If Wilhelm Fitzenhagen still needs rehabilitating – and some high-brow
critics are still endlessly ticking him off for his revision of the Rococo
Variations – then maybe this disc will go some way to achieve that aim.
There have certainly been other recordings of these works – I
reviewed the A minor concerto eight years ago, when it was on
a similarly all-Fitzenhagen disc – but the performances by Alban Gerhardt
are on a rather higher instrumental and interpretative level, no matter how
attentive and thoughtful was the playing of Jens Peter Maintz.
Fitzenhagen was in the vanguard of executant-composer cellists in the
twenty years between 1870 and 1890. His Concerto No.1, Op.2 dates from 1870
and as with many concertos of the time dispenses with much by the way of
orchestral introduction and plunges the cellist almost immediately into the
fray. Assertive and expressive subjects are made much of, and there’s an
early cadenza at 4:52 in the concerto where orchestral strings interject to
demarcate the solo passages – a diverting and intriguing device. The second
movement is an intensely lyrical Andante and the finale is nimbly done, the
soloist leading the accompanying band a merry dance.
In the A minor Fitzenhagen sheds any vestige of orchestral opening, this
time plunging the cello straight in. The overriding schematic influence,
once more, is Schumann though it would be interesting to know, in passing,
to what extent Vieuxtemps may have known Fitzenhagen’s concertos as his are
predicated on similar lines and were written only a matter of a few years
later. Gerhardt has
recorded them as part of this Hyperion series. The
control of metrics and material is excellent here and preparation for
thematic writing is scrupulous. Orchestrally things are quite balletic, much
more so in this performance than in the Oehms rival already mentioned, and
the writing, whilst never urbane, remains vibrantly projected. In some ways
though the biggest surprises come in the innocuous-sounding
Ballade, a concertstück quite as long as the companion concertos.
It is, in any case, pretty much a one-movement concerto, excellently
structured with a full array of interesting themes and development to lull
the ear. It maintains – as some pieces of this type and period do not –
interest throughout its 17-minute length.
Resignation is a noble
little song-without-words, originally composed for cello and harmonium or
organ or piano. Its hymnal qualities are perfectly realised in this
solo-and- orchestral version published in 1874, two years after the
instrumental version.
It is inevitable, perhaps, that the
Variations on a Rococo Theme
should be included though I should have preferred a smattering of the salon
and genre pieces that form a significant part of Fitzenhagen’s output – even
if it risked creating a topsy-turvy programme with orchestral and piano
support. The idea that the Rococo arrangement was mere hacking about is one
that has never gone away but a performance as persuasive as this – and, in
truth, many others over the years – shows that, whatever critical mud might
be thrown at Fitzenhagen, hackwork shouldn’t be among the epithets.
These excellently recorded and scrupulously played performances have the
advantage of a thoughtful booklet note. This is volume 7 in ‘The Romantic
Cello Concerto’, a series that is going from strength to strength.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous review:
Michael Cookson
Other Volumes in the Hyperion Romantic Cello Concerto
series
Vol. 1: Dohnanyi, Enescu, D'Albert (Gerhardt)
CDA67544
Vol. 2: Volkmann, Dietrich, Gernsheim, Schumann (Gerhardt)
CDA67583
Vol. 3: Stanford (Rosefield)
CDA67859
Vol. 4: Pfitzner (Gerhardt)
CDA67096
Vol. 5: Saint-Saens (Clein)
CDA68002
Vol. 6: Vieuxtemps (Gerhardt)
CDA67790
