Piano Music of August Halm (1869-1929)

Piano Music of August Halm (1869-1929)
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD84

Audio sample: Halm: Prelude and Fugue in F sharp minor

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Total time: 66 minutes 5 seconds

August Halm
1. Prelude and Fugue in E minor (13’33”)
2. Pastorale and Andantino (8’30”)
3. Prelude and Fugue in C minor (8’21”)
4. Prelude and Fugue in F sharp minor (9’47”)
5. Praeludium and Invention (7’49”)

Adolf Schulz-Evler (1852-1905)
6. Echo de la Partita de J.S. Bach (3’45”)

Rudolph Niemann (1838-98)
Concert Suite, op. 34
7. Praeludium (3’22”)
8. Sarabande (1’51”)
9. Alla Gavotte (4’03”)
10. Bourrée (4’57”)

Our thanks to Dr Klaus Tischendorf for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music:
August Halm was the third son of Hermann Friedrich Halm and Charlotte Augusta (nee Kulmbach). His father was at that time pastor in Grossaltdorf. Halm reluctantly studied theology at the University of Tuebingen, combined with the study of composition. His teacher and promoter was Tuebingen’s director of academic music Emil Kauffmann. After an unenthusiastic beginning in ministry he sought two years of leave to study with Rheinberger, but found this uninspiring. He took work as a conductor and after the turn of the century he met Hermann Lietz , Gustav Wyneken and Paul Geheeb. From 1906 to 1910 and in the period from 1920 to 1929 he was active with Wyneken at his Free School in Wickersdorf near Saalfeld.

Halm was considered the most important music educator and spokesman of the musical youth movement, and worked to establish connexions between art and religion. His Free School developed ideas that would also be associated with Rudolf Steiner, such as child-centred, non-traditional learning in contrast to the regimented public school system. In its forest location and emphasis on nature (hiking movements that came to agitate for social reform were growing forces in the Germany of that time), it was also typical of the alternative living communities that Steiner’s Anthroposophy and indeed the wider Theosophical movement would generate in the early decades of the twentieth-century.

As a composer, Halm remained firmly in the model of Anton Bruckner, concentrating on the compositional techniques of the fugue and the sonata.  He did, however, establish a distinguished reputation as a music aesthetician as well as a writer on music. His writings, intended for the general public rather than other musicians, are characterized by a direct, obvious and clear language.

Those of Halm’s piano works collected on this disc show a clear development of Bachian language in a direction parallel to but distinct from Busoni’s new classicism. As a tonalist, Halm directed his attention away from modernism and towards breathing new life into Baroque forms and devices, in an attempt to recapture the vigour and purity of an idealized past. The result is music that is unusually individual while clearly showing its Teutonic influences in Bach, Beethoven and Bruckner. As in Reger’s world there is little concession to sensualism but instead an energy, clarity and logical purpose that propels the music with dynamic force and a structural cogency that is sometimes terse and rarely risks over-extension. The harmonic shifts, so much a part of Bruckner’s sound-world, have the capacity to pull the music sideways in an abrupt and striking fashion, but are deployed as part of a rigorous overall plan of the work in question. The E minor Prelude and Fugue, the longest in that genre, is a remarkable work making use of alternating themes and sections, and relying greatly on continuity of thought and line.

All that is known of Adolf (or sometimes Andrey) Schulz-Evler’s fifty or so compositions today is his popular showpiece Concert Arabesques on Strauss’s The Blue Danube, a fiendish Octave Etude (as yet unrecorded) and this little transcription of Bach, replete with huge chords and octaves in the manner of such transcribers as Stradal.

Rudolph Niemann is even less familiar, and this is the first recording of any of his music. He was the father of composers Walter and Gustav Adolph Niemann. The son of a local organist, he studied piano with Moscheles, travelling to Paris where he studied with Marmontel and Halevy, and then back to Berlin with Hans von Buelow. He undertook concert tours of Europe both as soloist and with the violinist Wilhelmj. From 1883 he taught at the Robert Fuchs Conservatoire in Wiesbaden. His Concert Suite continues the retrospective theme of this disc with its clear Baroque models and vigorous approach to reviving the old dance-forms.

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The Circle of Brahms, vol. 3

The Circle of Brahms, vol. 3
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD83

Audio sample: Brull: Gavotte, op 101 no 2

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Total time: 70 minutes 45 seconds

Ignaz Brüll (1846-1907)
1. Theme with Variations, op. 35 no 1 (9’28”)
2. Mazurka, op. 35 no 2 (3’15”)

Ernst Rudorff (1840-1916)
3. Fantasie, op. 14 – first movement (6’18”)

Brüll
4. Ballade, op. 84 (7’52”)
5. Theme with Variations, op. 39 (9’44”)
Drei Klavierstücke, op. 101:
6. Menuett (4’00”) 7. Gavotte (2’09”) 8. Novelette (5’05”)

Karl Georg Peter Grädener (1812-83)
Fliegende Blätter, op. 5:
9. no. 1: Presto assai (2’15”) 10. no. 4: Allegretto poco vivace (3’14”)

Brüll
11. Impromptu, op. 37 no. 1 (5’02”)
12. Idylle, op. 37 no. 2 (4’30”)

Zwei Klavierstücke, op. 94:
13. Gondoliera (4’25”) 14. Marche a la japonaise (3’18”)

Our thanks to Dr Klaus Tischendorf and Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music:

This disc is our third exploring those composers who were part of Brahms’s circle, and concentrates on Ignaz Brüll, the traditionalist friend of Brahms.

Ignaz Brüll, son of a prosperous Moravian Jewish family, moved to Vienna in infancy and was to study there under Anton Rufinatscha and Julius Dessoff (composition) and Julius Epstein (piano). A rapid developer, he had completed his first piano concerto by the age of fourteen and, having received the support of Anton Rubinstein,  began a successful career as a concert pianist, with many tours throughout Europe. He continued composing, and his second opera “Das goldene Kreuz” was well-received.

Brüll’s villa by Lake Attersee became known as the Berghof, and became a meeting-place for the leading musicians of the day, including Mahler, Goldmark, Fuchs, Hanslick and Billroth. His friend Brahms was a frequent visitor and clearly enjoyed his time there. Stories of Brüll tell not only that he was held in high regard as a musician but also that he was a companionable and popular family man. Following his marriage in 1882, he devoted himself increasingly to composition.

Brüll is a traditionalist in composition, and there is nothing in his music that suggests that he was at all impressed by musical developments during his lifetime. Rather, he concentrates on a language midway between that of Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms, but with a number of individual touches. His Ballade, op. 84, looks forward to Grieg, while some of the shorter works suggest the style of Raff.

Ernst Rudorff studied piano under Woldemar Bargiel (see previous RDR releases) and then entered the Leipzig Conservatoire under Moscheles, Plaidy and Rietz. He undertook further study with Hauptmann and Reinecke. Appointment as professor of piano at the Cologne Conservatoire in 1865 was followed by the senior piano position at the Berlin Hochschule between 1869 and his retirement in 1910. A prolific composer, arranger and editor, Rudorff was a friend of both Brahms and Joachim.

Carl Grädener was born in Rostock and spent ten years as a cellist in Helsinki. He was then director of music at the Kiel Conservatoire for ten years, later teaching at the Vienna and Hamburg Conservatoires. His compositions include operas, symphonies and other large-scale works, as well as miniatures for piano and songs. His son Hermann also became a composer.

The Circle of Brahms, vol. 2

The Circle of Brahms, vol. 2
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD82

Audio sample: Gernsheim: Capriccio, op. 61 no 2

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Total time: 65 minutes 40 seconds

Albert Dietrich (1829-1908): 6 Klavierstücke, op 6
1. Allegretto (4’32”) 2. Ziemlich langsam (3’55”) 3. Langsam, sehr ausdrucksvoll (3’49”) 4. Lebhaft (3’13”) 5. Mässig, im Menuettempo (6’52”) 6. Larghetto (3’50”)

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900): 5 Klavierstücke, op. 25
7. Notturno (6’02”) 8. Capriccio (5’20”) 9. Barcarole (3’37”) 10. Gavotte (5’24”) 11. Romanze (5’06”)

Friedrich Gernsheim (1839-1916): 4 Klavierstücke, op. 61
12. Idyll (3’38”) 13. Capriccio (2’30”) 4. Legende (4’52”) 5. Impromptu (2’48”)

Our thanks to Dr Klaus Tischendorf and Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music
This disc continues our earlier exploration of those composers who were part of Brahms’s circle (RDR46) with three sets of connected and contrasted piano pieces that show that the spiritual depth and intimate expression of Brahms’s piano music found immediate admirers, some of whom took the form in individual directions.

Albert Dietrich was not merely influenced by Brahms, but was one of the composer’s closest friends. He studied with Schumann from 1851 and then, in 1853, met Brahms and collaborated with him and Schumann on the “F-A-E Sonata” for Joachim. Thereafter, Dietrich was music director at the court of Oldenburg (1861-90) and did much to promote Brahms’ music. The quality of Dietrich’s own output is high and includes works in large-scale forms such as concerti for violin, cello and horn and a symphony dedicated to Brahms. In chamber music his output includes two piano trios as well as a small amount of music for solo piano. The set of piano pieces forming his op. 6 is distinctive and shows Dietrich at his most poetically inspired.

Heinrich von Herzogenberg studied composition under Dessoff and, influenced by his studies of Bach, became an ardent admirer of Brahms. He married one of Brahms’s piano pupils, and it is suggested by some that Brahms’s resentment of this union played a part in his generally curmudgeonly attitude towards Herzogenberg. In 1872, Herzogenberg moved to Leipzig where, along with Philip Spitta, he founded the Leipzig Bach-Verein, which did much to revive Bach’s cantatas. From 1885 he was professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, and in his last years, although a Roman Catholic, composed extensively for the Lutheran church. Herzogenberg’s works include several important pieces for solo piano and piano four hands. The five pieces that form his op. 25 are confident statements of his style; while this has an undeniable influence of Brahms, that influence does not overwhelm Herzogenberg’s own ideas and rather more cosmopolitan approach. The second, a martial Capriccio, is particularly striking.

Friedrich Gernsheim met Brahms later in his career, in 1868, and from that point onwards showed a notable Brahmsian influence in his works, which include four symphonies, concertos and much chamber music. Earlier on he had studied piano with Moscheles and spent five years in Paris, meeting Lalo, Rossini and Saint-Saëns among others. He taught at the conservatoires in Cologne and Berlin, and held conducting posts in Saarbrücken and Rotterdam. Gernsheim’s piano music is imaginative, stylistically effective and technically demanding. His Four Pieces, op. 61, are a notably contrasting set, with plenty of variety of mood and colour, and in the Legende that forms the third piece, a distinctive improvisatory feel.

Eduard Schutt (1856-1933): Piano Works

Eduard Schütt (1856-1933): Piano Works
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD81

Audio sample: Humoreske, op 8 no 1

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Total time: 71 minutes 12 seconds

1. Thème varié, op. 62 (10’02”)

Poésies – 3 Romances, op. 21
2. Lento ma non troppo (2’59”) 3. Poco moderato, non troppo lento (3’15”) 4. Andante tranquillo (5’15”)

5 Piano Pieces, op. 8
5. Humoreske (2’16”) 6. Ariette (2’29”) 7. Menuett (5’10”) 8. Intermezzo (3’35”) 9. Walzer (5’42”)

10. Thème varié et Fugato, op. 29 (9’37”)

Scènes de bal, op. 17
11. Gavotte-Humoresque (3’55”) 12. Valse lente (2’32”) 13. Polka rococo (3’13”) 14. Mazurka (4’50”)

15. Theme with Variations, op. 95 (6’12”)

Our thanks to Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music
Russian pianist and composer Eduard Schütt was born at St Petersburg and studied there under Petersen and Theodor Stein. Between 1876-78 he studied in Leipzig, where his teachers included Salamon Jadassohn and Carl Reinecke (see earlier RDR releases), as well as Ernst Friedrich Richter. In 1879 he moved to Vienna where he became a pupil of the celebrated pedagogue Theodor Leschetizky. Between 1881-97 he was director of the Vienna Academy Wagner-Edition. In 1892, his reputation as pianist and composer firmly established, he moved to a villa he named Mon Repos in Obermais in the South Tyrol and turned to teaching in earnest. Schütt’s circle of friends included Liszt, Brahms, Heuberger and Grünfeld.

Schütt’s music includes two piano concertos, a comic opera “Signor Formica” and piano and chamber music. His preference tended to be for shorter forms or their combination in the suite rather than for extended structures. Of those compositions, only Schütt’s waltz “A la bien aimée” acquired tremendous popularity, and that work was performed and recorded by pianists of the fame of Godowsky and Harold Bauer. Occasionally other pieces found their way onto disc in the early years of the gramophone, although sadly not those which are recorded here for the first time. As well as original works, there is a number of transcriptions of waltzes by Strauss that demonstrate a glittering virtuosity.

Schütt’s three sets of variations presented here show a serious side to him, with some advanced harmonies and a confident command of the resources of the keyboard. Equally, as in his shorter works, he does not allow ideas to outstay their welcome, and varies the repetition of themes in an effective manner. Among the most attractive works here are his three Poésies, which are inward in character, and the Five Pieces, op. 8, which provide a pleasing calling-card for a young composer who quickly found his feet, and whose music still has the capacity to give great pleasure today.

Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-82): Piano Works vol. 2

Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-82): Piano Works vol. 2
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD80

Audio sample: Ce jour-là, sous son ombrage, op 54 no 9

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Total time: 61 minutes 12 seconds

Sonata in A flat major op 72 no 2: Spring
1. Moderato espressivo (6’39”)
2. Am Waldbach: Romanze: Allegretto (4’26”)
3. Allegro vivace (4’53”)

Three Salon Pieces, op 21
4. Humoreske (7’25”)
5. Polonaise (5’53”)
6. Waltz (7’08”)

Twelve French Folk Songs, op 54
7. La bonne aventure (2’09”) 8. En revenant de Bâle en Suisse (00’55”) 9. Air de la pipe de tabac (1’17”) 10. Fournissez un canal au ruisseau (3’41”) 11. Eh! lon lon la, Landerinette! (2’38”) 12. Air de la ronde-de-camp de Grandpré (1’40”) 13. Une fille est un oiseau (1’14”) 14. La Vivandière (2’06”) 15. Ce jour-là, sous son ombrage (2’32”) 16. Le bruit des roulettes gâte tout (1’32”) 17. La marmotte a mal au pied (2’27”) 18. Epilogue: J’ai vu partout dans mes voyages (2’23”)

Our thanks to Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music
The Swiss composer Johann Carl Eschmann was born to a family of musicians in Zurich. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire between 1847 and 1849 with Mendelssohn, Moscheles and Gade, and thereafter pursued a career as composer and teacher initially in Kassel. From 1850-59 he taught in Winterthur but found competition with his friend Theodor Kirchner difficult, and between 1859-66 based himself in Schaffhausen. The latter year saw him return to Zurich where he spent the remainder of his days.

In 1871, Eschmann published his “Wegweiser durch die Klavierliteratur”, a graded survey of the piano repertoire suitable for teachers. This was republished in several editions, but by the tenth edition in 1925, Eschmann’s name as compiler and reference to all except his most basic didactic works had been entirely removed.

Eschmann was a reasonably prolific composer of piano and chamber music. His style is firmly in the mould of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and is concerned primarily with the expression of character and mood within well-defined structures. At the same time, some of his earlier works are more experimental and more technically varied that this would suggest, with some exploration of cyclical forms.

Eschmann knew Richard Wagner, and indeed Wagner referred to him on one occasion as a friend. There is a suggestion that Eschmann may have been involved in the first performance of the “Wesendonk-Lieder” and a copy of one of these songs exists with a dedication from Wagner to him. In his work “Richard Wagner’s Zurich: the muse of place”, Chris Walton suggests that Eschmann’s song “Mittags” may have provided Wagner with one of the themes from “Das Rheingold” (pp 141-148). Walton also provides much further information on Eschmann’s work. In July 1853, Liszt invited Eschmann and Kirchner to meet him at Wagner’s apartment and presumably to bring their latest compositions; unfortunately no details of the meeting have been recorded.

Later on, however, Eschmann developed an affinity with Brahms and became sharply critical of Wagner in his “100 Aphorisms” (1878). His output tended to become more conservative after his earlier works, and by and large he was content to compose within established boundaries rather than seeking to innovate, with many of his later piano pieces intended for pupils.

The cycle of four sonatas inspired by the seasons seems to have been written with able women pianists in mind, for although they contain some demanding passages, they carefully avoid the use of passages in octaves. Such music was a requirement of the period, since many women attained a high standard of piano playing while being unable to pursue a public concert career. Rather like Czerny before him, Eschmann writes in such a way as to make technical points while maintaining musical interest; the sonatas are attractive and confident in their compositional approach, with plenty of melodic inspiration and a lively spirit throughout.

The three salon pieces that form op 21 were dedicated to Eschmann’s teacher Alexander Muller in Zurich, and are more adventurous in their piano style, with something of the typically showy technique of the salon genre but at the same time a distinctive and rather subtle individuality, particularly in the opening Humoreske, whose slow introduction leads to a tarantella central section.

Transcriptions of folk songs are common in the Romantic era, but Eschmann’s set of twelve French songs treats the material in a characteristic and effective way that marks it out from the run of the mill. The set is designed to be played as a cycle, with plenty of contrast within and an effective Epilogue to round it off.

Nicolai von Wilm (1834-1911): Volker und Zeiten im Spiegel ihrer Tanze, op 31, etc.

Nicolai von Wilm (1834-1911): Völker und Zeiten im Spiegel ihrer Tänze, op 31, etc.
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD79

Audio sample: Entblätterte Rose

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Total time: 67 minutes 53 seconds

Völker und Zeiten im Spiegel ihrer Tänze (Nations and Epochs illustrated by their Dances), op. 31
1. Roundelay (German) (3’07”) 2. Sarabande (Spanish) (2’31”) 3. Gavotte and Tambourin (Old French) (3’01”) 4. Ländler (Bavarian) (3’15”) 5. Rigaudon (Provençal) (5’02”) 6. Mazurka (Polish) (2’36”) 7. Minuet (Old French) (3’25”) 8. Bolero (Spanish) (3’10”) 9. Bourrée (Old French) (2’42”) 10. Rustic Dance (Norwegian) (2’08”) 11. Gigue (Old French) (2’53”) 12. Dance of the Rhinelanders (German) (3’26”) 13. Csardas (Hungarian) (4’13”) 14. Loure (Old French) (3’33”) 15. Pavane (Old Spanish) and Gaillarde (Old French) (2’56”)

16. Melodie, op 113 (3’41”)
17. Bilder vom Lande, op 146: no 1Ankunft (3’43”)
18. Klage, op 194 vol 1 no 2 (3’39”)
19. Ergebung, op 194 vol 2 no 6 (2’54”)
20. Entblätterte Rose (2’10”’)
21. Loure (Old French Dance) (1’11”)
22. Frohe Botschaft, op 196 no 6 (2’21”)

Our thanks to Dr Klaus Tischendorf for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music
Nicolai von Wilm was born in Riga in 1834 and studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire between 1851 and 1856. The following year he returned to Riga to take up the position of second Kapellmeister at the State Theatre. In 1860 he moved to the Nikolai Institute in St Petersburg, where he taught until 1875, after which he made his home in Wiesbaden.

von Wilm’s output includes around 250 works, including many for piano. This disc represents the first recording of any of his piano compositions. His neglect is surprising in view of the esteem in which he was held in his lifetime, particularly during his time at St Petersburg, and the high quality of his music, which embraces both large-scale works such as the Fantaisie in F minor (recorded on CD78) and much in shorter forms.

The set of dances forming op 31 is typical of the nationalistic element that became particularly predominant in music of the later Romantic era, as music became increasingly the expression of ethnic – and often political – identity. The pleasure in such sets lies in their ready characterisation of the forms they encompass; those who consider the nineteenth-century uninterested in the baroque might well look to the number of Old French dances revived here, as they also are in the very similar suite of ancient dances op 75 by Ernst Pauer (previously recorded for RDR). von Wilm is concerned throughout with stamping his own musical personality on each miniature; although sometimes given to reflection, he comes across as a rather vigorous and energetic character with a thorough command of the piano’s capabilities.

This is then complimented with a journey through some of von Wilm’s miniatures from other groups. The first movement from his op 146 set of countryside evocations is the most extensive, being a truncated sonata form that has much of Schumann about it and whose appeal is considerable. Other works include those published in the Neuen Musik-Zeitung of 1909; calling-cards, as it were, of von Wilm’s art.

Nicolai von Wilm (1834-1911): Fantasie, op 68; Rondo, op 69 no 2 etc.

Nicolai von Wilm (1834-1911): Fantasie, op 68; Rondo, op 69 no 2, etc.
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD78

Audio sample: Fantasie, op 68 (opening)

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Total time: 64 minutes 21 seconds

Nicolai von Wilm: Fantasie in F minor, op 68
1. Praeludium und Recitativ (7’13”) 2. Intermezzo: Assai vivo (5’16”) 3. Adagio cantabile e sostenuto (10’11”) 4. Finale: Allegro con brio (6’48”)

Hugo Reinhold (1854-1935): Traunseebilder: 5 Tonstücke, op 55
5. Morgengruss (2’31”) 6. Abendämmerung (5’25”) 7. Echo (2’05”) 8. Barkarole (4’05”) 9. Irrlicht (1’48”)

Nicolai von Wilm: Rondo in E flat major, op 69 no 2 (7’06”)

Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901): Passacaglia: Free concert transcription of the final movement of the Organ Sonata op 132 (11’43”)

Our thanks to Dr Klaus Tischendorf and Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music
Nicolai von Wilm was born in Riga in 1834 and studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire between 1851 and 1856. The following year he returned to Riga to take up the position of second Kapellmeister at the State Theatre. In 1860 he moved to the Nikolai Institute in St Petersburg, where he taught until 1875, after which he made his home in Wiesbaden.

von Wilm’s output includes around 250 works, including many for piano. This disc represents the first recording of any of his piano compositions. His neglect is surprising in view of the esteem in which he was held in his lifetime, particularly during his time at St Petersburg, and the high quality of his music, which embraces both large-scale works such as the Fantaisie in F minor and much in shorter forms. The Fantaisie shows a clear Bachian influence and also perhaps something of Cesar Franck in its opening pairing of a prelude and recitative. This is music that seeks to make a significant statement, and if that statement is perhaps more notable for its echoing of more prominent composers (notably Schumann) that does not exclude some degree of von Wilm’s own compositional and pianistic individuality. The piano writing, replete with octaves and massive chords, certainly takes few prisoners, but this is counterbalanced by a nonchalant Intermezzo and a fine, deeply-felt slow movement of considerable merit. The Rondo – the second of two forming von Wilm’s op 69 – is rather more Chopinesque in places, and again represents a considerably accomplished style with plenty of melodic invention and contrast.

Hugo Reinhold was a Vienna-based composer who, under the patronage of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, studied at the Conservatorium der Musikfreunde under Bruckner, Felix Dessoff and Julius Epstein. He became a teacher of piano at the Akademie der Tonkunst and acquired a sound reputation as a composer, with his works being performed, inter alia, by the Vienna Philharmonic. His set of five Pictures from the Traunsee was published in 1897 and forms an effective and straightforward collection, somewhat reminiscent of Grieg in places.

The name of Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger is more familiar to organists than to pianists, although he also wrote a good deal of piano music. Rheinberger was a child prodigy, being appointed organist to the parish church of Vaduz at the age of seven. After three years at the Munich Conservatoire (1851-54) he studied privately with Franz Lachner. His appointment as professor of piano (1859) and composition (1860) at the Conservatoire was thwarted by the institution’s closure in 1860, but on its re-opening in 1867 he was reappointed as Royal Professor. Rheinberger was noted for his supreme musicianship and ability as an executant, and counted Humperdinck, Wolf-Ferrari and Furtwangler among his composition pupils.  The Passacaglia is a concert transcription for piano of the last movement of the organ sonata, op 132, and follows the form of that movement closely with many demanding passages where the counterpoint of the original is rigorously preserved despite the pianistic difficulties that result. The effect is of a profoundly serious and effective work which deserves concert revival in our own time.

Johann Carl Eschmann: Piano Works

Johann Carl Eschmann (1826-82): Piano Works
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD77

Audio sample: Rosen und Dornen: Rasch, flüchtig, op 25 no 8

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Total time: 64 minutes 5 seconds

Piano Sonata op 72 no 3 “Summer”
1. Allegro moderato, giocoso (6’37”) 2. Andante sostenuto – Scherzo, non troppo presto, leggiero – Tempo di Andante sostenuto (5’35”) 3. Allegro non troppo (6’28”)

Rosen und Dornen (Roses and thorns), op 25
4. Sanft träumerisch, nicht schnell (2’08”) 5. Presto (00’56”) 6. Allegretto, grazioso (2’48”) 7. Sehr rasch, feurig (1’00”) 8. Polonaisen-Tempo: Fröhlich (1’37”) 9. Sehr rasch, unruhig (1’52”) 10. Ziemlich langsam, ausdrucksvoll (2’55”) 11. Rasch, flüchtig (1’11”) 12. Allegretto grazioso (1’46”)

Piano Sonata op 72 no 4 “Autumn (The Hunt)”
13. Allegro vivace, non troppo presto (3’51”) 14. Abseits: Andante con moto (5’34”) 15. Abends in der Herberge (Allegro vivace) (6’27”)

Piano Sonata op 72 no 1 “Winter”
16. Allegro moderato, risoluto (6’59”) 17. Allegretto scherzando e grazioso (1’50”) 18. Allegretto risoluto (4’17”)

Our thanks to Dr Klaus Tischendorf and Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music:
The Swiss composer Johann Carl Eschmann was born to a family of musicians in Zurich. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatoire between 1847 and 1849 with Mendelssohn, Moscheles and Gade, and thereafter pursued a career as composer and teacher initially in Kassel. From 1850-59 he taught in Winterthur but found competition with his friend Theodor Kirchner difficult, and between 1859-66 based himself in Schaffhausen. The latter year saw him return to Zurich where he spent the remainder of his days.

In 1871, Eschmann published his “Wegweiser durch die Klavierliteratur”, a graded survey of the piano repertoire suitable for teachers. This was republished in several editions, but by the tenth edition in 1925, Eschmann’s name as compiler and reference to all except his most basic didactic works had been entirely removed.

Eschmann was a reasonably prolific composer of piano and chamber music. His style is firmly in the mould of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and is concerned primarily with the expression of character and mood within well-defined structures. At the same time, some of his earlier works are more experimental and more technically varied that this would suggest, with some exploration of cyclical forms. The conjoined Andante and Scherzo in the Summer Sonata on this disc is one example of this tendency.

Eschmann knew Richard Wagner, and indeed Wagner referred to him on one occasion as a friend. There is a suggestion that Eschmann may have been involved in the first performance of the “Wesendonk-Lieder” and a copy of one of these songs exists with a dedication from Wagner to him. In his work “Richard Wagner’s Zurich: the muse of place”, Chris Walton suggests that Eschmann’s song “Mittags” may have provided Wagner with one of the themes from “Das Rheingold” (pp 141-148). Walton also provides much further information on Eschmann’s work. In July 1853, Liszt invited Eschmann and Kirchner to meet him at Wagner’s apartment and presumably to bring their latest compositions; unfortunately no details of the meeting have been recorded.

Later on, however, Eschmann developed an affinity with Brahms and became sharply critical of Wagner in his “100 Aphorisms” (1878). His output tended to become more conservative after his earlier works, and by and large he was content to compose within established boundaries rather than seeking to innovate, with many of his later piano pieces intended for pupils.

The cycle of four sonatas inspired by the seasons seems to have been written with able women pianists in mind, for although they contain some demanding passages, they carefully avoid the use of passages in octaves. Such music was a requirement of the period, since many women attained a high standard of piano playing while being unable to pursue a public concert career. Rather like Czerny before him, Eschmann writes in such a way as to make technical points while maintaining musical interest; the sonatas are attractive and confident in their compositional approach, with plenty of melodic inspiration and a lively spirit throughout.

The set of “Rosen und Dornen” is a cycle of miniature studies of the kind that Kirchner would make his own. Here, in works that are at times aphoristic, one might at times be listening to Schumann. The cycle is attractively varied and the beautiful cantabile melody of the seventh piece is particularly notable.

J.P.E. Hartmann: Piano Works

Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900): Piano Works
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD76

Audio sample: Allegro assai, op 31 no 6

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Total time: 71 minutes 57 seconds

Fantasy Pieces, op 54
1. Allegro poco moderato, pastorale (2’20”) 2. Allegretto capriccioso (2’51”) 3. Allegretto moderato – Canto marziale religioso (2’51”) 4. Allegro molto assai (2’00”) 5. Tempo di Menuetto moderato, con espressione (6’40”) 6. Andantino innocente quasi Allegretto (3’21”)

6 Tone Pieces in Song Form, op 37
7. Allegro agitato grazioso (5’56”) 8. Moderato (4’36”) 9. Allegro assai (3’05”) 10. Allegro moderato vigoroso (2’28”) 11. Allegretto quasi Andantino (3’01”) 12. Vekselsang (1’55”)

13. Bellmanske Billeder: Menuetter (7’46”)

8 Sketches, op 31
14. Allegro non troppo, grazioso (4’08”) 15. Canzonetta (1’39”) 16. Mazurka (1’56”) 17. Scherzo (2’15”) 18. Scherzo (4’04”) 19. Allegro assai (2’09”) 20. Introduction-Allegretto mouvement de valse (3’53”) 21. Allegro passionato assai (2’47”)

Our thanks to Dr Denis Waelbroeck for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music:
Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann succeeded his father at the Garnisons Kirke in 1824, and thereafter was successively professor at Copenhagen University and the founding director of the Conservatoire there from 1867. His studies in Europe in 1836 brought him into contact with Chopin, Rossini, Cherubini and Spohr. In musical style he successfully fused elements of Nordic nationalism with a post-Mendelssohnian style that at its most progressive clearly looks forward to Brahms. The quality of Hartmann’s inspiration and mastery of compositional and pianistic technique was considerable, and marks him out as the leading Danish composer for the piano of his generation.

This disc reflects Hartmann’s devotion to that most nineteenth-century of piano forms, the set of contrasting miniatures. For Hartmann, as for his predecessors (notably Beethoven), the miniature offers the opportunity to capture a brief mood or atmosphere without the concerns of formal development or the complex extension of structure; indeed where structure is extended, it is by simple episodic means. This distillation of musical inspiration to its essentials enables a rare intensity of experience; at their best, such pieces have the impact of the shorter forms of poetry, reflecting a more improvisatory and free-spirited art than can necessarily be present in the sonata or variations.

There is often much of Mendelssohn to be detected in Hartmann’s music, but with an individual and at times authentically Danish voice (see for example the Vekselsang that concludes op 37). This national feeling perhaps imparts a certain seriousness to his output by comparison with his contemporaries, and if not using actual folksong in his works here, he certainly often takes his inspiration from its contours and characteristic modulations.

The Fantasy Pieces op 54 are dedicated to Clara Schumann, who one feels would have readily appreciated their adventurous and intimate world. Particularly notable is the rhythmic displacement that appears in the second piece, which is both clever and effective. The fifth of the set is a dark Menuetto in A minor which at times bridges the gap with the waltz. Hartmann’s interest in the minuet, often considered antiquated by his contemporaries, can also be seen in the Bellmanske Billeder, an unusual set of two linked minuets with a virtuoso introduction, published without an opus number.

The title “Tone Pieces in Song Form” given to the set op 37 is surely a conscious reminiscence of Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” of which the first piece could very easily be a continuation given its typical Mendelssohnian texture and melodic appeal. The set features a dramatic “hunting scene” as its third piece, and in its successor turns to a very Schumannesque narrative idea, answered in the last bars by a bluff “Chorus”. The ensuing Allegretto quasi Andantino flows amid complex double-note figuration, reminding us of Hartmann’s abilities in counterpoint.

The Eight Sketches op 31 date from 1842, by which time Hartmann was firmly established at the forefront of the Danish musical scene. They are notable for their pair of contrasting Scherzos that juxtapose enthusiasm and calmer polyphony. Older forms are suggested with the gigue-like movement that forms the sixth piece before the set concludes with a waltz and a fast-moving caprice in the minor.

Bendix: Piano Sonata, Chopin: Nocturne oubliee

Victor Bendix (1851-1926): Piano Sonata. Frederic Chopin (1810-49): Nocturne oubliée
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD75

Audio sample: Chopin: Nocturne oubliée (excerpt)

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Total time: 64 minutes 53 seconds

Victor Bendix (1851-1926)
Piano Sonata in G minor op. 26 (1900)
1. Allegro moderato (19’25”) 2. Intermezzo scherzando: Allegretto un poco vivo (5’10”) 3. Andante con variazioni (20’56”) 4. Allegro con fuoco, ma non troppo vivo (12’10”)

Frederic Chopin (1810-49)
5. Nocturne oubliée in C sharp minor, A.1/6 (7’08”)

Our thanks to Peter Cook for supplying scores of these rare works.

Notes on the music:
Victor Emmanuel Bendix was born to a Jewish family of music-lovers in Copenhagen in 1851. He was one of the first to study at the Royal Danish Conservatoire in Copenhagen and developed his style under the tutelage of Niels Gade, August Winding and J.P.E. Hartmann. A virtuoso pianist with a long and active career, he studied piano with Liszt in Weimar in 1881. In the last years of the nineteenth-century he toured Europe playing his piano concerto (1884), which his wife Dagmar performed in London.

Bendix belongs to the late Romantic school that stands between Brahms and Nielsen, and even to some extent Sibelius. He is concerned with the evocation of mood and atmosphere but within a formal structure that takes precedence. At times his music is rhetorical and rhapsodic; at others he presents epic drama and music of deep emotion (such as in the slow movement of his Sonata). Although well-regarded in his day (a street in Copenhagen is named after him today), Bendix’ demanding and complex works fell out of fashion in his later years and his major output, such as the four symphonies, is only just beginning to be revived.

The single piano sonata in Bendix’s output is a giant of the repertoire. The performance on this recording occupies nearly fifty-eight minutes, and it would be quite possible to imagine another interpretation that would take a broader view of some passages. However, Bendix manages this extended structure well, creating ample contrast, interest and thematic continuity. It is difficult, indeed, to imagine a work more typical of the piano sonata in the last years of Romanticism, with an enduring sense of fantasy reflected in mature musical language of great power.

The epic sweep of the first movement is indicative of Bendix’s ambitions for the work. The surging first theme is bardic and suggests a grand orchestral texture; its chordal counterpart balances not only its character but also acts as a foil to its chromaticism. The presentation is in some respects reminiscent of Chopin’s op 58 sonata, in which the structure unfolds seamlessly and gradually rather than with obvious divisions and landmarks. This long exposition is performed here with the optional repeat, before giving way to the unsettled and extensive development, which resembles an exotic and enchanted forest in its ability to create strange beauties from material that is by now familiar. Throughout, the use of chordal and octave writing maximises the expressive potential of the piano.

The second movement is seemingly lighter in tone; a gruff, rustic Intermezzo rather like a proto-Mahlerian Ländler. The humour is always somewhat on edge here, and even the comic bass section in the trio leads to chromatic filigrees that recall the uncertain atmosphere of earlier moments.

The slow movement is perhaps the emotive heart of the work, consisting of an extensive transformation of a folk-like theme in the dominant. Variations of an active, martial and scherzando character give way to an eerie, suspended Adagio. This begins a long transition to the glowing presentation of the theme in the major, though the coda reverts any sense of triumph or resolution to end disconsolately.

The finale again inhabits the sphere of action, and represents a pageant of contrasting ideas that are often reached by complex dramatic transitions. The music develops great virtuosic power and tests the performer in many strenuous passages of double-notes. Towards the end the second theme of the first movement returns accompanied by triumphant figurations; this is indicative of the increasingly confident and positive mood that dominates the coda as the sonata ends with a fanfare of massive chords.

The Nocturne oubliée is a good example of the many manuscripts discovered after Chopin’s death and (here) brought to light in the former Soviet Union; most such pieces are brief and insubstantial, but here we have a complete Nocturne that – for all that some have suggested that it is not authentic – certainly to this interpreter’s ear has many of the unmistakeable characteristics of Chopin’s early style, suggesting that it is either Chopin’s own work or that of a remarkably slavish imitator. Certain figurations are of a type that Chopin would later work out more pianistically, and we can also imagine that a certain amount of ornamentation would distinguish the otherwise-literal recapitulation. For all that it has its shortcomings, this is nevertheless an intriguing glimpse into Chopin’s compositional processes.