Oboe Concertos of the Classical Era
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Cedille Records CDR 90000 045 OBOE CONCERTOS OF THE CLASSICAL ERA Franz Johann Alex Krommer: Nepomuk Hummel: Klein Concerto oboe No. 1 in Introduction, F Major, Theme & Czech Op. 37 National Variations Symphony Concerto in F minor, Orchestra No. 2 in Op. 102 F Major, Paul Op. 52 Freeman conductor DDD Absolutely Digital™ CDR 90000 045 WORKS FOR OBOE AND ORCHESTRA BY FRANZ KROMMER (1759-1831) AND JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMEL (1778-1837) Krommer: Oboe Concerto No. 1 in F major, Op. 37 (21:54) 1 I. Allegro (10:12) 2 II. Adagio (5:30) 3 III. Rondo: Allegro (6:03) Krommer: Oboe Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 52 (19:37) 4 I. Allegro (9:04) 5 II. Adagio (5:44) 6 III. Rondo (4:40) 7 Hummel: Introduction, Theme, and Variations in F minor, Op. 102 (14:21) Alex Klein, oboe Czech National Symphony Orchestra Paul Freeman, conductor TT: (56:13) Cedille Records is a trademark of The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, a not-for- profit foundation devoted to promoting the finest musicians and ensembles in the Chicago area. Oboe Concertos of the Classical Era notes by Andrea Lamoreaux “All roads lead to Rome”; or so it was said in now the Czech Republic, then a province of the ancient days when the Roman Empire encom- Empire known as Bohemia. Their names — passed all the lands surrounding the Mediter- Leopold Kozeluch, Anton Reicha, Johann Van- ranean Sea, plus a good chunk of Western hal, Jan Vorisek, the brothers Anton and Paul Europe and the British Isles. Rome fell from Wranitzky — are not terribly well remembered its pre-eminent position under pressures both today, but they held important posts in their internal and external, but the idea of “empire” adopted city, made a good living, served their persisted in European history for centuries patrons well, and left behind a wealth of music — not dying out entirely until the end of World that is worth hearing. One of these Bohemi- War I in 1918. From the early Middle Ages an emigrés was Franz Krommer — Frantisek onward, many nations were at least nominally Kramár in the original spelling. part of the Holy Roman Empire, founded by Krommer was born in 1759 in the town of Charlemagne. Kamenice, where his father was both inn- By the 18th century, imperial power had keeper and mayor. His uncle, church choir- become consolidated in the Hapsburgs, the master in a nearby town, taught him to play dynasty that ruled Austria-Hungary from the the violin and the organ. He was in his early city of Vienna. And although the Vienna of the 20s when he first went to Vienna, but found Hapsburgs was not the political colossus that it hard to gain a foothold in the city’s com- Rome under the Caesars had been, it became petitive environment. He spent several years in true that virtually all roads led there, espe- Hungary, employed by princes and churches cially for musicians. The emperor’s court and as a violinist, composer, and choir director. chapel, plus the smaller but no less music-lov- When he returned to Vienna in 1795, he was ing households of the Viennese nobility, were a seasoned professional. After some years of magnets drawing composers, instrumental theatre work, he entered the emperor’s service virtuosos, and singers from provincial capitals in 1815, and three years later won the coveted and remote villages to find work, sell their post of imperial court composer: the job nei- scores, and make a name for themselves in the ther Mozart nor Beethoven ever achieved. The most musical city on earth. successor to his countryman Kozeluch and Of the great Classical-Romantic “Viennese” before him, Antonio Salieri, Krommer was the composers, only one, Franz Schubert, was last to hold the official court-composer posi- actually born there. Haydn and Mozart came tion. By the time of his death in 1831, musi- from smaller Austrian towns, Beethoven from cal economics had changed such that even the German city of Bonn, Brahms from Ham- emperors stopped employing composers as burg. There were others: around the turn of personal staff members. the 19th century many successful composer- A biographical essay by Othmar Wessely notes performers migrated to Vienna from what is that “Krommer was one of the most successful of the many influential Czech composers in tions made it possible to keep the instrument Vienna,” and that he wrote over 300 works. in better tune, and a new type of central bore “Krommer’s reputation is attested by the rapid greatly extended its range of high notes. “For spread of his compositions in reprints and Mozart and for Krommer, this meant greater arrangements by German, Danish, French, freedom to write interesting, challenging music English, Italian and American publishers,” for the oboe,” Mr. Klein says. Wessely says, “and equally by his honorary The solo parts in both Krommer concertos membership of the Istituto Filarmonico in Ven- are notably virtuosic, featuring rapid pas- ice, the Philharmonic Society in Ljubljana, the sage-work and wide leaps from high notes Musikverein in Innsbruck, and the conserva- to low and back again that are reminiscent of tories [of] Paris, Milan and Vienna. With the Mozartean opera arias. Stylistically, the first exception of piano works, lieder and operas, concerto very much recalls Mozart, while the Krommer cultivated all the musical genres of second leans toward Beethoven. They are laid his time, and was regarded (with Haydn) as out using the basic pattern those composers the leading composer of string quartets, and as favored for their concertos: an opening move- a serious rival of Beethoven. The present view, ment in sonata form, with a long orchestral however, places his solo concertos for wind introduction before the soloist enters; a lyrical instruments as his most individual accom- Adagio; and a Rondo that brings each work to plishments.” a dramatic conclusion. Krommer was fond of wind instruments in Discussing the nearly-forgotten life and work other contexts too: he produced several scores of an Austro-Bohemian composer named Ignaz for the nine- or ten-member wind ensembles Brüll, a friend and valued colleague of Brahms, that the Viennese called Harmoniemusik, and the German musicologist Hartmut Wecker combined flutes and clarinets with strings in recently wrote: “From today’s perspective, the chamber music. His list of concertos includes musical history of the 19th century appears to several for his own original instrument, the reduce itself to a few big names whose works violin, plus pieces for flute, clarinet, and two still continue to dominate our concert halls for solo oboe, written in 1803 and 1805. and opera houses. But appearance and reality The late Classical era boasted quite a num- are far apart: the everyday music of the epoch, ber of virtuosic oboe players, some of whose and contemporary taste, were in fact shaped names have survived. Mozart wrote oboe by a large number of finely-trained compos- works for his colleagues Giuseppe Ferlendis ers, most of whom have left little behind but and Friedrich Ramm; Krommer’s first concerto their name, even though in their own time they was dedicated to a fellow Bohemian emigré, ranked as artists of international stature.” Josef Czerwenka, first-chair oboist in the Vien- Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a composer, na Court Orchestra. The oboe began to devel- performer, and teacher who definitely achieved op its solo potential during this time, as Alex international stature, and though music-lovers Klein has explained, because technical innova- of today are aware of much more than just his name, he still tends to be dismissed as second- The supreme musical figure of Hummel’s time rate. A few minutes actually spent listening to was Ludwig van Beethoven. The two were his music dispel this attitude right away. No, for the most part friendly rivals, though there he was not another Mozart or Beethoven: very were occasional conflicts. Taking the Weimar few artists in any generation are endowed with position, and continuing to appear as a pianist that degree of genius. Even with a lesser spark — a role Beethoven was forced to abandon of genius, though, he left a legacy well worth because of his deafness — effectively removed reinvigorating. To judge from recent recordings, Hummel from the other man’s orbit. Writing it appears that his works are indeed undergo- about Hummel’s student years in the Vienna ing a bit of a revival. of the 1790s, his biographer Joel Sacks notes, A child-prodigy pianist, he briefly studied with “The most momentous event of the period Mozart, and like his master, embarked with his was Beethoven’s emergence... which nearly violinist-father (shades of Leopold Mozart!) destroyed Hummel’s self-confidence.” Well on a youthful recital tour that took him all it might have, but he seems to have avoided over Germany, and to Denmark, Scotland, and any permanent inferiority complex. “Despite England. (The family originated in the city of constant partisan warfare among their dis- Bratislava, now in the Republic of Slovakia, but ciples,” Sacks writes, “the two began a long, like so many other ambitious musicians, his but stormy, friendship.” father perceived opportunities in Vienna and “As a composer, Hummel stands on the bor- moved there in 1786 when the future com- derline between epochs,” in Sacks’s view. “His poser was 8 years old.) reputation now is that of a virtuoso specialist After his prodigy years, the young Hummel in piano music — something of a 19th-cen- returned to Vienna, undertook studies with tury trait. This view of him, however, is grossly the city’s leading musical names — including incorrect.