For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvor�k - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).

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PFITZNER Piano Quintet in C, op. 23. Sextet in g, op. 55 • Ens Ulf Hoelscher • cpo 777 395 (68:29)


Hans Pfitzner (1869–1949) provides a case study in the “do what I say, not what I do” philosophy. An exact contemporary of Richard Strauss, Pfitzner was in word, if not always in deed, a fierce anti-modernist. In a pamphlet titled Danger of Futurists , a rejoinder to Busoni’s Sketch for a New Aesthetic of Music , he railed against those who “place all hopes for Western music in the future and understand the present and past as a faltering beginning, as the preparation.” But “What if,” he asks, “we find ourselves presently at a high point, or even that we have already passed beyond it?” Clearly, Pfitzner’s professed views have found favor with those of us who fear that Western music (its composition as opposed to its performance) has been in a state of decline since the end of the 19th century. And in his earlier works, Pfitzner remains true to his stated beliefs and values. In expressive range and Romantic idiom, his B-Minor Violin Concerto once rivaled Bruch’s G-Minor Concerto in popularity. Like Strauss, however, Pfitzner lived a long life, and some of his later works—those leading up to and after WW II—often reflect the inescapable and more progressive tendencies of Berg and Schoenberg.


Writing in virtually all musical genres except symphonic tone poem—Strauss dominated that domain—Pfitzner is mainly remembered today for his opera Palestrina . It was not that work, however, but a Sonata in E-Minor for Violin and Piano and some of his earliest chamber works—the op. 1 Sonata for Cello and Piano in F? Minor and the Piano Trio in F-Major, op. 8—that were my introduction to what one writer called this “hyper-Romantic” composer.


There can be no doubt, as one listens to the 1908 C-Major Piano Quintet recorded here, that had Brahms lived but another 11 years, this is the work he would have written. All that is necessary to make that leap is to hear the first 15 seconds of it with its remarkable resemblance to the opening of Brahms’s G-Major Sextet. Where Pfitzner departs from Brahms is in the unfolding of his thematic material, which becomes much more chromatic, dissonance-laden, and prolix, in the manner of César Franck. Crossbreed Brahms and Franck and the offspring is Pfitzner’s Quintet.


The G-Minor Sextet for clarinet, violin, viola, cello, double bass, and piano belies its date of composition, 1945, and the circumstances under which it was written. Pfitzner was ill and almost blind; it would be Pfitzner’s penultimate work. His initial instinct was to call it a suite, not only because it’s in five movements, but because of its relatively lightweight divertimento- or serenade-like character. There is nothing in the piece to suggest the nostalgic leave-taking of Strauss’s Four Last Songs . For the most part, the Sextet is melodically and harmonically uncomplicated, and has about it a rhythmically lilting dance-like quality that occasionally—listen to the Rondoletto movement—hints at Klezmer music. The clarinet, of course, helps to foster this impression. What a really lovely score this is.


Ulf Hoelscher, from whom the Ensemble takes its name, is himself a noted violin soloist who has made numerous recordings of both mainstream and some not-so-mainstream repertoire. With a group of the same name, he has also recorded for cpo an octet and quintets by Bruch, but it is not clear if this is a permanent group similar to England’s Nash Ensemble, which with a relatively stable lineup of personnel shape-shifts itself according to the demands of instrumentation, or if it’s an ad hoc assembly of musicians that are newly selected for each project. I suspect the latter, since I have the Bruch disc in question, and except for Hoelscher and pianist Ian Fountain, there is no other commonality of players between the two recordings.


As always, cpo is to be commended, not just for excellence in sound, but for salvaging so many buried treasures of the late 19th- and early-20th centuries. There is some recorded competition in these two works from two other CDs that, as coincidence would have it, are coupled exactly as here with the same two opus numbers. I haven’t heard the one with the Consortium Classicum, which I believe plays on period instruments. If that is the case, I reject the recording out of hand for reasons I needn’t rehash here. The other, on Preiser, with another ad hoc ensemble of players, I have heard, and I find the performances solid if a bit stolid, and nowhere nearly as full-throated and vibrant as those on the current cpo release. Strongly recommended to those with a taste for chamber music of the unrepentantly post-Romantic kind.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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The German pianist Ulrich Urban presents a CD of the long neglected, and possibly unrecorded until now, Fantasies on all five operas of the German composer Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949). An exact contemporary of Richard Strauss, he is not usually associated with glittering virtuoso transcriptions for his art Is much too intimate, too lyrical, and even austere in character. But a number of piano arrangers, all of them Pfitzner contemporaries, succeeded in skillfully combining themes and tunes from his operas, bringing out the best of these late romantic masterpieces of 20th C. opera.

Even so great a composer as Beethoven wrote music that is now almost completely neglected and unperformed. This sequence brings together a portfolio of such works that focuses on his variations on popular operatic music of the time by Giovanni Paisiello, Peter Winter and Andre Gretry, and includes the witty and inventive variations on an arietta by Vincenzo Righini. The Piano Sonata in C major, WoO 51 was found among Beethoven's papers after his death and published in 1830. While it lacks a finale, it too offers a revealing look at an overlooked composition as do the two charming and unusual waltzes. A laureate of the 2016 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition, Larry Weng has been critically acclaimed by The new York Times. He also garnered critical praise for his 2015 New York debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall from the New York Concert Review, and from Harry Rolnick of ConcertoNet for his performance of Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso. He has played in major venues around the world as both a soloist and chamber musician. As of the 2017 season, Weng is a full-time member of the Icarus Quartet. Weng graduated from the highly selective joint degree programme between Columbia University and The Juilliard School under the tutelage of professors Jerome Lowenthal and Matti Raekallio. He continued his studies with professor Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music, earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in 2019.

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This set is a special offer: 5 CDs for the price of 4.

VORSPIELE

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PFITZNER: Piano Concerto / Das Christelflein Overture

This first volume of the complete Lieder by Hans Pfitzner spans almost his entire compositional life, focussing on songs for high voice written from about 1884 to 1923. Though often considered a late-Romantic, Pfitzner moved through successive periods of stylistic change and remains one of the most representative German composers of his time. Alte Weisen (Ancient Airs) is a concise yet highly varied song cycle, whilst the earlier Lieder are strongly characterised settings of some powerfully expressive texts.

Pfitzner, H.: Palestrina [Opera]

Hans Pfitzner’s 1901 opera Die Rose vom Liebesgarten sets a libretto by James Grum, which was inspired by an 1890 painting by Hans Thoma, Der Wachter vor dem Liebesgarten. While the premiere of the first act was quite poorly received, the entire opera finally received a successful staging by Gustav Mahler in Vienna in 1905. This production, featuring world-renowned vocalists Andre Riemer, Tiina Penttinen, Jona Buchner, Astrid Weber, and Andreas Kindschuh, is conducted by Frank Beerman. Beerman has gained international renown as a conductor both on the stage and with his many recordings. His always alert interest in new and undiscovered music and in new interpretations of the core repertoire has brought him numerous prizes and distinctions. His recordings feature the core repertoire as well as rediscoveries and contemporary works. They have won several awards, including Echo Klassik prizes in 2009 and 2015.

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To many contemporaries it might seem incomprehensible that Pfitzner had his poetic and musical masterpiece Palestrina followed by this slight fairy-tale opera, whose libretto could scarcely satisfy higher artistic demands. Pfitzner was captivated by the cozy sphere, reminiscent of old picture-books, of this typically German Christmas fable (in which also appear folklore figures like Knecht Ruprecht). The sound of Christmas bells and carols awakens in an elf the wish to draw close to humans. Although the old fir tree warns the elf of the heartlessness of the human race, he has his way and leaves his forest home. He in fact becomes acquainted with grief and illness and at last offers himself to be taken to heaven instead of Trautchen. The Christ-child agrees to the exchange, Trautchen is cured, and from now on the elf will come to earth from heaven each year at Christmas as a Christmas elf. The piece ends with a happy Christmas party by Trautchen’s family. The present recording is a production by the Bavarian Radio in which the original texts that Pfitzner placed between the individual numbers are replaced by a text by German journalist and literary writer Alois Fink. Sung and spoken in German language, the booklet contains a synopsis in English.

To give at least a sufficient performance of Palestrina by Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) you need more than ten great singers as well an experienced conductor and an orchestra of the greatest proficiency. With Rudolf Kempe conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, and starring Max Lorenz in the leading role (his only recording in this role!) together with such mid-20th c. vocal luminaries as Elisabeth Söderström, Jean Madeira, Gottlob Frick, Ferdinand Frantz, Paul Schöffler and Walter Berry, et al., all three conditions for success are present in this 1955 performance. 24bit/96kHz re-mastered.

This second volume of Pfitzner’s Complete Lieder covers the period between 1884 and 1916 and shows why he was considered such a key figure among composers of his generation. A central theme of the songs is the archetypical Romantic focus on the portrayal of nature as a reflection of human feelings. The youthful and enduringly popular Ist der Himmel darum im Lenz so blau (Is the sky so blue in the spring) reflects his greatest qualities as a song composer- a memorable tune and rich, flowing harmonies. Favoring the bold use of color, Pfitner’s songs are characterized by a lively, pulsing rhythm and sweeping, ecstatic melodies. Tenor Colin Balzer has sung acclaimed recitals in London, New York, and Philadelphia, and concerts with the Portland, New Jersey, Toronto, Quebec, Atlanta, Montreal, and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras as well as other notable ensembles across North America. Most notably in his career, Balzer earned the Gold Medal at the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years.

The foundations of Hans Pfitzner’s Romantic musical idiom can be found in his earliest compositions. Almost all of the songs in this program date from Pfitzner’s school and student days, with the young composer tapping into a particularly rich vein of creativity. From rediscovered manuscripts such as the surprisingly assured Ständchen to the earliest settings of his favorite lyric poet, Joseph von Eichendorff, these songs display all of the intimacy and atmosphere that would make Pfitzner a key figure of early 20th-century music. Volumes 1–3 can be heard on 8.572602, 8.572603 and 8.573082.

OehmsClassics’ presents the first complete recording of an opera conducted by Kirill Petrenko. In summer 2013, Petrenko will conduct the Ring des Nibelungen for the composer’s 200th birthday in Bayreuth. The Bavarian State Opera has appointed him its General Music Director as of the 2013/14 season.

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REVIEW:

Conductor Kirill Petrenko, leader of Bayreuth’s bicentenary Ring, matches Rudolf Kempe’s recently rediscovered 1955 Salzburg performance (Walhall): they’re both compelling story-tellers of large-scale operatic narrative who can mix and match dialogue scenes with varied tempi and dramatically appropriate orchestral balance. Frankfurt’s cast has plenty of gutsy ecclesiastical characters in the Council scene, Stallmeister and Mahnke do well by Ighino and Silla (but don’t miss young Elisabeth Söderström’s Son for Kempe), Koch is a worthy Borromeo and the whole is a triumph for British tenor Peter Bronder in the title-role.

– Gramophone

Hans Pfitzner was able to deploy his extensive musical resources in setting a variety of texts from many different periods and on a wide range of subjects. From Carl Busse’s shattering picture of life in Leierkastenmann, Op.15,No.1via one of Pfitzner’s greatest songs, a setting of Goethe’s Anden Mond, to the rare humorous gem, Rundgesang zum Neujahrsfest 1901with its choral refrain, the works on this recording represent the mature composer’s individual voice. This is the final volume in a series that restores Pfitzner’s place amongst the most important Lieder composers of the late Romantic period.