John Smyth replies to me:

>>I find Schrecker's music pretty but uninteresting - a lesser Korngold, who
>>works the same idiom.
>
>Hang on here, though I find Korngold to be a great technician, I don't
>ever feel that he really takes off, (you know, that "sum of the parts..."
>sort of thing), in the way that Schreker routinely does.  Please find me a
>melody in Korngold that equals the one found at the end of Schreker's "Der
>Geburstag der Infantin." (On the solo cello, BTW, for those convinced that
>he's a blowbag.)

I'm glad he's got a champion, but it just isn't me.  I grant that Schrecker
writes pretty melodies, but I just don't find the works as a whole as
interesting as, say, the Korngold Symphony or the Violin Concerto.  I have
liked what I've heard by Schrecker (not Der ferne Klang, but you make it
sound like a good bet), but it never strikes me as more than pretty.

Steve Schwartz