Hans Pfitzner
VIOLIN CONCERTO, Op.34
Saschko Gawriloff, Violin
Bamberger Symphoniker
Dir: Werner Andreas Albert.
(CPO)
*
Sin duda uno de los mejores conciertos para violín del siglo XX.
*
Critical Summary: Beautiful,
intensely lyrical, mostly gentle, late Romantic music, beautifully performed
and recorded, by a composer not known as one of the beautiful people.
Particularly compelling Violin Concerto.
*
After quite a few hearings I
have decided that as far as I am concerned the Pfitzner Violin Concerto is one
of the most satisfying concertos for that instrument. The cello concertos and
this early Scherzo are also very fine. That these and other Pfitzner works are
not played or recorded much outside of Germany is, I tend to assume, largely
due to strictly extra-musical reasons, which I have been wrestling with and
will address later.
*
Pfitzner's creative life
spanned well over half a century, from around 1888 to the 1940s. His style was
always conservative and did not really change much over the years. He was not
nearly conservative enough for the truly reactionary Director of the Frankfurt
Conservatory, who, incensed that Pfitzner's first cello concerto included
instrumentation for three trombones, and had "Wagnerian" sounding
harmonic augmentation of triads, stormed out of the trial performance, as
Pfitzner relates, so Pfitzner never graduated. Notwithstanding, Pfitzner
certainly mastered all needed compositional skills. Hans-Christian Schmidt, a
musicologist on the faculty of the University of Osnabrück, with a few books to
his credit, and who contributes extensive analytical notes to these recordings,
attests to this. Schmidt calls Pfitzner "as much a faded traditionalist as
a feeble avant-gardist," a "conservative nonconformist" who
"does not admit of stylistic classification."
*
In general, Pfitzner's music
is melodically beautiful and he uses a large orchestra sparingly, with
particularly effective use of the woodwinds and, on occasion, solo trumpet and
horn. He uses the full range of his solo instruments; dynamics range from very
soft to very loud, though are generally quite moderate; tempos range from quite
slow to presto. Structurally, this music uses variation form, counterpoint and
more or less continuous development.
*
The lively and energetic
(Lebhaft, energisch) opening movement of the Violin Concerto is intensely
lyrical rather than dramatic, and at the beginning both violin and orchestra
soar, though melody in this movement is frequently in short phrases. All of the
ensemble's sections have their say, with flute trills and oboe solos, some
brief but haunting horn and trumpet calls, then prominent brass, followed by a
skipping motion in the strings, which is later taken up by the soloist. Drums,
cymbals and triangle are also heard, though percussion is not particularly
prominent in Pfitzner's concertos.
*
The short, slow second
movement is marked "sehr getragen" (very stately) though this does not
preclude a very loud central passage, rather Mahler-esque, perhaps, which
subsides nicely. It begins with a beautiful oboe solo and toward the end there
is some exquisite music where the oboe plays over the strings, is joined by the
harp, which has the last word.
*
The long third movement, close
to half the length of the whole concerto, begins with long melodic lines, and
contains striking, in fact gorgeous outpouring of melody, sometimes perky,
sometimes soaring, as in Prokofieff's violin concertos. There is also a
fortissimo outburst, and the buildup at the end is reminiscent of Richard
Strauss, though there is a hushed moment before the music rushes to a final
thump. I might prefer that Pfitzner had re-written the ending, though I am sure
that live audiences would have no objection to it.
*
Schmidt, in his extensive
notes, calls this work brilliant and inspired (a comment that would have
pleased Pfitzner, who valued musical inspiration highly). He likes Pfitzner's
structural approach, his subtle, transformative "thematic dramaturgy"
and his "concentration and economy." Somewhat confusingly, he sees
the concerto as "of one movement in the guise of four movements,"
though he does proceed in terms of the three movements I mentioned. In the
first of these, Schmidt notes three themes, with the third of these having
seven variations; the last of those prepares thematically for the slow
movement. The cadenza is transformative rather than flashy. Schmidt describes
the rhythm of the slow movement as "steady forward striding," and he
finds the third movement humorous and witty.
*
James Tobin
