Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Gernsheim — Works for Violin And
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brahms, schumann, mendelssohn, gernsheim works for violin and piano paladino music friedemann eichhorn josé gallardo Arnold Mendelssohn (1855 – 1933) Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) Sonata for violin and piano in Three Romances for oboe (or violin or C Major, Op. 71* clarinet) and piano, Op. 94 01 Allegro 12:05 05 Nicht schnell 03:41 02 Andante mesto 07:52 06 Einfach, innig 04:22 03 Allegretto scherzoso 06:09 07 Nicht schnell 04:21 04 Allegro molto 06:33 2 Friedrich Gernsheim (1839 – 1916) Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) Sonata for piano and violin No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108 08 Introduction and Allegro 09 Allegro 07:49 appassionato for violin and 10 Adagio 04:26 piano, Op. 38* 10:16 11 Un poco presto e con sentimento 02:44 12 Presto agitato 05:33 TT 75:50 Friedemann Eichhorn, violin José Gallardo, piano * world premiere recording 3 Out of the shadows! friend Klaus Groth – worked its way into the Johannes Brahms composition process, too. In his second sonata, written in 1886 in parallel with the third sona- ta and inspired by a refreshing summer beside Lake Thun, the songs featured are Wie Melodien zieht es [Like melodies it drifts …] (Op. 105) and Johannes Brahms was hailed with enormous Komm bald [Come soon!] (Op. 97). While the first enthusiasm by Robert Schumann in person and sonata is associated with Clara Schumann and in his famous essay “New ways ahead”, yet the death of Felix Schumann, Clara’s youngest he was to become melancholic and sometimes son and Brahms’ godson, the mysterious dedi- even misanthropic over the course of his later catee of the second Sonata could be the singer development. He felt misunderstood even by his Hermine Spies. The ‘Third Sonata (D minor) for closest friends. As early as 1868, the year of his Piano and Violin by Johannes Brahms. Opus 108. breakthrough as a composer (with the German Dedicated to his friend Hans von Bülow’ – as Requiem) he declared to Clara Schumann: “I can presented in the edition published by Simrock [only] express myself in musical sounds …” Are in 1889 – was described by Brahms’ biographer his chamber works, particularly the three violin Max Kahlbeck as the “serious twin sister” of the sonatas, to be seen as autobiographical or con- second sonata. There are no specific links with fessional writing? Or are they more in the nature songs here, though a lyrical character emerges of aesthetic statements by Brahms the musician? in places, especially in the second movement, of The composer himself did not make it easy for course. The D minor Sonata is the only four-mo- us to resolve this question, as he destroyed early vement sonata and thus has larger dimensions. It drafts and correspondence and said very little is probable that Brahms intended this weightier on the subject. It is noticeable, however, that quality, along with a demanding piano part, as songs play a special role in his sonatas for vi- a demonstration of his esteem for the eminent olin and piano in G major, Op. 78, and A major, pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, particu- Op. 100. In his first sonata of 1878/79 Brahms’ larly since the relationship between the two of Regenlied [Rain Song] (Op. 59/3) even provided them had cooled somewhat at the time – after a nickname for the piece. The song Nachklang Brahms had deprived Bülow of giving the first [Echoes] (Op. 59/4) – also on words by Brahms’ performance of his Fourth Symphony, much to © picture alliance - Glasshouse Images 4 Bülow’s displeasure. Here an attempt at recon- two themes it represents both rondo and sonata at the Paris Opera … To summarise: Friedrich ciliation can be seen on Brahms’ part that Bü- form. Brahms gave the first performance of this Gernsheim’s talents were widely admired, and he low was happy to accept. In the later chamber sonata in Budapest on 21 December 1888 with soon became acquainted with the musical world music by Johannes Brahms many musicologists violinist Jenö Hubay. The following year he also in France and Germany, forming friendships with also see a reconciliation of his aspirations as a performed it with his old friend Joseph Joachim. Max Bruch, Ferdinand Hiller, Clara Schumann, composer with the requirements of traditional Théodore Gouvy, Hans von Bülow, Hermann Levy forms. A “Magyar” flavour suffuses this work wi- and in particular Johannes Brahms, who was six th an underlying melancholy mood. Brahms had Friedrich Gernsheim was born in Worms on years older than Gernsheim. Following positions become familiar with the sound of “Hungarian” 16 or 17 July 1839 and grew up in a musical as conductor and choral director in Saarbrücken music groups in his youth; here music for salon family. His father Falk Gernsheim was a doctor, a and Cologne (where Humperdinck was his stu- performance acquires Romantic intensity with descendent of the last Jewish bishop in Worms. dent at the Conservatory), in 1874 he moved to Hungarian elements. Otto Emil Schumann de- His mother was considered an excellent pianist, Rotterdam for sixteen years as music director scribes the violin sonatas by Johannes Brahms as and it was she who gave the boy his first piano and professor. Making a name for himself with “chamber music at the highest level of artistry”. lessons. A former pupil of Louis Spohr guided the Dutch audiences particularly for his symphonies, In the first movement, the piano admittedly has a boy in establishing the foundations for a career he soon became known as the “Dutch Brahms” – more than weighty part to play: symphonic cha- as a violinist. At the age of ten the boy and his and Brahms’ music did indeed influence him to a racteristics are unmistakable, even though this mother went to Frankfurt to advance his musical great extent. In 1890 Friedrich Gernsheim moved movement ends with lyrical restraint. The second development and after giving concerts at the the- to the German capital, with support from Bruch, movement is a “Song without Words” where the atre in Frankfurt Friedrich was hailed as a “young Brahms and Bülow, to become director of the violin is initially given a kind of “unending me- Mozart”. Concert tours of Alsace and Switzer- Stern Gesangverein choral society and to teach lody”; the mood becomes painful and fragile in land followed. At the age of thirteen, Friedrich piano and composition at the Stern Conservato- the middle section, before a passage of double Gernsheim became the youngest student at the ry. He also worked with the most distinguished stopping leads back to the simple melodic line. Leipzig Conservatory, where Ignaz Moscheles composers and conductors of the younger gene- The defiant duple time scherzo in three sections was his piano teacher. Two years later Gerns- ration, Mahler, Strauss and Reger, who admired (A-B-A form plus coda) is unusually short, yet heim completed his diploma as one of the “most him greatly. In Dortmund, a two-day festival of even this movement contains elements of melan- distinguished students at the Conservatory”. He Gernsheim’s music was organized; the composer choly and lyricism. The weighty fourth movement then spent six years in Paris, making a name for was appointed Vice President of the Berlin Aca- of this sonata was described by Kahlbeck as a himself as a performer of works by Schumann and demy of Music and eventually died in Berlin on “grandiose lightning storm of night music, shot Chopin and meeting Rossini, Liszt and Rubinstein, 11 September 1916. Gernsheim’s works, especi- through with raging passion”. With the duality of as well as witnessing the Tannhäuser scandal ally his four symphonies and his Violin Concerto, 5 Friedrich Gernsheim too, were soon overshadowed by the spectacular up the theme of the introduction, with a kind of successes and scandals of a younger generation stretto at the end of this rewarding work for mu- of composers. Among Gernsheim’s contempora- sicians and audiences. ries the fame of his friends Bruch and Brahms outshone the highly Romantic works of this mas- ter of his craft from Worms. In Gernsheim’s case, Arnold Mendelssohn was born in Ratibor, the Nazi era also brought a brutal interruption Silesia on 26 December 1855. His father, a cousin to the living musical tradition and appreciation of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, worked there as of his works. Purely in terms of quantity, piano station master; his mother was the daughter of music and chamber music with piano constitute a prominent headmaster of a school in Berlin. the largest element in Gernsheim’s creative work. At the age of 11, Arnold Mendelssohn went He composed four sonatas for violin and piano, to grammar school in Berlin (later moving to however, after developing a close association wi- Danzig) and at this time started regular music th violinist Robert Heckmann in Cologne: the two lessons with teachers including composer and of them performed Gernsheim’s chamber music organist Eduard Wilsing, who was greatly ad- together at the Gürzenich festival hall in Cologne mired by Robert Schumann. Mendelssohn wrote over a period of decades – probably including his first compositions from the age of 17. Arnold the bravura Introduction and Allegro appassio- Mendelssohn initially studied Law in Tübingen nato for Violin and Piano, Op. 38, of 1879, which (at the insistence of his family), but soon aban- is stylistically and musically clearly influenced by doned that course. He returned to Berlin and Brahms. This piece, dating from the composer’s became a student at the Royal Institute of Church time in Rotterdam, is very demanding both for Music (where his teachers included Carl August violin and piano: as with Brahms, use is made Haupt, an eminent Bach specialist also known as of tensions between duplets and triplets, playing a composer of songs) while also studying at the in octaves and leaps across wide intervals.