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Contents:
DDD Total Time = 78:20 Recorded: Charterhouse Hall, Godalming Surrey 5-7
April 1999. [1] St Silas, Chalk Farm, London April 1999. [3] The Church of the Sacred
Heart,Wimbledon, London May 1999. During the First World War, Zurich rapidly became the natural meeting-point for all those who wished to escape from their own conflict-ridden homelands. Its neutrality was enhanced by its position at the centre of Europe – in both geographical and cultural terms. The actor Alexander Moissi, the writers James Joyce, Franz Werfel and René Schickele, the composers Eugen d’Albert, Philipp Jarnach and Ferruccio Busoni, the soon-to-be Dadaists Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara and Hans Richter and many others all found their way to Zurich. Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) was in Berlin when war broke out. On 3 January 1915 he travelled to America, where a pre-war contract bound him to a concert tour. But he was unhappy there, and when Italy declared war on its supposed ally Austria in 1915, his depression increased. He felt equally at home in both the Italian- and the German-speaking worlds, and his absence from Europe was attacked by citizens of both his homelands as tantamount to treachery. In autumn 1915, he thus decided to go to neutral Switzerland, ‘just for a while’, as he said. He remained there until 1920, when he was offered and accepted a masterclass for composition in Berlin; it was there that he died in 1924. Busoni’s Zurich years are well documented. Here, he wrote the opera Turandot and worked on his masterpiece, Doktor Faustus. But he also exercized an immense influence on his fellow musicians in the city. Busoni’s own works are well represented on CD; the purpose of the present recording is rather to portray the Zurich music scene of his day, using documents from the Zentralbibliothek Zürich (the Zurich Central Library), which houses the largest collection of music manuscripts in Switzerland. Besides the manuscripts of the works by Busoni and Jarnach recorded here, the Library also possess the estates of Othmar Schoeck, Czeslaw Marek, Marcel Sulzbergger, Emil Frey and Hans Jelmoli. Busoni and Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) apparently became acquainted in early 1916. Schoeck had studied in Zurich, then with Max Reger in Leipzig, and was a devotee of the songs of Hugo Wolf. Busoni, on the other hand, could not bear Wolf’s music, a fact he made quite clear. Their differences, however, were soon replaced by mutual professional respect, and even a certain degree of affection. It was at Busoni’s suggestion that Schoeck took Holberg’s Don Ranudo de Colibrados as the subject-matter for an opera in late 1916. Schoeck’s next work for the stage was in fact written to a text by Busoni himself: Das Wandbild (The Picture on the Wall), after a tale that Busoni’s pupil Philipp Jarnach had discovered in a volume of Chinese fairy stories. Busoni wrote the libretto for Jarnach himself, but the latter found the mixture of pantomime, song and spoken text not to his liking, and turned it down. Busoni thereupon offered it to Schoeck, who seems to have taken it as a challenge. That same month (June 1918), he set aside the orchestration of Don Ranudo in order to compose Das Wandbild in a mere three days. The opera takes place in a Parisian antique shop in around 1830, where the student Novalis stands fascinated by a picture of a girl that is hanging on the wall. The picture comes to life, at which the scene changes to an exotic Chinese temple. The opera closes as Novalis wakes from his dream and flees from the shop. We have here recorded the little overture to the opera, played in the original by celeste solo. It is one of Schoeck’s strangest inspirations, almost minimalist in its conception. We furthermore include on this CD the first-ever recording of Schoeck’s Scherzo for string trio, his only completed piece for this instrumental combination, and also written at this time (a sketch for it is to be found amongst the drafts for Don Ranudo). Philipp Jarnach (1892-1982) is represented here by his Christ on Olympus for string quartet, composed in December 1917. Jarnach had arrived in Zurich in 1914, and taught counterpoint at the local conservatory. His students there included Paul Müller-Zürich and Max Kuhn (whose estates are also held by the Zentralbibliothek; works by these composers can be heard on GMCD 7177 and GMCD 7153 respectively). One of Jarnach’s colleagues at the conservatory was Emil Frey (1889-1946). His relationship to Busoni is admittedly peripheral, but we have included him because their paths crossed several times, and because Frey too was forced to remove to Zurich during the First World War. Frey was born in Baden (near Zurich) in 1889 and studied first in Geneva, then with Gabriel Fauré and Charles-Marie Widor in Paris, where he won the ‘premier prix de piano’ in 1906. In 1907 he moved to Berlin to make his living as a concert pianist – as, of course, did Busoni, who was resident in the same city. In 1910, Frey won the Rubinstein Prize for Composition in St Petersburg, and from 1912 to 1917 was professor of the Virtuoso Class at the Moscow Conservatory. The events of 1917 forced him to return to Zurich, whereafter he taught at the local conservatory until his death. The work by Frey recorded here – his Fantasy on O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden – was written during his years in Moscow. It is of particular interest to us, since he takes a chorale by Johann Sebastian Bach as his starting point, as did Busoni on so many occasions. The two men were thus bound not just by a common profession and by their common residence in Berlin and Zurich, but also by a similar aesthetic. The Polish pianist and composer Czeslaw Marek (1891-1985) was born in Lemberg. He studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky and composition with Karl Weigl and Hans Pfitzner (the latter, incidentally, being Busoni’s self-appointed enemy). Marek fled to Zurich in January 1915 when he feared that he might be called up to fight in the Austrian army. He first met Busoni in early 1916, and thereafter visited him on a regular basis, receiving much healthy advice as both a pianist and as a composer. As in the case of Busoni, almost all of Marek’s works are today available on CD. We therefore include here the first recordings of two miniatures that were written some time after Marek’s regular visits to Busoni, but which nevertheless are stylistically typical for his music of that period. Hans Jelmoli (1877-1936) was born in Zurich to a well-to-do family. From 1896 to 1898, he studied with Ivan Knorr and Engelbert Humperdinck at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, and then worked from 1898 to 1900 as capellmeister in Mainz and Würzburg. He then returned to Zurich, living as a freelance composer, pianist and music journalist. Jelmoli was a great admirer of Busoni, who in turn seems to have had a healthy respect for him. But awe and a certain shyness seem to have prevented Jelmoli from ever seeking closer contact with his idol. We have here recorded Jelmoli’s Variations on a theme by Rameau, written in around 1918. We do not know whether Jelmoli’s decision to take a theme from the Baroque as the musical germ of his work is a result of Busoni’s influence, but it is perfectly possible. Marcel H. S. Sulzberger is a truly enigmatic figure. He was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1876 to German-speaking Swiss parents, but later took on a French persona, calling himself ‘Marcel’. He proceeded to construct a web of lies and half-truths about his origins, his studies, even his year of birth. He studied at the Zurich Conservatory at the same time as Schoeck, then continued his studies in Paris. It was there that Sulzberger enjoyed his first – and only – success as a composer. He returned to Zurich in 1913, apparently against his better judgement, though the reasons for the move are not clear. There he remained until his death in 1941, working (like Jelmoli) as a freelance pianist, composer and music journalist. Sulzberger was a remarkably gifted man. He mastered seven languages (including Sanskrit) and was a talented sportsman, even taking part in the Tour de Suisse. As a composer, he was the first ever Swiss to abandon tonality (in around 1907) and he later worked with the Dadaists in Zurich. His music, however, was considered far too avant-garde in Switzerland. Only Busoni gave him encouragement, which Sulzberger repaid with untiring devotion to Busoni’s music and ideals. The Violin Sonata recorded here was completed in 1919. It seems to have had only one performance, in Paris on 22 February 1924; Suzanne Suter-Sapin played the violin, accompanied by Walter Lang on the piano. The fact that this sonata has not been heard for over seventy years is a matter of great regret, for it is Sulzberger’s most fascinating work, reminding one in its harmony now of Fauré, now of the Second Viennese School, yet without ever sacrificing its own individuality. Much has been written about the famous artists who fled to Zurich in the First World War, but many others have since been forgotten. We hope that this CD gives an accurate picture of musical life in Zurich at that time by bringing into the spotlight several lesser-known figures, some of them immigrants, some natives. They did not, perhaps, attain the fame of Busoni or even Othmar Schoeck, but this CD provides ample evidence of the high quality of their work, and they cannot be ignored if one is to gain a clearer picture of the times in which they and their more famous contemporaries all lived and worked. Page revised Thursday September 21 2006 |
