Viktor ULLMANN (1898-1944)
The Complete Works for Piano Solo
Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 10 (1936) [15:19]
Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 19 (1938-1939) [11:30]
Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 26 (1940) [15:49]
Piano Sonata No. 4, Op. 38 (1941) [17:02]
Piano Sonata No. 5 ‘Von meiner Jugend’, Op. 45 (1943) [16:49]
Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 49 (1943) [11:02]
Piano Sonata No. 7 (1944) [23:53]
Variations and Double Fugue, Op. 3a (1933-1934) [11:09]
Christophe Sirodeau (piano)
rec. February/March 2010 (Sonatas 1-4), September/October 2012 (Sonatas 5-7, Variations), Eglise Evangélique Saint Marcel, Paris
reviewed as a 44.1/96 download
BIS BIS-2116 SACD [60:53 + 64:08]
The composer, conductor and pianist Viktor Ullmann showed great musical
promise at an early age; with Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky
as his teachers in later life he embarked on a varied career that continued
while he was interned in Theresienstadt from 1942 to 1944. Just a few
months short of war’s end he was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where
he perished in the gas chambers. It’s a wretched and wrenching tale
that’s made all the more remarkable by the fact that Ullmann remained
defiantly creative to the very end.
This music was largely unknown until Decca’s enterprising –
and pivotal – Entartete Musik series of the 1990s. Among the first
releases was Ullmann’s satirical opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis,
composed in Theresienstadt a year before his death. It alerted me –
and, I suspect, many others - to the composer’s shocking talent,
which shines through in the works on this BIS twofer. It’s sobering
to read pianist Christophe Sirodeau’s booklet note in which he lists
the members of his mother’s family (Fuchsmann) who died in Auschwitz
and Sobibor. The dates and convoy numbers are particularly chilling, as
they remind us the Nazis were just as efficient at bureaucracy as they
were at mass slaughter.
There are rival recordings of the Ullmann sonatas from Robert Kolben (Koch),
Gregor Weichert (CPO), Jeanne Golan (review)
and Maria Garzón (review);
only the Golan contains all seven sonatas. Nevertheless, all are welcome
evidence of a continuing interest in Ullmann’s oeuvre, and BIS –
well-known for their exploration of more peripheral repertoire –
must be applauded for keeping up the momentum. In addition to completeness
bang-up-to-date sonics makes this newcomer look very competitive indeed.
As Sirodeau points out in his booklet essay the first four sonatas are
– in order - tributes to Mahler, Janáček, Mozart and
Bartók. Sonata No. 1 has a startling lucidity
that blends Schoenbergian economy with the harmonies one associates with
the likes of Scriabin. Sirodeau’s fine pianism – well caught
by the engineers – is also an amalgam in that it combines clean,
crisp playing with flashes of surprising inwardness and lyricism. Pedagogic
studies these aren’t, and the second movement of this sonata, subtitled
In memoriam Gustav Mahler, has a haunting simplicity that’s
deeply affecting. Sirodeau evinces a fine ear for colour and rhythm –
splashes of one, fragments of the other – and his micrometer-like
calibration of dynamics is exemplary.
Sonata No. 2 confirms these as works of considerable
confidence and purpose. The Moravian folk tune at the heart of this piece
– the link to Janáček – has all the freshness
and vitality that one hears in the latter’s On the overgrown
path (review).
Even the closing Prestissimo, with its obsessive figures, is
full of invention and interest; indeed, Sirodeau lifts and aerates this
music in the most delightful way. I fancy there’s a dry wit at work
there too. In any event, this pianist displays a masterly control –
and understanding - of the score’s content and style that would
be very hard to match.
The mellifluous character and Mozartian themes of Sonata No. 3,
deftly plaited with music of sudden sinew, is another of hybrid that shows
Ullmann’s command of competing idioms. Sirodeau is similarly well
attuned, so that all these elements are explored to the full. His touch
in the surging Scherzo is particularly impressive, as is his
ability to tease out and animate Ullmann’s lively tunes. The finale
encompasses so much – classical proportion, romantic ardour and
a knowing modernity that owes more to the café than the concert
hall. As before Sirodeau yokes it all together with ease.
The first disc ends with Sonata No. 4, dedicated to Ullmann’s
fellow internee Alice Herz-Sommer, who died in January 2014 at the remarkable
age of 110. And what a tribute it is; eloquent in the Allegro vivace,
gentle but firm in the Adagio, and fearless in the finale. Sirodeau
imbues it all with a spontaneity and sparkle that will perplex those who
are unfamiliar with this composer and expect something fierce and unremitting.
Indeed, in Sirodeau’s hands this music is rendered accessible in
the best possible sense; that will surely help to win more converts to
the composer’s cause.
The second CD contains the remaining sonatas, all of which were written
at Theresienstadt. Perhaps most poignant is Sonata No. 5,
subtitled Von meiner Jugend (From my youth). From the firm stride
and confidence of the Allegro con brio – its extrovert
character is tempered with moments of surpassing tenderness – to
the pensive circularity of the Andante – Piú adagio,
Sirodeau displays an unwavering instinct for mood and phrase. The giddy
little Toccatina and the Serenade are deftly done, the
latter infused with a bracing, tangential strangeness. This is such a
well balanced and sophisticated recording; indeed, the Steinway D’s
range and richness of tone are caught with a fidelity that one associates
with Hyperion’s best piano offerings.
The kaleidoscopic writing of the Allegro of the Sonata
No. 6 contrasts nicely with the glittering Allegretto
and Presto that follow; remarkably for music of such compactness
it teems with incident. Sonata No. 7, dedicated to three
of Ullmann’s five children, has a nursery-like innocence that’s
apt to grind against a darker world of adult experience. It’s another
of those pieces that reconciles antinomies in a seamless fashion. It all
flickers past in a zoetrope of conflicting emotions; these fleeting reminiscences
and musical quotations drive home the composer’s steadiness and
stoicism in the face of such terrible adversity.
After that minor masterpiece, so exhaustively explored, the earlier Variations
and Double Fugue on a theme by Schoenberg seems almost aphoristic
by comparison. Sirodeau conjures a mix of dark sonorities and light, elusive
phrases. Even though Ullmann’s in abstract mode Sirodeau taps into
a vein of poetry here; as before this intuitive artist proves a reliable
and illuminating guide to these scores. His liner-notes are similarly
reassuring in their detail and authority.
This complete set of sonatas is a significant addition to the Ullmann
discography. Sirodeau certainly digs deeper than Jeanne Golan does –
he’s better recorded too – but I suspect some will prefer
Golan’s clear, finely wrought playing style. Trouble is, now that
I’ve heard Sirodeau nothing else will do.
Deeply penetrating performances; a new benchmark has been set.
Dan Morgan
twitter.com/mahlerei
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