The Guild label based
both in Switzerland and in Britain is
to be congratulated on the fascinating,
little-known and unfashionable aspects
of the repertoire which they regularly
uncover. Recently I have been asked
to review their discs of Albanian Piano
Music, Haydn played on the Clavichord
and Choral Music by Paul Engel, Knut
Nystedt and others. A few years ago
they brought out a disc of music by
Robin Orr. They offer so much of unusual
interest, and now they tackle a Swiss
composer who, I am ashamed to say, was
a completely new name to me. Quite apart
from many chamber works Fritz Brun also
produced ten symphonies.
The conductor, Adriano
as he simply styles himself, looking
rather like a deranged magician in the
picture on the back of the booklet,
writes extensively and fascinatingly.
From him we read in the excellent accompanying
booklet from which I will quote, about
Brun the man and the musician, and about
the two works recorded here for the
first time.
Let's begin with the
Symphony. Movement 1 is simply entitled
'Vorspiel' an introduction to the work
as a whole which includes themes to
be developed later as indeed to a certain
extent does the Second movement. This
introduction is a somewhat jocular happy
movement of six minutes duration. Adriano
writes about the music and place where
Brun was living at this time. "The
sculptor Hermann Hubacher once wrote
to Brun 'When I listen to your music ... I feel transposed to a blossoming
alpine meadow in between rumbling pieces
of rock and mountain streams'. After
his retirement from conducting Brun
went to live in Southern Switzerland
near the mountains and the Lake of Lugano
and has apparently been dubbed the 'Swiss
Sibelius". Right from its opening
the mood of happy tranquillity is set.
Movement 2 is an eight
minute 'Serenade'. The composer supplied
a programme note for the original Bern
performance in December 1950 and he
says of this movement that it "belongs
with the Love scene", that is the
following movement. It has what he called
"conversation pieces". You
could be forgiven for almost hearing
Mahler in this music - a large orchestra
used in a chamber music fashion. This
brings us onto the question of who else
can be heard in Brun's work. Of course
he has his own unique voice, and listeners
need to concentrate and to have patience
to enable them to follow the argument
and form. However if it is of any help,
and this movement prompted my thinking
in this direction, then perhaps Hans
Pfitzner (1869-1949) and sometimes Franz
Schmidt (1874-1939) lie near at hand.
Adriano suggests Richard Strauss's 'Symphonia Domestica'.
Movement 3 'Liebesruf'
- translated I feel as 'The call of Love' - is a little longer, possibly
rather over-long for its material. Again
it has an extensive programme note,
quoted in full, beginning "A group
of young people play music in the nocturnal
silence of a park in front of the balcony
of a house". This leads to a courtship
scene of great 'Korngoldian' charm.
Movement 4 marked Allegro
is 'Im Kreis der Freunde'. The booklet
offers no translation but I plump for
'In the circle of friends'. Adriano
tells us that the composer was "said
to be a very earnest and rather gruff
character; his vehement outbursts of
temper could suddenly give way to a
benevolent, serene smile. This is just
what we hear in the music." This
movement, a somewhat comic, scherzo-like
affair has these characteristics. There
is a quote from Flotow's opera 'Martha'
which one of the friends suddenly sings
during a somewhat heated conversation.
The most substantial
movement is the fifth which is the last.
Its title is best translated as 'Belief
and doubt/Praise of God and nature'.
To quote the notes again "This
extended movement itself is a passionate
symphonic poem about belief, hope and
love of life". These are huge Brucknerian
problems, found in his Ninth Symphony,
an ideal thing for an elderly composer
to be tackling. This movement can surely
sum up the entire symphony in its scope
and emotional journey. It is worth hearing
on its own in many ways.
The other work is on
track 6 of this generously filled disc.
It dates from 1906 and is a symphonic
poem "Aus dem Buch Hiob",
'From the book of Job' as found in the
Old Testament. Having lived with this
disc for upwards of three months I have
to say that this piece has yet to make
much of an impression on me except that
it is solemn and sometimes a little
pompous. I fail to warm towards it.
The accompanying photo of the composer
in the booklet makes him appear happy
and easy-going, perhaps in his early
twenties. He was however 30 when this
work was written and in it he was earnest
and severe. An earlier reviewer apparently
described it as "a deep work" and
later as full "of sinner's sufferings";
that is the mood of this piece. However
its climaxes seem un-dramatic and uninteresting.
I fail to see how the story of Job is
truly reflected in the music.
What I can say for
certain is that both of these very rare
works are presented superbly both by
the orchestra and by the recording engineers.
I suspect that Adriano is the driving
force behind the disc and its final
presentment, notes on him and on the
Moscow Symphony Orchestra are given
in the back of the booklet. Reading
his notes it is obvious that he is not
only an enthusiast for it but that he
also knows well the other symphonies.
I presume that he may well want to record
all of them as he has already had the
Third issued on Sterling.
If that is the case then, despite various
reservations I would certainly sign
up for some further instalments. It's
true that this is, despite its familiar
late-romantic language, tough and knotty
music but it is, certainly with the
symphony, well worth attempting to understand.
Knowledge of the earlier works or indeed
of the final 10th Symphony
would serve to cast further light on
a little known figure in 20th
Century Swiss music.
Gary Higginson
Moscow Symphony Orchestra/Adriano 
