Who was Hans Erich Apostel? I had certainly never heard of him,
but with this beautifully produced 3-disc set we all of a sudden
have more information about
this composer than is available even for some more famous names. Born in Karlsruhe,
Apostel studied at the Munz Conservatory, subsequently working at the Baden State
Theatre as pianist and apprentice Kapellmeister. He left to study with Schoenberg
in Vienna, making a living playing piano in hotels and for silent films, and
later giving lessons. Alban Berg took over Schoenberg’s pupil when the
latter left for Berlin, and Apostel remained in Vienna during the war despite
the repressive artistic regime. After 1945 he built up the Austrian ISCM and
was its president from 1946-48. He also worked as a proof-reader for Universal
Edition.
Apostel has if anything been remembered as a student both of Arnold Schoenberg
and later of Alban Berg rather than for his own compositional output. In turn,
Apostel taught Rainer Bischof, the only direct remaining link to the composer
still alive. His comments reveal much about why the composer languished in obscurity,
as someone who “refused to play the eccentric, but was rather ... isolated
in the world of his time. To some, he was ... a composer of twelve-tone music
and thus a modern, awful, dreadful composer; to others, he was helplessly dull,
old-fashioned, not even worth taking notice of.” Co-producer Mirjam Weisemann
admits that there are few clear-cut answers to the subject of Hans Erich Apostel,
but with the evidence to hand Apostel emerges as a ‘total man’ in
the Scheonbergian meaning of those in opposition to men who would prefer to be “demigods”.
He was also a humanist, an intellectual, and one opposed to emotional aesthetics
in all their manifestations - the definition of an anti-exhibitionist creative
artist.
The resultant music as represented here, Apostel’s entire output for string
quartet, inhabits these worlds of Berg and Schoenberg. The earliest Op.7 quartet
is indeed dedicated to Berg and occupies the warmer romanticism which might be
compared to his work, though with a continuous sense of restraint, of emotion
expressed but held in check, subsumed beneath deeper enquiries into structure
and musical content. This is the kind of material which is already atonal, but
has an expressionistic and chromatic gloss which makes it very much of its period.
Berg died while the work was still in progress, so the planned five movements
became four, and the work ends with a slow movement and a feel of tragedy and
loss.
The
String Quartet in One Movement Op.26 was written more than twenty
years later than the Op.7 work, and while it inhabits an entirely different world
there are still familial relationships with the earlier piece. More brittle extremes,
greater angularity and a wider variety of sonorities are part of the work’s
character, which was dedicated to the LaSalle quartet and is clearly written
with this ensemble’s virtuoso abilities in mind. Symmetry and tightly argued
structural discipline are part of this piece’s strengths, though it is
the kind of work which is initially more stimulating to the intellect than is
likely to generate much feeling of emotional connection. This sense of expressive
communication does however come forth with greater familiarity, and I found the
piece becoming more rewarding each time I returned. While cast in one movement,
there are six clear sections which are also given a full analysis in the booklet,
and access points on the disc.
The
Six Epigrams Op.33 from 1962 is Apostel’s last work for string
quartet. These very much follow Schoenberg’s twelve-tone compositional
technique, and like the Op.26 quartet every aspect is related to the proportions
of the materials used, this time including the nature of the string quartet itself.
The outer movements are for equal parts, and the middle four have solo roles
for the cello, viola, second violin and first violin respectively. There are
further useful notes and references by Stefan Drees in the booklet, but to sum
up the entire piece could be taken as a model in the thoroughness with which
Apostel explores the tone row used. This makes for some fascinating listening,
and while dodecaphonic intellectual rigour may not be everyone’s cup of
tea the final almost humorous unison pizzicato note seems to form an entirely
logical cadence, and is the kind of moment which makes you feel the piece is
more approachable and that you might be able to grasp it more successfully on
further hearings.
The remaining musical works bring us to disc 2, and initially enter an entirely
different sound world. Apostel’s first two quartets fall outside the opus
numbered pieces, and were written during the composer’s student period
and never published. The
18 Variations on an Original Theme opens with
a G major theme ‘in folk style’, the straightforward simplicity of
which is a shock to the senses after the material from disc 1. The variations
are almost equally approachable, some deliberately Beethovenian awkwardness included,
and with extra-musical references such as one with a ‘funeral march’ tempo, ‘pastorale’ and
the like. The choice for and sense of development and exploration of a single
theme in variation form might point some way towards an inclination for serial
composition later on, but in this case the music most certainly does not.
The same is not so true of another student work, the
String Quartet in D minor. Cast
in three movements, the atonal style and language is clearly being formed, with
a focus on counterpoint and structure. The not inconsiderable duration of the
piece can to a certain extent be put down to student weaknesses in the handling
of the material, though my far stronger feeling is that the inclusion of an almost
Mahlerian emotional expressiveness, expunged certainly in the later works, means
that there is a good deal more that the piece is attempting to communicate, demanding
a grander canvas on which to allow its brushstrokes to develop. A good deal of
this weight is laid on the first movement, the second and third exploring more
rhythmically lively areas. The central
Allegro vivace movement has the
feel of a scherzo, imitative material being thrown about between the instruments,
the lighter rhythmic bounce of the opening moving on into a chorale trio section
which still manages to retain a fairly airy feel. The third movement is a self-supporting
Quartettsatz in
its own right, with, framed by rhythmically energetic march-like themes, a powerful
and emotionally charged and introspective central section.
As with other releases in this series, archival material and recently made interviews
and conversations in German serve to complete as fully as possible the impression
we have of the composer as a more rounded personality and creative character.
As usual with my appalling German I can only give general impressions of the
content of this spoken material. I would say that Prof. Dr. Rainer Bischof’s
personal recollections of his teacher and friend are particularly impressive
and wide-ranging, his emotional connection and relation to this subject clearly
a passion which he is only too pleased to share. The track listing outlines the
spoken content far more effectively any commentary I might have, and include:
Hans Erich Apostel speaking about the string quartet, his Compositional Process.
The New Listening: The Twelve-Tone Row - Demonstrated by Hans Erich Apostel Himself
at the Piano. Hans Erich Apostel in conversation with the artists Karl Scheit,
Elias Canetti and Fritz Wotruba. “I am a craftsman before I am a genius.” Contradiction:
Between Schoenberg and Berg. The Most Talented Lyrical Composer among Schoenberg’s
Pupils. Music as a Space to Live - Nature as a Model. Is the Life of an Artist
the Property of the Public? The Schoenberg Circle and the Inner Programme. During
the Nazi Era. What Makes a Good Teacher? Artwork as a Living Organism. Total
Men Instead of Demigods. The Durability of Music. Apostel on How to Live Life.
Broaching these subjects helps resolve the composer’s own problem in providing “a
bridge to understanding” for works which can still be something of a tough
nut to crack even sixty years on. The performances by the DoelenKwartet are magnificent:
superbly recorded and entirely in tune with the composer’s idiom, giving
as forceful and convincing an argument for his music as I can imagine. As ever
with Cybele’s ‘Künstler im Gespräch’ series, this
is a must-have for any self-respecting reference library. For anyone interested
in expanding their knowledge of and exploration through a virtually untrodden
path from the world of the Second Viennese School, this is a unique opportunity
to do just that.
Dominy Clements
DoelenKwartet (Frank de Groot (1st
violin), Maartje Kraan (2nd violin), Karin
Dolman (viola), Hans Woudenberg (cello)) 
