Tunes for Tyrants with Suzy Klein...

[Stanfordian]

What about the following German composers born between 1875 and 1925:

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954)
Rudi Stephan (1887–1915)
Carl Orff (1895–1982)
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)
Friedrich Hollaender (of German parents - Lived in Berlin from age 3 (1896-1976)
Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Werner Egk (1901–1983)
Boris Blacher (1903–1975)
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905–1963)
Berthold Goldschmidt (1903–1996)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970)

I have recordings by all of these.

[Lat-Literal]

Why start at 1875, Lats? I'm sure I must be missing some obvious names, but I would say that "there are very, very few German composers of note born after 1835" - Strauss, ... err ... Humperdinck ... err ... em ... Pfitzner ... pfff ... arggh ... eeeh ... Delius - (sound of desperate barrel scraping ... fade to end . . .


Austrians, on the other hand: dozens of 'em born between 1840 and 1925!

Yes - actually you are right on Germany (although I am not including Bradford's finest).

How odd it is - that situation.

What about the following:
Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954)
Rudi Stephan (1887–1915)
Carl Orff (1895–1982)
Paul Hindemith (1895–1963)
Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Werner Egk (1901–1983)
Boris Blacher (1903–1975)
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905–1963)
Berthold Goldschmidt (1903–1996)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918–1970)

I have recordings by all of these.

Except there are these which have just been received - plus Reger, I guess.

But, Stan, how many of those are truly noteworthy? - Hindemith, Weill and.........erm.

[Stanfordian]

Yes - actually you are right on Germany (although I am not including Bradford's finest).

How odd it is - that situation.


Except there are these which have just been received - plus Reger, I guess.

But, Stan, how many of those are truly noteworthy? - Hindemith, Weill and.........erm.

Changes in vogue could be the main reason for the names of those German composers not being too well known! Having heard several of Kurt Weill stage works I would place him towards the top of the tree, certainly not barrel scraping.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But, Stan, how many of those are truly noteworthy? - Hindemith, Weill and.........erm.

Hartmann!

(Most of the others are "composers of notes" - but Hindemith, Weill, Reger, and Zimmermann all wrote numerous works of considerable stature.)

[ardcarp]

The composer who most caught my attention was Hugo Distler.

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Distler-Hugo.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Distler

Must find out more about him and maybe get hold of some of his choral pieces.

[Stanfordian]

Hartmann!

(Most of the others are "composers of notes" - but Hindemith, Weill, Reger, and Zimmermann all wrote numerous works of considerable stature.)

"composers of notes"

[Barbirollians]

Hartmann!

(Most of the others are "composers of notes" - but Hindemith, Weill, Reger, and Zimmermann all wrote numerous works of considerable stature.)

I enjoyed that Decca album of Goldschmidt put out in the short lived Entartete Musik series .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I enjoyed that Decca album of Goldschmidt put out in the short lived Entartete Musik series .

Yes - and Blacher's "Paganini" Variations is a decent romp. (I won't mention the other work I'd also include fitting this description, but it has been mentioned already - and often - on this Thread!)

[Lat-Literal]

Changes in vogue could be the main reason for the names of those German composers not being too well known! Having heard several of Kurt Weill stage works I would place him towards the top of the tree, certainly not barrel scraping.

Yes - I was agreeing re Weill and Hindemith - and I have noted all the contributions since my post.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The use of music in the concentration camps.

The whole series was worth it for Anita Lasker-Wallfisch's comment to the effect that the Nazis couldn't take Schumann from her.

But ... the value of deeply-felt emotions from SK (who repeated the guff about how Music by-passes the intellect) really showed up the flaws of the whole series. Somebody mentioned earlier the trite alliteration of the title - and this was shown up in the first quarter of the final programme: exactly which "tyrants" were Vera Lynn's "tunes" meant to be "for"? The BBC chiefs of the time? Walton's? Tippett's? What happened to Russia this week? Why no mention of Poland - the Panufnik/Lutoslawski piano duet defying the Nazi ban on Classical Music? Surely more interesting (and more to do with the series title) than SK's singalong?

Hugely frustrating for me - and left me once again wondering why, if documentary series on Cosmology can be presented by Professor Brian Cox; on Quantum Physics by Professor Jim Al-Khalili; on Roman History by Professor Mary Beard; on Evolutionary Biology by Professor Alice Roberts; on Neurology by Professor David Eagleman ... why can't we have a documentary on Music in the Soviet Union by (for example) Professor Marina Frolova-Walker?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The composer who most caught my attention was Hugo Distler.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Does anyone know who it was who programmed the Berlin PO to play Mendelssohn MND just a matter of days after the fall of Germany?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Does anyone know who it was who programmed the Berlin PO to play Mendelssohn MND just a matter of days after the fall of Germany?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Borchard

(Tchaik #4 was also on the programme.)

[LeMartinPecheur]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Borchard

(Tchaik #4 was also on the programme.)

Thanks fhg. Do we know that MND was definitely Borchard's own (inspired) choice? If so, respect.

[Barbirollians]

Yes sadly like Webern he was shot dead by a US soldier by accident .