Paul Müller-Zürich was born in Zurich on 19 June 1898. He studied with Philipp Jarnach and Volkmar Andreae at the Zurich Conservatory, then with Jean Batalla in Paris. Müller-Zürich was appointed to the Zurich Conservatory in 1927 as a lecturer in music theory, and remained there until 1968. As teacher, conductor, composer and organiser he belonged to the most significant personalities in Swiss musical life in the twentieth century. He was awarded the Music Prize of the city of Zurich in 1953 and in 1958 received the composition prize of the Swiss Musicians’ Association, whose president he became in 1960. Paul Müller-Zürich died in Zurich on 21 July 1993. His manuscripts lie today in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich.

This CD offers a broad overview of Paul Müller-Zürich’s oeuvre, from his early piano pieces to his Serenata turicensis, one of his last works. The Six Piano Pieces op. 10 were written between 1924 and 1926, and show Müller’s evolution away from late-Romanticism (as favoured by some of his teachers) to the neo-Baroque. This development is reflected in the titles of some of the pieces themselves. Both the title and the musical content of the ‘Elegy’ remind one of Müller’s fellow Swiss, Othmar Schoeck. Its opening could even be interpreted as a variation on Schoeck’s Consolation for piano solo of 1919 (even the key is the same: e flat minor). The ‘Invention’, on the other hand, while harmonically close to the ‘Elegy’, mimics rhythms of the Baroque and is in fact a French Overture en miniature.

The Concerto in f minor for Viola and Small Orchestra was written in 1934 at the suggestion of Alexander Schaichet, who had founded the Zurich Chamber Orchestra in 1920. In contrast to the piano pieces op. 10, this work is truly neo-Baroque in character. Thematically and rhythmically, the work reminds one of Johann Sebastian Bach, though the motoric pulse of the fast movements betrays the influence of Hindemith. Müller also uses Baroque forms; thus, the second movement is a passacaglia, while the fourth (and last) movement bears the title ‘Alla giga’. Willi Schuh wrote the following after the world première on 24 January 1935: ‘In his f minor concerto, Paul Müller shows that he has been influenced by the spirit of Bach and his contemporaries, and by the strict, concrete nature of their structures and their thematic working. Yet he shows in exemplary fashion that he is his own man, and a musician of our time. The manner in which Müller is able to unite constructive and expressive elements, outline and colour, linearity and harmony displays an exceptional power of synthesis . . .’

The Piano Quartet op. 26 was composed in 1937, and revised in 1971. The first movement, Präludium, is unmistakably neo-Baroque in character. The tarantella-like second movement is peppered with inversions, canons and the like, but the listener is so swept along by the general momentum of the music that he barely notices all the technical twists. The Sonata for Violin and Piano op. 32, written in 1941, is stylistically close to both the Concerto and the Piano Quartet. Here, too, one can admire Müller’s prodigious contrapuntal prowess on every page. Although counterpoint is not used as a mere means to an end, Müller does seem to have recognized the possibility of just such a danger, for this work is somewhat less rigorous in style than its forbears. To be sure, the lyrical side of Müller’s muse had never been extinguished by his neo-Baroque formulas, though it is certainly allowed greater prominence here than in certain of his works from the 1930s.

Paul Müller’s late music is here represented by the Serenata turicensis. It is conceived in three short movements, and was written in 1981 as the ‘New Year’s Piece’ of the Zurich General Music Society (Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Zürich), the oldest such society in the city. It was first performed on 2 January 1982 in Zurich. The unusual instrumentation – basset horn, viola and cello – can be explained by Müller’s friendship with Hans Rudolf Stalder, one of Switzerland’s leading clarinettists and a champion of the basset horn, who inspired several composers to write for this neglected instrument.

Müller’s oeuvre includes almost all genres, from large-scale works for music theatre to chorale preludes for organ. Although he retained an open mind regarding the stylistic and technical progress that took place during his lifetime, he maintained a critical distance as a composer, as will be clear from the works on this CD. On the occasion of the première of his Second String Quartet, Müller summed up his aesthetic as follows: ‘For me, tradition does not mean stasis, but change and growth. With a composer of today whose work remains tonal, and who even maintains the triad as the basis for his harmony, it could appear that he stays bound to tradition for reasons of comfort, or because using laws passed down by others make him feel safe. But in his work, he finds that the striving for tonal order, which cannot be attained through the mere use of rules, constantly confronts him with new questions and new decisions. And for these, there is no simple answer.’ Müller’s gift for breathing new life into old forms and structures will be evident upon listening to the works on this CD; it is also one of the reasons for the enduring fascination of his music.