Romantic Discoveries Recordings

Piano Music of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD89

Total time: 56 minutes 50 seconds

Twelve Mörike Lieder, transcribed for solo piano by Max Reger (1873-1916)
1. Jägerlied (1’11”) 2. Er ist’s (1’53”) 3. Begegnung (2’02”) 4. Fussreise (3’48”) 5. Verborgenheit (5’32”) 6. Elfenlied (2’11”) 7. Der Gärtner (1’27”) 8. Schlafendes Jesuskind (4’09”) 9. Gebet (3’00”) 10. Rat einer Alten (2’28”) 11. Gesang Weyla’s (2’12”) 12. Selbstgeständnis (1’34”)

13. Albumblatt (1’39”)
14. Kanon (00’28”)

Piano Sonata in G major, op. 8
15. Allegro gracioso (7’38”) 16. Largo et sostenuto (7’13”) 17. Scherzo (5’34”) 18. Rondo Allegro (incomplete) (2’37”)

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

Wolf’s Lieder are so completely conceived within their medium that, short of orchestrating their piano parts, it is difficult to imagine them being presented convincingly in another guise. The option of a more-or-less free paraphrase was adopted by Bruno Hinze-Reinhold in his Piano Pieces based on ten of the Lieder, but he, as with Max Reger on this disc, was doubtless well-aware that any attempt at Lisztian filigree or abandonment of such carefully worked-out textures would depart unacceptably from the spirit of the original.

Max Reger is known to us above all as a master of the Germanic school of polyphony, and it seems to have been that aspect of Wolf’s work that most appealed to him. Reger’s choice is most frequently to submerge the vocal line in the midst of others, and not infrequently in a chordal texture, which creates a challenge for the performer that would not be altogether obvious to the casual listener. Indeed, by taking this approach, Reger causes us to question whether the vocal line is indeed primus inter pares, or whether at times it is in fact subordinate to the piano part. His transcriptions bring out the intricacy of Wolf’s writing and also enable the intensity of his world to be conveyed within broader tempi than could be comfortably sustained by the human voice. The result is something of a new departure that recasts these familiar works into a new sound-world.

The Piano Sonata op. 8 dates from 1876, when Wolf was aged 16 and in the midst of his two years of studies at the Vienna Conservatoire. In the previous year, he had met Wagner, who had encouraged him and would become a major model for the younger composer. However, Wolf’s impassioned temperament and tendency for outspokenness was not suited to the discipline of conservatory study and he was to part company with the institution on less than amicable terms. This sonata has some aspects reminiscent of Wagner’s own solo piano output, though more that suggest the influence of the Viennese classics, and also points to Wolf’s desire to explore the piano’s interpretative possibilities (as he would do later and with greater success in his Lieder).

The manuscript of the sonata is mostly devoid of dynamics and articulation, and in some aspects carelessly written, with many missing accidentals. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to discern Wolf’s intentions, and what emerges is an energetic and optimistic work which suggests a young man keen to make an impression and show ability in dealing with a large-scale compositional canvas. Already in the thematic material there is plenty of strength, with the slow movement particularly striking in its recall of Beethovenian and Schubertian models. Structural issues are mainly well-handled (though the development in the first movement is cursory at best). The last movement is incomplete, breaking off in the middle of an episode; the remaining pages were likely completed by Wolf but have since been lost.

The Albumblatt (1880) and Kanon (1882) are Wolf’s last works for solo piano; by now he had found his feet as a composer, though was suffering much emotional disturbance due to his unhappy affair with Vally Franck and a not altogether successful period as a music teacher in Vienna. The former work in particular, with its striking harmonies, shows that Wolf had marshalled the elements that would form his mature style.

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Piano Sonatas of Eduard Franck (1817-93) vol. 2
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD88

Total time: 62 minutes 24 seconds

Piano Sonata in F major, op. 40 no. 1
1. Allegro (9’17”) 2. Allegretto (3’12”) 3. Allegro vivace (7’16”)

Piano Sonata in C major, op. 40 no. 2
4. Allegro risoluto (6’17”) 2. Andante sostenuto (7’31”) 3. Allegro vivace (5’18”)

Piano Sonata in G minor, op. 40 no. 3
7. Allegro (7’27”) 8. Allegretto (7’24”) 9. Allegretto (8’35”)

Our thanks to Andreas and Paul Feuchte for supplying scores of these rare works.

Eduard Franck was born in Silesia into a wealthy and cultured family that numbered Mendelssohn and Wagner among its acquaintances. He studied with Mendelssohn as a private student and then began a long career as a concert pianist and teacher. He was regarded as one of the leading pianists of his day and also as an outstanding teacher.

Franck was not forthcoming about his compositions, and failed to publish many of them until late in life. He was a perfectionist and would not release a work until he was absolutely satisfied that it met his standards. Yet what survives is extremely high in quality. Writing of his chamber music, Wilhelm Altmann said, “This excellent composer does not deserve the neglect with which he has been treated. He had a mastery of form and a lively imagination which is clearly reflected in the fine and attractive ideas one finds in his works.”

The six piano sonatas forming op. 40 were published in Berlin in 1882 and dedicated to Franck’s son Richard. They show his mastery of the sonata at its zenith, and in all likelihood were written over a number of years preceding their publication, along with the ten other sonatas that form Franck’s known output in this form.

All three of these sonatas demonstrate Franck’s key qualities of proportion and command of structure, within which a wide emotional canvas is developed. The shades of Beethoven and Schubert hover near, with the latter’s influence felt particularly in the Allegretto finale of the G minor sonata, whose second subject is notably Schubertian in design. Other passages in that work’s first movement recall figures from Beethoven’s G major sonata, op. 31 no. 1, though in a darker and more serious context than that work’s playfulness.

Franck generally puts the burden of argument in these sonatas upon the first movement, with the central movement acting as a contrast to this intensity and thorough working-out of the sonata form. In two of the sonatas, there is no true slow movement, with scherzo-like foils taking that place, although in the G minor sonata there are lyrical episodes that give something of a sense of an extended cantabile. The finale is then left to promote resolution, generally taking on a more humorous, Haydn-like character and treating motifs that open up multiple developmental possibilities. The choice of sonata-rondo form is another indication of Franck’s concern with development as an integral part of design; not for him the freer approach of Chopin, for example. With Franck, a Viennese formality is a part of that sense of proportion that holds head and heart in balance.

His sonatas are the stronger and more impressive for this element of restraint within boundaries. The listener will be struck by Franck’s economy of gesture over what is often quite a large-scale movement; not a note is wasted or out of place, and throughout a terse inner logic first explores the potential of the material and then ties it together in a typical extended coda.

Contrast is also a major strength of Franck’s approach. His choice of varied motivic material is deft and at times, such as in the second subject of the G minor finale mentioned above, gives rise to genuinely memorable and beautiful writing. These lyrical passages are often deceptively technically demanding; Franck was clearly an exceptionally able pianist and he takes few prisoners in his demands for stamina and agility, not to mention complex accompaniment-figures in double-notes.

The ‘Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” of 11 May 1883 reviewed the sonatas of op. 40 and op. 44 with the following words, “In all these works, a rich treasure of good German music is laid down. It is said of our time, that it brings forth no thorough Sonata, here we find a refutation of such a claim. Since Beethoven, only a few talented writers such as Ed. Franck have probably been called into existence. Almost all motives are created vividly before us and are well crafted. It is evident how versatile and diverse they are, especially from the fact that there is an underpinning of good counterpoint as if it were naturally present in the hands. Several of these [sonatas] deserve to be performed symphonically, because a dramatic element predominates in them. This Franck has always kept in mind, just as our classical piano masters treated their instruments, in so far as the piano is an orchestra.”

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Piano Music of Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD87

Total time: 68 minutes 31 seconds

Improvisationen, op. 11
1. Grazioso (2’31”) 2. Andante con espressione (2’38”) 3. Un poco con moto (2’13”) 4. Allegretto (1’12”) 5. Presto (2’58”) 6. Allegretto tranquillamente (4’40”) 7. Allegro (3’15”) 8. Allegro moderato (scherzando) (4’17”) 9. Tranquillo (2’35”)

Sommermärchen und Herbstblätter, op. 39 (excerpts)
10. Anmuthig (1’45”) 11. Etwas langsam, gemüthvoll (3’59”)

12. Capriccietti, 11 Stücke, op. 12 (19’25”)
Mässig bewegt – Im selben Tempo – Etwas ruhiger – Ziemlich geschwind – Mässig bewegt – Im selben Tempo – Langsam breit – Unruhig – Sehr ruhig – Bewegt – Finale

Ländliche Scenen, leichte Stücke, op. 8
13. Sommer-Morgen (1’49”) 14. Auf dem Teich (2’07”) 15. Verlassen! (1’08”) 16. Plaudernde Mädchen (00’38”) 17. Trauliches Plätzchen (1’12”) 18. In der Dorfschmiede (1’01”) 19. Die Schule ist aus! (00’40”) 20. Auf der Waldweise (1’15”) 21. Im stillen Grunde (1’58”) 22. Waldvögelein (1’24”) 23. Heimkehr vom Felde (1’48”) 24. Zur Kirmess (1’43”)

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

Robert Fuchs was born in 1847 in Styria, the youngest of thirteen children. He attended the Vienna Conservatoire where he studied with Felix Dessoff and Joseph Hellmesberger, and subsequently taught there, being appointed professor of music theory in 1875. He retired in 1912. The list of his pupils includes Sibelius, Mahler, Enescu, Wolf, von Zemlinsky, Korngold, Schmidt and Schreker, and it has been suggested by one critic that Mahler’s Second Symphony bears the marks of several “Fuchsisms”.

Fuchs disliked the promotional aspects of life as a composer and did little or nothing to promote his works during his lifetime. He preferred a quiet and comfortable existence in Vienna, where his teaching position ensured both financial security and the opportunity to continue his work as he saw fit. Nevertheless, his five serenades did achieve popularity in his time, earning him the nickname “Serenaden-Fuchs”. Conductors such as Nikisch also did much to champion his orchestral works, though with little ultimate result.

Fuchs was reasonably prolific in most areas of composition, including four symphonies, but it is his chamber and instrumental music that is regarded as his most personal and significant. Brahms, who was not overly given to praise of other composers, said of Fuchs, “Fuchs is a splendid musician, everything is so fine and so skillful, so charmingly invented, that one is always pleased.” One might add that Fuchs is a supremely balanced composer: sensitive yet formal in approach, and tending towards intimacy of expression while not being without the capacity to express a more extrovert drama.

Fuchs’ works for piano include three piano sonatas, which have been recorded in recent years, and a number of other cycles. The Improvisationen, op 11, show him to have absorbed the influences of Schumann, Brahms and Mendelssohn, and reveal a composer of considerable emotional range and an instinctive command of the capabilities of the piano. The Capriccietti, op 12, are a set of pieces designed to play continuously as a cycle, not unlike Schumann’s Humoreske, and with a finale that is reminiscent of that from his Symphonic Etudes. Away from these ambitious works, the Ländliche Scenen are simple pieces that present an idealized world of rural childhood. Unpretentious and melodic, they show Fuchs at his most genial and lyrically inspired.

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Piano Music of J.P.E. and Emil Hartmann and August Winding
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD86

Total time: 65 minutes 30 seconds

Johan Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900):
1. Fantasistykke: Allegretto grazioso e moderato (5’08”)

August Winding (1835-99): Sommerminder, op 26
2. Feriestemning (1’49”) 3. Nyt Liv (1’27”) 4. J Sukkenes Allee I (2’14”) 5. J Sukkenes Allee II (1’59”) 6. Valse Impromptu (2’28”) 7. Serenade (2’35”) 8. Notturno (6’14”)

J.P.E. Hartmann
9. Introduction et Andantino religioso, op. 26 (7’00”)

August Winding and Emil Hartmann (1836-98): Fjeldstuen, ballet by A. Bournonville
10. Sæterpigernes Dands om det nydødbte Barn (Winding) (3’50”) 11. Astas Dands til Faderens Spil (Hartmann) (2’07”) 12. Bornene Fortælle om Astas Dands (Hartmann) (1’17”) 13. Menuet (Hartmann) (1’02”) 14. Huldredands (Winding) (1’28”) 15. Springdands (Winding) (3’50”) 16. Scherzo (Hartmann) (2’14”)

J.P.E. Hartmann: Novelletten: Sechs kleine Stücke, op 55
17. Allegretto (00’55”) 18. Allegro giocoso (1’07”) 19. Menuet-Tempo (2’04”) 20. Allegro vivace, assai (1’35”) 21. Andantino sostenuto (1’27”) 22. Allegro assai (1’48”)

Emil Hartmann: Sonata in F major, op 17
23. Allegro (2’59”) 24. Cantilene: Andantino (3’07”) 25. Rondo: Allegro grazioso (3’24”)

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

Johan 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 (such as in op 74) 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.

Emil Hartmann, son of J.P.E., received his early training from his father and developed a successful career in his homeland and Germany, despite being somewhat eclipsed by his father’s fame. His unpublished Sonata shows a forward-looking grasp of the mid-Romantic idiom, with a powerful opening movement followed by two that were both left unfinished, interestingly when each had reached similar melodic ideas. His shorter works are gratefully written for the instrument, showing an apt grasp of the salon style of the turn of the century. The ballet Fjeldstuen (The Mountain Hut, or Twenty Years) to choreography by the royal ballet master August Bournonville was completed in 1859 and was the first significant work of Emil Hartmann, here collaborating with his brother-in-law August Winding, to come to public notice.

August Winding was the son of a pastor, and received his first piano lessons from his parents. In 1847 he studied with Carl Reinecke and from 1848-51 with Anton Rée, also studying composition with Niels Gade. In 1856 he completed his studies in Leipzig and Prague, where he studied with Dreyschock. Returning to Denmark, he became well-known for appearances as a soloist, particularly in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. In 1864, he married Clara, daughter of J.P.E. Hartmann. From 1867 he taught at the Royal Conservatory, as well as privately. In 1872 he developed a nervous injury to his arm as a result of overwork which forced him to stop concertizing and devote his attention to composition. He resumed teaching at the Conservatory in 1881 and became a member of its board after the death of Gade in 1890. In 1888 he reappeared in public as a soloist and gave a limited number of concerts between then and his death, receiving the accolade of a state professorship and annuity in 1892.

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Piano Music of August Winding (1835-99)
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD85

Total time: 63 minutes 18 seconds

Preludes in all the Keys: A Cycle, op 26
1. in C major: Poco Adagio, maestoso e con nobilità (2’07) 2. in A minor: Allegro agitato ed affetuoso (1’35”) 3. in F major: Comodo (1’25”) 4. in D minor: Allegro risoluto e energico (00’55”) 5. in B flat major: Allegro non troppo. Giocoso, con allegrezza (1’26”) 6. in G minor: Moderato con fierezza (3’13”) 7. in E flat major: Andante innocente e tenero (1’37”) 8. in C minor: Presto impetuoso (00’54”) 9. in A flat major: Allegro non troppo con dolcezza (1’17”) 10. in F minor: Allegro moderato, poco agitato (1’21”) 11. in D flat major: Con moto. Soave e con grazia (1’42”) 12. in B flat minor: Andantino quasi Allegretto, Grave e mesto (1’34”) 13. in G flat major: Allegro vivace con calore e molt’ animato (2’10”) 14. in E flat minor: Presto furioso e con strepito (1’25”) 15. in B major: Allegretto tranquillo e dolce (2’14”) 16. in G sharp minor: Allegretto dolente e malinconico (3’30”) 17. in E major: Moderato grazioso e con tenerezza (1’45”) 18. in C sharp minor: Allegro energico e molt’ appassionato (1’25”) 19. in A major: Allegretto dolce e piacevole (1’48”) 20. in F sharp minor: Andantino con duolo (1’45”) 21. in D major: Allegro con vivacità ed anima (1’08”) 22. in B minor: Adagio grave e lugubre (2’36”) 23. in G major: Allegro molto con gran vivacità (1’12”) 24. in E minor: Andante sostenuto, quasi una fantasia (3’01”) 25. Postludium in C major: Poco Adagio, maestoso e con nobilità (2’39”)

Landlige Scener: Skizzer for Piano, op 9
26. Med Tilegnelsen (1’58”) 27. Ved Daggry (1’55”) 28. Ved Kornmarken (2’45”) 29. I det Frie (1’33”) 30. Løvfald (2’24”) 31. Aftenstemning (2’44”) 32. Afsked (3’49”)

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

August Winding was the son of a pastor, and received his first piano lessons from his parents. In 1847 he studied with Carl Reinecke and from 1848-51 with Anton Rée, also studying composition with Niels Gade. In 1856 he completed his studies in Leipzig and Prague, where he studied with Dreyschock. Returning to Denmark, he became well-known for appearances as a soloist, particularly in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. In 1864, he married Clara, daughter of J.P.E. Hartmann. From 1867 he taught at the Royal Conservatory, as well as privately. In 1872 he developed a nervous injury to his arm as a result of overwork which forced him to stop concertizing and devote his attention to composition. He resumed teaching at the Conservatory in 1881 and became a member of its board after the death of Gade in 1890. In 1888 he reappeared in public as a soloist and gave a limited number of concerts between then and his death, receiving the accolade of a state professorship and annuity in 1892.

Winding’s works include principally a large amount of solo piano music, particularly etudes, as well as a symphony, piano concerto, concert allegro for piano and orchestra, piano quartet, string quintet and two violin sonatas. This disc is the first to be devoted to his solo piano music.

The major cycle of Preludes in all the keys is dedicated to Isidor Seiss, the noted piano teacher and pupil of Friedrick Wieck. Unlike Chopin, Winding adopts a cycle of ascending fourths followed by their relative minors. This is a superbly varied and inspired series, with a lyrical emphasis throughout. Of particular note are the finely-drawn B flat minor (no. 12), perhaps the most reminiscent of Chopin, and the final E minor dark fantasia. The set ends with the first prelude returning as a postlude, having already been alluded to in the B minor prelude (no. 22).

The Landlige Scener (Rural Scenes) are an early work of Winding’s and show his distinctive voice already well-developed with clear progression from the world of Schumann and Mendelssohn. The movements are attractively descriptive, including Ved Daggry (at dawn), Løvfald (leaf fall), Ved Kornmarken (through the cornfield), Aftenstemning (evening mood) and Afsked (farewell). Winding’s father had a passion for collecting and arranging folk music and its contours are evident in a number of these effective, unpretentious pieces.

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

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
John Kersey, piano
RDR CD83

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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