Can anyone help me with Baron Franckenstein?

[Pabmusic]

I performed a search on questia.com, it *might* be worth you searching in depth there, though on a quick perusal there doesn't seem much...)

Thanks, Mal.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Franckenstein sang as a baritone or bass in a concert of Grainger choral works in the London home of a Mrs Lowrey on 28/5/03 according to the John Bird biog. of Percy Grainger (p.74). He is mentioned a couple of times as PG's friend and fellow-pupil under Knorr.

[antongould]

....... and the Mackems mourned his passing in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette .... 22 August 1942

“COMPOSER DEAD Baron Clemens von Franckenstein, German composer, is dead, states a Munich telegram. Baron von Franckenstein. who was 67, wrote several operas, of which the best known is Li-Tai-Pe, and songs and orchestral pieces. He conducted England between 1902 and 1907. and from 1912 until his retirement in 1932 held State musical appointments in Bavaria. He was for ten years general director of the Bavarian State Theatre (says Reuter).”

[Pabmusic]

Franckenstein sang as a baritone or bass in a concert of Grainger choral works in the London home of a Mrs Lowrey on 28/5/03 according to the John Bird biog. of Percy Grainger (p.74). He is mentioned a couple of times as PG's friend and fellow-pupil under Knorr.

Yes, that figures.

[Pabmusic]

....... and the Mackems mourned his passing in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette .... 22 August 1942

“COMPOSER DEAD Baron Clemens von Franckenstein, German composer, is dead, states a Munich telegram. Baron von Franckenstein. who was 67, wrote several operas, of which the best known is Li-Tai-Pe, and songs and orchestral pieces. He conducted England between 1902 and 1907. and from 1912 until his retirement in 1932 held State musical appointments in Bavaria. He was for ten years general director of the Bavarian State Theatre (says Reuter).”

Glad someone mourned him.

[antongould]

...... and of course she would show up

“ENGLISH COMPOSER'S SUCCESS. Dr. Ethel Smyth just met with another gratifying success in Germany, as her opera, “The Wreckers,“ has been accepted by the Bavarian Intendant-General. Baron Franckenstein. and is to produced at the Munich Court Theatre in February next (says the Berlin correspondent the Daily Telegraph”). The composer's new opera comique, “The Boatswain’s Mate,” which is based on one of W. Jacobs’s novels, will also be produced in Germany next season. In all probability the premiere will be in Frankfurt.”

Birmingham Mail 22 June 1914

[Pabmusic]

...... and of course she would show up

“ENGLISH COMPOSER'S SUCCESS. Dr. Ethel Smyth just met with another gratifying success in Germany, as her opera, “The Wreckers,“ has been accepted by the Bavarian Intendant-General. Baron Franckenstein. and is to produced at the Munich Court Theatre in February next (says the Berlin correspondent the Daily Telegraph”). The composer's new opera comique, “The Boatswain’s Mate,” which is based on one of W. Jacobs’s novels, will also be produced in Germany next season. In all probability the premiere will be in Frankfurt.”

Birmingham Mail 22 June 1914

Can't escape her. Beecham became annoyed that she'd turn up at rehearsals asking why he wasn't doing The Wreckers.

[Dave2002]

I tried a search on the Surrey Music Library website - to no avail.

Not sure if there would be anything in the UK - British Library perhaps?

Are there any national libraries in Germany which would have an online catalogue which could be searched?

[antongould]

....... and finally my friend .......

“Baron Clemens von Franckenstein's rhapsody honoured a musician who once did a good deal of work for music in England. This was between 1902 and 1907, when, coming to London as a young man, and beginning in a small way, he became conductor of the Moody-Manners Opera Company touring the provinces, and later com posed and directed the music for Sir John Martin- Harvey's plays. The brother of the Austrian Minister to the Court at St. James's, Baron Clemens is the general director in Munich of the Bavarian State Theatres, which are three in number the Opera House, the Prince Regent, and the Residenz. He first held this posi tion when it was a Court appointment under the Empire, but resigned when the revolution broke out, and was recalled to it by the Government in 1924. His latest opera, Li-Tai- Po, inspired by the Chinese poet who is its hero, has had a triumphant success in Germany since its first performance in Hamburg. Last summer, when the baron completed his fiftieth year, the people of Munich desiring to do him honour, requested him to accept his own work for production at the Opera House, which his personal feeling had prevented him from doing.”

The Sphere 6 March 1926 ....... with a photo .......

[edashtav]

His nickname in GB was Clé.

[Pabmusic]

....... and finally my friend .......

“Baron Clemens von Franckenstein's rhapsody honoured a musician who once did a good deal of work for music in England. This was between 1902 and 1907, when, coming to London as a young man, and beginning in a small way, he became conductor of the Moody-Manners Opera Company touring the provinces, and later com posed and directed the music for Sir John Martin- Harvey's plays. The brother of the Austrian Minister to the Court at St. James's, Baron Clemens is the general director in Munich of the Bavarian State Theatres, which are three in number the Opera House, the Prince Regent, and the Residenz. He first held this posi tion when it was a Court appointment under the Empire, but resigned when the revolution broke out, and was recalled to it by the Government in 1924. His latest opera, Li-Tai- Po, inspired by the Chinese poet who is its hero, has had a triumphant success in Germany since its first performance in Hamburg. Last summer, when the baron completed his fiftieth year, the people of Munich desiring to do him honour, requested him to accept his own work for production at the Opera House, which his personal feeling had prevented him from doing.”

The Sphere 6 March 1926 ....... with a photo .......

And that was worth waiting for. What's the occasion? (It mentions a Rhapsody - presumably the op. 47.)

[Dave2002]

Are there any national libraries in Germany which would have an online catalogue which could be searched?

Aha - https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm;jsess...d=simpleSearch

[antongould]

And that was worth waiting for. What's the occasion? (It mentions a Rhapsody - presumably the op. 47.)

Apologies missed cutting and pasting a bit at the start ..... “ The Philharmonic Society’s production on Thursday last week of “..... Baron ... - so not specific ....

It’s on a page of Thumbnail Interviews With The Great - A Series Of Intimate Sketches Of People In The Public Eye

[edashtav]

from The BYSTANDER, 1936: it contains a fine drawing of CF
Series of Celebrities in Cameo No. 26 Baron Franckenstein WITH his Wellingtonian nose, fine hands, blue eyes, and silvery hair, Baron Franckenstein is frequently announced at public banquets and receptions as Sir John Simon or Lord Londonderry, although you would think he was quite unmistakable. But only a sad smile flits for a second across his handsome features. He has suffered far too much in sympathy with his country to be upset by minor idiocies like that. When, before the war, he was Second Counsellor in London, his country's population was fifty-six million. To-day there are only six and a-half in Austria since its cruel mutilation at the Treaty of Versailles. Nevertheless, and almost entirely due to his single-handed efforts, thousands more visitors from Great Britain and the United States spend their summer or winter holidays there than they did before the war. This year it is already almost impossible to book rooms at Salzburg for the Festival, and the in crease in American tourists is actually five hundred per cent, over last year's figures. The three happiest moments in Baron Franckenstein's life, he will tell you, were his appointment as Minister at the Court of St. James in 1920 the receipt of inform ation that the Bank of England had agreed to underwrite twelve million pounds of the Austrian Reconstruction Loan and the conferment of the degree of D.C.L. on him at Oxford. When he came back to us after the war he found us distinctly reserved, and went through agonies trying to interest the powers-that-be in the saving of Austria which was then sinking like a stone in the troubled financial waters just after the war. He knew that he could not try to rush things, and yet if help did not come quickly he knew that all would be ended. The first thing he did was to create an atmosphere of calm in the Legation and so he installed ancient oriental objets d'art, including one of the seven smiling Chinese Gods of Luck. Later he began his famous series of musical parties, and later still his balls for the winter relief of Vienna. He secured the services of the finest opera singers and dancers, like Lotte Lehmann and Tilly Losch, and thus made Mayfair so Austria-conscious that he has become the envy of every foreign travel bureau in London. One of his greatest triumphs was when the King, then Prince of Wales, went to Kitzbuhl two years ago, later visiting Vienna. Baron Franckenstein is a bachelor, with a title that goes back to the twelfth century, and a gorgeous estate at Alt Aussee near Salzburg. He has a handicap of twelve at golf. His favourite composers are Wagner and Puccini. As a younger man he used to hunt both here and in Rome. His favourite dish is Backhaendl. But his chief characteristics are immense sympathy and imagination for people who are out of luck, a tremendous enthusiasm for detail, and a refusal ever to get tired or bored by the many dreary functions that his duties involve. By-the-bye, Frankenstein, the monster, spelled his name differently and, in any event, was merely the invention of a nineteenth-century novelist.
Charles Graves

[Pabmusic]

from The BYSTANDER, 1936: it contains a fine drawing of CF
Series of Celebrities in Cameo No. 26 Baron Franckenstein WITH his Wellingtonian nose, fine hands, blue eyes, and silvery hair, Baron Franckenstein is frequently announced at public banquets and receptions as Sir John Simon or Lord Londonderry, although you would think he was quite unmistakable. But only a sad smile flits for a second across his handsome features. He has suffered far too much in sympathy with his country to be upset by minor idiocies like that. When, before the war, he was Second Counsellor in London, his country's population was fifty-six million. To-day there are only six and a-half in Austria since its cruel mutilation at the Treaty of Versailles. Nevertheless, and almost entirely due to his single-handed efforts, thousands more visitors from Great Britain and the United States spend their summer or winter holidays there than they did before the war. This year it is already almost impossible to book rooms at Salzburg for the Festival, and the in crease in American tourists is actually five hundred per cent, over last year's figures. The three happiest moments in Baron Franckenstein's life, he will tell you, were his appointment as Minister at the Court of St. James in 1920 the receipt of inform ation that the Bank of England had agreed to underwrite twelve million pounds of the Austrian Reconstruction Loan and the conferment of the degree of D.C.L. on him at Oxford. When he came back to us after the war he found us distinctly reserved, and went through agonies trying to interest the powers-that-be in the saving of Austria which was then sinking like a stone in the troubled financial waters just after the war. He knew that he could not try to rush things, and yet if help did not come quickly he knew that all would be ended. The first thing he did was to create an atmosphere of calm in the Legation and so he installed ancient oriental objets d'art, including one of the seven smiling Chinese Gods of Luck. Later he began his famous series of musical parties, and later still his balls for the winter relief of Vienna. He secured the services of the finest opera singers and dancers, like Lotte Lehmann and Tilly Losch, and thus made Mayfair so Austria-conscious that he has become the envy of every foreign travel bureau in London. One of his greatest triumphs was when the King, then Prince of Wales, went to Kitzbuhl two years ago, later visiting Vienna. Baron Franckenstein is a bachelor, with a title that goes back to the twelfth century, and a gorgeous estate at Alt Aussee near Salzburg. He has a handicap of twelve at golf. His favourite composers are Wagner and Puccini. As a younger man he used to hunt both here and in Rome. His favourite dish is Backhaendl. But his chief characteristics are immense sympathy and imagination for people who are out of luck, a tremendous enthusiasm for detail, and a refusal ever to get tired or bored by the many dreary functions that his duties involve. By-the-bye, Frankenstein, the monster, spelled his name differently and, in any event, was merely the invention of a nineteenth-century novelist.
Charles Graves

I think this fascinating piece is about Georg, Clemens's younger brother. He was the Austrian ambassador to Britain, and after the Anschluss he stayed here. Almost immediately he was granted British nationality and knighted. He died in a plane crash in the 1950s. (Amazing what you learn, isn't it?)