Romantic Discoveries Recordings

Piano Music of Walter Niemann volume 15
Ancient China, op. 62 • 3 Compositions, op. 7 • Black Forest Idylls, op. 21 • Tokkata, op. 78 • Three Miniatures (without opus number) • Brazilian Rhapsodies, op. 110 (includes first recordings)
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD125

Total time: 66 minutes 56 seconds

1. Alt-China; five dream-poems for piano, op. 62 (22:28)
i. The Pagoda Bells – Prelude ii. The Chinese Nightingale – Elegy iii. Little Li-Li-Tse – Scherzo-Caprice iv. The Sacred Barque – All Souls’ Day – Nocturne v. A Garden Fete – Finale (19:21)
“The Composer, having in a dream joined the Poet, Paul Claudel (author of “Aus der Erkenntnis des Ostens”, translated into German by Jakob Hegner, and published by Insel-Verlag), on a journey to China, relates here in music some of his experiences. They do not pretend to be Chinese, as the Composer does not deliberately employ the five-tone scale, whole-tone combinations with abstention from the leading-note, strange rhythms, and other primitive auxiliary means of producing exotic music; they are intended to be Chinese only in so far as they reproduce the delicate, exotic, fairy-tale atmosphere of the Far East, occasionally coloured with the primitive element in music. The work should be regarded as a musical picture of Ancient China, as conceived in a dream-fantasy by a modern German composer.”

2. Drei Kompositionen for the Pianoforte, op. 7 (7:14)
i. Intrata ii. Remembrance iii. Arabeske

3. Schwarzwald-Idyllen, 10 Character-Pieces for Piano, op. 21 (19:42)
i. Morning-glories and Eglantine ii. Butterfly iii. On a poem by Hebbel iv. The bairn v. On a sunny bank vi. Whims and fancies vii. A picture by Thoma viii. Little bare-foot ix. A gloomy hour x. The woodland brook

4. Tokkata, op. 78 (3:29)

5. Three Miniatures (without opus number) (10:33)
i. Träumerei ii. Schweizer Kuhreigen (Ranz des vaches) | “Hark! the note, (The Shepherd’s pipe in the distance is heard) The natural music of the mountain reed–For here the patriarchal days are not A pastoral fable — pipes in the liberal air, Mix’d with the sweet bells of the sauntering herd” – Byron – “Manfred” Act 1, Scene 2
3. Kleiner Waltzer (07:07)

6. Brasilianische Rhapsodien, op. 110 (9:25)
i. In the Form of a Tango ii. In the Form of a Fandango (based on a melody collected by Alexandre and Alice Rey Colaço in “Cantigas de Portugal”)

Our thanks go to Nicolo Figowy and Steffen Herrmann for their generous loan of scores.

Walter Niemann was regarded in 1927 as “the most important living piano composer who knows how to make music from the piano in a subtle and colorful way, although he often enters the field of salon music” (H. Abert, Illustrated Music Lexicon). This most sensitive and introverted master of the piano devoted his life to composition and musical scholarship, also performing his music in concerts and radio broadcasts. Niemann’s vast output for the piano is only now starting to become more widely known. Although his style is generally unashamedly conservative, he was one of the very few German composers to explore Impressionism in music, and this also reflected a fascination with the Far East. Elsewhere, Niemann’s imagination takes us from much Baroque recreation to large-scale epic sonatas, Schumannesque miniatures and even the exploration of early jazz styles. His understanding of the capabilities of the piano was complete, and his works include both collections for young pianists and mature works that exploit the full range of pianistic effect and make significant demands on the performer.