Alois Melichar conducts the orchestra for this recording of the overture to Carl Reissiger’s1831 opera ‘Die Felsenmühle von Estalières,’ recorded in 1940.
From Wikipedia: Alois Melichar (18 April 1896, in Vienna – 9 April 1976, in Munich) was an Austrian composer, conductor, arranger, and music critic. He was a student of Joseph Marx at the Vienna Academy of Music, then of Franz Schreker at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, but later became increasingly culturally conservative.
From 1923 to 1926 Melichar was in the Caucasus, where he collected materials on Caucasian folk songs. He then lived in Berlin and Vienna. As a composer, he followed the safe footpath of Max Reger, Hans Pfitzner, and Paul Graener; he wrote a symphonic poem, Der Dom (1934); Rhapsodie über ein Schwedisches Volkslied (1939); Lustspiel-Ouvertüre (1942); lieder; and film music.
Under contract to UFA he composed music for many films during the National Socialist period.
After World War II Melichar became increasingly polemic in his attacks on modernist music. His pamphlets include Die unteilbare Musik (‘Indivisible Music 1952), Musik in der Zwangsjacke (‘Music in the Straitjacket’ 1958), and Schönberg und die Folgen (‘Schoenberg and his Consequences’ 1960).
I transferred this recording from a rather gritty pressing of Polydor 57116 – but this is the only record I have ever found of this music.
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A fine overture which is new to me, & played very well too. I enjoyed this! Is it possible to discover the identity of the orchestra? Excellent to hear it, thank you.
Fantastic curiosity played by another forgotten conductor! Many thanks!
I read that he was an ardent opponent of atonal music, which always scores a few points with me. Thanks for another obscure discovery.