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DDD 78:18 Recorded: St Silas Church, Chalk Farm – 27 April 1999 (tracks 1, 4, 8 & 9) and St Paul’s School, Barnes, London (remaining tracks) The Swiss composer, pianist and pedagogue Johann Karl Eschmann is a little-known figure in 19th-century German music, but he is by no means an insignificant one, for he was one of the few musicians friendly with both Wagner and Brahms, and was admired by both of them. Perhaps he suffered from these dual sympathies, for the Wagnerians thought he was too close to the opposite camp, as it were, and Brahms’s followers felt he embraced too readily the new school of music. Eschmann was neither a disciple of Wagner, nor of Brahms, but recognised the genius in both men. If anything, Eschmann’s art arose from the school of Mendelssohn and Schumann, but his music never slavishly imitated that of those early Romantic masters. Eschmann was born into a musical family at Wintherthur on April 12th, 1826. His father was kapellmeister to the military choir in Zurich, and a younger sister, Henriette (1829-1896) became a noted music-teacher. Johann exhibited musical proclivities from an early age and, having been born within a musically sympathetic environment, such was his aptitude that his father arranged for him to take lessons initially with Wagner’s friend, Alexander Müller, in Zurich. He progressed rapidly, and was enrolled as a pupil at the relatively new Conservatoire in Leipzig in 1845. The musical life of Leipzig in those days focussed upon four main centres: the Tomaskirke, where JS Bach had been cantor from 1723 until his death in 1750; the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the oldest-established symphony orchestra in the world, of which Mendelssohn was chief conductor; the Opera House and the new Conservatoire, under the direct patronage of the King of Saxony, Frederick August II, which had opened in April 1843 with Mendelssohn its founder and first director. Leipzig therefore offered young musicians an excellent environment in which they could develop their potential, and Eschmann was no exception. At the Conservatoire, Eschmann at first had lessons from Mendelssohn himself, and when Ignaz Moscheles joined the staff in 1846, Eschmann became one of his pupils, studying piano and composition. He returned to Zurich in 1847, and for the next three years taught piano and composition himself there, before moving to Winterthur in 1850, where, during almost ten years in his home city, Eschmann’s reputation grew considerably. Fleeing Germany in 1849, Wagner sought exile in Zurich, and Eschmann was drawn into Wagner’s circle, along with a group of fellow-composers and artists. Wagner saw Eschmann relatively frequently, and during this period Eschmann produced a distinguished body of work, including a large amount of solo piano music, chamber music and songs. He also appeared as a pianist in concerts promoted by the Allgemeinen Musik-Gesellschaft in Zurich during this period, and, with Wagner, was in the forefront of the musical life of Zurich throughout the 1850s, as pianist, composer, conductor and choral director. Around 1865, Eschmann returned to Zurich, where he taught until his death. In April 1878, Brahms wrote to his publishers Simrock, praising Eschmann’s music in glowing terms, as a result of which Simrock published Eschmann’s set of pieces, perhaps his most forward-looking music, Licht und Schatten (‘Light and Shade’). Amongst Eschmann’s other works are an impressive String Quartet in D minor, republished in 2000, and an early set of Fantasiestücke for Violin and Piano, Opus 9, recorded on Guild GMCD 7171. Eschmann published a noted manual: Wegweiser durch die Klavierliteratur (Zurich 1879, 8th edition 1914), and also ‘100 Aphorismen aus dem Klavierunterricht’ (2nd ed., 1899) The solo piano music on this record makes a representative selection from Eschmann’s output. We begin with the Caprice-EtudeOpus 36, in D minor, whose solemn opening octaves provide the basic material for the entire piece, which soon flowers into more lyrical, and later dramatic, paragraphs. The work is hardly ‘capricious’ in the generally-accepted sense of the term; its’ early treatment is rather Chopinesque, as we might expect, and the variety of mood engendered by the development of that opening phrase provides a sense of chiaroscuro – a fine example of early Romanticism, becoming almost Lisztian in its florid technical demands as the work approaches the coda. Eschmann’s Opus 1, a set of Poesie-Blumen, tends to look more towards Mendelssohn and, at times, especially Schumann. We must admire the poetry and technical ability which lie behind this, Eschmann’s first mature work, and his first for solo piano. This lovely piece which begins in A minor and ends in A major, of itself, declares Eschmann’s mastery of the keyboard. Note particularly the beautiful passage around 4’25” et seq, and the sudden Allegro, beginning at 5’40” – true Romanticism from a clearly very gifted composer. Eschmann’s Opus 14 is a set of Frühlingsblüthen (Spring Blossoms), from which we hear three contrasted examples. The first (no 5) is in E major, and is quite a relatively extended piece – perhaps the most Schumannesque of the set, as befits music depicting Landschaft(Countryside), without of course suggesting the natural drama that Beethoven depicted. No 6 in the set is a delicately brief picture of a happy springtime, with Eschmann barely leaving his basic G major tonality. The last item from Opus 14 is a more blustery scene; in a rapidly-flowing F minor, more concentrated than the others. Nachtfalter is a delightfully playful miniature in A flat major; the Salon-Etude is surely more a ‘concert-study’ in comparison, with opening pages not unlike technical aspects of Liszt’s music from the early 1850s. The key is C-sharp minor, which suggests drama, but such as it contains is not extended. The succeeding pair of pieces form one of Eschmann’s most remarkable juxtapositions. Both the Epilog and the Fortsetzung und Schluss (Continuation and End) are based upon similar material. The Epilog begins in F sharp minor, and muses in that key for most of its length, before ending quietly in F sharp major. The Fortsetzung und Schluss also opens in F-sharp minor, but – almost as an appendix – gravitates towards A major for a powerful, yet not extended, conclusion. In the four Lyrische Blatter, Opus 15 we can discern the composer’s growing individuality. In the first piece, in E flat major, we may understand the attraction his music had for both Wagner and Brahms (the latter composer is, perhaps surprisingly, more readily perceived in the central section of this work). There is no trace of Brahms in the second piece, a finely melodic composition in G major, although Schumann’s spirit is not far away, and the extended coda is a winning touch. The third and fourth of these ‘Lyrical Pages’ are effectively joined together, and are initially based upon identical material. This material is developed differently in the fourth piece, which can be played attacca although both can be played separately of course. The third is in B flat minor, forming a gently introspective study at first, but which, with fine artistry, grows into a flowing piece of effortless mastery. The Intermezzo becomes more troubled as it develops material from the preceding composition, until it ends in E flat minor. The four Lyrische Blatter,Opus 12, form perhaps the most obviously Schumannesque group in this collection, and not merely in their overall key-relationships. The first is a gently-moving study in D major, concentrating almost entirely upon the extended expansion of the inherently melodic aspects. The second, in A major, is (naturally) happier, untroubled, and the pensive third piece, in E major, catches the composer in his most naturally reflective mood, a gem of great beauty. The fourth is also in E, and seems to take up fragments from the third, now subjected to playful (but not skittish) musings, each paragraph taking the music further from its starting-point, and forming an extended study the mood of which, varied as it becomes, this admirable and unjustly neglected composer is reluctant to leave. Page revised Friday May 25 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
