IMSLP Forums

As you are already familiar with, Theodor Szántó (also seen as Tivadar Szántó or Théodore Szántó) left a heritage of original piano works and virtuoso piano transcriptions. However, what about his orchestral oeuvres?
According to information out there, there seems to be at least 3 orchestral works by Szanto:

1. Land and Sea Symphony, 1909
2. Symphonic Rhapsody, 1917
3. Japan Suite, orchestra, 1926

Were they ever published? Will we ever see them here on imslp.org?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Sz%C3%A1nt%C3%B3

https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Sz%C3%A ... 3,_Tivadar

The only published orchestral work of his I have so far found is a march, but I will look further … also, not every library is listed online, and it also helps to remember which major ones that are, aren’t included by Worldcat.
If there are recent good books or dissertations about his life and music these would be better sources than the approaches I usually take. Of course, they each require so much effort to write that not every composer can be the subject of one
As to your 2nd question, -if- these works were published by 1930 or so and -if- we can somehow acquire copies to scan or what have you then sometime in the next few years, US-public domain copies could be available here…
Is the Japan Suite an orchestration of In Japan for piano do you suppose?
Also:
there is a violin concerto- with orchestra?- by Szántó listed briefly in “ The Violin Concerto Through a Period of Nearly 300 Years Covering about 3300 Concertos, with Brief Biographies of 1000 Composers” and which would have to be included in your list

First of all, we 100% accept works as long as they are PD in Canada (which all of Szántó's works are). We in no way require that works also be in the public domain in the United States. Please do not mislead users in this way.

Second, all of Szántó's works are likely in the public domain in the United States, since, provided they were available in his native Hungary at the time of initial publication, they would be URAA-ineligible.

True. Apologies. Publication will have its usual term of art meaning since it’s looking like most may exist as manuscripts only, of course…

Thanks for the info Eric, and your efforts! Much appreciated!
I wouldn't know if anybody wrote about Szanto's life and works. On the other hand, Artur Cimirro recorded his original piano works for Polish label Acte Prealable.
https://acteprealable.com/catalogues/composers/ap0387/
https://acteprealable.com/catalogues/composers/ap0386/


On the booklet notes it mentions the following:
"Ravel helped Szántó with a performance of his opera Taifun in November 1927, and Szántó undertook several concerts from 1908 in Berlin offering performance of Ravel's works. They were to have a lifelong friendship, and there are several letters shared between them. Szántó was also responsible for the first meeting between Ravel and Delius in October of 1909, and the Delius Piano Concerto as known today, especially the piano part was completely re-written by Szántó. He introduced the work to conductor Oskar Fried, and was the first to play this piece with Sir Henry Wood as the conductor at a Proms concert in London on October 22nd 1907. He performed this work again in 1912, 1913 and 1921. Delius dedicated the final version of the concerto to Szántó. Szántó had made a revision of both the piano and orchestral parts, but Delius only used the revised piano part.
As composer, Szántó's works are very influenced by Busoni, the late Liszt, Debussy and Ravel. He had great interest in the music of Japan and composed an opera, an orchestral suite, and a piano suite with this influence. Szántó wrote a Symphony 'Land and Sea', a Symphonic Rhapsody, the aforementioned Japan Suite, the Magyarorszag - Concert Sonata in Hungaryan Style dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe, the Opera Taifun (Typhoon), the operetta 'Count Romeo', a string quartet, and several piano solo works. He also transcribed music of Bach and Stravinsky for piano in virtuoso style.


Hard to say if the Japan Orchestral Suite, is an orchestral transcription based on his piano work "In Japan", but the booklet notes suggest that it might be two separate works altogether.



And this is what is written in the booklet notes of Noriko Ogawa's Japonisme album, released by BIS back in 1999.
https://www.discogs.com/release/9251139 ... -Japonisme

Eric wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 4:24 am True. Apologies. Publication will have its usual term of art meaning since it’s looking like most may exist as manuscripts only, of course…

Actually, it is probable that most of his work (if not all) is in the public domain in the US.

• Anything published up through 1928 is obviously in the public domain due to age.
• Anything published 1929–1963 would be in the public domain due to non-renewal + URAA ineligibility.
• Anything published 1964-Feb 1989 could be in the public domain (if there was no proper notice) due to URAA ineligibility.
• Anything published March 1989–2002 would not be in the public domain.
• Any unpublished works entered the public domain in 2003.

I don't think anything of his was first published between 1989 and 2002. Anything that is still unpublished (or which has been published since January 1, 2003) is now in the US public domain.

The real trick, though, is getting any copies...

Also, the notes are not correct. Taifun was not Szántó's only opera. He also wrote Számum (1933), and the 1931 operetta Gróf Romeo (to a libretto by László Szilágyi). I don't have the scores though....

Many thanks DBMiller, also, for your time and effort.
Obviously, the finding of Szántó's orchestral works is a tall order all by itself. Maybe they were never published. Maybe they remain in the form of manuscript somewhere, or, it may so be, that they we were lost (due to the ravages of time). Perhaps somebody who comes across this thread in the foreseeable (or distant) future might have seen something sitting on a library's shelf and act accordingly.

Well, the Library of Congress has his correspondence... https://lccn.loc.gov/2017570053 --- no idea if there is any music in there, though. They also have the libretto of Gróf Romeo: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk84220555.