Franz Schreker, largely forgotten today, was Richard Strauss's main rival for the title of Germany's leading opera composer in the second decade of the last century. During this period both men developed a late romantic style post-Wagner, using advanced chromatic harmonies and large orchestras. Schreker wrote complex harmonic scores, though in general his music was more lyrical and iridescent than Strauss's. Unlike his great rival, over time his scores did not find continued favour with the public, and his fame faded in the 1920s. Schreker was summarily and brutally dismissed from his teaching post at the behest of the Nazis in 1932, dying shortly afterwards. Der Ferne Klang, his first opera, has a complex symbolist plot of lovers reunited and a lyrical and opulent score. capriccio.at

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