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Hans FRANKE (1882-1971) Piano Trio No.4 Op.792 in D minor Piano Quintet No.3 Op.795 in F sharp minor Piano Trio No.5 Op.801 in D major Klaus Opitz (viola) Trio inC: Joachim Enders (piano); Ingo de Haas (violin); Gisela Reith (cello) Gesine Kalbhenn (violin) rec. 25/26 March, 19 July 2003, Clara Wieck-Auditorium, Tonstudio van Geest, Heidelberg/Sandhausen. DDD SIGNUM Germany SIG X126-00 [70'14]

Try a few bars of this music with your most innocent ear; Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms perhaps? All and none, because not a bar of this comes anywhere near those composers. They might have approved of it from their competent students – as student works – but would hardly have admitted it to their own œuvres. Something of a surprise, then, that anybody should have bothered to record these works but a bigger shock are the years of composition: 1942 to 47. There is nothing on this CD that would have surprised a Viennese salon audience of 1870, except perhaps the complete absence of anything vaguely Wagnerian. There’s no pastiche here, no hint of irony; it simply seems that Franke had to compose, and he really only wanted to compose in the style of the teachers of his own teachers. Had the works on this disc turned out to be excellent examples of that style, we might have had a debate on whether such extreme anachronisms have a place, but this is far from being the case. While the processing of the material is competent and the writing idiomatic for the instruments, the basic material, the ideas, are poverty-stricken in the extreme. I can’t recall one memorable phrase on the whole CD. Perhaps, in frustration, I’m exaggerating; the second movement andante of the D major Trio starts sweetly enough. But not much! I really wanted to say to this composer, ‘you’re obviously competent, try a little discord here or there, some harmonic spice’. After all, Franke lived in Darmstadt from 1950 to 1971; although the liner notes say that he was always interested in the work of other composers, we must assume that he did not attend the summer schools where Messiaen, Stockhausen, Boulez et al taught over those very same years. I felt a little sad that 90% of Franke’s output (869 works in the catalogue!) was destroyed in the Dresden bombing of February 14, 1945 but I don’t think we have missed much. I should say that the musicians play excellently on a good recording and I look forward to hearing them in music more worthy of their abilities. Roger Blackburn Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

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