Antal Fleischer, Quintuor

[steltz]

Has anyone heard of this composer? His dates are 1845-77. I found a reference to his Quintuor for soprano sax (or clarinet), trumpet, horn, bassoon, and piano.

The Bibliotheca Nationalis Hungariae has the manuscript, but I don't know if it was ever published.

[jossuk]

I think the dates you mention actually apply to a Hungarian chemist of the same name. Fleischer the composer's dates, according to one Hungarian site (translated), seem to be May 30, 1891 to October 30, 1945. The majority (!) of web hits mention him as the conductor of the premiere performance of Kodaly's "Hary Janos". (Not a lot of information out there...)

[steltz]

If that's true, then he won't be PD yet in Europe, so I'll do a bit more research. Thanks for the help!

[jfarrington]

There is a biography of Fleisher in Hungarian by Amadé Németh. According to the abstract in RILM: "A biography of Fleischer (1889-1945), a composer, conductor, and pedagogue. Fleischer was director of the Magyar Királyi Operaház from 1920-39, where he presided over the Hungarian premieres of many important works. He also taught chamber music and composition at the Nemzeti Zenede, and played an important role in Hungarian concert life."

[steltz]

Thanks for clarifying the dates, Jim. It looks like this quintet might be an orphan work, or perhaps never published. Nevertheless, it would be one of the early chamber works involving saxophone.

[jfarrington]

The Németh book apparently has a works list, but we don't own it. I only see 3 libraries that do: NY Public, the British Library, and a library in Slovenia. You might try an ILL photocopy request for just the works list.

[Eric]

when did he write it? Gustav Bumcke's 2 quartets for 4 saxophones (published 1907) are probably rather earlier ...

[steltz]

Oh, I'm sure the Bumckes are earlier (now that I know the correct dates for Fleischer ), but there still wasn't that much going on for saxophone chamber music at the time, and also this is soprano sax outside of its normal quartet configuration, so it is still an intriguing piece . . .