| 
On
Remington R-199-121 excerpts from "The Seven Last Words of Jesus Christ"
(Haydn) and from "Stabat Mater" (Rossini) conducted by Joseph Messner
were coupled with "Libera me" from Verdi's Requiem, conducted by Gustav
Koslik.
Hilde
Gueden, early 1950s.
Picture
taken from an old Dutch encyclopedia.
Excerpts
from the Messner recordings and of Verdi's Requiem were released on Plymouth P-12-90.
| Joseph
Messner was a deep religious man. He was ordained a priest in 1916, studied composition
and organ at the Munich Academy of Music (Münchener Akademie für Tonkunst)
to become an organist, a prolific composer and eventually a famous conductor of
mostly religious works. Joseph
Messner (Josef, as printed on the Remington boxes with Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's
Seven Last Words) was one of the great conductors to lead the Salzburg Mozarteum
Orchestra and the Salzburg Dome Choir (Salzburger Domchor) in several
series of religious concerts, and this for more than twenty years, starting in
1945. Several of Messner's early performances appeared on Remington Records
of which 
Marcel
Prawy was the producer in Vienna and Salzburg. However, Prawy never mentions
the name of Joseph Messner in his book "Marcel Prawy talks about his life"
(Marcel Prawy erzählt aus seinem Leben).
| |
| Paul
Sacher as portrayed on Philips S 04003 L with works of J.S. Bach. |
When in a letter
dated September 25, 1950, Prawy asks conductor Paul Sacher to make recordings
for the Remington label, Prawy writes that "we have an exclusive contract
with the Mozarteum Orchestra and the Viennese Tonkünstler Orchestra",
an argument to persuade Paul Sacher.
And it is not clear if Prawy wanted Sacher to conduct the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra
in specific works for Remington Records. Despite Prawy's bid, Paul Sacher never
recorded for Remington Records.
It
is probable that the recordings of the great works by Mozart, Haydn, Handel
and Rossini conducted by Joseph Messner, were not supervised by Prawy
himself, or just in a few instances. He may have bought recordings from the organization
of the Salzburg Mozarteum Festival, or even directly from the OR, Österreichischer
Rundfunk (Austrian Public Broadcasting Service, later to be named ORF). The archive
of this company could show more details. Right
after the Annexation (Anschluss) of Austria by Germany on March 12, 1938,
Joseph Messner had been degraded by the Nazis and was not allowed to perform any
longer.
However, there is mention of a concert with Joseph Messner conducting
the Mozarteum Orchestra during World War Two. It is a concert under the auspices
of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) held on August 24, 1942,
when Messner's "Scherzo and Three Songs for Baritone and Orchestra"
with the title: "Schicksal der Deutschen" (Fate of the Germans),
on poems by Heinrich Lersch, were performed. Soloist in the songs entitled
"Fahneneid", "Grabschrift" and "Bekenntnis" (Oath
to the Flag, Epitaph, Declared belief) was bariton Hans Herbert Fiedler. The other
conductor of the program was Willem Van Hoogstraten (former husband of
pianist Elly Ney). That was about the time when
Willem Mengelberg
conducted two concerts at the Salzburg Festival (one concert with pianist
Cor de Groot in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto Op. 73).
The
fact that Messner conducted then and there when the Nazis were in charge, gave
many a critic the idea that Messner would have been on the wrong side, politically,
which, apparently, was a false accusation. The poems could be interpreted in more
than one way. When in 1945 the Austrian cultural life and also the Salzburg community
should make a fresh start, the Americans choose Joseph Messner to conduct
the first concert of the Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele). Could well
be that they did not know about the 1942 event. Or that they were told but did
not adhere any significance to it.
| |
Joseph
Messner in the nineteen fifties in a characteristic pose with score
and baton. Picture courtesy Verband der Südtiroler Musikkapellen
(http://www.vsm-bozen.it)
|
According
to the excellent web site of the Salzburger Festspiele, Joseph Messner's
repertory was extensive and did not just include Giovanni Battista Pergolesi,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Giacomo Rossini,
Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, and Anton Bruckner. On July 7, 1945, he led the
first concert of the Mozarteum Orchestra after the war, performing compositions
by Bizet, Bruch and Tchaikovsky
On
August 31 of that same year he conducted for the first time the performance of
Mozart's Requiem K 626, in the Large Hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum. Singers
were Gertrude Erhardt (Soprano), Erna Kreuzer (Contralto), Julius Patzak (Tenor),
Ludwig Weber (Bass). The organist was Anton Dawidowicz. They performed together
with the Salzburger Domchor and Mozarteum Orchestra.
The
later performance of Mozart's Requiem Mass with Hilde Gueden, Soprano;
Julius Patzak, Tenor; Rosette Anday, Contralto; Josef Greindl,
Bass; conducted by Joseph Messner on August 27, 1950, was issued on Remington
Records.
Warren
DeMotte said about the recording: 'Messner's performance is impressively
lofty, but on two 12" disks.'
From 1933
on up to and including World War Two, the Nazi influence in the arts was not only
restricted to the celebration of Richard Wagner at Bayreuth, and in the condemnation
and prohibition of modernistic, so called degenerated art ("Entartete Kunst,
entartete Musik"). Also books and manuscripts were edited, complete encyclopedias
were rewritten and entries in existing encyclopedias were omitted or changed.
Also the text of Mozart's Requiem Mass had to suffer.
It was
Polydor (originally the German division of The Gramophone Company named
"Deutsche Grammophon") that had made a recording of Mozart's Requiem
Mass KV 626 in 1941 with singers Tilla Briem (Soprano), Gertrude Freimuth (Contralto),
Walter Ludwig (Tenor), and Fred Drissen (Bass). Used was an alternate Nazi-text
(according to The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music). The New
York Times later wrote: "All references to the Jewish roots of Christianity
are purged." 'Quam olim Abrahae promisisti' ('As was promised to Abraham')
becomes 'Quam olim homini promisisti' ('As was promised to man'). 'Deus in Sion'
('God in Zion') becomes 'Deus in coelis' ('God in heaven')."
The performance
was of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bruno Kittel Choir (Bruno Kittelscher
Chor), all conducted by Bruno Kittel. Polydor PD-67731/9 (9 x 12"
shellac records).
Mozart
did not finish his Requiem Mass. After he had died, the work was completed by
his alleged pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayer. That was the version Joseph
Messner conducted according to the liner notes of the Remington box edition, which
- I presume - were written by well known critic and music writer of Opera
News
John
W. Freeman:
REQUIEM - MOZART (1756-1791)
The
generally accepted version of the story of the Mozart D Minor Mass has it that
in July 1791 Mozart received an unknown visitor clothed completely in black. This
visitor refused to identify himself and said that the person whom he represented
wished Mozart to write a Requiem Mass. He asked Mozart to name his fee and to
tell him approximately how long it would take him to complete the work. A few
days later the mysterious messenger returned with the advance requested by Mozart.
He insinuated that his master thought Mozart's price exceedingly low and that
if the Requiem were finished on time there would undoubtedly be a large bonus
forthcoming.
Mozart,
who unknowingly had six months of life remaining, felt a strong premonition about
this work. He was suffering physically and the composition added strange mental
tortures. He had the delusion that the strange messenger clothed in black was
a messenger of death and that he was writing a Requiem for himself. Nevertheless
Mozart started the composition immediately. During the next few months work was
halted by prior commitments on "The Magic Flute" production. Mozart,
who normally wrote very rapidly, found it increasingly difficult to get the Mass
under way. Undoubtedly this was caused by the strange hallucinations he had about
his work. Each time he worked steadily on the composition there was a noticeable
decline in his health, and whenever he put the work aside and turned to other
matters his physical condition improved. Almost before Mozart was aware of it
he had passed the deadline he had promised the strange messenger. Finally in a
last burst of effort to complete the piece, his powers ebbed until in December
1791 the master passed away leaving the manuscript unfinished.
After his death his wife Constanze approached a number of his friends and asked
them to complete the work using Mozart's notes. After several people had refused
she turned to Süssmayer, Mozart's beloved pupil, to complete the work. Süssmayer,
who had been a very close friend and confidant of the master, had heard Mozart
play parts of the composition many times during the last six months of his life.
The story is even told that as he was dying, Mozart gave his beloved pupil instructions
as to how the mass should be finished.
Using Mozart's style which he knew
so well, and having complete access to his notes, Süssmayer completed the
work. Years later he said that he recopied the whole, destroying the original
manuscript so that the patron who had ordered the Requiem would not notice a difference
in the handwriting. Finally the messenger called for the completed manuscript
which Constanze delivered with what must have been a sigh of relief.
Sometime
later the mystery of the strange patron was disclosed when the Requiem Mass was
performed privately. The work had been commissioned by a Count von Wallsegg, a
well-known patron of music who had a private orchestra under his permanent employ.
The Count was noted for frequently commissioning work, recopying them in his own
hand, and having them performed as his own compositions. This was apparently his
idea in commissioning the Requiem which he planned to have performed in the memory
of his wife.
The whole story of the Requiem will never be known unless the
original manuscript, supposedly destroyed by Süssmayer, should be discovered
in some long forgotten archive. The D Minor Requiem however, still remains one
of the world's greatest musical works.
The Requiem received its first performance
at Jahn's Hall, Vienna in 1792. - John W. Freeman
| Modern
sources mention that the Requiem did not receive its first performance in 1792,
but one year later on December 14, 1793, at Wiener Neustadt.
Constanze first
asked Joseph Eybler (1765-1845), who had studied composition with Mozart,
to finish the instrumentation. But when he was asked to complete sections and
to write missing parts to be added, he refused to do so. Enter Franz Xaver
Süssmayer (1763-1803). He wrote the instrumentation and composed the
Lacrymosa (after bar 8), and completed the Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei.
There are many weak instances in Süssmayer's score and the Sanctus really
shows his poor style of instrumentation and composing. Despite all the criticism
regarding the skill of Franz Xaver Süssmayer, it is thanks to him that the
Requiem, Mozart's last composition, was completed and because of that it found
the prominent position in Mozart's oeuvre, and was not lost but can be heard today
in full. Although many may argue that if Süssmayer had not completed it,
someone else might have done it sometime later, provided all of the original pages
with Mozart's handwriting had been available. 
Joseph
Messner (February
27, 1893 - February 23, 1969), was born in Schwaz, Austria, not far from Innsbruck.
He was the second son of Jakob Messner and Maria Speckbacher. In 1923 he was appointed
organist and in 1926 "Kapellmeister" at the Dom church in Salzburg.
And since 1932 he conducted the so called Dome Concerts of the Salzburg Festival
(Salzburger Festspiele).
Messner was not only a devoted conductor and choir
leader. As an organist he gave concerts in many a European city. Furthermore he
composed over two hundred works of all kinds and forms: church music, secular
music, choral works, songs, concertos, symphonies and chamber music. He wrote
"Missa poëtica" on texts of Ilse von Stach; "Zwei
Marienlegenden" (Two Mary Legends); a Symphony for organ; "Esther",
a so called church opera; he composed the opera "Hadassa"; and
also violin concertos and piano music. He wrote the stage music for "Jedermann"
(Everyman, Elckerlyc), the play about "The Dying of the Rich Man", written
by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Each
and every year he was present at the Festival. He conducted for the last time
in Salzburg on August 13, 1967, and that, again, was the performance of Mozart's
Requiem K 626. But now the singers were Laurence Dutoit (Soprano), Friederike
Baumgartner (Contralto), Lorenz Fehenberger (Tenor), and Max Pröbstl (Bass).
The organist was Gerhard Zukriegel. About one and a half year later, after a full
life and 45 years of devoted music making, Joseph Messner passed away, on February
23, 1969, in St. Jakob am Thurn, a short distance from Salzburg. The
only recording of Joseph Messner in the era of the 78 RPM shellac records, is
a 12 inch disc: His Master's Voice DB 5054. He conducts an orchestra accompanying
Eidé Noréna singing "Care Selve" from Atalanta
(Georg Friedrich Handel). This recording of Noréna (=Andre Karoline Hansen)
was probably made in 1939 when she sang during the Salzburg Festival. In
"The New Guide to Recorded Music" (1950) Irving Kolodin wrote: "All
singers save Noréna use an English version of the Italian text, which was
one more reason for retaining a preference for her version (...). However, Noréna,
whose singing of opera has not often moved me, is an inspired artist on this disk."
Maybe Joseph Messner's conducting had an inspiring influence.  The
recording of Joseph Messner conducting Mozart's Requiem on August 9, 1931,
is not listed in "The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music"
of 1942, nor in the 1948 edition. The performance which was transferred to CD
by Orfeo could have been a live recording from the Austrian Broadcasting
Service. But on
Satyr
78 RPM Blog we get the full information not only about this recording
consisting of 7 discs but also about more ChristSchall 78 RPM records and the
possibility to download recordings. ChristSchall means Sound of Christ or Sound
for Christ. (Link derived from Wayback Machine.)
In the Mozart recording
singers are Hanna Seebach-Ziegler (Soprano), Jella von Braun-Fernwald (Contralto),
Hermann Gallos (Tenor), Richard Mayr (Bass), the Salzburger Domchor and the Orchestra
of the Dom-Musik-Verein, and the (prewar) Mozarteum Orchestra.
There
is a recording of Orazio Benevoli's "Messe solennelle pour 53 voix et hymne
pour la consécration de la cathédrale de Salzbourg" (Solemn
mass for 53 voices and hymn for the consecration of the Salzburg Cathedral; Festmesse
und Hymnus zur Einweihung des Domes in Salzburg 1628 ) written in 1628, conducted
by Joseph Messner, on Philips A 00622/3 R (2x 10" LP set) from 1954
coupled with Messner's Hymn to Saint Ruper "plaudite timpana". The recordings
were made in 1952. Benevoli's Mess appeared earlier on A 00470 L, issued
in the US on Epic LC 3035 in April 1954 (without the hymn); released in
Great Britain in August 1955 on Philips ABR 4015/6, two 10 inch discs.
The performers are the Salzburger Dom Choir, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Franz
Sauer, organ. Data taken from John Hunt Discographies "Philips Minigroove",
second extended version, 2008, from Gramophone Classical Record Catalogue, and
from Schwann editions.
The
recordings of Joseph Messner on the Remington label: R-199-66/2
- Josef Haydn - The Seven Last Words of Christ - Hilde Gueden, Soprano; Clara
Ölschläger, Contralto; Julius Patzak, Tenor; Hans Braun, Baritone; Ernst
Reichert, Harpsichord; The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, The Salzburg Dome Choir.
Joseph Messner, Conductor.  This
is the recording of the live performance on July 30, 1950 in the Aula Academica.
Released in May 1952. In France issued on Concerteum Alb.284.
The
Remington recording was made in the Mozart Hall, Vienna, January 1952. For almost
ten years Remington R-199-66/2 was the only available recording of the oratorio
untill in 1962 the Westminster disc with reference 17006 became availble with
Virginia Babikian (Soprano), Eunice Alberts (Alto), John van Kesteren (Tenor),
Ina Dressel (Soprano), Otto Wiener (Bass), Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Vienna
Academy Choir, and Hermann Scherchen (Conductor). No
explanatory notes about the work or the recording were encountered by me in the
box of either the Remington or the Concerteum release. The Seven Last Words of
Our Redeemer are The seven last words of our Redeemer on the Cross 1.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
2 Truly, I say to you,
today you will be with me in paradise.
3. Woman! Behold, this is your son!
Son behold, this is your mother!
4. My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?
5. I thirst.
6. It is accomplished.
7. Father, into your hands
I command my soul.
C.G. Burke in High Fidelity Magazine, March-April edition of 1953 wrote an
extensive review of the Remington/Messner recording. His review shows that he
was impressed by the work and the performance despite technical shortcomings of
the recording: This
is the final setting of a tragedy originally given to orchestra alone. We know
it best in the meanwhile arrangement for string quartet, and music lovers now
have a chance to decide which of the later settings is more moving. Certainlt
Introduction and cataclysm are mightier when intrusted to an orchestra as they
are in the oratorio (or cantata) form; but the Words themselves are perhaps best
understood when wordless.
- The Remington and only edition records a public
and exceptional performance of deep devotion and sound musicianshipfrom conductor
and voices, and of sometging less certain from the orchestra, which has a rough
string tone and is unfavorably placed in relation to the chorus. The soloists
are in good form and the choral singing is remarkable. The engineers have unusual
success with the mass of voices, which billow sonorously with a powerful cathedral-effect
and without opacity. We are enveloped with a sound which is yet analyzable and
corporeal, which arrives with unity although it arrives from everywhere. The sound
is German, and the vernacular is more humanly significant then the Vulgate, the
homely words more moving than the ceremonial.
- Few extrinsic noises for
a public performance, and non acute. Bass needs extraiordinary reduction, and
there are no printed notes, no text, but recommended for its impressive performance
and imposing choral sound. C.G.
Burke (High Fidelity Magazine, March-April, 1953)
And
in the September 1954 edition he writes: "The Seven Last Words in its final
vocal setting (Remington 199-66) is compulsive in spite of the minor damage undergone
in recording a public performance." - C.G. Burke (High Fidelity Magazine,
September 1954)
Warren
DeMotte in "The Long Playing Record Guide"
(1955) said about The Seven Last Words of Christ on Remington: "The oratorio
is available in one recording. Messner leads a performance of solid virtues and
sensible pacing, in a surprisingly open recording. However, there is little tension,
and this may be inherent in the oratorio version." -
Warren DeMotte (The Long Playing Record Guide, 1955)
| 
R-199-69/3
- Georg Frederick Handel - The Messiah
(this is the so-called Mozart-Hiller version for which Mozart added to the instrumentation,
made cuts and made a few changes). Performers are Anneliese Kupper, Soprano; Rosette
Anday, Contralto; Lorenz Fehenberger, Tenor; Josef Greindl, Bass; The Salzburg
Mozarteum Orchestra, The Salzburg Dome Choir. Joseph Messner, Conductor. Recorded
at the Salzburg Festival Performance in the Aula Academica on August 28, 1949.
Released in May 1952. In France issued on
Concerteum
Alb.205.
| |
|
| |
Georg
Frederick Handel:
Messiah, an Oratorio.
Excerpts from Handel's Messiah
conducted by Joseph Messner were released in Remington's Music
Plus Series with a comment by Sigmund Spaeth - MP-100-18. At
left the French release on the Concerteum label. |
R-199-96/2
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Requiem -
Hilde Gueden, Soprano; Julius Patzak, Tenor; Rosette Anday, Contralto; Josef Greindl,
Bass; The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, The Salzburg Dome Choir. Joseph Messner,
Conductor. Recorded at the Salzburg Festival Performance in the Aula Academica
on August 27, 1950. First listed in the Schwann edition of July 1952. In
France released on Concerteum CR 221. C.G.
Burke, in the 4th instalment of his discography of recordings of works by
Mozart, "Mozart on microgroove" (High Fidelity November-December 1953),
comments on the live performance on Remington:
For
Remington the Salzburg specialist Prof. Messner has produced a beautiful compromise
suitable for churches, wherein a devout acknowledgement of God's power ascends
over the human revolt of a dying man against the omnipotence that ends him.. Splendid
soloists and confident, expertise in the performance carried by a recording in
which good and bad battle to our exasperation. The violins cut and the bass is
inflated for service on the poorest phonographs. There is an oppressive low frequency
background noise more distracting than the occasional coughs of the audience at
this public performance. Withal, direct and tonal phalanxes -. On the most resourceful
phonographs the sound can be disciplined to impress us and on bad phonographs
the sound has a meretricious effectiveness. Owners of middling, respectable apparatus
should be wary of this recording. - G.C. Burke, High Fidelity, November-December,
1953
| R-199-111/2
- Giacomo Rossini - Stabat Mater - Irmgard
Seefried, Soprano; Rosette Anday, Contralto; Lorenz Fehenberger, Tenor; Ferdinand
Franz, Bass; The Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, The Salzburg Dome Choir. Joseph
Messner, Conductor. Recorded at the Salzburg Festival Performance in the Aula
Academica on August 7, 1949. Released in the course of 1953. In France
released on Concerteum CR 291. Critic Warren DeMotte wrote: "Messner is devotional
and tones down the operatic aspect of the score." 
In
the US two more recordings of Joseph Messner conducting the Salzburg Mozarteum
Orchestra appeared on the Festival label:
Bruckner's Te Deum with Stefanie
Holeschovsky (soprano), Fanny Elsta (alto), Lorenz Fehenberger (tenor), Georg
Hann (bass) and the Chorus and Orchestra of the 1949 Salzburg Festival on Festival
101. And Coronation Mass (Mozart) with Hilde Zadek, soprano; Eleanore Gifford,
contralto; Julius Patzak, tenor; Hans Braun, bass on Festival 100. Festival Records
Inc. was located at 125 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Mass. The label existed from
1950 till 1956. References
for Mozart's Requiem: Fritz Hennenberg "Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart", Verlag Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1976. There was an article
in the New York Times about the purged text of Mozart's
Requiem in the Third Reich. This is no longer available online. Some details were
taken from the liner notes by Alfred Beaujean written
for the Philips edition of Mozart's Sacred Music conducted by Colin Davis.
References
for Joseph Messner's appearances in Salzburg are from the web site of The
Salzburger Festspiele. Rudolf
A. Bruil, text and research. Page first published on the Internet on December
13, 2007. On
"Satyr
78 RPM Blog" - the link of this blog is derived from Wayback Machine
- a blog about various artists and labels from the 78 RPM era, and maintained
by 'Satyr' since 2010, there is an interesting article about recordings which
appeared on the Christschall label in the 1930s, and among those are recordings
of conductor Joseph Messner. You will need to translate the text.
Christschall
is not mentioned in the 1942 and 1948 editions of Gramophone Encyclopedia of Recorded
Music. Apparently it was a private label, or it existed for a short time only,
or was a regional affair. |
