Pfitzner, Hans

Hans Pfitzner – Symphonic Trilogy (1926)

(b. Moscow, 5 May 1869 – d. Salzburg, 22 May 1949)

from the Romantic Cantata «Von deutscher Seele» (Of the German Soul) Op. 28 (1920-21)

I «Evening and Night». Evening. Adagio (p. 5) – Night. Very solemn (p. 17) – attacca:
II «Death as Postillon». Fast and wild (p. 24) – poco a poco più lento (p. 51) – attacca:
III «Submission». Adagio (p. 57)

Hans Pfitzner‘s most successful large-scale work next to ‚Palestrina‘, ‚Von deutscher Seele‘ (Of the German Soul), was not planned from the outset as the ‚Romantic cantata‘ it ultimately appeared to be. The creative starting point was Pfitzner‘s own performance practice as a song accompanist: he loved to organically unite some of Schumann‘s song cycles (‚Dichterliebe‘ and ‚Liederkreis‘) by improvised transitions on the piano, which was not well received by all critics (how happy we would be today if some of this had survived in recordings!). And this love of organically connecting the various songs was first reflected compositionally in Pfitzner‘s expansion of eight of Schumann‘s women‘s choruses with orchestral interludes into a continuous work in Strasbourg in 1910, which was then also published in print by Universal Edition. This homage, novel in its form, was premiered on June 12, 1910 in Strasbourg under Pfitzner‘s direction on the occasion of Robert Schumann‘s 100th birthday. …

Full preface / Komplettes Vorwort > HERE