Like so many important Austrian musicians forced into American exile by the Nazis, Richard Stöhr (1874–1967) suddenly found himself cast from celebrity into obscurity, The optimism and energy, even defiance, of these three works from 1942 suggest that he took it in his stride, with his musical language retaining its Viennese accent in an individual amalgam of Bruckner, Mahler, Schmidt and Korngold. Indeed, the echoes of Mahler in Stöhr’s Second Symphony may be a deliberate homage if, as seems possible, this score is a revision of a now-lost work first composed shortly after Mahler’s death.
Works:
•Stöhr: Per Aspera ad Astra Festival Overture for Concert Band, Op. 79a
• Stöhr: Two Roads to Victory "Through Arms – Through Love", Op. 79b
• Stöhr: Symphony No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 81