Genzmer's musical credo is declared prominently on the box:
"It should appeal to performers by being practicable and
to listeners by being intelligible."
His declared influences
are Rudi Stephan, Richard Strauss and Max Reger. His studies
in Berlin with Paul Hindemith from 1928 to 1934 certainly left
a mark. John McCabe was one of his pupils.
Genzmer's music is
that of a real composer who did in fact use dissonance when
it suited his expressive need. In general however he was an
adherent of the melodic tradition often written in a world embittered
or dismissive of that tradition.
He often finds time
for folk or traditional melodies and not always from the Germanic
traditions.
This box comprises
a selection of the Genzmer discs issued in a rather low key
way by Thorofon over the last decade. They have not stopped
and all the discs here can still be had individually if you
prefer. The set was issued to mark the composer's centenary
year. He died three years short of that birthday.
The 1999 Trumpet and
Piano Concerto is full of wit and romance with the music representing
trade between Copland's Quiet City and Gershwin’s Rhapsody
in Blue. Genzmer is often moving and always stimulating
as we can hear in the 1953, 1955, 1967 and 1976 string orchestra
works: Divertimento di Danza, Sinfonietta, Sonatina
prima and Miniatures. These works occasionally smack
of Dag Wirén.
The choral music disc
encompasses works from 1956 to 2003. Genzmer here impresses
sweetly with writing which sits variously between Geoffrey Bush,
Peter Warlock and Benjamin Britten. It is very melodic with
no touch of the avant-garde about it. Genzmer was not a follower
of current fashions.
The music for cello
and harp includes an emphatic 1963 Sonata for the two instruments
and an impassioned solo Sonata from 1977 with a delicious pizzicato
movement. It cannot help but be somewhat Baxian. The 1965 Harp
Concerto is at once sombre, determined and sentimental. As if
to compensate the Klagelied for six harps and solo cello
is most movingly and singingly done over the plangent arpeggiation
of six harps.
The disc of music for
cello, double bass and piano opens with the gawky and darkling
Double-Bass sonata of 1979. The Second Cello Sonata follows,
seemingly heavy with the threat of conflict. The Six Bagatelles
for cello and double bass are each delightful and ticklingly
entertaining little character pieces. Each is polished and timed
so as to match the melodic material. Genzmer's 1953 Cello Sonata
is just as passionate and emotionally charged as the later works
(see review
by David Blomenberg).
The 1970 Organ Concerto
has the great Edgar Krapp presiding in a work that charts its
way from Gothic haunting, to melodramatic, to peaceful. Genzmer’s
peace in this case is not restful and his energetic writing
is not tense but joyous. Peter Sadlo is the percussionist in
the 1978 Percussion Concerto. It too is rather dark but also
fey and mercurial. The 1948 Piano Concerto is taken by Oliver
Triendl who is a regular on Thorofon. There are further concertos
on CD6. Andrea Lieberknecht spins and wings the 1954 Flute Concerto
along in its Nielsen-like trajectory. A surprisingly ruthless
final Allegro closes the proceedings not without a flutter
and a chuckle at last. Triendl returns for the four movement
Second Piano Concerto (1963). A tonal work, as are they all,
it can be as light-hearted as Malcolm Arnold whose German counterpart
Genzmer can occasionally seem. Four years later he was to turn
to the viola for a concerto here played by Lars Anders Tomter.
This is a subdued work interspersed with gawky asides and flourishes.
Back to Trios and Quartets
for CD 7. Triendl is again in evidence joined by Ingolf Turban
and others. The melodically rounded Trio of 1944/1967 is powerful
and compact. The 1964 Trio is more spiky and acidic but again
firmly tonal. Its tranced Tranquillo is a highlight here.
The 1974 quartet for clarinet, violin, cello and piano takes
us closer to 1970s disillusion. It's very moving especially
in the Largo.
The Chamber Orchestra
works range from a delightful almost Fauré-like First Concertino
for piano and strings with flute. It includes a bustlingly engaging
Scherzo finale. The 1959 Violin Concerto has some Stravinskian
pepper and a flashing and flickering solo line. It is a work
of quietly spoken passions rather than grandstanding oration
– perhaps like the Arnold double violin concerto. Then follows
a cheery and by no means bland Oboe Concerto which would match
up rather well against the equally lyrical and light-footed
Arnold Oboe Concerto. From 1958 comes the Second Symphony. It
is brooding, urgent and intense - caught in the slipstream between
Hindemith's Harmonie der Welt and works such as the string
sinfoniettas of Herrmann and Waxman. Speaking of brooding that
word aptly characterises the Prologue II for orchestra
which opens CD 9 but this ultimately is shaken off in favour
of triumphant exuberance and even grandeur. The Third Piano
Concerto (1974) is in four movements. Oliver Triendl who must
know the piano music of Genzmer better than any other pianist
alive again presides over this urgent and sometimes faintly
jazzy music. There is a slightly oriental capricious twist to
the third movement which paves the way for the heroically romping
finale with its dash of Bartók along the way. The Fourth Symphony
of 1990 is very accessible yet not bland. After an exciting
first movement comes a elegiac-phantasmal episode. A hunting
fantasy-scherzo whirrs and rushes forward redolent of the Diana
Huntress movement in his earlier Hölderlin Fragments. After
this we return to elegies again with a halting yet affectingly
singing Lento. The finale is rushing and motoric with good dynamic
contrast. Its final pages are those of an heroic valedictorian.
The final disc in the
box has Triendl guiding us through the occasionally dissonant
Fifth Piano Sonata (1985). He also tackles the Bartókian angularity
and sometimes jazziness of the Preludes to the nova-Bachian
First Sonatina of 1940. He rounds out the sequence with Genzmer’s
four movement suite of 1947-48 with all its inventive grace,
occasional neo-classicism, romantic hyperbole and sentiment.
The recordings date
from between 1998 and 2006 allowing for one 1966 session for
the Sonata for cello and harp.
I hate the fact that
each of the envelopes in the card wallet case was sealed with
‘self sticky’ so you have to peel the flap back each time you
want to get at the disc. Who thought this was a good idea?
The orchestral music
is well put across by a series of increasingly recognised German
regional orchestras.
This is a valuable
set against which to reset your musical compass and prejudices.
That the music is enjoyable should, I think, have been mentioned
first.
The most recent Genzmer
Thorofon individual disc is CTH2556. It’s not part of the box.
You don't expect a
Festival Overture from 1999 yet Genzmer's is there and
was written without a Festival. It was purely a matter of the
composer' s creative volition. A work with a ripple of percussion
throughout - tom-tom and marimba – it’s effect is rather like
a gaunt Malcolm Arnold. It ends in a refulgent brassy and victorious
blaze with whooping horns underscoring the triumph.
The Third Symphony
(1983-86) was a commission from the Munich Phil who premiered
it on 20 June 1986 under Celibidache. Like the overture it has
prominent parts for much additional percussion. The composer
allows the conductor to substitute other instruments - ever
the practical pragmatist. The battery prescribed includes vibraphone,
marimba, xylophone, chimes, ten concert tom-toms and more. It
strikes me as a work of protest, anger and disillusion - much
along the lines, though sounding different, of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski's
Symphony recently recorded by Oehms.
It ends with a remarkable elegiac feeling and an Ariel-like
fanciful glisten into silence. The Hölderlin Frgaments (I-V)
(1977) are in effect another five-movement symphony. Each fragment
carries a Hölderlin text as superscription:-
I Hear the horn of
the watchman by night - ruthless, determination and brassy confidence.
II O Island of Light –
mysterious jangling noises - Ravelian - a little eldritch.
III As at night, when
one travels with trumpets or torches. Raucous uproar.
IV Echo sounds around
- mystery - Prospero's island.
V Therefore Diana the
singer goes horribly over the earth. That same ruthlessness
and triumph mentioned earlier returns bedecked in percussion.
The horns and strings are rampantly representative of Diana
the huntress.
The 10 CD box is an
economical way to add a large swathe of Genzmer's works to your
collection. The discs have been issued singly over the last
decade and you may not have come across them. Let’s hope they
have not given up on Genzmer. There’s plenty more to hear including
the concertos for two clarinets and strings (1983), four horns
and orchestra (1984), cello, contrabass and strings (1984),
two pianos and orchestra and two guitars and orchestra; not
to mention the Parergon zur "Sinfonia per giovani",
for saxophone orchestra. In the choral realm I would hope to
hear Genzmer’s 1962, Jiménez-Kantate, for soprano, mixed
chorus and orchestra, the 1969-1970 Mistral-Kantate,
the 1973 Deutsche Messe, for mixed chorus and organ,
the 1975-1976 Oswald von Wolkenstein, cantata for soprano,
baritone, mixed chorus and orchestra, 1978 Kantate (The mystic
trumpeter after Whitman), for soprano (tenor), trumpet and
strings and the 1981 Kantate nach engl. Barockgedichten,
for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra. As far as I am aware
the Fifth Symphony “for large orchestra” (1998) also awaits
a recording.
A German melodist of
the 20th century. Genzmer writes rewardingly so is well worth
discovering.
Rob Barnett
Detailed contents list: Zum 100 Geburztag THOROFON
9186815:
CD 1 (CTH2457) [69:11]
Konzert für Trompete, Klavier
und Streicher (1999)
Miniaturen für Streicher (1976)
Sinfonietta für Streichorchester
(1955)
Divertimento di danza für Streichorchester
(1953)
Sonatina prima für Streicher
(1967)
Margarita Höhenrieder (Klavier)
Guy Touvron (Trompete)
Württembergisches Kammerorchester
Heilbronn/Jörg Faerber
CD 2 (CTH2526) [61:23]
Irische Harfe (5 Gesänge für
gemischten Chor a cappella) (1965)
Chöre nach Gedichten spanischer,
amerikanischer und hispano-amerikanischer Lyrik für gemischten
Chor a cappella (2002-3)
Einladung Alte Volkslieder in
neuen Sätzen für gleiche Stimmen (1956)
Der grimmig Tod Vier indische
Lieder für Männerchor a cappella (1963)
An den Flamingo Vier Petrarca-Chöre
für gemischten Chor a cappella (1973/74) Timo Zimmer (Bariton); Hermine Mölzer
(Sopran); Clarissa
Jäkel (Alt); Felicitas Lottner (Mezzosopran);
Marcia Zieglmeier
(Sopran)
Via-Nova-Chor München/Kurt Suttner
CD 3 (CTH2527) [53:23]
Sonate für Violoncello und Harfe
(1963)
Konzert für Harfe und Streichorchester
(1965)
Sonate für Violoncello solo (1976
/ 77)
Klagelied für Violoncello und
sechs Harfen
Klaus Storck (Violoncello)
Christoph Bielefeld (Harfe)
Antonia Schreiber (Harfe)
Helga Storck (Harfe)
Jie Zhou (Harfe)
Kirsten Ecke (Harfe)
Anna Koim (Harfe)
CD 4 (CTH2529) [72:50]
Sonate für Kontrabass und Klavier
(1979)
Sonate für Violoncello und Klavier
Nr. 2 (1976 / 77)
Fantasie für Kontrabass und Klavier
(1980)
Bagatellen Nr. 1-6 (für Violoncello
und Kontrabass) (1985)
Sonate für Violoncello und Klavier
Nr. 1 (1953)
Martin Ostertag (Violoncello)
Nabil Shehata (Kontrabass)
Oliver Triendl (Klavier)
CD 5 (CTH2494) [73:39]
Konzert für Orgel und Orchester
(1970)
Konzert für Schlagzeug und Orchester
(1978)
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester
(1948)
Edgar Krapp (Orgel)
Peter Sadlo (Schlagzeug)
Oliver Triendl (Klavier)
Bamberger Symphoniker/Werner
Andreas Albert
CD 6 (CTH2528) [66:28]
Konzert für Flöte und Orchester
(1954)
Concertino für Klavier und Streichorchester
Nr. 2 (1963)
Konzert für Viola und Orchester
(1967)
Andrea Lieberknecht (Flöte)
Oliver Triendl (Klavier)
Lars Anders Tomter (Viola)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken/Werner
Andreas Albert
CD 7 (CTH2495) [55:50]
Trio für Violine, Violoncello
und Klavier F-Dur (1944 / 67)
Trio für Violine, Violoncello
und Kavier (1964)
Quartett für Klarinette, Violine,
Violoncello und Klavier (1974)
Ingolf Turban (Violine)
Wen-Sinn Yang (Violoncello)
Eduard Brunner (Klarinette)
Oliver Triendl (Klavier)
CD 8 (CTH2537) [70:02]
Concertino für Klavier und Streichorchester
(mit obligater Flöte) Nr. 1 (1946)
Konzert für Violine und Orchester
(1959)
Konzert für Oboe und Streichorchester
(Kammerkonzert) (1957)
Sinfonie für Streichorchester
Nr. 2 (1958)
Andrea Lieberknecht (Flöte)
Oliver Triendl (Klavier)
Rainer Kussmaul (Violine)
François Leleux (Oboe/Englisch
Horn
Münchener Kammerorchester/Alexander
Liebreich
CD 9 (CTH2401) [66:18]
Prolog Nr. 2 für Orchester (1991)
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester
Nr. 3 (1974)
Sinfonie Nr. 4 (1990)
Oliver Triendl (piano)
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz
Orchester/Theodor Guschlbauer
CD 10 (CTH2329) [59:08]
Sonate für Klavier (1985)
10 Préludes (1962 / 63)
Sonatine Nr. 1 (1940)
Suite C-Dur (1947 / 48)
Oliver Triendl (piano)
Other CDs of music by GENZMER:
Trautonium Concertos. Wergo (1986/94), WER 6266-2
Concerto for Trautonium and
Orchestra (1938/39)
Concerto for Mixture-Trautonium
and Large Orchestra (1952)
Chamber Music. Thorofon (2000), CTH 2419
Trio for Clarinet, Violoncello
and Piano (1988)
Second Sonatina for Violoncello
and Piano (1967)
Second Sonatina for Violoncello
and Piano (1982)
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
(1997)
Works for Flute, Oboe, Bassoon and Piano. Thorofon (2005),
CTH 2503
Trio for Flute, Bassoon and
Piano (1973)
Sonata for Flute Solo (1973)
Introduction and Allegro for
Bassoon and Piano (1966)
Seven Studies (Capriccios)
for Oboe Solo (1974)
First Sonata for Flute and
Piano (1939)
Sonata for Bassoon Solo (1974)
Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano
(1993)
Music for Flute, Clarinet and Piano. Thorofon (2008), CTH
2544
Third Sonata for Flute and
Piano (2003)
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
(1982)
Third Sonata for Flute Solo
(2002)
Fantasy for Clarinet Solo (1974)
Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano
(1967)
Second Sonata for Flute and
Piano (1945)
Music for Flutes. Thorofon (2008), CTH 2545
Quartet for Four Flutes (1988)
Sonata in F-sharp Minor for
Two Flutes (1944)
Dialogues for Two Flutes (2003/Selection)
International Dialogues for
Two Flutes (2005/Selection)
Trio for Two Flutes and Violoncello
(1982)
Second Sonata for Two Flutes
(1981)
Trio for Three Flutes (1990)
In Memoriam. Chamber Music of Harald Genzmer. Solo Musica
(2008), SM 114
Second Sonata for Violoncello
and Piano (1976/77)
Suite in C for Piano (1948)
Concerto for Piano and Percussion
(1975)
THOROFON CTH2553
