BaL 5.10.19 - Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

[Ein Heldenleben]

And welcome to jch48 - don’t think anyone has kicked off with a tribute to a chord before . Tremendous....

[Maclintick]

The piece has for me one of the most recognisable 6 4 chords - just before the 'recapitulation'. i always look forward to that moment.

Lots of great moments in this piece. I always hope to enjoy the one at fig 6 + 2 when the 1st horn, in response to a sinous clarinet entry (again "hervortretend" -- did RS pinch this idea from GM, I wonder ?) has a sublime "ausdrucksvoll" phrase which firmly lands us back in Eb by fig 6 + 5...Here the 1970 LSO/JB recording rather spotlights Ivan David Gray's contribution -- beautifully-played, but not actually marked "solo" by Strauss...

[Richard Tarleton]

The piece has for me one of the most recognisable 6 4 chords - just before the 'recapitulation'. i always look forward to that moment.

Welcome jch48

I think this thread is a good example of Heldenleben’s BAL law - the quality of the thread is in inverse proportion to that of the original review.

And welcome to jch48 - don’t think anyone has kicked off with a tribute to a chord before . Tremendous....

[BBMmk2]

I played the Jansons recording, and I think it really does epitomises this work greatly.

[Flay]

I have an original edition: FEC Leuckart, copyright 1899 #5200 (quarter bound in leather) which is consistent with your score and Mac's. I do warm to the idea that the trumpet line heard on the Jansons is false and, in reality, emanated from the high, screaming clarinets plus flutes.

It's good to note at the top of the title page that R.S. dedicated his tone poem to Wilhelm Mengelberg und dem Concertgebouw Orchester in Amsterdam.

That Tom Service used RS and WM recordings as historic yardsticks to measure more modern versions seems no more than 'going back to basics'.

My score was used at the fp of the work in GB
Its owner noted on the flyleaf, in pencil:

First performance in London took place on Sat. afternoon Dec.6th, 1902 at the Queen's Hall conducted by Strauss himself; at the same concert Mme. Teresa Careno played Tchaikovsky's Pf. concerto in Bb, conducted by Henry Wood - his first performance after an illness.

Looking at an advertisement for the Concert, I have discovered that Strauss brought a soloist with him ( Herr Zimmermann) for the Concertante solo part rather than trust the Queen's Orchestra leader: Arthur Payne.

From My Life in Music by Sir Henry Wood page 163:

Richard Strauss came over to conduct Ein Heldenleben - the first performance in England of this wonderfully beautiful tone-poem which he dedicated to the Concert-Gebouw, Amsterdam - at the Saturday Symphony concert on December 16, the solo violin part (at his own special request) being played by Zimmermann of Amsterdam.

In appearance Strauss did not give one the impression he was a musician at all - much less the great one he was. Tall, and with a nobility of bearing that attracted immediate attention, one would say: "Whoever this man is, or whatever he is, he is a man of distinction"

I had the delightful task of preparing the work for his coming, and was extremely gratified when, after the first of his rehearsals, he turned to me with "Bravo! Splendid!" It was evidently no undeserved approbation, for he gave his performance with only two short rehearsals. There was not an inch of room in the Queen's Hall that afternoon, and Strauss was given a tremendous reception at the conclusion of the work.

.... I was fortunate in directing [the second performance] not quite four weeks after Strauss had presented it to the London public. We performed it on New Year's Day 1903, when the Queen's Hall Orchestra gave a splendid account of themselves, Zimmermann again playing the violin obbligato.

The production of Ein Heldenleben was the beginning of my lasting friendship with Strauss and his wife..... ..... as I came to know them more intimately I realised that Strauss always played second fiddle where his vivacious and somewhat overbearing wife was concerned; but he adored her and would watch (with a smile of pride and pleasure from the other end of the dining table) the effect on the other guests of her brilliant and ready repartee

He did write December 16th but it must have been the 6th as you have written, Ed, to be "not quite four weeks later"

[Pulcinella]

From My Life in Music by Sir Henry Wood page 163:



He did write December 16th but it must have been the 6th as you have written, Ed, to be "not quite four weeks later"

Not only that: 6 December 1902 was a Saturday and 16 December 1902 was not:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_1902

[Goon525]

Not only that: 6 December 1902 was a Saturday and 16 December 1902 was not:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_1902

If it was a Saturday, can anyone tell us what was on BaL that day?

[mikealdren]

If it was a Saturday, can anyone tell us what was on BaL that day?

Bet they didn't have twofers in those days!

[cloughie]

Bet they didn't have twofers in those days!

You mean on Cylinder Review?

[edashtav]

You mean on Cylinder Review?

Twofers were around in those happy days but had a different connotation: Henry Wood did the hard graft but Richard Strauss took the honours, and, perhaps, Arthur W. Payne etched in the solo part for Wood, but Zimmermann took his place when Strauss arrived. Other boarders have mentioned the 'twofer' deputy rank and file system that was dying a death that many on this website want to inflict on the 21st century twofer format.

[edashtav]

I've been doing some research on Herr Zimmermann and have discovered that he was a link between Strauss, Mengelberg, the Concertgebouw and united early performances of Heldenleben:

Louis Zimmermann was Dutch. Zimmermann, who was one of the great violinists of the day, was professor at the Royal Academy of Music in Amsterdam, Leader of the Concertgebouw and a regular soloist with the orchestra. Alphonse Diepenbrock orchestrated his rather Straussian 13 minute Hymne so that LZ could play it with 'his' orchestra.

There's a lovely drawing of Louis in a Dutch Wiki entry:

https://images.app.goo.gl/n7HYGnQvLa39wCrK7

It's good to think of the scene in the Queen's Hall with the Dutch violinist, the heavily built Richard Strauss conducting the Queen's orchestra with its leader, Arthur deferring to the Flying Dutchman and a member of the audience holding 'my ' score that he'd been given by a friend. That man was later to retire to Bournemouth with his Music Library which I filleted for Bournemouth Public Libraries in the early 1960s ... some 'duplicate' scores started my Library... It's a small world.

[Petrushka]

Another oddity in the score of Ein Heldenleben, noted by Norman del Mar, is that on the closing page the trumpet is given a low E flat that is unplayable. This is usually taken by a bass trumpet nowadays.

[edashtav]

Another oddity in the score of Ein Heldenleben, noted by Norman del Mar, is that on the closing page the trumpet is given a low E flat that is unplayable. This is usually taken by a bass trumpet nowadays.

RS was writing for an earlier Eb instrument, the equivalent of the "long" trumpet in F. Later, Eb models cannot play RS's note but it was possible on the earlier longer instrument that, unfortunately, fell out of fashion.

[cloughie]

This is not a serious return to what appears to have been a bit of a car crash of a BaL but a question to Heldenleben to satisfy my curiosity.
Your choice of nom de plume is I assume connected with your love of the work - one which I too have like ever since I really got into it so many years ago. Which recordings are your preferred ones?

[Ein Heldenleben]

This is not a serious return to what appears to have been a bit of a car crash of a BaL but a question to Heldenleben to satisfy my curiosity.
Your choice of nom de plume is I assume connected with your love of the work - one which I too have like ever since I really got into it so many years ago. Which recordings are your preferred ones?

I can’t remember the last time I listened to a CD of it but Karajan / BPO probably top with Jansons a close second . To be honest I’m more of a Wagner fiend but Die Meistersinger (all time favourite work ) sounded as if I was bragging. I’m more a Strauss opera fan really but Der Rosenkavelier , Ariadne and Die Frau didn’t really work .
TBH I took my lead from Ein Alpie ….now that’s a nom de plume. Also long thought I’ve been guilty of a grammatical error by not being Ein Heldenleben but people on the forum are too polite to point it out !

I still think the opening bars of EH amongst the most exciting in the entire orchestral repertoire . I have a bit of a thing about E flat - Das Rheingold, The Eroica, The Emperor. Clearly I’m a megalomaniac.