The rarefied world of Austro-German late-romanticism continues to be opened up by the record companies. As a result we are learning why, and to what extent Richard Strauss, Mahler and the early Schoenberg put their contemporaries in the shade, while recognizing that those shadows conceal much that is well worth hearing. From the string quartets and songs of Zemlinsky to the symphonies of Franz Schmidt and the operas of Pfitzner—it is high time that the splendid Kubelik recording of Palestrina (DG 2711 013, 2/74—nla) was reissued—the tributaries of the late-romantic mainstream are being explored. And Franz Schreker certainly has a claim on the attention of explorers.
That claim is not particularly well advanced by this new recording of orchestral music. It's partly a matter of repertory: neither Der Serne Klang, Schreker's most remarkable and radical opera, nor his later more abrasive works of the 1920s are represented. Instead, we have the early, ponderous pomposities of the Ekkehard and Fantastic Overtures, and three orchestral extracts from middle-period operas notable mainly for their routine extravagancies and easy ecstasies. This is music of more Schmalz than Sehnsucht, of generally undistinguished ideas whipped up into a heavily-orchestrated confection that merely magnifies their initial deficiencies. The best music is probably to be found in the early stages of the Prelude to Die Gezeichneten, with its poised, longbreathed melody and shimmering accompaniment. But even here Schreker is in too much of a hurry to provide work for the cymbals player, and the faster music is not exciting enough, torn from its larger context.
The performances are nothing if not fullblooded, though the orchestral playing lacks refinement, and the recording gives edge to the higher registers while leaving the total sound-picture opaque. This is a disc best suited to the libraries of education institutions offering courses with titles like ''The Limitations of Late-Romanticism''. Meanwhile, Schreker awaits a fuller, fairer hearing.'