This release is the
second volume devoted to Klebe’s piano
music. It includes works written over
the last thirty years either for solo
piano or for piano duet. There is also
a fairly recent work for two pianos
and orchestra. It provides a fairly
comprehensive survey of Klebe’s recent
output for piano(s). Volume 1, with
the same performers is available on
MARCO POLO 8.223172 which includes earlier
as well as more recent pieces either
for piano, piano duet or two pianos.
Klebe, who studied
with Boris Blacher, scored his first
successes with works such as his brilliant
Die Zwitschermaschine Op.7
(1950), still one of his most imaginative
works so far, inspired by Klee’s eponymous
painting (The Twittering Machine).
That’s the same canvas that inspired
one of Maxwell Davies’ beautiful Five
Klee Pictures (1959, revised
1976). A new recording of Klebe’s colourful
score is long overdue. (A recording
of it was available many years ago in
a boxed set released by the Deutscher
Musikrat on Harmonia Mundi DMR 1004-6,
nla.) Prominent in his large output
are his operas (he composed ten of them
between 1957 and 1977), which are still
rarely heard, if at all, outside Germany.
No wonder that he decided to pay tribute
to Verdi in his Poèma drammatico
Op.130 completed in 1999. In
this fairly substantial piece, he weaves
quotes from Verdi’s operas into his
own, mostly dodecaphonic sound world.
As a whole this work does not completely
convince, at least as far as the present
writer is concerned. The opening section,
dark and ominous, underpinned by menacing
timpani, promises much. However the
slower section meanders aimlessly. This
is in spite of the insistent use of
a recurrent motif heard earlier in the
work and often restated afterwards in
an attempt to bring some formal coherence.
The final section, for all its heroic
gesturing, seems contrived. In short,
a fairly impressive work, but a flawed
one.
The other pieces fare
much better, probably because they set
out to achieve less epic or monumental
results. The pieces for piano duet (Sogetto
cavato primo Op.122 and Soggetto
cavato secondo Op.129) as well
as Widmungen Op.115 for
solo piano are tributes to artists and
friends close to the composer. The five
pieces, grouped under the title Widmungen
("Dedications"), were written
on various occasions from 1970 to 1988.
The titles of the five
pieces that make-up the Zornige
Lieder ohne Worte Op.118 ("Angry
Songs without Words") are clear
enough (Anger, Loneliness, Sorrow,
Revolt and Secret Message).
The music speaks for itself evoking
these various moods in turn. Incidentally,
the last piece of this suite, dedicated
to the writer Peter Härtling, is
a piano arrangement of a song setting
words by Härtling.
As may be expected,
Meine Enkelkinder und ich Op.140
("My Grandchildren and I")
is lighter in mood and generally less
demanding than most of the other works.
Thema und 39
Variationen Op.142, the most
recent piece, dedicated to Christian
Köhn on his 40th birthday,
is – in spite of its brevity – a substantial
work. It demonstrates Klebe’s endless
and undiminished imagination in handling
his material.
Klebe’s early works
were often more overtly dodecaphonic.
His style became more mellow with the
passing years, probably as the result
of writing operas. Klebe’s style, however,
was never strictly dodecaphonic or serial,
and rhythm has always been very important,
something he might have learned from
studying with Blacher. So, on the whole,
his musical style changed little over
these years, although the composer managed
to bring much variety into the proceedings.
Dedicated performances
by musicians who obviously believe in
the music. My reservations concerning
Poèma drammatico
have nothing to do with the performance
as such.
This disc is recommended
for it sheds some interesting light
on a little-known composer whose best
music deserves to be heard ... and some
of these works are really fine. I hope
now that someone will record his orchestral
music soon.
Hubert Culot
Silke-Thora Matthies (piano)abd;
Christian Köhn (piano)abcef;