Arabella Steinbacher, Violin Lexicon
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Arabella SteinbacherMax Bruch - Violin Concerto in G minor Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Violin Concerto in D Ernest Chausson - Poème HYBRID MUL TICHANNEL Orquestra Gulbenkian Lawrence Foster Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) Max Bruch: playfully as “Kuhzünftler ”. Among others, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35 Violin Concerto No. 1 he spoke of the great “Kunstschweinestall” 1 Moderato nobile 9. 59 n part, Max Bruch lived in the wrong era. (= art pig-sty) of Hugo Wolf and Richard 2 Romance – Andante 9. 18 IWhen the composer died in 1920 at the Strauss, and the “gruesome products of Herr 3 Finale – Allegro assai vivace 7. 49 age of 82, Donald Tovey even remarked that R. Strauss, Herr Reger and associates”. And “the news came to many as a surprise that if we are to believe a statement in a letter Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) he had lived so long.” And yet Bruch’s career to his publisher Simrock, Bruch considered Poème for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25 had started out so well. He was only 14 years himself one of the few “who, together with 4 Lento e misterioso –Animato -Allegro 16. 37 old when one of his symphonies was per- Brahms, now still perpetuate music in accor- formed in Cologne, and the Rheinische Musik dance with its true, organic nature.” Max Bruch (1838-1920) Zeitung devoted an entire article to him. Thanks to this kind of statement, Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 After that Bruch quickly gained a reputation did not make many friends, and thus it is 5 Vorspiel. Allegretto moderato 8. 47 at home and abroad with his operas, orato- not surprising that much of his music was 6 Adagio 9. 34 rios, and cantatas. In 1882, Hugo Riemann considered anachronistic, and quickly for- 7 Finale. Allegro energico 7. 57 even ranked him above Johannes Brahms gotten. Except, of course, his Violin Concerto in the first edition of his authoritative music No. 1, which is one of the most frequently Arabella Steinbacher, Violin lexicon. However, it is significant that only performed and much-loved works in the Orquestra Gulbenkian five years later, Riemann – despite describ- violin literature. Bruch himself was not at all ing Bruch as “one of our most important happy with the popularity of his concerto. In Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Concertmaster: David Lefèvre Conducted by Lawrence Foster composers in the field of choral composi- 1887, he wrote: “Nothing equals the lethargy, tion” – no longer allotted him a place among stupidity, and apathy of many a German Total playing time: 70.23 the “immortals”. In a rapidly changing violinist. One of them turns up every fort- Recording venue: Grande Auditório of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, July 2012 music scene, in which Liszt, Wagner, Strauss, night, wanting to perform the Concerto No. Executive Producer: Job Maarse Recording Producer: Job Maarse Mahler, and later Schoenberg provided 1 for me. I have become rude, and just say Balance Engineer: Erdo Groot new impulses, Bruch continued to write to them: ‘I cannot listen to this concerto Editing: Ientje Mooij in a “traditional” style, characterized by a any more, did I not write anything but this Ms. Steinbacher currently plays the “Booth” Stradivari (1716) generously provided by the Nippon Music Foundation. rich melody with clear, classical structuring. concerto? Why don’t you go away and for Recalcitrant and proud as he was, Bruch once play the other concertos, which are at had already taken a stand back in the 1860s least as good, if not better!´.” And in an ironic Biographien auf Deutsch und Französischfinden Sie auf unserer Webseite. against the “Zukünftler” (= composers of mood, he even issued an “ordinance” against Pour les versions allemande et française des biographies,veuillez consulter notre site. www.pentatonemusic.com the future), to whom he was wont to refer the concerto as, in his opinion, the violins could play the work by themselves. Thaler to a publisher: thus, he missed out title Poème symphonique, and finally to Fabio and marries him, after which Muzzio It was not a foregone conclusion that on all the royalties. When he later tried to Poème. travels to the Far East. When he returns, he Bruch’s first concertante work would turn out sell the manuscript, he was again unlucky, The original title of the work is interest- brings back a magical violin with a snake- to be a violin concerto. After all, the piano and was forced to stand back and see it dis- ing, since it offers a glimpse into the literary skin pattern. Valeria is now happily married was his instrument, not the violin. He began appear to the United States. background of the work. Chausson was a to Fabio, although the marriage has not yet work on the concerto in 1864, but was not great lover of Russian literature, and espe- been blessed with children. One evening, sure about the shape and structure, and Ernest Chausson: Poème cially of the works of Lev Tolstoy, Fyodor Muzzio plays a melody entitled Le chant the technical performance details. In later Just as Joseph Joachim provided a Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev, with whom de l’amour triomphant, which casts a spell life he wrote as follows: “From 1864-1868, I significant contribution to the creation of he was befriended. In 1881, Turgenev had on Valeria. As if hypnotized, she sleepwalks must have turned my concerto inside out Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Belgian vio- completed his novella Le chant de l’amour into the garden. But she is followed by her at least half a dozen times, and conferred linist Eugène Ysaÿe was the driving force triomphant. During his youth, Turgenev jealous husband who stabs Muzzio. After with x number of violinists before it finally behind Ernest Chausson’s Poème. In 1896, had fallen in love with the famous mezzo- this, life seems to follow its normal course ended up in the form in which it is now well Ysaÿe asked Chausson to write him a violin soprano Pauline Viardot. However, in 1840 again, until one day when Valeria is playing known and played everywhere”. The person concerto. However, the composer did not she married the writer and theatre director the organ. The melody is that of Le chant de who exerted the greatest influence on the feel up to this task. He replied as follows: “I Louis Viardot. Yet Turgenev’s passion for l’amour triomphant. And while she is playing, work was the famous Hungarian violinist hardly know where to begin with a concerto, Pauline did not diminish, and he remained she suddenly feels life kicking in her belly. Joseph Joachim, who was later also to advise which is a huge undertaking, the devil’s own in her environment for the rest of his life, “Could it be possible?” Valeria asks himself. Brahms in the composition of his own Violin task. But I can cope with a shorter work. It even dwelling for some time on the Viardot Musicologists have endeavoured to link Concerto. Bruch dedicated the concerto to will be in extremely free form, containing estate. And the unhappy love story was to the musical course of Poème to the events Joachim. several passages in which the violin plays by repeat itself. Viardot’s daughter, Marianne, in Turgenev’s story. But the changes in the Yet not Joachim, but Otto von Königslöw itself”. This statement would seem to indi- was engaged for some time to composer title of the work make it seem likely that was the soloist at the first performance on cate that Chausson already had the structure Gabriel Fauré, but broke off the engagement Chausson did not consider the program- April 24 in Koblenz, where Bruch held the of the work – later to be called Poème – in and later married his colleague Alphonse matic background to be important to the position of “Städischer Musikdirektor” (= his head. And this statement is in fact sup- Duvernoy. It appears that Turgenev pro- listener. In that spirit, Claude Debussy – who city music director). Joachim performed the ported by a journal entry dating from July cessed these love stories in his novella Le was also a friend of Chausson’s – also com- work for the first time in its revised version 1892, in which Chausson writes that he has chant de l’amour triomphant and that the mented on the work: “The freedom of its on January 7, 1868 in Bremen. rehearsed the melody of L’amour triomphant Poème was based on this novella. form never goes against its harmonious pro- The success of his Violin Concerto would with violinist Mathieu Crickboom. The title Turgenev’s story revolves around a portion. The sense of dreamy gentleness is at have guaranteed Bruch a considerable finan- given to the work he completed on June 29, painter, Fabio, and a musician, Muzzio, who its most touching at the end when, leaving cial basis for the rest of his life, had he not 1896 was Le chant de l’amour triomphant. both love the same girl, Valeria. She chooses aside all trace of description and anecdote, unfortunately sold the work for only 250 Later he changed this to the more abstract the music becomes that very feeling which expectations of the rapidly changing world inspires its emotion. Such moments in the of music. “Fifty is old for a child prodigy,” he world of music. The eight-year-old son of Jewish composer, Korngold realized that work of an artist are highly rare.” wrote. As did Bruch, Korngold held fast to the influential critic Julius Korngold made he no longer had a future in Austria.