Despite the sterling
efforts of many enthusiastic supporters
North-German born composer Louis (Ludwig)
Spohr remains more of a curiosity than
a composer of popular appeal. A slow
but sure revival is currently underway
mainly thanks to enterprising record
companies such as Naxos and its sister
company Marco Polo. The smaller more
specialist labels such as Claves, Orfeo,
MDG and CPO have also played a significant
role. In conjunction with the Spohr
Society and independent German record
label CPO who have produced this disc,
soloist Ulf Hoelscher has been recording
Spohr's complete works for violin and
orchestra as well as the double concertos..
This is a substantial project that to
date has occupied him for around ten
years
I recently
reviewed a recording of a selection
of Spohr’s chamber music on MDG Gold
304 1263-2 and was delighted with the
high quality and wide variety of the
music it contained. Incidentally I have
recycled biographical details from that
review. These may prove useful for those
who wish to know more about this enigmatic
composer.
Spohr won a most substantial
and distinguished reputation during
the first half of the nineteenth century
as a violin virtuoso, conductor, author,
teacher and the prolific composer of
over one hundred works. Renowned for
his principled and dignified personality
Spohr’s contemporaries were able to
see his ‘upright character’ translated
into physical terms; he was six foot
seven inches tall.
Studying the scores
of the great-master composers Spohr
proclaimed himself a disciple of Mozart;
although ironically they seem to have
little in common musically. Spohr was
well travelled and also had the good
fortune to meet numerous fellow composers
by which he must have been influenced.
These included Clementi and Field in
St. Petersburg; Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn
in Berlin; Beethoven in Vienna; Viotti
and Cherubini in Paris and Weber in
Stuttgart.
His works proclaim
him as a very early pioneer of German
Romanticism. However he generally adhered
to the Classical traditions in a style
that I feel was not dissimilar to that
of his compatriot Mendelssohn. Spohr
was also an innovator as his four ‘programme’
symphonies The Consecration of Sound,
The Historical, The Earthly and Divine
in Human Life and The Seasons
demonstrate. Spohr was also fond
of experimental compositions often using
original and novel formats and instrumental
combinations in works that included
three-single movement integrated Violin
concertos (or Concertinos
as he called them), a Concerto for
string quartet and orchestra, a
Symphony for two orchestras,
two Double violin concertos and
two Double quartets.
Later in the nineteenth
century this Classical side of Spohr’s
compositional personality appeared old-fashioned
to those brought up on the heady sounds
of Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss
et al. This led to his relatively
swift demotion. At this time Spohr’s
successful opera Jessonda Op.
63 (1823), feted by Brahms and R. Strauss
remained popular and was often staged
in Germany. In Great Britain Spohr’s
oratorio The Last Judgment (1826)
proved a favourite of provincial choral
societies until the advent of the First
World War when a reaction against things
German and Victorian prevailed. One
could argue that this unpopularity has
never been reversed up to the present
day.
Spohr’s biographer
Paul David in an early edition of Grove’s
Dictionary of Music and Musicians from
the early 1900s wrote, "… the present
lack of interest in Spohr’s music is
probably only the natural reaction from
an unbounded and undiscriminating enthusiasm,
which, in England at one time, used
to place Spohr on the same level with
Handel and Beethoven. These temporary
fluctuations will, however, sooner or
later subside, and then his true position
as a great master, second in rank only
to the very great giants of art, will
be again established." Unfortunately
Paul David’s confidence of a century
ago has not proved accurate, as today,
despite frequent and significant pleas
for his restoration to the repertoire,
Spohr’s music is seldom heard. It is
only the enjoyable Nonet, in F major
for violin, viola, cello, double bass,
flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon,
op. 31 and to a lesser extent the Octet
in E major for violin, 2 violas,
cello, double bass, clarinet and two
horns, op. 32 that has remained in the
repertoire, performed by ensembles who
want to programme items alongside the
Beethoven Septet or the Schubert Octet.
I have heard it said
that Spohr’s music has not gained hold
in the repertoire owing to a deficiency
of emotional depth especially in the
slow movements and his inability to
compose memorable themes. Biographer
Paul David considers Spohr’s music to
be powerfully concentrated but displaying
the inability to look outside his given
circle of ideas and sentiments together
with considerable sameness and even
monotony.
Among Spohr’s output
of seven compositions for solo instruments
and orchestra he gave the title Concertante
to five of those works. Spohr was to
publish only four of these concertantes
for solo instruments which included
both the Concertante No. 1 in A major
for two violins and orchestra op.48
and its counterpart the Concertante
No. 2 in B minor, for two violins and
orchestra op.88. Perhaps a major
factor was the practicality of the publisher
experiencing problems in finding two
evenly matched virtuoso soloists. There
are no such problems here with the brother
and sister team of Ulf and Gunhild Hoelscher.
They are in complete control throughout.
Spohr composed the
Concertante No. 1 in A major, for
two violins and orchestra, op.48
in the spring of 1808, during a creative
phase where he experimented with original
forms and intricate techniques. In three
movements the substantial first movement
Allegro lasts for over twelve
minutes and includes ample opportunities
for technical and interpretative display
from the soloists. For its trailblazing
and special orchestral effects which
at the time "caused considerable
astonishment" the central Larghetto
has been described by music writer Hartmut
Becker as, "a musical gem of a
special kind." Avoiding the banal,
but almost daredevil in character, the
jocular final movement Rondo
assists the successful reputation of
the work. The superb string playing
of the soloists is strongly alert and
consistently sensitive.
Spohr’s Grande Polonaise,
for violin and orchestra, op 40
is a single movement Concerto in a genre
that has subsequently become known as
a Concertino or Konzertstück. The
score was composed in the summer of
1815 and followed closely upon the heels
of the successful première in
Vienna of his Violin Concerto No.
7 in E minor, op.38. Stylistically
it heeds similar lines with a clear
emphasis on virtuoso solo display without
ever degenerating into ostentation.
Particularly effective are the appealing
violin duets with both the principal
flute and clarinet. These are performed
with refinement and admirable attention
to Spohr’s rich and colourful instrumental
palate.
The Concertante
No. 2 in B minor, for two violins and
orchestra, op.88 was composed in
the spring of 1833 for a music festival
that Spohr was directing and at which
he was also a performer. As in the Concertante
No.1 op. 48 the two violins dominate
the opening movement Allegro and
have substantial opportunity for expression
and display. The darker and more animated
central Andantino movement provides
a stark contrast to the outer movements.
For its concision, energy and imagination
the closing Rondo: Allegretto is
a real jewel and one of Spohr’s most
successful Concertante movements. The
talented soloists offer a most persuasive
and satisfying interpretation.
Written in 1820 during
the first of Spohr’s many stays in England
the Potpourri on Irish Songs for
violin and orchestra, op.59 is considered
to be one of the composer’s finest and
most inspired scores and one that the
composer often performed as soloist
in concert. Although presented in a
continuous single movement Spohr experiments
with a three-movement concerto form.
The main themes in each of the three
parts are a potpourri of traditional
Irish folk songs. Ulf Hoelscher is most
adept throughout the work’s considerable
technical and interpretative demands.
There is strong and
committed playing throughout from the
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under
the splendid direction of Christian
Frohlich. The CPO engineers have provided
a satisfactory sound quality and the
annotation from Hartmut Becker is first
class.
A refreshing alternative
to the usual repertoire. Well performed
and recorded!
Michael Cookson