A student of John Field, Charles Mayer was a brilliant pianist and teacher who performed throughout Europe and composed prolifically for his instrument. Both the...

A student of John Field, Charles Mayer was a brilliant pianist and teacher who performed throughout Europe and composed prolifically for his instrument. Both the Jugendblüten (‘Flowers of Youth’) and Jugendträume (‘Dreams of Youth’) collections reflect the evocative titles and late-Romantic expressive style fashionably represented by Schumann and Mendelssohn. Mayer’s beautifully crafted musical gems were aimed at pianists eager to widen their repertoire and entertain through, in the words of Schumann, the ‘rich and eclectic imagination of a cosmopolitan musician’ whose works ‘tell with affection and sincerity the story of a bourgeois world made of dreams and good will’.

REVIEWS:

Dynamic have amply fleshed out this picture of Charles Mayer with this release of two of his numerous collections of short piano works.

Italian pianist Luigi Gerosa plays these pieces very sympathetically…he is full of character in pieces like Die Dämonen (no.11) and Neckereien – banter/teasing (no.19).

-- MusicWeb International

Robert Schumann spoke of East Prussian composer Charles Mayer (1799–1862) as an artist expressive of “rich and eclectic imagination,” whose music sought to widen the repertory of pianists through finely crafted pieces of a “cosmopolitan” nature. Schumann elaborated further, lauding Mayer’s works for their ability to “tell with affection and sincerity the story of a bourgeois world made of dreams and good will.” A student of John Field, Charles Mayer became a brilliant pianist and teacher who performed throughout Europe and composed prolifically for the keyboard. Both the Jugendblüten (Flowers of Youth, c. 1850) and Jugendträume (Dreams of Youth, 1860) collections evoke the imagery and late Romantic expressive style fashionably represented by Schumann (his op. 68) and Mendelssohn’s collections of Lieder ohne Worte.

The opening piece from op. 300, “Traumbild,” exerts an easy, graceful flow, in the Schumann style. The succeeding “Sehnsucht” (Longing), in ternary form, resembles Mendelssohn’s lyrical approach, with a middle section waltz in Chopin’s salon style. “Das stürmische Herz” (The Tormented Heart) asks for left hand agitation but proceeds in conventional harmony.

The cycle of 24 Flowers of Youth begins with a Romanze entitled “Sehnsucht” in conventional, symmetrical phraseology. A vivacious, minute-long tarantella ensues in a mock-Rossini mode. We pass through a series of conventional, Biedermeier exercises in style, faux Mendelssohn, but the Barcarole exudes limited, gondola charm. Gerosa’s own pianistic prowess shows itself in Toccata, a test of agogic and dynamic shifts. “Der junge Virtuoso” proffers a witty, Gottschalk-like, broken-rhythm dance.

Of the final group of ten compositions, the first, “Norwegischer Tanz,” sounds like Grieg if he were performing in a standard salon. Mayer calls his “Leid und Freud” (Sadness and Joy) a “Melodic Etude,” although as a study other than in legato and presto staccato it remains graciously unassuming. “Das schlafende Kind” unabashedly borrows its sentiment from Schumann’s Kinderszenen, op. 15. “Neckerein” indeed “flirts” with gently cantering tropes and brief onrushes of Mendelssohnian intensity. “Der Jagd” seems like a restrained hunt, albeit lyrical in the manner of Weber. “Notturno” might pass for music by Sinding, or yet again Mendelssohn. As a predictable song without words, it proves eminently effective. The penultimate work, “Tremolino,” does well serve as a study in syncopation in the Chopin manner. Its cascades increase in dynamic and then recede, a hint at Chopin’s “Aeolian Harp,” op. 25/1. The “Russiche Hymne” (Etude-Transcription) combines the tune we know from Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with a florid ground of Chopin.

-- Fanfare