Last September at the
Musikfest Berlin 2011 I attended
a splendid concert at the Philharmonie performed by the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.
One of the works played was
Dorian Music (1933) by Heinrich
Kaminski. It had been 77 years since the orchestra had last performed
the work. Scored for the combination of violin, viola, cello and
orchestra this piece is a fascinating and rarely played neo-baroque
effort that deserves a firm place in the repertoire. At the Philharmonie
concert I met Herbert Müller-Lupp chairman of the Heinrich Kaminski
Society based in Castle Tiengen (Kaminski’s birthplace) Germany.
He promised to send me a number of Kaminski recordings for review.
As good as his word a few weeks ago the package arrived with these
four discs. Here is the link to the pages of the Heinrich Kaminski
Society. Currently they are predominantly in German.
http://www.heinrich-kaminski.de/
For those who don’t know about Kaminski’s life a short biography
may prove helpful. He was born Germany in 1886 at the town of
Waldshut-Tiengen on the banks of the Rhine. Situated on the edge
of the Black Forest this town is very close to the German/Swiss
border.
Kaminski was considered one of the finest composers of his day
and numbered Arnold Schoenberg among his admirers. Although largely
forgotten today one of Kaminski’s greatest successes was having
his score
Dorian Music performed by the Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1934 at the Alte Philharmonie,
Berlin. His mother was a singer and his father was the son of
a former Old Roman Catholic priest who had resigned from the priesthood
after the First Vatican Council of 1869/70. Originating from Poland
the Kaminskis had Jewish roots, a factor that was later to cause
Heinrich severe difficulties.
Kaminski studied in the cities of Bonn and Heidelberg and initially
politics was his subject. After Martha Warburg became his patron
he moved to Berlin and transferred his attentions to music. In
1914 the penniless Kaminski found himself in the Bavarian town
of Ried, near Benediktbeuern outside Munich where he was to marry
Elfriede Jopp, a singer from a Munich choir. There they raised
a family with Heinrich teaching the piano and composing. Some
years later he won the Beethovenpreis and the next year the Musikpreis
in Munich. In 1930 he replaced Hans Pfitzner as professor of composition
at the Prussian Academy of Arts, Berlin with the best known of
his pupils being Carl Orff. A year later, in what was a period
of many successes, Kaminski was appointed to the position of State
musical director in Bielefeld.
Some of Kaminski’s personal letters were intercepted by the Gestapo
and fearing deportation to a concentration camp he fled to France
and Switzerland only returning to Bavaria when he felt the danger
had passed. Subsequently he was declared a half-Jew and in 1938
his music was banned for a time. A humanist and pacifist, Kaminski
found that many of his supporters including influential conductors,
such as Bruno Walter, had been blacklisted by the Nazis or were
facing suppression. In 1941 his own blacklisting was lifted when
it was established that he had only one fully Jewish grandparent.
Kaminski heavily bore the horrors of the Second World War in Germany
suffering the death of three of his five children, becoming separated
from his wife who had moved to Munich, experiencing financial
difficulties before finally succumbing to an acute illness. He
died in his beloved Bavaria in 1946 at Ried shortly after completing
his opera
King Aphelius.
The first of the four Kaminski discs for review is a new release
of the
String Quintet in F sharp minor. Here we have
Schwarz-Schilling’s arrangement for chamber orchestra. Started
in 1914 this substantial four movement score, dedicated to Bruno
Walter, was completed in 1916 and premièred at the Munich museum
the next year. Kaminski was to revise the quintet in 1927 and
then gave his pupil Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling the task of arranging
it for string orchestra. Subsequently the work was premièred in
1929 under the title of
A Work for String Orchestra.
This is an extremely lengthy score that can hardly be said to
overflow with memorable tunes. Kaminski seems to have been more
concerned with mood than melody. It is not a score immediately
appealing to the listener and would probably require repeated
listening to reveal its undoubted qualities. It is not difficult
to imagine this predominantly dark and intense material being
a reflection of the composer’s reaction to the war horrors raging
around him. Marked
Adagio - Allegro - Andante the opening
movement feels rather involved, almost bipolar in disposition.
Its moods swing back and forth between exhaustive-depressive and
episodes of calm. The music sometimes feels impulsive with a dash
of nervous energy. The tension-filled second movement
Andante
is redolent of vast open spaces laid to waste. Having something
of the quality of the haunted ballroom about it the measured
Ländler-like
Scherzo marked
Allegro is intensely melancholic.
Here the writing is heavier yet quicker. There’s considerable
tension yet also a more extrovert quality. The
Finale
is a considerable and rather complex movement - a
fugue
here lasting around 19 minutes. The writing is characterised by
inventive and impressively scored eruptions of energy. The performers
make a splendid case for this substantial score and play with
impressive string sonority. It feels as if the conductor Skou-Larsen
has worked hard on handling detail. Their unity of ensemble is
notable too. The CPO engineers have done a fine job and have secured
clear and well balanced sound.
The disc titled
Sacred A-Cappella Works on Oehms Classics
contains many wonderful delights. This splendid collection spans
some 34 years. Immediately I was struck by the beauty of
Psalm
130 for soprano solo and chorus (1912). It comes as no surprise
that this highly attractive three movement setting is one of Kaminski’s
most performed scores. In
Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu
dir (Out of the depths I have cried, Lord) I loved the glorious
interplay between the prominent bright and shimmering female voices
against the deep almost whispered resonance of the males. Soprano
Priska Eser-Streit is in quite marvellous form in
Ich harre
auf den Herren (I wait for the Lord) with her beautiful and
reverential soprano sending a shiver down the spine. The final
movement
Israel, hoffe auf den Herren (Let Israel hope
in the Lord) sees the mixed choir moving in perfect unison with
the weighty textures.
A relatively late score from 1934
Die Messe deutsch (The
German Mass) for soloists and chorus was left incomplete. The
texts are Kaminski’s own and the Nazis would surely have found
yhem inflammatory. In two movements the first
O wirre Welt!
(O bewildered World!)
- a
Kyrie eleison of a
dark and serious character is intense and affecting. In the second
movement
O Christ eleison (Oh Christ have mercy) I was
immediately struck by the gloriously sung duet from sopranos Priska
Eser-Streit and Sigrid Plundrich over the Orpheus choir’s soft
blanket of sound. Lasting just over 9 minutes
Die Erde
(The Earth) -
Zarathustra:
Yasna 29 is a motet
for mixed chorus set to a difficult to understand text that Kaminski
completed in 1929. I admire the splendid contrasts of mood and
broad dynamics between softly calming and weighty dramatic writing.
In addition the quickly shifting tempi makes this a challenging
proposition which the choir pass with flying colours. From 1930
the
Triptychon (Triptych) for mezzo-soprano solo and
organ is substantial. It’s demanding for the soloist Roxana Constantinescu
and takes some 20 minutes to perform. Each of the three pieces
inhabits a rather similar mood. In the first part
Zarathustra:
Yasna 43 I especially admire the singing of the assured Constantinescu.
Radiating a serious character she asserts that there is more than
one way to find God – this over a prominent organ part authoritatively
played by Harald Feller. She is again in quite glorious reverential
voice in the final part
Das Wessobrunner Gebet (The Wessobrunn
Prayer). There is much to enjoy in the motet
Der Mensch
(Man) scored for alto solo and chorus. To a text by Matthias Claudius
it was completed in 1918. In this testing motet Constantinescu
sings a separate set of words to that of the choir. I thoroughly
enjoyed the
Sechs Chorale (Six Chorales) from 1915. Although
each of them inhabits a similar sound-world these are attractive
pieces characterised by reverential restraint rather than extravagance.
Throughout, the choir is wonderfully secure singing with eloquence
and reverence and displaying a most impressive unison. Dating
from 2005 the sound is well balanced and stunningly clear. In
short this is a magnificent disc impressively sung and recorded.
There are some real gems to discover here in this expressive and
easily accessible music.
The CD on the Telos label titled
Music is Confession
played by the Swiss-based Casal Quartet offers us an impressive
recording of Kaminski’s
String Quartet in F major (c.
1913/17). Also included are Schulhoff’s
String Quartet No.
1 (1924/25), Ullman’s String Quartet No. 3, Op. 46 (1943)
and Busch’s
Quartettsatz in B minor (1924). Incidentally,
the birth-dates of Schulhoff and Ullmann are given incorrectly
on the rear cover of the CD sleeve. I have not managed to find
an exact composition date for the Kaminski’s
Quartet
but it seems to be from around 1917. The F major score is cast
in four movements commencing with a
Lento expressivo.
Deliberately laboured in pace, bleak and disconsolate the writing
is variegated with two short energetic outbursts of petulance.
If anything the mood becomes increasingly despairing. Given the
date this could easily be Kaminski’s depiction of the horrifying
destruction caused by the Great War. Marked
Energisch
the substantial
Scherzo-like second movement is immediate
yet feels disconcerting, like a haunted dance. Twice the music
slows for episodes of a more reflective nature. At 5:13 an abrupt
shift reveals slightly disturbing music of an esoteric quality
possibly ironically celebratory. Short at only two and half minutes,
the
Adagio expressivo - attacca is heartfelt but alters
to the disconsolate disposition of the opening movement. The
Finale,
Allegro deploys previously used ideas and the underlying
feeling created is one of disturbing nervous tension.
Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff of Jewish origin was aged 48 when
he became a victim of the Wülzburg concentration camp in Bavaria.
Schulhoff’s
String Quartet No. 1 (1925) is a four movement
score in the style of a classical sonata. It overflows with varied
and fascinating moods combined with rather progressive writing.
Utilising Slavic dance figures I especially enjoyed the wild and
vigorous opening movement
Presto con fuoco in the manner
of a speeded-up folk-dance. The second movement
Allegretto
con moto e con malinconia grotesca contains some beautiful,
if edgy, dance music. It all feels rather tongue-in-cheek, employing
a substantial amount of eerie harmonics. Another remarkable movement
that again uses Slavic dance rhythms is the third movement
Allegro
giocoso alla Slovacca which is intense and near frenetic.
Concluding with an
Andante molto sustenuto the poignant
writing is serious and tinged with a sense of threat and danger.
Viktor Ullmann from Tešín in the Czech Republic was also of Jewish
descent. In 1944 aged 46 he was killed in the gas chambers of
the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. A wartime work from
1943 Ullmann’s
String Quartet No. 3, Op. 46 is cast in
four movements. The opening movement
Allegro moderato
contains predominately austere writing followed by an energetic
and disturbing
Presto.
The third movement is a
Largo that could easily depict
a bleak and desolate landscape and the
Rondo,
Finale
is memorable for sharp shafts of restless energy.
Far better known as a violinist, both as soloist and chamber musician,
Adolf Busch was born in Germany in 1891. Busch was much admired
as a musician and founded the famous Busch Quartet and the Busch
Chamber Players. Although he had made a stand against Nazism this
counted for little after the war; finding that his reputation
had greatly reduced. Busch’s body of compositions include a
Concerto
for Orchestra and a
Violin Concerto also the
Quartettsatz
in B minor (1924). In a single movement this score has three
discernible sections
Lento- Vivace - Prestissimo and
lasts just under 11 minutes. It brims with intense emotion mainly
restless anxiety contrasted with devilishly energetic moments.
It is hard to fault the Casal Quartet for their taut and resolute
readings. Impeccably prepared the deeply musical playing has splendid
unity and attractive tonal blend. The sound is cool, crystal clear
and well balanced.
On the Christophorus label we hear from the New Leipzig String
Quartet (now the Leipzig String Quartet). The first score is the
intriguingly named
Prelude and Fugue on A-B-E-G-G from
1931. Lasting here around eight and a half minutes this single
movement piece was a gift to Dr. Wilhelm Abegg in gratitude for
his patronage. There’s highly impressive and intense forward momentum
here. The music is windswept with a strong feeling of anxiety
alongside contrasting tranquillity. The closing
Fugue
radiates angst over an incessant surging momentum.
Kaminski’s
String Quintet in F sharp minor (1914/16 )
has been outlined in the above review. I slightly prefer this
original version. Here the Leipzig String Quartet is augmented
by second violist Karl Suske. In the opening
Adagio -
Allegro - Andante movement the assured players maintain a
firm grip on the tension-filled writing. This only loosens for
interludes of uneasy calm. The players maintain that unsettling
feeling in the
Andante with its substantial central section
heavy with foreboding. The stately dance-like figures open a
Scherzo
that gradually grows in both weight and tension. The substantial
Finale - Fugue is splendidly detailed and sharply
characterised. The concentration and weight of the playing is
remarkable.
Having attended a live performance of
Dorian Music (1933)
played by the Berlin Philharmonic and as further encountered here
I have no doubt that Heinrich Kaminski is an accomplished composer
with a lot to say. He certainly does not deserve his relative
neglect and further quality recordings of
Dorian Music
will assist his case. I certainly hope that it isn’t too long
before I hear in the concert hall or on disc Kaminski’s final
orchestral works from 1942: his
Sinfonietta,
Dance
Drama for orchestra and the
Suite for large orchestra.
Now that would be something!
Michael Cookson
Deutsche Kammerakademie, Neuss (German Chamber Academy, Neuss)/Lavard
Skou-Larsen
OEHMS CLASSICS (SACD)
OC 608 [79:22]
