anyone risking it even in happier times.

Back to the music: Any readers who do find appeal in the likes of Korngold/Zemlinsky/R Strauss who aren't familiar with it may find productive exploration to be had here, albeit of a more distinctive voice perhaps than others located vaguely along the "Sounds a bit like R Strauss" spectrum.

[richardfinegold]

Yes. I'll be surprised if there aren't others.

My first encounters with Schreker's music were thanks to Vasily Sinaisky also becoming an advocate (albeit in a smaller way than Conlon) for his music during his long years in various conducting roles with the BBC Philharmonic from the 1990s. As I recall there were a few late-1990s performances and then CDs of a larger range of works from these forces. Most are purely orchestral works but the origin of these was largely excerpting and suites from the operas I think.

The fin de siecle opulence of the soundworld is the kind of thing that appeals to me and thus I made my way to Die Gezeichneten, Der ferne Klang etc. I always kept an eye out in the hope that one of the UK opera companies would turn to one of these in the same manner that Korngold's Tote Stadt, Szymanowski's Krol Roger, Martinu's Greek Passion and the like would occasionally be risked - but no luck. Doubtless even less chance now...

A composer very much in the wrong place at the wrong time both professionally and personally in the latter part of his life from what I've gathered - at the risk of monumental understatement.

Count me as a fan, although I don’t know much about his biography. I didn’t realize that he lived into the Third Reich

[Serial_Apologist]

I think of him as very much a musical counterpart to artists such as Ensor and Klimt. Zemlinsky was hugely the superior of the composers mentioned above in terms of being a group of aesthetic likemindeds. His mini-opera Der Zwerg of 1921 comes across as very much a riposte to Schreker's instrumental work on the same subject of 1908.

[edashtav]

I’m an admirer of his operas and much of his other music. Not a major composer but interesting and with a distinctive voice - and I was glad when he found a belated advocate in James Conlon and his works started being performed after decades of neglect. As an early victim of Nazi tyranny (it was good that ill health killed him before the concentration camps did), it’s no less than he deserves.

My final shoot across the channel last year was to see a rare performance of his final opera Der Schmied von Gent (in Antwerp). A gimmicky production, but it was good to see it staged.

Any other admirers of Schreker on here?

Yes, I’ve enjoyed his work since taping off air one of his operas over 50 years ago. He has his own niche: more aligned with Debussy and later spectralists than his Viennese contemporaries. When I think of Schreker, I hear ‘Der ferne Klang’.
How much did Alban Berg learn from producing the piano scores for several of Schreker’s operas?

[Richard Barrett]

How much did Alban Berg learn from producing the piano scores for several of Schreker’s operas?

I remember reading an article on that very subject which gave the answer "quite a lot", I mean you can hear it in Berg's orchestration most of all - maybe most obviously in the Altenberg-Lieder which were written soon after Berg's work on Der ferne Klang and which were Berg's first works involving a full orchestra.

[Serial_Apologist]

I remember reading an article on that very subject which gave the answer "quite a lot", I mean you can hear it in Berg's orchestration most of all - maybe most obviously in the Altenberg-Lieder which were written soon after Berg's work on Der ferne Klang and which were Berg's first works involving a full orchestra.

Especially the opening of first song. My goodness me - the connection had never occurred to me!

[bluestateprommer]

Yes indeed. His Kammersymphonie is a piece I often return to, as a striking example of how opulent he could make even a small orchestra sound.

If anyone hasn't yet checked out the LSO videos from LSO St. Luke's, there's a recent video of Duncan Ward conducting Schreker's Chamber Symphony:

https://lso.co.uk/whats-on/youtube-sundays.html

I've heard it live once, in Berlin 20+ years back, with members of the DSO-Berlin conducted by Heinrich Schiff, the only time that I've ever heard any Schreker live.

Per the production in Belgium that Katzelmacher mentioned of Der Schmied von Gent, I saw the video through Opera Vision several months back. Definitely an oddball Regietheater production, with the interpolations related to 20th-century colonialism in the last act, but as it was my first video ever of a Franz Schreker opera, one takes what one can get.