Pfitzner Palestrina
PFITZNER PALESTRINA Liner notes, sung texts English (p.6), German (p.21), full tracklist (p.37) LINER NOTES Introduction composed a Scherzo in C minor for Orchestra, incidental music to "I have heard Hans Pfitzner's musical legend 'Palestrina' three Ibsen's "Feast af Solhaug" and a Cello Sonata, Op.1, first performed times so far, and it seems strange how effortless this austere and in Frankfurt in 1891. He spent the period 1892-93 teaching at the bold work has managed to find a niche for itself amongst my Conservatory in Koblenz, completing his first opera, "Der arme personal possessions. This work, intended as the embers of the Heinrich", a work heavily indebted to Wagner, in 1893. Later that romantic world of Schopenhauer and Wagner with its Düreresque year Pfitzner successfully conducted a concert of the Berlin and Faustian overtones, its metaphysical aura, its ethos of Philharmonic Orchestra entirely devoted to works from his pen. crucifixion, death and entombment, and its amalgam of music, Having become kapellmeister of the Municipal Theatre in Mainz pessimism and humour, is far from insignificant. Its appearance at without receiving a salary in the autumn of 1894, he went on to this point of time gives me solace and a pleasant sense of total direct the premiere of "Der arme Heimich" there on 2 April 1895. affinity; reflecting my own notion of humanity, it makes me feel During that year he began to take an interest in the theme of more positive, delivering me from polemics. Here is a great subject Palestrina. which I can gratefully embrace, until my feelings have calmed and I In 1897 the Stern Conservatory in Berlin engaged him as professor am my normal self again, and which allows me to dismiss he more of composition, a post he was to occupy for the next ten years.
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