The Happiest Years Sonatas for Violin Solo by Artur Schnabel and Eduard Erdmann

The Happiest Years Sonatas for Violin Solo by Artur Schnabel and Eduard Erdmann Judith Ingolfsson, Violin The Happiest Years Sonatas for Violin Solo by Artur Schnabel a nd Eduard Erdmann Judith Ingolfsson, Violin Artur Schnabel (1882–1951) Sonata for Violin Solo (1919) 01 I. Langsam, sehr frei und leidenschaftlich . (09'23) 02 II. In kräftig-fröhlichem Wanderschritt, durchweg sehr lebendig . (03'10) 03 III. Zart und anmutig, durchaus ruhig . (11'27) 04 IV. Äußerst rasch (Prestissimo) . (06'39) 05 V. Sehr langsame Halbe, mit feierlichem ernstem Ausdruck, doch stets schlicht . (15'58) Eduard Erdmann (1896–1958) Sonata for Violin Solo, Op. 12 (1921) 06 I. Ruhig – Fließend – Ruhig . (07'48) 07 II. Allegretto scherzando – Trio: Einfach, wie eine Volksweise . (04'17) 08 III. Langsam . (02'39) 09 IV. Lebendig . (03'44) Total Time . (65'11) The Happiest Years he years from 1919 to 1924 in Berlin,” Artur Schnabel told an audience of students in 1945, “were, musically, the most stimulating and perhaps the happiest I ever experienced.” During this brief period of his life, the great pianist chose to T play fewer concerts and devote more time to composing. He was “happy” composing and considered it “a kind of hobby, or love aff air.” He was not interested in the “value” of his compositions, rather in the “activity.” In 1919 the atmosphere in Berlin was turbulent. The loss of the First World War, the No- vember Revolution, and the subsequent establishment of the Weimar Republic had created social disparity. Although theaters, cinemas, and cabarets abounded, and literary and artistic life displayed great vitality, there remained a striking contrast between the neon lights of Kurfürstendamm and the impoverished working-class areas. Schnabel was going on forty and increasingly attracted to spending time with young- er musicians, students at the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Music. These institutions had engaged the avant-garde composers Arnold Schoenberg and Franz Schreker as professors, and the latter, in particular, had brought a number of students with him from Vienna. These young musicians were energetic and creative, and met with Schna- bel at least once a week to play their own compositions or listen to him play for them. “We 4 Artur Schnabel 5 talked and discussed the works until three or four o’clock in the morning and had a good time,” Schnabel recounted. Two young composers in this group were Ernst Krenek and Edu- ard Erdmann. According to Schnabel’s biographer César Saerchinger, “these youngsters were complete- ly uninhibited by the romantic tradition and the ‘decadent’ respectability of their elders. To them, Schnabel was the singular phenomenon of a middle-aged intellectual who delighted in the antics of the young, an artistic grand seigneur who could be as radical as the best—or the ‘worst’—of them. He respected Schoenberg and admired his inte llect, but he loved the Kreneks and Erdmanns who in turn admired him.” Schnabel composed his Sonata for Solo Violin in 1919. Written in an atonal, freely chro- matic idiom, it is in fi ve movements and of nearly fi fty minutes in duration. The music is pro- found, uncompromising, and creates a musical universe in which the technical and timbral demands on the instrumentalist are taken to an extreme. Remarkable is the absence of bar lines and a profusion of performance directions. In a letter to Carl Flesch, dated 7 August 1919, Schnabel wrote: “I wanted to give violinists the possibility of freeing themselves from the necessity to pad out their programs with ‘minuetlet’—and similar arrangements and to loosen their ties with the frequently intruding accompanist.” In a subsequent letter he described his own music as “salon music” in comparison to that of Arnold Schoenberg, and stated that if “there will be—in theory—at most three or four violinists able and willing to play the work, and perhaps only experts and connoisseurs … capable of enjoying it, then … this would be quite suffi cient for me.” Carl Flesch, who premiered the work in November 1920, included the third movement in the second volume of his The Art of Violin Playing. The poignant and touching fi rst movement begins with a fervent and melancholy theme that builds up to an emotional climax marked verzweifelt (distraught). Passionate, 6 uneasy, intimate, highly declamatory, and insistent, the movement closes with a lone pia- nissimo pizzicato. The short second movement is a lively and joyful dance, and serves as a welcome reprieve to the ruminating, extensive fi rst movement. Carl Flesch described the middle section of the third movement: “Lying on our backs on soft moss in the forest, we listened to the mysterious buzzing, spinning, chirping, and murmuring of the animal and plant life.” The fourth movement is a brilliant perpetuum mobile that frames a decadent waltz in 5/8 time. The expansive last movement begins with a recitando theme that then spins out in a stream-of-consciousness fashion until it culminates in a fugue. A restatement of the theme of the fi rst movement brings this epic work to a stunning conclusion. Born in Wenden (Cēsis) in the Governorate of Livonia in 1898, Eduard Erdmann stemmed from a family of professors and philosophers. In 1914 he went to Berlin, where he studied piano with Conrad Ansorge and composition with Heinz Tiessen. Erdmann, a very large man with long arms, huge angular shoulders, and abnormally large hands, was considered highly gifted, albeit somewhat eccentric, and quickly earned a reputation as a pianist and composer. In January 1919 the young Australian violinist Alma Moodie came to Berlin to study with Carl Flesch. Flesch had a special fondness for Alma: “amongst all the pupils in my course I liked Alma Moodie best.” After a brief period of study, her debut was organized and, in Flesch’s words, “caused a sensation.” She was an extraordinary talent and invited comparison to the greatest living violinists. By 1920 she was established in Berlin and would become an important advocate of contemporary music in Germany in the decades to come. In 1921, she premiered Eduard Erdmann’s Sonata for Violin Solo, Op. 12 in Berlin. Following this performance, the piece was regularly included on her recital programs. 7 Eduard Erdmann 8 Even though Erdmann is remembered mainly for his outstanding piano playing, he saw himself fi rst and foremost as a composer. His Sonata for Violin Solo was written in 1920/21 and can be described as atonal, yet traditional in its melodic and formal understanding. The distinctive melodies and their motivic framework invite free association; the sonata is divided into numerous expressive motivic blocks that, in their arch-like structure, form a powerful unity. In his handwritten “Instructions,” Erdmann states that “in the fi rst movement, one should pay very close attention to the cohesion, the inner fl ow of the four main sections,” additionally pointing out that “the further development of the fi rst main idea is to be ‘sung’ melodically intensive as a whole.” Moreover, “the capricious, free second theme must permeate the work’s development, which is to be dramatically fashioned as a single ar- chitectonic entity […] In the second movement, the contrasts of the heterogeneous elements must be incisively underscored—but at the same time consolidated.” Concerning the slow movement, he says that “the entire third section must seem like a single melodic gestalt,” and “the fourth movement must be played throughout with wit and spirit.” The friendship and collaboration between Alma Moodie and Eduard Erdmann began in the early twenties and endured until their last concert together in 1943, three days before her death, in the midst of a cycle of Beethoven sonatas. English critic Walter Turner, who experienced them in London in 1934, called them the “best violin piano duo” he had ever heard. It therefore seems fi tting to close with an excerpt from a letter from Moodie to Carl Flesch, dated 30 July 1921: “To collaborate with Erdmann is a wonderful experience. One would never suspect from his somewhat neglected appearance how fastidious he is in his art and how much work he can get done within the space of an hour. Marvelously matter of fact and in addition so free from technical problems that one needs to think of nothing but the work at hand. Apart 9 from this he is pretty impossible and madly funny—an enfant terrible accompli, creates incredible mischief not without burning his fi ngers now and again, causes me fabulous em- barrassment, eats for twenty, becomes fatter by the day, sweats incessantly—but for all that is what I call a ‘valuable human being,’ so absolutely intelligent and decent through and through. One can only laugh and ask oneself in wonderment—what made nature create a person like him?” Thus, with this CD, I present a musical message in a bottle. The authors: Artur Schnabel and Eduard Erdmann. The timestamp: Berlin, 1919–1923. Judith Ingolfsson – Berlin, 2019 10 Judith Ingolfsson Biographical Notes Violinist Judith Ingolfsson is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, uncompromising musical maturity, and charismatic performance style. Based in Berlin and enjoying a global career, she performs regularly as a soloist chamber musician as well as in recitals as part of Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel, founded in 2006. Judith Ingolfsson appears regularly at major concert venues throughout the world, in- cluding Konzerthaus Berlin, Tokyo Opera City, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Carnegie Hall in New York. Concert tours have taken her throughout the United States as well as Europe, Israel, Iceland, Russia, China, Taiwan, Hong-Kong, Macao, Japan, Canada, Puerto Rico, Panama and Brazil.

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