| http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Feb08/Schoeck_choral_502701.htm
Posted by Martin Walker on February 15, 2008, 11:29 am
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My goodness, the beginning of this review just cries out for a rebuttal. First of all, I suggest that the word "probably" belongs after "will", making the sentence read slightly less categorically: "If you know anything at all [about 20th C Swiss music "with the exception of Frank Martin] then the name of Othmar Schoeck will probably be the only name you know." But even this is a very doubtful proposition, considering the wide-ranging interests and special interests of MusicWeb readers. Casting Arthur Honegger aside as a justly forgotten composer not worthy of revival, I would draw your attention to two of the doyens of modern music, Klaus Huber and Heinz Holliger - I refer you to the concert halls, opera houses, record catalogues and music festivals of the world for works by these two masters - no doubt other readers will come up with others.
Secondly, this is the strangest way of introducing Othmar Schoeck that I can imagine: "I have read somewhere that he is best known for his choral music". What, Schoeck the composer of operas that run the gamut between more-shocking-than-Elektra: Penthesilea - and more autumnally self-reflexive than Capriccio: Massimilla Doni? The composer who composed hundreds of songs, recordings of which (by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ernst Haefliger and others) have been reviewed extensively on MusicWeb and elsewhere in the last twenty years? The Swiss Schoeck Society webpage - http://www.othmar-schoeck.ch/ - characterizes his "extensive work" thus: "several hundred piano lieder, eight stage works (including the much noticed Penthesilea), orchestral works, instrumental concertos and chamber music." Period - no mention of his renowned choral music; one would rather like to know the source of the above-mentioned judgement retailed by Gary Higginson in his review. Just a quick glance at Amazon's many pages devoted to recordings of the composer would suggest that the choral works are not a priority. I am of course not implying that such a recording should not be reviewed, or objecting to the contents of the actual review, which I cannot judge, never having heard a note of Schoeck's choral music, though I am a lover of his songs and operas. P.S. Before outrage is expressed on behalf of Honegger: one participial phrase in the above remarks is to be understood as pure irony.
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