PFITZNER: Piano Concerto / Das Christelflein Overture

PFITZNER: Herz (Das)

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.

Classical Music

The composer’s image – in his time, he was an avowed anti-Semite – repeatedly sparked fierce discussions in the feature pages of national and international newspapers. Art, music, and especially the musicians in National Socialist Germany became the direct focus of new analyses and current evaluations.

Although we may not forget and certainly should not suppress the political context, if we approach the actual work, a prosaic analysis reveals that the word “German” does not appear once in the entire opus, and that Pfitzner took the emotionally charged title of a folk song collection “Aus deutscher Seele” from the German-Jewish author Ludwig Jacobowski.

The Eichendorff cantata “Von deutscher Seele” was composed in 1921 and – this is also one of the contradictions – is not ideology set to music, but abstains from any kind of resentment. The work is subtitled “ a romantic cantata”. Pfitzner’s tonal language was certainly rooted in the 19th century, but it by all means branches out onto “new pathways”, to paraphrase Robert Schumann, whom Pfitzner greatly admired.

INGO METZMACHER had the support of a first-class ensemble of soloists for his Berlin performances. Despite all polemic and widely varying discourses: the aim of this CD release is to document the opus itself in its entirety, regardless of how discussions of it may continue.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

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.

Hans Pfitzner (1869-1949) and Bedrich Smetana (1824-84) hold special places in music history as ardent nationalist composers and creators of significant stage works. Pfitzner’s operas and incidental music culminated in his Palestrina (1917) and Smetana established a canon of eight nationalist operas, incorporating traditional Czech dance and song into much of his mature oeuvre. Both composers also spread their net widely into other musical genres, contributing significantly, if not extensively, to the chamber music repertory. Although written over forty years apart, these two piano trios share notable common ground. Both were written during troubled times for their creators and count among their composer’s first mature artistic achievements; moreover, both resort to motivic recall or transformation between movements with the intention of realising structural unity and both received hostile critical receptions. [Robin Stowell]

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.