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Contents:
DDD 64:19 Recorded: St. Silas Church, Chalk Farm, London – 22 March 2004 [1]- Wathen Hall, St. Paul’s School, Hammersmith, London – 15 April 2001 [2-11] - St. George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol – 6 October 2003 [12-16] The Swiss-born composer and conductor Hermann von Glenck was born in Zurich on January 5th, 1883, where he attended the city’s grammar school and also, after his innate musicality asserted itself, took music lessons from Lothar Kempter, son of the noted German organist and composer Karl Kempter. In 1900, Hermann von Glenck left Zurich, and travelled to Berlin, where he attended the Hochschule fur Musik. At this institution, he joined the composition and conducting classes of Robert Kahn, where he made rapid progress. Following his graduation, performances of von Glenck’s works came relatively quickly, abetted by his qualities as a conductor. For example, in 1904 and aged only 21, he was engaged to conduct one of his own orchestral works in Paris. Earlier, during the 1902/3 theatre season he had been engaged as music director of the leading theatre in Metz, directing opera as well as those theatrical productions which required musical accompaniment. Von Glenck’s career thereafter followed the somewhat familiar pattern of an aspiring conductor and composer in the first decade of the 20th-century in German-speaking Europe. His qualities were such that he was engaged in various parts of Germany as a guest conductor, and the high point of his career during this period was when von Glenck conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme in 1908. It was about this time (1905-08) that von Glenck, having hoped to concentrate his musical efforts almost entirely on composition, occasionally accepted for financial reasons engagements principally as an opera conductor. However, in the summer of 1908, he was appointed music director of the Stuttgart Opera House, a post he held for three years until a severe illness in 1911 compelled him to give up this post and return to Switzerland for lengthy recuperation. His convalescence, the four-year duration of World War I, and Switzerland’s neutrality, all combined to interrupt von Glenck’s twin careers as composer and conductor, but he was able to resume composition to some degree around the time that hostilities broke out and thereafter he added relatively significantly to his output. In the 1920s, now fully recovered, he settled in southern Germany, close to Munich, where he enjoyed the comparatively healthy Bavarian atmosphere, and a further busy period as conductor and composer ensued. In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, Hermann von Glenck was much in demand as a conductor, and his compositions were regarded by some critics as being in the front rank of what one might term the mainstream Germanic tradition, a view more readily demonstrated in the works contained in this collection. After World War II, in 1946, he returned to Switzerland, where he died in Thun on 2 March 1952 at the age of 69. The influence of Richard Strauss, and to a certain extent also that of Mahler, can be discerned in von Glenck’s earliest works, but his own creative style emerged, founded upon a complex but firm sense of structure, strongly contrapuntal, and always very expressive. In some respects, von Glenck’s follows a less determined line than that of Reger or Pfitzner, for examples, for there is always an inherent nationalism in his work, no matter how slight it may be discerned, which at all times leavens the thicker textures of the music of his more overtly Germanic immediate predecessors, but what cannot be denied is his mastery of the craft of composition, allied to a style by no means unreceptive to contemporaneous developments in texture and structure. In this latter regard, von Glenck’s music may be considered to form part of a linking thread between Reger’s music of, say, 1900 and Hindemith’s of the late 1910s. Von Glenck was not a particularly prolific composer. His most important work is undoubtedly the Sinfonia Carita eterna, Opus 11, for soprano solo and orchestra, which appeared in 1905, a large-scale composition very much of its time. The orchestral Variation Suite Opus 17, appeared in 1918, and was revised in 1930. It is in the second version that the work is very occasionally heard today. On this disc we hear the composer’s own transcription (rather than a stichvorlage) for two pianos, of the original version. Amongst the composer’s other important orchestral works are the tone-poem, Liebesklage und Trauerhymnus, which appeared in 1910, and several compositions for solo instrument and orchestra. These include a Violin Concerto (dating from 1912), and a Piano Concerto (1927), Konzertstuck for violin and orchestra (1926) and his last major work, the Sinfonisches Konzert for cello and orchestra, written as late as 1951, when von Glenck was 68 and already quite ill. At the opposite end of the compositional spectrum, so to speak, and as an excellent example of von Glenck’s receptivity to contemporaneous developments in terms of texture, we can more readily identify that aspect in the Serenade for flute, viola and harp. This seemingly unusual combination has been most brilliantly served by Debussy’s Sonata for the three instruments, which appeared in 1915. There is also a relatively well-known Sonata for this combination by Harald Genzmer (1948), amongst several works by other composers. Carl Nielsen’s incidental music for ‘The Mother’ (1922) is also scored for these instruments Von Glenck’s Serenade, in one longish movement centred upon B flat major, begins with a dramatic Introduzione: un poco lento, leading to a gently amiable Moderato cantabile dominated at first by a lyrical theme on the flute (the accompanying texture is particularly winning ) which is attractively developed. After a pause, the tempo changes to Allegro un poco agitato, and the time-signature to 2/4 (6/8), presenting the material in a new guise. As the music unfolds, it becomes clear that von Glenck is subjecting his sonata-style material to sonata-variation treatment, as the Allegretto con grazia (in E flat)and Allegro vivace (in G major) passages show, before a lively and extended coda brings this enchanting work to a lively conclusion in B flat. The ten songs in this collection were composed over approximately thirty years (1902-c.1932). The Zwei Lieder Opus 20, come from about 1920, and are settings of poems by Hermann Lenthold - Blatterfall (The Fall of the Leaves) - and Anton Ritter Morgen (Morning). The two songs comprise merely 18 and 30 bars respectively, but their common mood and slow-moving tempi (together with the shrewd rise of a third – from A major to D flat – overall), and the similarity of a phrase common to both songs, give them unity as a pair. The earliest of the songs in this collection, Nachklange (Tears), was written originally when von Glenck was 19, in Weimar in December, 1902. He clearly had much affection for this song, for he revised it subsequently on two occasions, the last in 1932. It is this final version which is recorded here. This is a beautifully composed, indeed haunting, setting of Richard von Schankal’s poem. Nachts (By Night) – the poem by Carl Busse - is dated October, 1904, and inhabits a faintly more Mahlerian funereal mood and texture. One should note particularly the codetta for the piano, unwinding to the deep E flat minor ending. Altarbild is a brief song, only 32 bars in length, a setting of Anton Ritter’s poem on the altar-piece. This dates from August 1911, and may also be considered to inhabit something of Mahler’s late emotional world. In Nebel, a somewhat later song, the misty fog of the title gradually clears towards the end of this strikingly more individual setting – perhaps a reflection of von Glenck’s own personal situation, as he resumed all aspects of his career in Germany. The Vier Lieder which follow on this disc constitute an appealing cycle of four songs, each of which is concerned with different times of the day. Interestingly, the first, Morgen, opens with reference to “green mists” (as in Nebel), and, as the day progresses through Mittag and Abend to Nacht, von Glenck’s subtle tonal unification of the set – the cycle is centred upon E major – becomes clear. The texts are anonymous. The Variationen-Suite, Opus 17, as mentioned earlier, is here presented in the version for two pianos. It is a remarkable (possibly unique) composition in four movements, each of which constitutes both a variation on the original, rather simple, original and characteristic theme, and a set of variations (sometimes quite extensive) within each movement. After the artless and leisurely theme itself in E major has been stated at the outset, the first movement proper begins. It is a faintly sardonic March, with a somewhat extended Trio section (not so marked); the coda has the March disappearing, little by little, into the distance. The second movement, Heiter bewegt, comes as a cheerful Scherzo, followed by the remarkable Ruhig movement which functions as a slow movement. This begins as a quietly contemplative study on the theme, beautifully laid out for the instruments, yet as it progresses the remarkable second half of the movement unfolds. This is nothing less than a set of 18th-century dances on the theme – Polonaise, Gavotte, Sarabande and Gigue. A varied reprise of the contemplative thematic study brings this movement to its conclusion. The finale, Allegro mosso ed inquieto is another set of amiable variations, founded upon a 9/8 pulse, which builds to a delightfully extended coda to end the work in good-natured humour. Robert Matthew-Walker © 2004 Page revised 17.05.05 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
