Despite its cumbersome title, Franz Schreker's Masterclasses in Vienna and Berlin, Vol. 3, Kolja Lessing's EDA release operates at the highest level of husbandry to neglected yet significant twentieth century repertoire. While plenty of attention has been accorded to the various students of Arnold Schoenberg and to a much lesser degree those of Ferruccio Busoni, hardly anyone outside of Lessing have shown much concern for those who followed the teaching of Franz Schreker, whose own work stands apart from any of his ...
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Despite its cumbersome title, Franz Schreker's Masterclasses in Vienna and Berlin, Vol. 3, Kolja Lessing's EDA release operates at the highest level of husbandry to neglected yet significant twentieth century repertoire. While plenty of attention has been accorded to the various students of Arnold Schoenberg and to a much lesser degree those of Ferruccio Busoni, hardly anyone outside of Lessing have shown much concern for those who followed the teaching of Franz Schreker, whose own work stands apart from any of his contemporaries. Schreker was a composer who straddled the line between post-romantic and modern, and to some degree, this duality is reflected in the work of the musicians who studied with him.Wilhelm Grosz's ambitious Symphonic Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 9 (1920), is firmly rooted in the late romantic ethos associated with Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss, though this work is early for him and he would not stay put in this idiom. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine that this...
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