Last night the BBC Symphony Orchestra did something rather rare. It programmed music by Franz Schreker, his
Vorspiel zu einem Drama, the more fulsome concert version of the overture to his opera
Die Gezeichneten. The performance is available via the
iPlayer for the next week, though you can also
listen to a rather marvellous performance of the same piece, by the same orchestra, under Jascha Horenstein in 1957. The concert had sadly slipped under my radar, otherwise I would have joined the reportedly small crowd at the Barbican for the event. Andrew Clements was there, reporting for
The Guardian. While
mutedly enthusiastic about the performance, he can't help but repeat some glaring clichés about Schreker's work. He blushes at the sexual subject matter of
Die Gezeichneten and then makes Hollywood claims for the score. When will critics dealing with this repertoire finally put things in the right historical order? The Hollywood Sound emerges from this extraordinary repertoire, not the other way around.
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