Reviews
GMCD 7277 Piano Music by Schulz-Beuthen
and GMCD 7282 Piano Music by Götz &
Schulz-Beuthen
MusicWeb Monday May 16 2005
For admirers of romantic era piano
music especially those partial to Schumann and floral romance. If you like one
of these two CDs you will want the other as well. ...Rob Barnett - MusicWeb
International
Heinrich
SCHULZ-BEUTHEN (1838
- 1915)
Piano Music
Drei Clavierstücke im ernsten Style op. 16 (1873) (Moderato [3:54]; Poco
andante [2:09]; Allegretto moderato
[2:41])
Stimmungsbilder in freier Walzerform op. 17 (1873) (Poco moderato [2:20];
Grazioso [2:16]; Scherzando, poco animato [1:25]; Tranquillo [3:16]; Risoluto
[3:05])
Fünf Clavierstücke in Suitenform op. 19 (1874) (Allegretto [1:40];
Allegro giocoso [1:50]; Andante lugubre [1:45]; Allegretto, poco appassionato
[1:49]; Allegro fantastico [3:47])
Vier Clavierstücke im heroischen Style op. 22 (1874) (Allegro non troppo,
cantabile [5:53]; Allegro giocoso e frescamente [6:05]; Poco moderato,
tranquillo [4:44]; Allegro eroico [4:31];
Drei Clavierstücke Cyklus in Sonatenform op. 23 (1874) (Allegro ma non
troppo generoso [4:28]; Allegretto moderato, con sentimento, molto dolce [3:54];
Allegretto, leggiero e grazioso [2:03];
Abschieds - Klänge Gedenk-Blätter op. 28 (1880) (Allegretto un poco
moderato [2:03]; Poco moderato [3:20]; Allegretto moderato [1:42]; Andantino con
espressione [2:34];
 Kirsten
Johnson (piano)
Recorded: St George's Bristol, 6-7 August 2003.
DDD
GUILD
GMCD 7277 [75:04]
Piano Music of Hermann GOETZ and
Heinrich SCHULZ-BEUTHEN
Hermann GOETZ (1840 - 1876)
Lose Blätter op. 7 (1864-1869, Winterthur) (Durch Feld und Buchenhallen
[1:41]; Frisch in die Welt hinaus [2:53]; Einsamkeit [2:53]; Liebesscherze
[1:51]; Bei dir! [2:53]; Ihr flüchtigen Winde, wohin, wohin? [2:27]; Heimatklang
[5:09];
Frühlingsgruß [1:35]; Auf Wiedersehn [1:55])
Genrebilder op. 13 - 6 Klavierstücke (1870-1876, Zurich) (Andantino
espressivo [1:41]; Allegro Scherzando [2:02]; Larghetto [2:20]; Presto [1:24];
Allegro Impetuoso [1:50]; Larghetto [2:28])
Heinrich SCHULZ-BEUTHEN (1838 - 1915)
Alhambra Sonata op. 34 (1878-1882) (Auf dem Wege zur Alhambra [5:54]; Bei
der Marienkirche [5:27]; Eintritt in der Alhambra [4:43]; Die Abenceragen
[6:19]; Im Garten Xeneralife [9:48]; Nachklänge [7:16]
Kirsten
Johnson (piano)
Recorded: St George's Bristol, 13-14 August 2003.
DDD
GUILD
GMCD 7282
[76:01]
The
last time my path crossed with the music of Schulz-Beuthen it was for a review
of Sterling CDS-1049-2 reviving a handful of his orchestral works. That disc is
now joined by these two from Guild.
Schulz-Beuthen was
Silesian.
Like
Borodin his main profession was as a chemist in his Schulz-Beuthen's case in
Breslau. His teachers were Reinecke and Moscheles. Grieg and Svendsen were among
his fellow students. He moved to Switzerland where he found company in the
circle of Mathilde Wesendonck, Wagner and Gottfried Keller (the novelist on
whose book Delius based his opera, A Village Romeo and Juliet).
He
was a prolific writer. There are ten symphonies - eight complete and the last
two of which were left unfinished. There are ten oratorios and much else. On the
showing of that Sterling disc his orchestral music bears out various influences:
obstreperous Beethoven, romantic Schumann. There is Brucknerian exclamation as
well as serene Elgarian string writing. Most of his manuscripts were destroyed
in the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945.
The
piano music on the all Schulz-Beuthen disc was written between 1873 and 1880,
predominantly 1873-4.
The
Three Pieces Op. 16 are mostly Brahmsian in type although No. 1 is much closer
to the dreamily musing Schumann. The Op. 17 Stimmungsbilder are free-ranging
mood-pictures in which a Chopin-like elegance brushes the romance of Schumann.
From a year later come the Five Piano Pieces Op. 19. The playful Baroque
pointing of the Allegro giocoso from this set is very nicely done (tr. 10) as is
the glittering and supercharged music-box jollity of the Allegro fantastico
(tr. 13). The Op. 22 set starts most unheroically despite the title which
seems to have been picked up rather casually from the last piece: allegro
eroico. There is an ineffable Brahmsian contentment about the lovely poco
moderato (tr. 16) and this is superbly put across by Kirsten Johnson.
The
Drei Clavierstucke - Cyklus in Sonatenform Op. 23, start off with a rather stiff
and dispiriting Allegro followed by a delicate and fragrant allegretto
moderato. The final movement with its Mozartian trilling and oddly Brahmsian
effusion brings to an end a not entirely successful sequence.
In
1880 there came the four movement Abshchieds - Klange - Gedenk-Blätter Op. 28.
The bell-like music-box moto perpetuo chimes away: Brahms-lite. There is
a playful winking allegretto moderato which looks back to Mozart. However
the andantino con espressione reconnects with the idioms of Brahms and
Schumann.
Pleasing music-making here. Op. 16 No. 1 as well as Op. 22 No. 3 make this
something that admirers of the romantic piano school must hear.
The
second CD mixes Herman Goetz (feted on CPO and Genesis) with a single epic
sonata by Schulz-Beuthen. The Lose Blätter are all quite short and each
bears a descriptive title. The comforting warmth of Heimatklang (tr. 7)
runs to 5:09 and sings like a benediction. The Liebescherze is halting
and playful. Bei Dir! (tr. 5) is an unmissably dreamy piece in a
Schumann-related idiom: all gentle zephyrs and wavering reeds. Fruhlingsgruss
has the power of a Chopin scherzo and begins with something that sounds very
like a rumba though the impression soon fades only to return at 00.50. The
sequence is dedicated to Clara Schumann and there is an affectingly and
affectionately feminine domestic quality to them.
The
Genre-Bilder are from Goetz's years in Zurich from 1870 to 1876 the year of his
death. Here the dedicatee is Marie Goetz. Malcolm Macdonald, who provides his
usual communicative notes for both releases, appositely links both Goetz sets
with Schumann's Waldszenen and Bunte Blatter. Each of the six Goetz pictures
carries a superscription in the form of a poem whose mood is captured by the
music. The poets are Robert Prutz, Theodor Sturm (North Germany's Thomas Hardy -
if Hardy is not Dorset's Sturm), Nikolaus Lenau, Wilhelm Muller. and Albert
Trager. Johnson injects some welcome hardness into the allegro impetuoso
entirely appropriate to the Lenau poem. However Goetz is not quite equal in
darkness-envocation to the challenge of the poetry. He is much more at ease with
the halting drowsy romance of the lovely Trager lullaby that ends the sequence.
Going
by the far from successful Drei Clavierstucke Cyklus in Sonatenform Op. 23 on
the first CD, Schulz-Beuthen was not at ease with sonata form. His six movement
Alhambra Sonata is from 1878-82. It is fascinating and parallels Tarrega's
Recuerdos (a study in tremolo) in Auf Dem Wege Zur Alhambra. These are
big movements and the mood is grand in proportion to the mission. All the
evidence points to Schulz-Beuthen being profoundly inspired by his subject
although the contemporary claims for Arabian flavouring go for nothing or very
little now. Unsurprisingly the sonata was inspired by the composer's visit to
the Alhambra. In the Eintritt In Der Alhambra the composer returns to his
vertiginous music-box style we know from the first CD but here with more sombre
asides. Die Abenceragen is march-like and carries the superscription ‘Kampfspiel’.
It is more about panoply and grandeur than about battle. Im garten Xeneralife
evokes a moonlit stroll through the magical gardens still warm with the decaying
heat of the day. Do not be misled by the titles: this is very much Schumann with
a faintly exotic twist. This is however the same Alhambra that would later
inspire de Falla to write his Nights In The Gardens Of Spain. Each of the
six movements is a big piece and they range from 4:43 to 9:48. In total the
Sonata plays for circa 40 minutes. Sonata? I think not; perhaps ‘symphonic
suite’ is a better description. Whatever you call it there is much here to enjoy
and Schulz-Beuthen is often freshly inventive. There is very little that is
routine, tired, careworn or shabby.
Definitely for the admirers of romantic era piano music especially for those
partial to Schumann and floral romance. Johnson, Guild and Macdonald have done a
superb job - if you like one of these two CDs you will want the other as well.
Rob
Barnett
Page revised 26.04.05
| 
