Responding to my own ears and heart rather than to his unfortunate politics, I too find Pfitzner's music beautiful, my favorite being his slightly wonky piano concerto! I also like "von Deutscher Seele"
I also prefer to keep politics and personalities out of the music: for example when listening to Wagner I do not hear the anti-semitic, self-indulgent, greedy, whining megalomaniac - I just hear incredibly splendid creativity from within a complex and flawed personality. Pfitzner's
Palestrina (1915-17) is a wonderful opera which should be more regularly staged...
:)
I must admit I have been impressed by all the orchestral music I've heard by Pfitzner,so far! What surprised me was that his music brought to mind composers like Schreker and Zemlinsky and even Korngold at times. I think his Symphony is impressive. I think his Violin Concerto deserves attention from a label like Chandos! Fortunately,the Cpo performance is very good! Unfortunately,my habit of listening on wireless headphones means that I tend to mix up some of the shorter pieces and I can't remember which is which;but some of the music in at least one of the Cello Concertos (the later one) and some of the shorter pieces brought to mind some of the late romantic masters I mentioned and even the golden age of Hollywood! I was very surprised by the quality of what I heard and it wasn't what I expected from some of the things I have read about Pfitzner over the years! I have the emi cd of Pfitzner conducting his own music (Composers in Person) and I always like to look at the booklet before I listen.
I was rather disconcerted to discover that the author of the booklet notes seemed to want to go out of his way to tell me what a load of hack work and rubbish I was about to hear!! I was a bit p***** off,to be honest! :( >:(
Yep, I've also encountered booklet-notes that seem determined to undermine the music that they are describing - almost apologising to the purchaser in advance for parting with their cash. I have no idea how a recording company can issue discs with such "promotion"...
::)
