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
Kirsten Johnson (piano) 
