Hermann Goetz has just about clung on, more or less precariously, to a
place in the catalogue, though his discography is still pretty meagre. The
Concerto in B flat major, played beautifully by Hamish Milne on Hyperion
CDA67791 made something of an impression on me – there’s a theme in the slow
movement so gorgeous that it’s well-nigh impossible not to play it again and
again. His music solely for piano has not fared as well. All the piano works
here are apparently making their first-ever appearance on disc. Some of
these pieces are, indeed, played straight from the manuscript – the
Waldmärchen is even played from a photo-reproduction of the
manuscript, which is now believed lost. So there’s been some archival work
behind the scenes to bring these works to public performance in this way,
and for that pianist Christof Keymer must take great credit. It sounds as if
he had to contend with considerable legibility issues in transcribing this
particular work – all the more creditably, as it is Goetz’s longest
surviving solo piano piece.
These piano pieces date from the very late 1850s to the mid-1870s. They’re
predominantly unaffected, unpretentious character pieces. The
Genrebilder, Op.13 offers six delightful, very brief studies
predicated strongly on Schumannesque lines – lyric, sensitive, and
seemingly
falling quite well under the
fingers. Residual elements of
Sturm und Drang seem to hang over the
nature painting of
Waldmärchen (1863) and whilst it can be somewhat
repetitious the broad structure of the piece is pleasing, its transitions
largely well-judged. It would be easy to dismiss the Op.8 Sonatines as mere
teaching fodder but apart from their pedagogic technical demands there is
much freshness to be found here. The second of the set is somewhat more
involved and requires quicker fingers but Goetz makes sure to include a
quotient of
joie de vivre. This second of the set, with its
genuinely good-natured finale really should be better known. Let’s hope
Keymer’s expert performance will stimulate someone to take some
interest.
The second of the two discs explores some very early pieces, none yet at
all distinctive. The 1861
Fantasie sees Goetz struggling with the
dangers of repetition, but the Scherzo – owing something to Schumann and
Mendelssohn – is more assured. There’s a sliver of a folk song lasting 38
seconds and some student fragments, and there’s just the first movement
exposition (completed by Keymer) of a sonata movement dating from 1855, when
Goetz was about fifteen. The
Lose Blätter offer more constructive
pleasures; nine character studies written in the latter half of the 1860s
and dedicated to Clara Schumann, who would have noted immediately the
stylistic homage to her late husband. Thoughtful, elegant, dancing, dreamy,
this set has romance and style and hints in the finale,
Auf
Wiedersehen!, of Chopin.
I’m glad to have had the opportunity to take in Goetz’s solo piano works
in one go. That said some things here are real juvenilia, useful only for
reasons of archival retrieval. If I were to compile a single disc it would
focus on
Lose Blätter, Genrebilder,
Waldmärchen and the
second of two sonatinas. Interested parties can be assured of good booklet
notes and a clean, clear studio acoustic, and perhaps some pleasant
surprises along the way.
Jonathan Woolf
