Hans WINTERBERG (1901-1991)
Piano Music - Volume 1
Sonata II (1941) [16:29]
Four Intermezzi (1929) [6:33]
Suite Theresienstadt (1945) [7:51]*
Suite for Piano (1955) [11:10]
Seven Neo-Impressionist Pieces in Twelve Tone (1973) [21:13]
Brigitte Helbig (piano)
rec. 2018, Bavaria Musikstudios, Munich
All first recordings except *
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0531 [63:21]
For many reading this review, Hans Winterberg will be an unknown. He was born in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1901. His musical studies - composition with Fidelio F. Finke and conducting with Alexander Zemlinsky - began at the city's Academy of Music and Performing Arts. Later he progressed to the Prague Conservatory, where he studied with Alois Hába. He worked for a while as a vocal coach and répétiteur in Brno. As a Czech Jew, he was interned in Theresienstadt on January 26, 1945, but was freed on 8 May that same year and returned initially to Prague. In 1947 he settled in Munich as a German citizen. He died in Stepperg, north of Munich, in 1991. His compositions are almost exclusively instrumental and include orchestral and chamber works, solo piano and vocal music and some scores for radio plays. He was also a painter. Influences include Wagner, Debussy, Schoenberg, Zemlinsky, Hába, Bartók, Stravinsky, and Hindemith.
Winterberg, by all accounts, was an accomplished pianist, with three piano concertos to his name. His solo piano works are shot through with hints of Janácek, Ravel, Schoenberg, Schulhoff and Martinů. The second piano sonata - Sonata 11 - is compact and in three movements. It dates from 1941, a difficult year in the composer's life. The following year was even worse, when his mother was arrested, deported and murdered at the hands of the Nazis. The opening movement is angular and rhythmically jagged. The Andante sostenuto provides a soothing element, despite an uneasy undercurrent. Unstable mood changes best describe the character of the third movement, where syncopated rhythms add to the visceral impact.
The Four Intermezzi were penned much earlier in 1929. Each is brief, lasting less than two minutes. They bear a dedication to Maria Maschat, whom he married the following year. No doubt they were intended for her to perform. Atonal, they mirror the concision and brevity of Anton Webern.
It was during his period of internment in 1945 that Winterberg wrote his three-movement Suite Theresienstadt. Perhaps it's the dark tolling of the middle movement Intermezzo that best reflects the depressing situation the composer found himself in at the time. The nervous agitation which pervades the third movement suggests that the composer was unaware at this stage of his fate.
The 1955 Suite of five pieces for piano is, to my mind, more accessible than the other works on the disc. The Vorpiel (No. 1) brings to mind Bach's Prelude in C major (WTC 1). Next there's a gruff Passacaglia, followed by a Marsch, interrupted centrally by some stray daydreams. When the march returns, it's more assertive and insistent. Bucolica is diaphanous, impressionistic and dreamy. A buoyant Toccata brings the Suite to a close.
We fast forward to 1973 for the Seven Neo-Impressionist Pieces in Twelve Tone. Imaginatively pianistic, Helbig brings to them a kaleidoscopic array of colourful sonorities. They explore a wide range of technique and call for a high degree of virtuosity. Helbig is nothing short of superb and the excitement and pizzazz she brings is breathtaking.
The complexities surrounding the composer's life, context and detailed analysis of the music are expertly laid out in Michael Haas' exceptionally fine and scholarly accompanying annotations. There are two photographic reproductions of the composer's handwritten scores. Brigitte Helbig grew up in Munich and studied there. She has established a reputation in the performance of new music and, as far as I know, this is her first commercial release. She’s served with a first-rate recording.
Apart from the Suite Theresienstadt, these compelling piano scores are here receiving their premiere recordings.
Stephen Greenbank
