Category: Daily Dispatch

It’s always sobering to read back over biographies and histories of composers who have devoted their entire lives to music – and who actually made a pretty good living at it – only to be remembered in the present by but a single work, often a short one, and perhaps not really representative of the whole.

Such is the case with Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, author of that sparkling pops favorite, the “Donna Diana Overture” – five minutes of high spirited fun. But what about his five symphonies, his ample orchestral music, the violin concerto, his ballet, his chamber music, and his at least 12 operas?

Reznicek liked to have fun, all right, though his sense of humor more often than not tipped over into the sardonic. While his works were often favorably received by audiences, those in the musical establishment were frequently offended by the composer’s transparent sarcasm. It’s not for nothing that his Second Symphony was subtitled the “Ironic.”

Further controversy touched his personal life when he became involved with an unhappily married woman, who divorced her husband and became Reznicek’s second wife. There was a scene in his opera, “Till Eulenspiegel,” that was deemed in some circles anti-Semitic, though he himself was married to a Jew. He was helped in his career by his friend, Richard Strauss, with whom, however, he shared an ambivalent relationship. With the rise of the Nazis, Reznicek determined not to become involved in the Party, yet he remained in Berlin.

He died there, of typhoid fever, after the city’s infrastructure was destroyed by the Soviets in 1945. His daughter was released by her Soviet captors when it was learned that her father was the composer of the “Donna Diana Overture,” the favorite piece of the Russian commanding officer.

When thinking about what to program in anticipation of the New Year, my own ambivalence toward the impending celebrations has found a perfect match in Reznicek’s Symphony No. 5, written in 1924, which he subtitled “Dance Symphony.” Everyone dances on New Year’s Eve, right? Well, Reznicek offers up in the work’s four movements a polonaise, a csardas, a ländler, and a tarantella. However, if as you’re merrily tapping your toes something begins to strike you as a little askew, it’s because Reznicek conceived the piece as a “dance of death.” Rachmaninoff would have loved that idea. Whatever it is, it’s a corker.

In the time remaining, we’ll hear some contemporaneous historic recordings of Reznicek himself conducting, including a vintage performance of his “Donna Diana Overture.” All of these have been issued on cpo.de – classic production osnabrück (or CPO, for short), a German record label that has done much to explore the forgotten byways of classical music, in general, and Reznicek’s output in particular.

I hope you’ll join me for “Emil With Dancing” (say it aloud to better understand the pun), “The Lost Chord” New Year’s celebration, this Sunday night at 10:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.