Franz Schreker was best-known as an opera composer, and the two biggest pieces here, the Vorspiele or Preludes, are both based on operas. ‘Based on’, mark you: both are intended for concert performance, not in the theatre. The Vorspiel zu einem Drama (‘Prelude to a Drama’) is derived from Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten (‘The Stigmatized’), but differs quite strongly from that opera’s overture: the opera ends tragically, the Prelude does not; it is almost as though re-writing the music for concert use gave Schreker the opportunity to re-use his themes for quite different ends. The piece is a richly colourful, opulently scored, deeply romantic sonata movement that makes one regret that he never wrote a mature symphony for full orchestra.
The Vorspiel zu einer grossen Oper (‘Prelude to a Grand Opera’), though dating from 20 years later (1933, the year before his death), is not dissimilar: it is based on themes from his unfinished opera Memnon and contains an even richer profusion of ideas, no less elaborately worked and sumptuously coloured. His fast melodies have real, sometimes spiky energy, his slower ones at their best a certain nobility – like Elgar on steroids, you might say, but Schreker’s confidence and gusto are immensely likeable.
The shorter pieces are by no means lesser. The first movement of the Romantic Suite is boldly dramatic and impassioned, its finale has a particularly fine example of Schreker’s nobilmente manner and its central Scherzo proves that it is possible for a heavyweight to be nimble. The Intermezzo, originally intended as the Suite’s slow movement, has wonderfully ethereal string writing at the outset, rising to eloquent richness, with a faster, urgent middle section. Schreker’s music sounds as though it must be difficult to conduct (all those rich textures risk opacity) but very enjoyable, and Conlon sounds as though he is loving every minute of it. So does his orchestra, which is set in a satisfyingly spacious acoustic.'