Ewald Straesser Explained

Ewald Straesser (Sträßer) (27 June 1867 – 4 April 1933)^[1] was a German composer.

Straesser was born in Burscheid, near Cologne. He was a student of Franz Wüllner at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and later counted Georg von Albrecht^[2] among his own students, also Erwin Schulhoff (teaching him instrumentation/orchestration)^[3] At the Hochschule he succeeded Joseph Haas as professor of composition in 1921.^[4]

He died in 1933 in Stuttgart. Wilhelm Furtwängler,^[5] Hermann Abendroth^[6] and other conductors and ensembles featured works by Straesser in their concerts. The conductor Karl Panzner (1866–1923)^[7] championed Straesser's symphonies early on^[8] (and premiered his 5th symphony.)^[9]

Major works by Straesser include:

• 5 string quartets (Nos. 1 and 2, pub. 1901; no.3, pub.1913; no.4, published 1920; no.5, pub.1927)
• other chamber works (including a piano sonata (Kleine sonate), violin sonata, piano quintet, clarinet quintet^[10] and piano trio)
• 6 symphonies (at least 3 unpublished)
• concertos for piano, violin, and cello (1901, UK premiere 1903)^[11] (This last possibly lost. The piano concerto has been broadcast.)

There is an Ewald-Sträßer-Weg (Way/Street) in Burscheid.^[12]

External links

• Includes CC recordings of all five quartets and a more nearly complete list of works
• Web site: Straesser at the Dohr Edition. German. July 2, 2011.
• RISM has incipits and other information for Straesser's 2nd and 4th symphonies and one choral work (but gives opus 44 for symphony 4 while other sources give opus 46. Clearly the same work, however- symphony in G minor, unpublished)

Notes and References

1. Web site: MusicSack. July 2, 2011.
2. , and elsewhere.
3. Web site: Warszawski. Jean-Marc. August 2010. Schulhoff Erwin 1894-1942. French. October 16, 2011.
4. Web site: Schwäbischer Organ Romantics: Ewald Sträßer. German. November 26, 2011.
5. e.g. see http://www.furtwangler.net/inmemoriam/data/conce_en.htm#a1923 where a performance of Straesser's 4th symphony opus 46 is mentioned - a PDF on the site refers to it as symphony 4 while the site itself refers to it just as symphony opus 46. Symphony 6 opus 50 was in another Furtwängler concert according to the same site in 1927, October 13.
6. according to e.g. mentions in issues of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik from 1933. Also see Albrecht's book, above
7. see Karl Panzner
8. he is mentioned a few times in this connection in 1910s music magazine concert reviews, e.g. in The Musical Times
9. This premiere is noted specifically in Panzner's German Wikipedia article.
10. In G major, Op. 34 - see IMSLP. This work, along with Henri Marteau's clarinet quintet, is announced for release on the Sterling Records CD label in July 2013.
11. Web site: BBC Proms Archive. October 16, 2011. Riemann 1922 mentions the violin concerto in its Straesser worklist.
12. Web site: Street Plan of Burscheid. German. November 26, 2011.