Reger Hindemith Pochon Stravinsky Christian Euler
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VIOLASOLO REGER Suites Op 131d HINDEMITH Sonata (1937) POCHON Passacaglia STRAVI N SKY Elegy CHRISTIAN EULER VIOLA MDG-ViolaSolo_Euler_2020-RZ.indd 1 24.01.20 12:36 Christian Euler, viola Production: Werner Dabringhaus, Viola Solo Reimund Grimm Recording Supervisor: Friedrich Wilhelm Max Reger (1873-1916) Max Reger (1873-1916) Rödding Suite für Bratsche allein Opus 131d, 1 11‘49 Suite für Bratsche allein Opus 131d, 3 9‘25 Recording: 25.-27.09.2019 G minor / sol mineur / g-Moll E minor / mi mineur / e-Moll Konzerthaus der Abtei Marienmünster 1 Molto sostenuto 4‘12 13 Moderato 3‘00 Piano Tuning: Thorsten Kohring 2 Vivace 3‘17 14 Vivace 2‘04 © Text: Elisabeth Deckers 3 Andante sostenuto 2‘59 15 Adagio 2‘38 © Foto Euler: wildundleise.de 4 Molto vivace 1‘17 16 Allegro vivace 1‘42 Dabringhaus und Grimm Audiovision Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) GmbH, Bachstr. 35, D-32756 Detmold Sonate für Bratsche allein (1937) 14‘32 Élégie für Viola Solo Tel.: +49-(0)5231-93890 5 Lebhafte Halbe 3‘56 17 Lento 4‘53 Fax: +49-(0)5231-26186 6 Langsame Viertel – Lebhaft 5‘59 email: [email protected] 7 Mäßig schnelle Viertel 4‘35 Total Time: 58‘57 Internet: http://www.mdg.de Max Reger (1873-1916) ©+® 2020, MDG, Made in Germany Suite für Bratsche allein Opus 131d, 2 10‘07 D major / ré majeur / D-Dur MDG 903 2160-6 8 Con moto 2‘20 9 Andante 3‘20 10 Allegretto 1‘38 11 Vivace 2‘46 Alfred Pochon (1878-1959) Passacaglia pour Alto seul 12 Sostenuto ed espressivo 8‘10 is a trademark of Dabringhaus und Grimm Audiovision GmbH 2 3 Works for solo viola: and organist. All his life he gave count- chastity belt for me. You must be able to Reger, Hinde mith, Pochon, Stravinsky less concerts on both instruments – often spin (melody, that is)!” The performer was MDG - In determining the eras of music history performing his own works on the organ, then left with the task of reconciling the Our Sound Ideal and the stylistic features typical of a particu- or accompanying his songs and playing his melody with the seemingly fragmented lar era, musicologists date the beginning of chamber music on the piano. harmony by means of emphasis on the All MDG recordings are produced in the “Modern” era at 1890 or thereabouts. Reger was someone who must have “important” notes. Reger soon had six the natural acoustics of spe cially It was the time at which such composers as lived his life under high tension. Outwardly Preludes and Fugues ready, giving them chosen concert halls. It goes without Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss and Claude he was notoriously at odds with his life, the opus number 131 a. They were soon saying that our audio phile label Debussy made their breakthrough. The being highly sensitive and not easy to get followed by the Duos “in the old style” for refrains from any sort of soundmodi- early works of Arnold Schoenberg can be on with. He was a musician who worked two violins, op. 131 b. fying manipulation with reverb- assigned to this category. The move away without a break, composing, teaching, Returning to his life as conductor in eration, sound filters, or limiters. from the Romantic era had long been conducting, organizing performances of Meiningen, teacher in Leipzig and com- anticipated, notably in the music of Richard his works, moving on from one place to the poser of new works, Reger found himself Wagner. The new compositions explored next. The assumption must be that these plunged into a creative crisis at the start of We aim at genuine reproduction with the potential of an extended harmony in constant activities, like his dependence the First World War. He was horrified and precise depth gradation, original which the original propositions of structure upon alcohol, represented an attempt to bewildered by the jingoistic patriotism with dynamics, and natural tone colors. It and such questions as the underlying key or escape himself. Psychologically vulnerable which he was surrounded. Back he went is thus that each work acquires its harmonic principles of a composition could since his youth, he died an early death at to Bach, writing the three Suites for cello musically appropriate spatial dimen- be set aside. Such a break with tradition the age of 43. solo op. 131 c. sion and that the artistic interpretation made the old forms such as the symphony In Reger’s often turbulent life, one icon After the family moved to Jena in attains to the greatest possible or sonata appear obsolete. stood out above all others: Johann Sebas- March 1915 he gradually recovered, helped natural ness and vividness. tian Bach. He returned to Bach whenever by the fact that the concert series sus- Max Reger he found himself in crisis. All the many pended at the outbreak of war were being Born in 1873, the young Max Reger forms of harmony are to be found in Bach, resumed. His Jena period yielded the three sought his own answers to the questions Reger maintained, he himself had invented Viola Suites, presumably to complement thrown up by this time of change. He devel- nothing new – this was his credo, the rock the solo pieces for violin and cello with oped his personal style, no longer relating to which he clung. works for the intermediate string instru- Complete information about MDG harmonic structures to one another but Recuperating from a nervous break- ment. Accordingly the suites were tacked productions - cata logue, booklets, linking them to the flow of the melody. At down, Reger spent the spring of 1914 in on to his current opus number as “131 d”. table of contents - are available for the same time he renounced established Meran (then in Austria, now Merano in “Suite” is the Baroque description for consultation by the visually im paired genres such as symphony and opera, Italy). This was a time in which he devoted a sequence of dance movements. Reger in Braille and on data bases. previously regarded as the central pillars himself, as during former periods of retreat, declines to assign Baroque dance forms to of a composer’s repertoire. Meanwhile, he to composition for solo strings. “Compos- the four movements of each suite, provid- earned an excellent reputation as a pianist ing for solo violin is a kind of musical ing only a tempo marking. The essentially 4 5 Romantic designation “espressivo” also reaction to the horrors of the Great War from a personal W.C. to a slot in the wall appears frequently. The individual move- and propagated a clean break with tradi- for used razor blades.” Having finished the ments are laid out in ternary form, the tion, duly influenced Hindemith’s musical Sonata, Hindemith successfully premiered opening part being repeated note for note development. As a composer, he was not it in the Chicago Arts Club later that day. at the end, in perpetuation of the Baroque averse to parody and grotesquerie, gladly It was a time when Hindemith was “da capo” form ABA. He again cleaves to playing the enfant terrible. His Sonata for seriously thinking of emigrating to America, the Baroque in his “minuet movements” solo viola op. 25/1 is notorious to this day which he eventually did, seeing that as a with contrasting middle sections marked on account of its performance instruction “degenerate artist” he had no future in by changes of key and long notes. Reger for the last movement: “At breakneck Germany. He resigned his chair at the Hoch- frequently resorts to double-stopping, speed. Wild. Euphony is secondary.” schule für Musik in Berlin shortly before his and his passages in thirds often exhale a Hindemith’s viola playing was of the very trip across the Atlantic and left the country Romantic fragrance. The purely solo pas- highest standard. A quick writer in general in 1938, settling at first in Switzerland. sages often suggest two-part writing by when it came to composing (his publisher The sonata he wrote in America is spe- switching between high and low register Schott could always rely on his compliance cifically tailored to the abilities of Hindemith in a form of dialogue. with the agreed delivery dates), he was as a violist. This is made all the clearer to the He dedicated the Suites to three dif- particularly speedy in the case of the viola. listener by the traditional three-movement ferent friends: the physician Prof. Heinrich Paul Hindemith He wrote extremely difficult movements in layout, in which the different sections of Walther in Giessen, who had frequently the train between Frankfurt and Cologne each movement display to the full the com- invited him to direct the Giessen Concert himself while studying by playing the violin and promptly performed them. In his 1931 poser’s skill and the artist’s virtuosity – from Society; the Bückeburg court music direc- in café orchestras and similar ensembles, Sonata op. 31/4, he raised the bar so high double-stopping and arpeggios across all tor, Richard Sahla; and Josef Hösl, the highly and proved himself so proficient that at with his self-imposed technical challenges the strings to the pizzicato middle section esteemed violinist and his friend from the age of twenty he was offered the that he elected to write an “alternative” for of the slow movement. Hindemith goes Munich days, who had taken part in various position of leader in the Frankfurt Opera the concerts he was invited to give in the very much further than Reger in the liber- Reger premieres as a chamber musician.