I'm an admirer of both Schmidt and Pfitzner, both of which have been
smeared by being called old-fashioned and Nazis.

To appreciate Pfitzner, I think you really have to get "into his head"
so to speak and understand what I can only call a self-loathing
personality, evinced by music, sad music, that somehow keeps turning in
on itself despite tries at being conventionally pleasing.  Pfitzner started
on a path completed by Petterson.  In my opinion, his best work is the
symphonic version of a chamber work, op. 36a in C# minor.

I have long enjoyed the Kubelik recording of the opera, but I never play it
all the way through.  I like pretty much all of the first act, the prelude
to the second, and the magically irrelevant aria by the Ethiopian delegate.

As for Schmidt, the oratorio is fine, but for me, the Second symphony is
his masterpiece, with one of the all-time greatest Brucknerian endings.

Jeff Dunn
Alameda, CA
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