In 2004 reviewing
ASV’s disc of some of Thuille’s chamber
music I hoped that this was "not
the last we hear of the ardent Thuille".
Hopes are here fulfilled
and generously too; look at the playing
time. That in itself would be no virtue
if the music were dull. Well, it’s certainly
not dull even if it cannot claim originality.
The Piano Concerto
is clearly written by a Schumann
devotee. Thuille has the manner to a
T and although the strings are nowhere
near opulent Treindl is kept in constant
and exhilaratingly joyous play over
a pretty ambitious timescale; much the
same goes for the symphony. The Concerto
sidles in with a most adroitly lissom
theme that twines its affectionate way
around the listener’s memory. After
a beaming and floral adagio sostenuto
comes the rollingly confident and
rompingly bright-eyed Allegro vivace
finale with some lovely lithe Grieg-like
writing for the strings at 1:30. The
writing might once or twice to today’s
ears seem excessively sentimental but
those slightly purple patches are few
and far between.
The Symphony was
premiered by Thuille’s young friend
Richard Strauss with the Meiningen Orchestra.
There are four movements of which the
first is the longest. The idiom is Brahmsian
- especially in relation to the first
two symphonies. The Largo maestoso
has some majestically dour writing
for the brass (2:56). The Tempo di
Menuetto third movement is pointedly
Haydnesque. The finale mixes a quicksilver
highday-holiday mood with more pesante
writing.
CPO’s notes courtesy
of Eckhardt van den Hoogen are typically
encyclopedic.
The two substantial
works here are most logically coupled
and while they work within a formula
they are superbly put together and will
give great pleasure. The Symphony would
have fit very sensibly within Sterling’s
German Romantics series. The Concerto
would have been a most fitting feature
of the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos
series. As it is CPO have pipped both
to the post.
Congratulations to
all involved for such splendid and enthusiastic
performances from the orchestra of Thuille’s
birthplace. These unfamiliar works sound
not at all stilted. Instead they flow
with a pleasing inevitability. If you
like the Schumann piano concerto and
symphonies and the Brahms symphonies
you will find this disc delightful.
Rob Barnett
WEBLINK
Article
by Eric Schissel
Oliver Triendl (piano) 
