Oscar STRAUS (1870-1954)
Piano Concerto in B minor (c.1893) [26:59]
Reigen-Walzer (La Ronde) (1948) arr. Franz Marszalek [4:07]
Serenade for String Orchestra in G minor, Op.35 (c.1892-93 pub 1899) [20:47]
Tragant-Walzer (1913) [6:25]
Oliver Triendl (piano)
German Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern/Ernst Theis
rec. 2018, SWR Studio, Karlsruhe, Germany
CPO 555 280-2 [58:27]
The composer of Ein Walzertraum and Der tapfere Soldat had been a student of Max Bruch during the first half of the 1890s. It was a frustrating time for Oscar Straus and, one suspects, for Bruch too given Straus’ penchant for the lighter muse and Bruch’s determination to give him rigorous composition lessons and instil a love of chamber and large-scale orchestral works. Thus Straus dutifully churned out a Violin Sonata, and the Serenade to be heard in this disc, the precise compositional date of which is open to debate, but which seems to have been written during Bruch’s tutelage, though published several years later.
Originally intended as an orchestral suite, the Serenade is in five movements, lightly burnished and efficient, and promotes a charming rustic dance in the Scherzino and a deft waltz driven by pizzicati, full of airy Viennese charm. Its lack of ambition in no way limits interest in its generosity of spirit.
Even enthusiasts of the composer may not have come across the Piano Concerto, composed shortly after the Serenade. A familiar three-movements-in-one scheme in the Lisztian manner really serves as a light dusting for a conventionally shaped piece that shows proficiency and confidence in handling of the solo and orchestral writing. The resilience of the Late Romantic themes, the brio of the piano chording, the first movement cadenza and the brief fugato – fortunately very brief - are housed within a lighter, more freewheeling element. The attractive warmth of the horn themes in the slow movement perhaps disguises a rather static moment in the work which reveals more when Straus unleashes his finale, an avuncular dance cast in a lighter mould. Indeed, the operetta style found here suggests that Straus was itching to dispense with convention and revel in gaiety and unvarnished lyricism.
This leads on naturally enough to Tragant-Walzer of 1913, based on themes from Straus’ Die Prinzessin von Tragant, a one-act ‘dance play’, a success on its premiere. Here one finds unleashed, even in miniature form, the full range of Straus’ personable musical self, and one can delight in the swirling cavalcade of pre-war ebullience. Many years later Straus wrote the music for Max Ophüls’ film La Ronde, of which the well-known and evocative theme song is performed here.
So a rather unexpected look at Straus’ compositional life which offers insights into his early studies with Bruch and the direction in which the latter was steering the reluctant student. The piano is closely miked in the Concerto which somewhat desensitises the balance between the instrument and the orchestra but it’s always good to hear the hard-working Oliver Triendl again, ferreting out little-known scores and playing them with craft and sincerity. He has been well supported by Ernst Theis and his forces who acquit themselves well elsewhere.
Jonathan Woolf
