Robert Hermann, the great unknown Swiss composer

[Rachpiano43]

Bring this man to light by any means possible. Any sheet music for sake of preserving this unique composer who was a student of Grieg's with a rare and original late-romantic sound.

Here are some links to his first symphony

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrGoodClass ... -2s_w6z0jE
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrGoodClass ... 8sStyBox6k
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrGoodClass ... Of51oAC7l4

- Tom

[daphnis]

I'm afraid that will prove to be somewhat difficult. He wrote very few pieces, and it appears that most of these, including the two symphonies published by Hofmeister, are held at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

[Eric]

Hrm.
Well- that said,
The piano trio in D minor op.6, the piano quartet (1895) in F minor op.9 (1901),
and the C-sharp minor violin sonata op.13 (1905) seem to be at the Bavarian library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) (maybe they'll scan them in sometime in their ongoing project? hoping so. Better to have something- and something substantial, like 3 major chamber works- than the exact two things one wants immediately. As to the symphonies, they were issued not only in score but in piano duet arrangements, in arrangements of their most famous movements, etc. - someone's attic somewhere may have one of those, not just a library. So nil desperandum, or whatever- eventually part and then all of the works will hopefully be here. I very much enjoy Fifield's recording of the strikingly depressing 2nd symphony myself.'

The piano quartet in F minor is also at kb.nl (the Dutch Royal Library) . (If this is the same as "Omroep" from which Caprotti has been doing wonderful work requesting and downloading?) "Bezettingscode: NMI112.2, Aanvraagnummer NMI VL 21457." Anyways...

(The British Library Reading Rooms- admittedly reading rooms - has the score of Hermann's concert overture opus 4 in D minor. Anyhow, situation could be better but it's not all in one place, which would be too much of an eggs in one basket sort of thing for one's liking, and I gather the implication that Basel's current loan and scanning policy is not of the best. Hoping that current is more the word to watch, there, but who knows...)

[Rachpiano43]

My friend is going to live in Switzerland for half a year and he can write and speak German. Maybe he can write a letter or make a visit to some of these libraries that contain his scores. Even though these scores are kept in some nice places, their scattered nature will only make them vulnerable to time. Too bad its in such a dire state. Let's hope these institutions demand or release scanned copies at some point in the near future.

[kalliwoda]

Seems that most by Robert Hermann can be found at SBB, at least all works with op.Nos 1-13, plus 15 Petite Variations wop.
No complete score of his second Symphony op.11, however, only the piano reduction and the Andante movement (but this is all that was published, the other movements of the score in Basel University are autograph).
http://musikipac.staatsbibliothek-berli ... n=S2780835

Most of those at SBB you (or your friend) should be able to take to the self-service copiers (and soon scanners) and copy quite cheaply, as they are younger than 1850. I am surprised about your comments about Basel Universitätsbibliothek, because they were allowing self-service photocopying even of manuscript holdings in the past (admittedly, my own copying of music there was several decades ago).

@Eric: Omroep is the Music Library of Dutch Radio Hilversum "http://www.muziekbibliotheekvandeomroep.nl/", nothing to do with the National Library. In october of last year the Dutch Government planned to close the entire Muziekcentrum of Omroep, including three radio orchestras and a choir, in addition to the music library. But they are still open until now.

[Eric]

Apologies for resurrecting this thread- the subject does interest me though I don't think I noticed this response. I'm a little surprised that the 2nd symphony wasn't published, I thought Hofmeister -did- publish the full score at one point and that this was mentioned in an ad in the back of an issue of HMB around - hrm. well, 1905 or after (usually given as composed in 1905, though that may have been the date of publication, people being often slippery about that detail.) Will check again.
Anycase, in my opinion the 2nd symphony is an excellent and affecting piece (at least judging from the one recording, on Sterling), and having some works of the composer here is something I second