Different tempo but the music continues

'The pause is as important as the note' ~ Truman Fisher

We start a summer of travelling tomorrow with a flight to Morocco, so the tempo of posting will slow markedly. While I'm away do read other great music blogs here, but why not escape the tyranny of league tables and explore the long tail of music blogs over here? But don't forget the music continues on my Future Radio programme at 5.00pm UK time every Sunday with a repeat at 12.50am on Monday morning. Here is the forward schedule which starts on April 20 with two modern composers who between them do not have a single note of their music in the 2008 BBC Proms season.

April 20 Unique British voices - Peter Maxwell Davies Missa Parvula sung by Choir of Westminster Cathedral; Edmund Rubbra Symphony No 6 played by Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Norman del Mar. (Nice Max connection as I took the photo of the Japanese garden at Dartington Hall where he was a fixture at the Summer School for many years).

April 27 Bach and beyond - J.S. Bach Sonata No. 1 in G minor played by Mark Lubotsky; Eugène Ysaÿe Sonata No 2 in A Minor for violin played by Thomas Zehetmair; J.S. Bach Partita No 3 in E major played by Mark Lubotsky.

May 4 Meditations on war - Richard Strauss Metamorphosen in realisation for string septet played by supplemented Brandis Quartet; Benjamin Frankel Violin Concerto, 'In Memory of the Six Million' played by Ulf Hoelscher with Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Werner Andreas Albert.

May 11 Elaborated plainsong - Jacobus de Kerle Missa Pro Defunctis (extracts) sung by Huelgas-Ensemble directed by Paul Van Nevel; James MacMillan – Veni, Veni, Emmanuel played by Colin Currie and the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Takuo Yuase.

May 18 Musicians in exile - Bohuslav Martinů Concertino for Piano Trio and String Orchestra played by the Dresden Trio and New Berlin Chamber Orchestra conducted by Martin Fischer-Dieskau; Peter Paul Fuchs Five Miniatures, artists unknown, private recording supplied by Mrs Elissa Fuch; Karl Weigl String Quartet No 5 played by Artis Quartet of Vienna. ITunes podcast of Fuch's Five Miniatures now available for download.

May 25 Vaughan Williams anniversary - Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs sung by Thomas Allen (baritone), Corydon Singers and English Chamber Orchestra directed by Matthew Best and Symphony No. 4 with Sir Adrian Boult conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra.

Enjoy!

Photo (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Straussian modernism and Viennese Schmaltz

'It is worth noting that the novel's last scene, with it's off-stage procession, tumultuous church-bells and climactic murder, itself resolves a very inward drama in the convention of grand opera. A fact not lost on the twenty-three-year-old Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose opera Die tote Stadt (premiered simultaneously in Cologne and Hamburg in December 1920) is based indirectly on Bruges-la-Morte, and is now the form in which the novel is most widely known.

Its immediate source was Le Mirage, the four-act theatrical version of Bruges-la-Morte which Georges Rodenbach prepared at the end of his life, but never saw staged. In dramatising his book he found himself driven to just those kinds of explication through dialogue that the novel pointedly avoids. Korngold, in following him, and in wrapping the play in his precocious melange of Straussian modernism and Viennese Schmaltz, prolonged and broadened the fame of this recondite novel - but at the cost of what makes it so singular and unforgettable.'

Those words are from novelist Alan Hollinghurst's introduction to the new edition of Georges Rodenbach's novel Bruges-la-Morte. It is essential reading and I know many readers will disagree about the Viennese Schmaltz and say that Korngold's opera is also essential listening. Die tote Stadt is available in several versions including one from Naxos. I took the photos of Bruges in February when visiting that evocative city for something well beyond Strauss modernism, the John Cage happening.

Talking of Richard Strauss I will be playing the rarely heard string septet realisation of his Metamorphosen on Future Radio on May 4 as part of a programme marking the anniversary of the surrender of German forces in Europe on May 7, 1945. The main work in the programme will be the equally rarely heard Violin Concerto by Benjamin Frankel. Born in London in 1906 of Polish-Jewish parents Frankel studied in Germany and London, and his 1951 Violin Concerto is sub-titled 'In Memory of the Six Million'.

Two weeks later, on May 18, I will be presenting a programme of works by musicians in exile. The music will be Bohuslav Martinů's Concertino for Piano Trio and String Orchestra, then a very rare treat in the form of Peter Paul Fuch's Five Miniatures in a performance from a private tape made available by the composer's widow and finally the String Quartet No. 5 by Fuchs' teacher Karl Weigl. It is a great privilege to be able to showcase these composers, and my thanks go to Future Radio for making it possible to bring this music to thousands of happy new ears.


Photos (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Peter Paul Fuchs - musician in exile

When composer and conductor Peter Paul Fuchs died on March 26, 2007, I marked his passing with two tributes written with John McLaughlin Williams. At the end of the second article I wrote the following - We now have information on Fuchs’ music, but don’t have any photographs of him. Any photos for publication would be very gratefully received.

After writing that a student of Fuchs, Adrian McDonnell, who is now conductor of the Orchestre de la Cité Internationale in Paris, emailed me. He is in contact with the composer's widow Mrs. Elissa Fuchs in North Carolina who kindly supplied the photographs and biography that I am publishing to mark the first anniversary of his death. This is the only comprehensive resource on Fuchs on the internet and I am very grateful to Mrs. Elissa Fuchs, Adrian McDonnell and John McLaughlin Williams for making it possible. I have ported the article to Wikipedia so it will reach the widest possible audience.

Peter Paul Fuchs was born on October 30, 1916 in Vienna, Austria, son of Dr. Adolf Fuchs, a well known heart specialist, and Marianne Rusicka, a piano teacher. His grandfather was Alois Rusicka, a prominent Viennese lawyer, originally from the same hometown as Gustav Mahler, and who had encouraged Mahler’s father to further young Gustav’s musical studies.

After his academic studies in the “gymnasium”, he graduated in 1935 from the Vienna Academy of Music where his mentors were Felix Weingartner and Joseph Krips in conducting, and Karl Weigl in composition. In 1936 Fuchs was engaged as conductor and repetiteur for the German Theater in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The volatile politics of the period and the imminent Nazi invasion meant he was forced to leave Brno. Without a valid passport or job he spent two years living in exile in Switzerland and Italy until he received a US visa.


In 1938 he sailed for America with a letter of recommendation from Felix Weingartner, a tooth brush, $5.00, and a basic change of clothes. When he arrived in the US he supported himself by accompanying singers and instrumentalists, and playing for ballet classes. He toured with a small Ballet company in 1939-40 and in October 1940 he was hired as accompanist for the Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera.

Fuchs arranged for his parents to leave Nazi occupied Austria in 1940, and brought them to America; two years later he was inducted into the army and automatically became an American citizen. Following the end of hostilities in 1945, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera as a full time staff conductor until 1950 working with Bruno Walter, George Szell, Fritz Reiner, Erich Leinsdorf and Ettore Panizza and others. He also conducted at the San Francisco Opera, the Cincinnati Summer Opera, the Central City Opera, and the Berkshire Summer Music Festival where he was assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein.

He left the Met in 1950 to become professor of music and opera at Louisiana State University, first as conductor and teacher, then as head of the opera department in 1952. His responsibilities later in the decade when he became the conductor of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, an appointment he held for the next 16 years, and also conductor of the Birmingham Opera in Alabama and of the Beaumont Opera in Beaumont Texas, In Beaumont he was conductor and stage director for 13 years.

He also developed an international career and guest conducted in Holland, Greece, Germany, Romania, Portugal, and in his native Austria, appearing with such orchestras the Vienna Tonkuenstler Orchestra, the Aachen Municipal Theatre, the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bucharest Opera. Louisiana State University awarded Peter Paul Fuchs an honorary Doctorate when he retired in 1976, and he then became Music Director and Conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra where he remained until 1988 and was also Artistic Director and Conductor of the Greensboro Opera Company from 1981 to 1992.


Fuchs translated several operas into English for American editors, notably Verdi’s “Masked Ball” for the Metropolitan Opera. His writing included two notable books, The Musical Theater of Walter Felsenstein (W. W. Norton) and The Psychology of Conducting (MCA), which has become required reading in many universities.

Fuchs had been composing chamber music, symphonies and opera since he was a teenager in Vienna. In Baton Rouge in the 1960’s he conducted his opera “Darkness at Noon” at Louisiana State University. Then, in the late 80’s and early 90’s, excerpts from his opera “White Agony” were produced at the Komische Opera in Berlin (where Felsenstein had directed). In 1992, the Greensboro Opera produced a staged version of “White Agony” staged by his wife, Elissa Minet Fuchs, former ballerina of Ballet Russe and the Metropolitan Opera who is seen in the photo below together with the composer.


As well as his three operas (Darkness at Noon, The White Agony, and The Heretic), his other compositions include a symphony, a Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, Inventions for Wind Instruments, string quartets, a violin sonata, works for piano, and many songs. (See this note by John McLaughlin Williams on Fuchs' music). He directed many opera workshops notably at the Manhattan School of Music where, in 1962, he conducted the premier of Jan Meyerowitz’s “Godfather Death”. Both his daughter Debora Porazzi and son in law Arturo Porazzi work production roles on Broadway. I am currently working on a project that may result in the webcasting of private recordings of Fuchs' compositions.

Fuchs' conducting students included:
Bill Conti, composer and conductor mostly active in Hollywood and television.
Milton Crotts, former conductor of the Guam Symphony Orchestra and currently Professor at Davidson College.
Janet Galván, professor of music and conductor at Ithica College, New York
Adrian McDonnell, conductor of the Orchestre de la Cité Internationale in Paris and professor of conducting at the Conservatoire Frederic Chopin.


Peter Paul Fuchs, born Vienna October 30, 1916, Vienna, Austria. Died March 26, 2007, Greensboro, NC.

Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Young Mahler - encouragement worthwhile?

A charming and previously unpublished reminiscence of an 11-year-old Gustav Mahler (photo above) comes to An Overgrown Path from Elissa Minet Fuchs former ballerina with the Ballet Russe and the Metropolitan Opera. Mrs. Fuchs (see photo below) is the widow of conductor and composer Peter Paul Fuchs who was the subject of two tributes here when he died last year. A reader drew Mrs. Fuchs' attention to my articles and she has very kindly supplied me with material, including previously unpublished photographs, on her husband for a full appreciation to be published here on the first anniversary of his death next week. Among the material was this memory of a young Gustav Mahler.

Peter's grandfather on his mother's side, Alois Rusicka, was born in a small town in Czechoslovakia not far from the Austrian border. He was a law student - pursuing his degree and an amateur musician, a cellist. On one of his visits home, he was approached by a tavern keeper. He was asked to meet the tavern owner's young son, 11 years, and to judge the boy's musical talent to see if encouragement in this field would be worthwhile. Herr Rusicka was absolutely sure that this was a significant talent - the boy's name was Gustav Mahler.

Peter's mother told me that her father never revealed this incident to Mahler even though much later in Vienna the then well known lawyer and the then intendant of the Vienna Opera crossed social paths - at soirées, the Opera, coffee houses.

Also of interest - Peter's theory teacher at the Vienna Academy of Music (graduated with honors in 1935) was Karl Weigl, an assistant to Mahler during his Vienna Opera tenure - and also a composer.

Below is the text of this story together with a photo of Elissa Minet and Peter Paul Fuchs. I would like to thank Mrs. Fuchs in Greensboro, NC and Adrian McDonnell in Paris for making this valuable material available. There also is the possibility (and I stress possibility) of private recordings of Peter Paul Fuchs music being made available for An Overgrown Path radio programme. And just think, someone once said "Classical blogs are spreading but their nutritional value is lower than a bag of crisps. Unlike financial blogs, which yield powerful and profitable secrets, classical web-chat is opinion-rich and info-poor."


Lower image (c) On An Overgrown Path 2008. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Super Size Me

While Lucretia was still on tour, Britten left for a brief visit to America - his first transatlantic journey by air - where Peter Grimes was at last to be staged at Koussevitzky's Berkshire Festival at Tanglewood, a vast event involving hundreds of music students, past and present. Three performances were given in early August by a young and enormous cast - enormous in every sense, for Eric Crozier, who had flown over to produce, recalls that in overfed America it was impossible to find a thin child to play the appentice.

The 1946 US premiere of Britten's Peter Grimes recalled in Humphrey Carpenter's book Benjamin Britten, A Biography (Faber ISBN 0571143253). The conductor was the twenty-eight-year-old Leonard Bernstein, his assistant was another musician who has featured here recently, Peter Paul Fuchs.

In 1945 Joan Cross had sung the role of Ellen Orford in the UK premiere of Peter Grimes conducted by Reginald Goodall, read more about Joan Cross here.
In my photo Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts’s holds a definitely not-overfed Apprentice in Opera North's 2006 production of Peter Grimes. Super Size Me is, of course, the title of Morgan Spurlock's 2004 feature film. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Peter Paul Fuchs - a compelling voice

When I published a short tribute to the conductor and composer Peter Paul Fuchs, who died last week, I was very aware that there was practically no information available about his music. To try to rectify that I presumptuously asked John McLaughlin Williams (above) to write a short appreciation of Fuchs’ music for An Overgrown Path. John responded within a few days with this wonderful piece:

“I pulled out two of the three scores by Peter Paul Fuchs that he gave me years ago. I think that I never collected back from an orchestra in Boston the score to Fuch's Concertino for Violin & Chamber Orchestra that I had submitted for consideration. Hope springs eternal.

I have two violin works from opposite ends of his career: a Violin Sonata from 1937 and a Fantasy for Violin from 1978. Looking at them again brings back my initial impressions. Here was a fine, even inspired craftsman, exquisitely trained in the traditional methods of composition as it was taught in German and Austrian conservatories. That is to say, Fuchs compositional style is concerned with expression through clarity and rigor. He is rhythmically clear, precise and athletic; he is rigorous in his employment of traditional counterpoint and voice leading. This is wedded to a melodic contour and harmonic vocabulary whose points of departure are Alban Berg and Paul Hindemith. Utilizing that, Fuchs was able to create many passages of bittersweet, even painful beauty.

In examining this pair of violin pieces, it's interesting to note that there is no great variance of style or conscious change of direction between 1937 and 1978, though in the later work his harmony shows greater astringency due to his frequent employment of chordal combinations derived from fourths and augmented sixths. (It was Harold Truscott who wrote that a composer shows his true individuality in how he uses augmented chords. I'm paraphrasing here.)

The Sonata from 1937 shows no sign of the brewing troubles of those years. If not exactly genial, it does exude a bumptious neo-classicism in its outer movements and a lightly worn expressionism in the central slow movement. There is greater intensity in his later Fantasy for Violin, and one senses here that his technique is more relaxed and pliable, and that he is able to explore similar areas with much greater depth.

Fuchs had exemplary teachers (the composer Karl Weigl and the conductor-composer Felix Weingartner), ones with definite ideas about what was good and desirable in music. In 1937, when Fuchs wrote his Violin Sonata, I can easily imagine the reaction of those great but conservative artists to Fuchs more "contemporary" creation. It's to their credit that they allowed Fuchs to find his way, and I can imagine their taking pride in seeing the wonderful artist and composer that Fuchs became.

Clearly, Fuchs knew who he was as a composer and creative musician, and examination of these two scores shows that he was able to remain true to himself throughout his artistic life. Peter Paul Fuchs is gone now, but much as there has been for his emigré contemporaries Hans Gál and Berthold Goldschmidt, I sincerely hope there will be renewed interest in this deserving and compelling voice speaking to us from a golden age of composition.”

We are all indebted to John McLaughlin Williams for sharing the music of Peter Paul Fuchs with us. In his article John mentions Berthold Goldschmidt. Now take this Overgrown Path to find out how Simon Rattle literally helped to revive this important 20th century composer.

We now have information on Fuchs’ music, but don’t have any photographs of him. Any photos for publication would be very gratefully received. Copyrighted material on these pages is included for "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Peter Paul Fuchs - one path ends

Hello Pliable, No sooner than we speak of Weigl and a few of his students than I see this today:

In Wednesday’s (3/28/2007) Greensboro News & Record (NC), Dawn Decwikiel-Kane reports: “Peter Paul Fuchs, longtime conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the Greensboro Opera Company, died Monday night after a long illness. Fuchs, 90, died at Friends Home Guilford after a 17-year battle with Alzheimer's disease (follow this link for more on music and Alzheimer's - Pliable). The Vienna-born Fuchs brought his vast musical experience and pleasant temperament to the symphony and opera company from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s. Their leaders praised him Tuesday for his role in sculpting both organizations. ‘His expertise and talents led the orchestra to achieve the professional status and artistic excellence it enjoys today,’ said Dmitry Sitkovetsky, the symphony's current music director. Before arriving in Greensboro, Fuchs conducted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, directed the opera and orchestra at Louisiana State University and had led the Baton Rouge Symphony. Fuchs served as the Greensboro Symphony's music director from 1975-87, then retired and became its conductor laureate.”

He was a talented man that I was honored to meet once and speak to at length. I still have a score or two of his in my library, though I was unable to convince anyone to perform them at the time. That was no reflection upon his music. Best, John McLaughlin Williams

* Now playing - Bach's Goldberg Variations transcribed for strings by current Greensboro Symphony music director Dmitry Sitkovetsky (below), and played by NES Chamber Orchestra. The sleeve notes of this 1995 Nonesuch CD are by none other than John Adams, and say: 'The opportunity to experience a new view of a familiar work such as the Goldberg Variations should not be grounds for a skeptical raising of critical eyebrows, but rather a cause for celebration. Arranging the Goldberg Variations is risky business, however. One is working here not with a melodic fragment of single song, but rather with one of the summas of Western music, specifically a work which is a compendium of all the principal developments in European keyboard up to and including Bach's time. ... John Cage, in his lecture "Composition as Process," defines form as "the morphology of continuity." The morphology of the Goldberg Variations' continuity is one of a perfectly shaped and harmonious continuity. Symmetry and unpredictability coexist in an environment of impertuable serenity. ' Nice CD as well.

Now read about a year at the symphony.
Photo of Greensboro, NC southern railway station from ePodunk. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk