#lkc2

5. Ernst Toch (1887-1964) 

Born in Vienna, Toch was, apart from some basic piano lessons, like Alphons Diepenbrock, largely self taught. When he was quite young he found pocket book editions of some Mozart string quartets. These fascinated him so much that he copied them out and in so doing extended his knowledge of how to write music. His parents were not well off and wanted him to study medicine so he had to compose in secret. When he was seventeen his friend Joseph Fuchs saw him writing something at school. It was a string quartet. Fuchs borrowed it and secretly sent it to someone. It wasn't until Ernst got a letter from Arnold Rose of the famous Rose Quartet saying they were going to play it, that Toch found out what his friend had done.

Toch received the Mozart prize in 1909, and the Mendelssohn prize in 1910. He was appointed composition teacher at the Mann Music Academy in 1913. In 1933, because of the developing adverse political conditions, he left for the US, eventually ending up in Santa Monica where he spent the last years of his life.

The war affected his musical output badly, and only composed eight works between 1933-1945. He tried to get friends and family out of Germany and with all the stress he suffered a heart attack. In the States he helped finance his efforts by writing some film music and he also had a teaching job at the University of Southern California.

String quartet composition occupied him throughout his life but his first, Opp. 1-9 are lost. His quartets develop very interestingly as his style changes. I've chosen his first extant string quartet, No. 6, Op.12. It is utterly wonderful with beautiful interweaving melodies.

A few of so many other string quartets that I like very much:

Georgy Catoire - String Quartet, Op.23

Joseph Jongen - String Quarte, Op.3

Gustav Jenner - String Quartet, No.1 in G minor

2. Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900)

Herzogenberg was born in Graz to a wealthy family. As a student he studied law and philosophy in Vienna, but abandoned this to be taught composition by (like Fuchs) Otto Dessoff. In 1868 he married Elizabeth von Stockhausen the daughter of Hanover's ambassador to Vienna. She had studied with Brahms. Around this time, now living in Graz, Herzogenberg was working as a freelance composer and writing larger scale works in a more Wagnerian style. However, he underwent a kind of stylistic transformation andpublished very little for a couple of years. 

In 1872 the couple moved to Leipzig and by this time Herzogenberg was writing more chamber music, with a Brahmsian influence. In 1874 he co founded the Bach Society, a year later he became director, a post which lasted for ten years. In 1892 his wife died aged only 44, followed two years later by his close friend Philipp Spitta. Herzogenberg's big influence was Brahms, who was very frugal with his approval of Heinrich's work. But for me, although their modus operandi may be similar, the harmonies and melodies are not, and through these writing differences reveal the different authors' characteristics. 

Here follows a heart piercingly beautiful song, possibly influenced by the tragedies mentioned above, performed by soprano Hélène Lindqvist and pianist Philipp Vogler of The Art Song Project.

Songs/lieder by other composers that are really worth a listen:

Hans Pfitzner

Ludwig Thuille

Hans Eisler (Hollywood Songbook)

Lesser Known Composers #2 with David Pulsford - Intro

There are SO many really good lesser known composers, that for this article I'm going to stick to the romantics.

I sometimes wonder about the change from romantic to modern styles. Maybe in the 20th Century some composers became a little obsessed with being different, new, experimental, so that if your music wasn't like this, it was deemed not so acceptable. I think this is still a slowly dissipating thing - and not just in classical music. Having said that, the change to a different style obviously gave rise to some cool stuff. 

Also, if a composer's music is in the style of someone else's, like for instance Beethoven and Ferdinand Ries, that's not necessarily a bad thing (unless it's blatant copying). Some musical artists are innovators, eg Schoenberg and Beethoven, others may perfect an existing style like, say, J S Bach. Whatever, I'm glad that there have been composers that have written music in the style of Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner... They may not have kept up with the trends of the day, they may have been a little conservative or stuck in their ways, but it's a shame they are still in the shadows of the mainstream and being left out of concert programmes, although, I do think this has changed quite a lot recently.

1. Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)

An Austrian composer born in Frauenthal in Styria, he was the youngest of 13 childrenand learned flute, violin, piano and organ. He trained as a teacher and in 1865 he moved to Viennawhere he was taught composition by Otto Dessoff, earning a living as an organist and also teaching. In 1874 the success of the first of his five serenades established him as a composer and earned him the nick-name, serenaden fuchs. A year later he was appointed Professor of Harmony at the Vienna Conservatory and in 1886 hewas awarded the Beethoven prize for his C major symphony. He wrote a lot of different types of music including opera, songs, orchestral, instrumental but mainly chamber works.

He was a friend of Brahms who rated him highly ! (and Brahms was not free with his praise), and he is famous for teaching many well known composers, among these are Franz Schmidt, Mahler, Franz Schreker, Sibelius, Hugo Wolf, Zemlinsky...

I really like his music, it's neatly put together, there's a lot going on and in the case of the work featured here, his first Cello Sonata, the melody in the first movement is positively gorgeous!

Other composers’ Cello Sonata's that I like:

Jean Louis Nicode - 2nd Sonata for Cello and Piano in G major (1882)

Ernő Dohnányi - Sonata for Cello and Piano in B flat major, Op.21

Giuseppe Martucci - Cello Sonata in F flat minor, Op.52

3. Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921)

Born in Amsterdam to a prosperous family, as a boy he had some violin lessons, but was largely self taught. He learned the piano by playing piano reductions of Wagner's music. In 1880 he went to study classics at the University of Amsterdam, receiving his Doctorate in 1888, with a dissertation, in Latin, on Seneca. That same year in s'Hertogenbosch, he got a teaching job but the composition bug was getting the better of him, so in 1895 he returned to Amsterdam (where he lived for the rest of his life), working as a private teacher of classics and composition. 

Many of his works were unpublished in his lifetime, although the conductor Willem Mengelberg and others advised him to conduct his own music. He also conducted other composers works including, in 1908, Mahler's fourth symphony. He loved music and literature and the poetry of his day, and with his academic background in the classics, was inspired by Greek and Latin writings. His musical influences included Wagner and Debussy.

For today, here is a fabulous, huge and atmospheric orchestral song called, In The Great Silence. Please enjoy! 

More exceptional orchestral songs:

Hans Sommer - Sapphos Gesange, Op.6

Othmar Schoeck - Elegie, Op.36

Paul Von Klenau - Die Weise Von Liebe Und Tod Des Kornetts Christoph Rilke

4. Roffredo Caetani (1871-1961)

Caetani is a slightly more obscure composer than the others, but I really like what little music is available.

Caetani was part of an ancient Italian family which dated back to the 9th Century. This included Benedetto Caetani (1235-1303) who was elected as Pope Boniface VIII. Roffredo's father was the Duke of Sermoneta and his mother was an equally aristocratic English noblewoman, Ada Bootle-Wilbraham. His father, a musician and music lover, met Wagner at Bayreuth and promoted his works in Rome. He was also friends with Liszt who actually became Roffredo's godfather. 

At first Caetani wrote mainly piano and chamber music but eventually composed larger works that included two operas, Hypatia and L'Isola Del Sole. In 1911 he married Marguerite Chapin a writer and publisher. Their daughter Lelia, a gardner and painter, died in 1977; the last of this Italian dynasty.

I've chosen a seriously lovely piano piece, Ballata.

More Piano pieces worth checking out:

Eugen D'Albert - Acht Klavierstucke, Op.5

Viktor Kosenko - 11 etudes in the Form of Old dances, Op.19

Nicolai Medtner - Forgotten Melodies, Op.38/39