Hans Gál (1890-1987)
Piano Quartet in A major (1926)
Suite for piano, Op 24 (1922)
Concertino for piano and string orchestra, Op 43 (1934)
Impromptu (1940)
Gottlieb Wallisch (piano), Hartmut Rohde (viola)
Aron Quartett
Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra/Hartmut Rohde
rec. 2019, Vienna, Austria
First recordings: Concertino, Quartet
CPO 555 276-2 [59]
It is heartening that Hans Gál’s music continues to be recorded regularly, and ever more discoveries are unearthed. It is still quite a shock that works as substantial as his quartet and concertino waited 96 and 88 years for a premičre recording. Meeting his music was a delight among many when I had the opportunity to review several of his compositions some years ago. Here was a composer whose Jewish heritage forced him to flee Austria for the UK following the Anschluss in 1938. He had already lost his job as Director of Mainz Conservatory in Germany, and had his music banned by the Nazis. He ended up in Scotland, and found work at the University of Edinburgh, where he stayed in 1945-1960; that followed a period of incarceration as an ‘enemy alien’(!).
The booklet notes contain useful and interesting information about Hans Gál, including the fact that his music is impossible to pigeonhole conveniently into “the familiar developments that dominated pre- and inter-war Europe”. One of the most obvious was the search by composers for a new way of expressing themselves; that led to the Second Viennese School of Arnold Schönberg. Indeed, Gál found himself a member, along with Alban Berg, of the selection jury of the prestigious Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein, which Liszt founded in 1861 in order to promote “The New German School”.
The notes ask where Gál was in this inter-war Modernism. They quote Gál’s own feelings about tonality, in which he was a firm believer. He declared that he was as convinced of its importance as he was of gravitation. He explained that, while we know how much we are subject to gravitation, we also know that weightlessness exists. He went on to say: “So atonality may exist, but I cannot imagine it any more than I can imagine weightlessness.” Nevertheless, he was respected and admired enough for no lesser figures than Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss to have recommended him for the position as Director of Mainz Conservatory (he was fired as soon as Hitler came to power).
The piano quartet was composed for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. The booklet explains why it has taken until now for it to find its way onto disc. To sum up, Wittgenstein wanted revisions to the score, which we may presume Gál disagreed with, so he made sure Wittgenstein only received an altered copy rather than the original manuscript. It may have been that Gál intended it to have been published after Wittgenstein’s death in 1961, but that never happened and the work was not published in Gál’s lifetime. It is a substantial work in four movements with strong melodic lines. It is full of richly orchestral colour and gorgeous tunes, which right then the Second Viennese School was resolutely turning its back on.
Arriving in Britain when Gál did, it cannot have been much easier with the trend there just as much set against “tunes” as it was in Europe. Those who wrote tunes had problems getting heard – Berthold Goldschmidt (another refugee from Nazi opression) and George Lloyd to name but two. This may have been another reason why this wonderful work had to wait until now to be heard.
The booklet notes capture the Suite for Piano in terms that cannot be bettered. It is “a representation of Gál as a composer who was incapable of writing a note that does not have something to say. The work is short, but each movement is exquisitely structured…” The longest, slow movement marked Sarabande funebre reveals Gál’s sensitive nature. The closing Gigue is fun, slightly knockabout, with a second subject of “feigned sentimentality”. The Suite is a fitting testament to Gál’s superlative ability to write well for the piano.
Gál wrote the Concertino for piano and string orchestra (one of eight such works of his) when he was back in Vienna after losing his post in Mainz. It too is getting its first-ever recording, but it was premičred in Vienna in the year when it was compoed. It is sumptuous, full of lush melodies, and very pleasing to the ear. It was popular with the public and the composer. He played it often, even in the UK after his emigration there. It has a Haydnesque flavour, and shows Gál’s mastery of writing contrapuntally.
This superb disc ends with the truly lovely Impromptu for violin and piano, one of a number of works Gál wrote for viola. It was an instrument his son Peter had recently taken up, and the piece was a gift for him, not intended for publication, hence no opus number. We are lucky that we can hear it, because it is as simply beautiful as it is beautifully simple.
All the musicians involved in this project perform wonderfully well, and the sound is excellent. Fans of the composer, and those who might be unfamiliar with his writing, will be delighted with this disc. It showcases some of Gál’s most beguiling works.
Steve Arloff
Previous review: John France ~ Rob Barnett (September 2022)
Published: October 17, 2022
