Max BRUCH (1838-1920)
Piano Works
Swedish Dances, Op 63 (1892) [23:31]
Piano Pieces, Op 14 (1861) [8:00]
Adagio from Violin Concerto in G minor, Op 26 arr Max Bruch (1866) [8:55]
Prelude to Loreley, Op 16 arr Max Bruch (1860-63) [4:32]
Piano Pieces, Op 12 (1861) [13:48]
Achilleus; Games in Honour of Patroclus, Op 50 arr Max Bruch (1885) [6:57]
Christof Keymer (piano)
rec. October 2019, Cologne, WDR Funkhaus
CPO 555 258-2 [66:43]
Bruch had a strange relationship to the piano. He went though fits of serio-comically wishing to see a bonfire of the instrument, a veritable auto-da-fé, and yet whilst he continued to pour contempt on what he termed ‘the un-melodic key-thing’ and ‘the barren rattletrap’ he was known as a fine exponent and in his late works he returned to composition for the piano in the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra and the chamber music.
But it does remain true that piano writing is sparse in his work list. The main work here is the Swedish Dances written in 1892. Excellent pianist Christof Keymer writes the booklet notes as well and makes clear that Bruch privileged profuse melody over every other consideration, citing his correspondence with Simrock to the effect that ‘as a rule, a good folk melody is worth more than two hundred art melodies’. It’s perhaps to Bruch’s advantage that Keymer doesn’t go further and explore Bruch’s rather overweening opinion of himself – on occasion he could be insufferably pomposo – and certainly doesn’t dig as deep as Bruch’s biographer Christopher Fifield who made clear Bruch’s ostentatious self-regard when – as people say these days – bigging himself up with his publisher. It’s ridiculous, objectively, that he should ever have considered the Swedish Dances the equal of the Hungarian Dances of Brahms or the Slavonic Dances of Dvořák, but that’s seemingly what he did. He wrote them originally for violin and piano and then for a variety of combinations, including orchestral and piano two-hands and four-hands, not forgetting a military band version. Keymer makes the very best case for them and plays them with deft rhythm and sonority. Bruch alternates rather graphically between lyric and extrovert and sometimes in the orchestral version – I first heard the first book in Kurt Masur’s Leipzig recording, coupled with the Second Symphony – the orchestration can congeal somewhat but the piano version clarifies and simplifies to a valuable degree. If you want the violin-and-piano original listen to Dene Olding and Piers Lane on Hyperion.
In later years Bruch was somewhat embarrassed by his Opp 12 and 14 sets of piano pieces. Yet there are strong Schumannesque elements in the Op 14, not least the Phantasiestücke - not surprisingly given that Bruch knew Clara Schumann – and the Op 12 set of six pieces is yet more generously lyric. Melody lines are finely defined, there is humour (yes – really!), there’s a gently evocative waltz and a charming Andante to finish. Bruch recorded a piano roll of the slow movement of his famous Violin Concerto in G minor and Keymer has transcribed it for performance. Rolls are notorious and I’ve had more than my say in the many roll recordings that I’ve reviewed but the transcription is a welcome addition to the Bruch canon of solo piano works and I’m delighted that Keymer has been so assiduous to have undertaken the work. It was Bruch himself who transcribed his overture to Loreley for solo piano (I’ve reviewed the whole work on CPO – see review) and did the same for his much less well-known oratorio Achilleus; I hope CPO will record this too.
Bruch’s ambivalence for the piano may well colour appreciation for this disc but Keymer is a fine guide and if anyone can persuade listeners to hear this repertoire it’s him.
Jonathan Woolf
