Schwarz-Schilling

Reinhard SCHWARZ-SCHILLING Violin Concerto • Partita • Polonaise Kirill Troussov, Violin Staatskapelle Weimar • José Serebrier Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling (1904-1985) developments; rather they are ‘motion impulses’ the Niedersächsisches Landesorchester, conducted by Orchestral Works • 2 which strive towards concise dance-like forms, Fritz Lehmann, at the Pyrmont Music Festival on 28 without any stylizing or historicizing intention. August 1936. There has been no second performance Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling was one of the composers of works written before the war, and his only solo concerto. ‘Dance-like’ here also refers to the majestic until the première recording of the work by the the ‘lost generation’ in Germany whose career was greatly There is a considerable stylistic gap between the two striding of the (thematically single-bar articulated) Staatskapelle Weimar conducted by José Serebrier. affected by the course of history. Considered one of the works from 1934-35 (Partita) and 1936 (Polonaise) and Entrata as well as the following three-section Schwarz-Schilling left the following comment on the score most promising talents as a young man, he scaled the the Violin Concerto, which was completed in 1953 – the Allegro, which frames a calm, melodic-rhapsodic of the Polonaise: “Unrevised score, no definitive version! heights of contrapuntal skill and sovereign mastery of latter is more dissonant, structurally purer, more austere central segment, where the concertino acts in a Not to be published!” larger forms in his String Quartet in F minor, stylistically and, at the same time, more expressionistic – the solo capacity for the first time (and remains Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling’s Violin Concerto, spanning the arc from Bach via Beethoven, Bruckner and Kaminski-related hymnic feature, the emphatic obbligato in the varied repetition of the Allegro). completed in 1953, with the definitive solo cadenza Kaminski to his own vision, when he was 28 years old. connection to the great German contrapuntal tradition, is The second movement employs only the three worked out in collaboration with Leon Spierer in 1966, is But the Third Reich and Second World War were noticeable only occasionally. solo strings, as well as woodwinds, horn and one of his most played compositions, requiring a first rate destructive turning-points, and after the war any music In his expansive String Quartet in F minor (1932), harp. The following Canzona brings in the whole soloist and a first rate and wide-awake orchestra and based on tonality was held by dogmatic opinion-makers to which is perfectly suited for string orchestra in its complex orchestra again; the first chorale-like conductor. It is not an easy piece, but very rewarding and be ‘anachronistic’. It is only recently that we have begun construction, Schwarz-Schilling had presented his first development is followed by a more flowing stylistically unique. The Violin Concerto was first to view creative pluralism at a time of ideological trench large instrumental composition in an unmistakably section. Having merged into former sections performed by concert master Siegfried Borries and the warfare in a new light. personal style, a truly coherent large-scale composition. which are now altered and extended, the Berlin Philharmonic under Joseph Keilberth in Berlin on Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling was a man whose With his Partita of 1934-35, he produced his first movement dies away quietly. The introduction to 28 February 1954. This was followed by repeated integrity, discretion, and courage of his convictions orchestral work that led to immediate and initially wide- the Rondo begins attacca and recalls the start of performances in concert and on radio by Wolfgang deserve the greatest admiration. Through his mentor ranging success. It is evidence of highly elaborate the Entrata. In the Allegretto giocoso, oboe and Marschner, Saschko Gawriloff and Leon Spierer, who Heinrich Kaminski (1886-1946) he had found not only his polyphonic artistry, based on powerfully resonating and bassoon introduce the Rondo theme, varied made the first commercial recording of the work. In 1974 artistic direction, but also the woman in his life: Dusza von individually coloured harmony. The world première of the many times in the course of the movement. A Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling left the following comment on Hakrid, an excellent concert pianist from Poland. Only Partita was conducted by Hellmut Schnackenberg in remarkable interpolation is made by a Grave his Violin Concerto: long after the death of the couple did the world get to Wuppertal-Barmen on 15 February 1935, and as early as section, where the trumpet gives the Rondo know that she was of Jewish descent, as a result of the 1936 it received its New York première under Dante theme a modified, heavy character. An enhanced “The origins of my Violin Concerto go back to the research of their son Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who Fiorillo (1905-70). Distinguished musicians such as Heinz Allegro takes up the dance game again. To these war years. The first entrance of the soloist was served as a minister in the German federal government Schubert and Joseph Keilberth included it in their remarks on formal aspects one could add that the clearly etched in my mind from the very and as High Representative of the United Nations in repertoire, and Eugen Jochum repeatedly programmed it score avoids chordal underpinnings in favour of beginning as a theme for my compositional Bosnia Herzegovina, and who is today better known than with the Berlin Philharmonic before and after the war. the linear flow of the participating voices.” design. At the same time, I could hear within the his father. It was only due to a courageous official in the Schwarz-Schilling commented on his Partita as follows: theme a contrasting orchestral introduction, in Upper Bavarian town of Kochel, who had falsified her The compact and concisely constructed Polonaise for which I sought to attain an instrumental colour documents, that the family was saved from the Nazi “Even the orchestration shows a tendency more orchestra bears the subtitle Pyrmonter Kurmusik. It was wholly devoid of individuality. What I favoured terror. Until the end of the war they lived in fear of being towards the orchestra of Bach than to that of the composed in 1936 as a light and at the same time instead was a vividly sculpted entrance for the found out, frequently interrogated by the Gestapo. But classical symphony. The orchestration is sophisticated piece for the Pyrmont Music Festival. With solo violin, which in turn provokes a concertante even in times of greatest danger and fear Schwarz- restricted to single woodwinds, 2 French horns, 2 all its melismatic artisanship it is a simpler successor to performance from the orchestra. The stylistic Schilling, who taught at the Berlin Academy of Music, trumpets and strings, including a solo concertino the dance-like idioms of the Partita and an occasional fabric so typical of this work results from the never joined the Nazi party. of violin, viola, and cello. From the second work that Schwarz-Schilling could also use in order to pay violin’s urge to maintain its leadership throughout After the two symphonies, both post-war works (from movement onwards, a harp joins in, and in the creative tribute to the homeland of his wife. The the emerging counterpoint. I completely 1957 and 1963), and the string orchestra version of the finale the percussion is expanded by xylophone, rhythmically jagged main character (Tempo giusto) dispensed with filler parts in the orchestral first movement, Introduction and Fugue, derived from his glockenspiel, tambourine, and other percussion frames a quieter Trio, melodically and, in its subtle writing; everywhere the finished texture derives 1932 String Quartet, this second volume of Schwarz- instruments. The name Partita indicates that the woodwind setting, reminiscent of Franz Schubert, which is from motion bearing the imprint of the motivic Schilling’s orchestral works presents both the orchestral forms are not based on symphonic sonata-like repeated in its entirety. The Polonaise was premiered by material. From the first entrance of the soloist – Allegro vivo – the movement is developed in contrasted by a more extensively realized fugato Kirill Troussov three sections. The beginning of the slower of the tutti strings (the theme results from new central part is clearly marked by a fanfare-like combinations of existing motivic particles). After Born in St Petersburg, Kirill Troussov took his first violin theme in the trumpet. After the resumption of the the solo violin’s re-entrance, joined by the winds, lessons at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory at the age fast tempo, elements of the introduction and the freely extended recapitulation ends with a of four, going on to study with Zakhar Bron and Christoph central section are further developed. Shortly coda-like conclusion. The tonal language of the Poppen and to win first prize at the Yehudi Menuhin, Oleg before the end a solo cadenza again work may facilitate comprehension; at the same Kagan and the Wieniawski violin competitions. He has concentrates the motivic material. The slow time it demands a mentally active participation appeared as a soloist with international orchestras movement – Aria – is framed by an identical from the listener.” including the Munich Philharmonic, Bamberger introduction and closing section that embrace a Symphony, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Leipzig three part Adagio; the recurring trumpet fanfare The leading Berlin critic Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt Gewandhaus, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de articulates the beginnings of the different wrote about the Violin Concerto after the Berlin première Paris and Orchestre National de Montpellier under the sections. The central part belongs to the tutti, in 1954: direction of such conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, whereas before and after it the soloist leads. With Daniele Gatti, Lawrence Foster, Jiri Belohlávek, Vladimir the exception of a few linking bars, the whole “The rigorous spirituality of his language and the Spivakov, Mikko Frank and Louis Langrée.

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