Josef Gabriel Rheinberger

New Issues in 2011

Complete Edition

Supplementary volume 3: Smaller organ works without opus numbers
(Martin Weyer, 2011)
WoO 10, 25, 26, 33, 37, 56, 70, 77, 95
JWV 3, 10, 13, 16
Carus 50.288

Following the conclusion of the Complete Edition of the works of Josef Gabriel Rheinberger a supplementary volume has been issued with a compilation of the best smaller organ works without opus numbers. In addition to youthful works and works composed on commission, this volume also contains a number of the late works which Rheinberger, also a famous organ teacher allowed to be published without an opus number.There is a rich repertoire for services or concerts, and especially for organ instruction.

New Issues in 2010

Single Editions

Compact Discs

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger:
Missa et Motetti (Musica Sacra IX)

Rainer Oster, Organ
KammerChor Saarbrücken
Georg Grün
Carus 83.410

Highly regarded as a composer, and a much sought after teacher of composition, Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839–1901) was of great importance, with European stature. His more than 200 sacred works represent a significant contribution to church music of the 19th century. For many years Carus has made a name for itself through the rediscovery of this musical treasure. The basis for the CD series “Musica Sacra” is the Complete Edition of Rheinberger's works, which has also been published by Carus. In addition to three motets, the present CD in this series also contains Rheinberger's final, unfinished setting of the Mass composed in the year of his death; it includes the Credo, which was reconstructed using his sketches. The works on this CD, performed by Georg Grün with his KammerChor Saarbrücken, are primarily world premiere recordings.

New Issues in 2009

Complete Edition

Volume 12: Türmers Töchterlein op. 70
ed. by Irmlind Capelle
Komische Oper in 4 Akten
14 solo voices, choir, big orchestra
Carus 50.212

Single Editions

New Issues in 2008

Complete Edition

Volume 14: Schauspielmusiken,
ed. Irene Schallhorn
Carus 50.214
Contents:

Volume 44: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke IV für Klavier zu vier Händen (Dramatische Musik),
ed. Irene Schallhorn
Carus 50.244
Contents:

Volume 41: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke I für Klavier zu vier bzw. zwei Händen
(Orgelsonaten 2–10), ed. Sebastian Hammelsbeck
Carus 50.241
Contents:

Volume 42: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke II für Klavier zu vier Händen (Orgelsonaten 11–17),
ed. Sebastian Hammelsbeck
Carus 50.242
Contents:

Even after Rheinberger’s death in 1901 his organ sonatas did not fade into oblivion – in contrast to the greater part of his compositional output. And today, now that Rheinberger’s works are again becoming increasingly available, the organ sonatas remain among the most well known and most performed works of this composer.
It may not be generally known that Rheinberger arranged almost all of his organ sonatas (Nos. 2–17) for piano (mostly for piano four hands). These carefully crafted arrangements, which were intended to make the sonatas accessible to a wider audience by using the piano, the instrument more often played, are once again available in volumes 41 and 42 of the Complete Edition.
Thus, our knowledge of this popular genre in the composer’s works has witnessed an interesting expansion. The differentiated indications concerning dynamics and articulation in the piano versions certainly offer organists informative advice for performing these works. Moreover, the arrangements are also fascinating as valid, independent works, which in certain aspects, shed an entirely new light on the organ compositions. They are a rewarding enrichment of the repertoire for piano four hands!

Volume 24: Sinfonie in F op. 87 („Florentiner Sinfonie“),
ed. Werner Aderhold
Pic, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Clt, 2 Fg, 3 Cor, 2 Tr, 3 Trb, Tb, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Cb / 50 min
Carus 50.224

Rheinberger began work on his second Symphony during his visit to Italy with his wife in 1874. He was commissioned to write it by an orchestral society in Florence – an indication that his reputation had already spread throughout Europe. The autograph score contains a poem by his wife Fanny, which in four sections expressed the moods of impressions of the visit which seem to underlie the symphony. Contemporaries praised particularly the ”beauty of the Adagio.” The work is here presented for the first time in an edition based critically on the sources.

Volume 45: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke II für Klavier zu vier bzw.zwei Händen (Orchestermusik),
ed. Felix Loy
Carus 50.245
Contents:

Volume 32: Kammermusik IV für Soloinstrument und Klavier,
ed. Bernd Edelmann und Irene Schallhorn
Carus 50.232
Contents:

Hearts of horn players beat fasten the Horn Sonata published in this volume is one of the few examples of this class of work since Beethoven, and for many years it was, along with the Piano Quartet op. 38, Rheinberger’s most successful chamber work. The sonatas for a stringed instrument or clarinet with piano, also included here, are good neighbors of the sonatas by Brahms and Saint-Saens. In each work the piano part is technically challenging, while the part for the solo instrument is very melodious.


Single editions

Dramatic music

Following the publication of the full score of Die sieben Raben as part of the Rheinberger Complete Edition (Carus 50.211), the issue now of a revised reprint of the original vocal score and a separate libretto provides opportunities to become familiar with Rheinberger’s first opera.

Orchestral music

Rheinberger composed the overture to the Singspiel Der arme Heinrich in 1870, originally as a piece for piano, four hands. In the orchestral version which he made later this overture, as Rheinberger emphasised, “can as well exist as an independent concert piece as any other overture of a comic character.” With its cheerfulness and forward-driving energy it stands between such works as Schubert’s Overtures in the Italian Style and the early symphonies of Bizet and Gounod. This effective piece is also suitable for amateur orchestras.

In the sphere of orchestral music Rheinberger is largely unknown today, but during his lifetime he had great successes. Along with two symphonies and a piano concerto he wrote, among other works, three concert overtures, the second of which, composed in 1880, had as its literary basis Schiller’s dramatic fragment “Demetrius.” This work was praised thus in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik in 1880: “A fresh hand, feeling for interesting harmony and flowing melody are revealed in this formally faultless, brilliantly orchestrated work ...”

Chamber music

Rheinberger's string quartets combine rich sonority and the art of variation, following in the footsteps of Schumann and Mendelssohn, with Rheinberger's feeling for form, melodic beauty and contrapuntal mastery; his attitude to the musical movements of his time is suggested in his first String Quartet, now published in a scholarly edition, through such things as the quotation, probably to be understood ironically, from the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan in the last movement.

Secular choral music

Compact Disc

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger: Der arme Heinrich op. 37. Komisches Singspiel in Versen für Kinder.
Kinderchor der Staatsoper Stuttgart, Württembergisches Staatsorchester Stuttgart,
Piano/conductor: Johannes Knecht
Carus 50.037/99

The story of the orphan Heinrich is basically a sad one. He is neglected by his Stepmother and then is arrested by the village policeman for allegedly killing the neighbor's cat. But when it turns out that he is actually the nephew of the Countess, everything ends happily. Rhymed dialogue alternates with music. Alongside the beautiful solo Lieder sung by poor Heinrich there are a series of comic, ironically exaggerated choruses and ensemble pieces. In the interpretation by the children's choir of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, conducted by Johannes Knecht, the Singspiel Der Arme Heinrich offers adults as well as children an exciting musical entertainment.

Anton Bruckner: Messe in e,
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger: Requiem in Es op. 84 (Weltersteinspielung)
Bläser der Kammerphilharmonie Mannheim, KammerChor Saarbrücken
Conductor: Georg Grün
Carus 83.414

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger’s Requiem in E flat op. 84 is here recorded for the first time. In a masterful a cappella structure Rheinberger created, with straightforward resources, wide areas of tension and extremely effective musical highlights. The KammerChor Saarbrücken again demonstrates its supreme quality, convincing especially in the absolutely homogeneously sung a cappella passages and by its fine dynamic shading.

New Issues in 2007

Complete Edition

Volume 43: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke III für Klavier zu vier Händen (ed. by Barbara Mohn)
Carus 50.243
Contents:

Band 46: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke VI für Klavier zu vier Händen (ed. by Felix Loy)
Carus 50.246
Contents:

Band 47: Bearbeitungen eigener Werke VII (ed. by Han Theill)
Carus 50.247
Contents:

As a welcome aid to becoming acquainted with new music, in the 19th century piano arrangements fulfilled something of the function of today's broadcasts and recordings. Rheinberger made piano arrangements, mostly for four hands, of many of his works. For example, he presented the successful organ concertos and his most popular chamber music works in this form. He arranged his Piano Concerto for two pianos, and also the Suite for organ, violin and cello. A curiosity is the Tarantella from his op. 122 in a version for two pianos, eight (!) hands.

Band 28: Orgelkonzerte (ed. by Wolfgang Hochstein)
Carus 50.228
Contents:

The two organ concertos are marked by somewhat unusual instrumentation. Hector Berlioz warned about a “certain antipath” between the organ and orchestral instruments, but with the use of three horns in op. 137 proves to be a fine piece of artistry: Rheinberger supplied tone colors which he had perceived the organ to lack. The trio version of the Suite op. 149 adds to the repertoire of “sacred chamber music.” Rheinberger’s later addition to the work of an ad libitum string orchestra takes this Suite into the world of the triple concerto and the concerto grosso, without exactly corresponding to those genres.

Band 33: Kammermusik V: Werke für Soloinstrument und Orgel (ed. by Astrid Bauer)
Carus 50.233
Contents:

Rheinberger’s works for a solo instrument and organ belong somewhat between chamber music and the concert repertoire. The Suite op. 166 and some of the Six Pieces op. 150 also exist in versions with piano accompaniment, which makes them playable in intimate surroundings. For violinists the last movement of the Suite is particularly interesting. This volume also includes the Andante pastorale and the Rhapsodie, two pieces which Rheinberger arranged from movements of his organ sonatas.

Single editions

Dramatic music

Secular vocal music

Chamber music

Compact Disc

Josef Gabriel Rheinberger:
Das Zauberwort op. 153
Singspiel nach dem Märchen „Kalif Storch“
Kinderchor der Staatsoper Stuttgart
Piano/conductor: Johannes Knecht
World premiere recording
Carus 50.153/99

Josef Rheinberger’s Singspiel Das Zauberwort , based on Wilhelm Hauff’s fairy tale “Kalif Storch,” has an oriental touch: Through a magic trick the Caliph and the Great Vizier of Baghdad have been transformed into storks. Only a magic word can change them back to their original form, but unfortunately they cannot remember it … Can the night owl rescue them? This story of the Caliph, the cloth merchant and the animals, interpreted by the Children’s Choir of the Stuttgart State Opera, directed by Johannes Knecht, offers exciting musical entertainment for adults as well as children.

Diese Seite auf deutsch [ printer friendly ]