Hans HUBER (1852-1921)
Phantasie in G minor Op.17 (c.1870) [24:40]
Violin Sonata No.5 in E major Op.112 (1897) [19:47]
Violin Sonata No.6 Appassionata in D minor Op.116 [30:03]
Gilles Colliad (violin)
Timon Altwegg (piano)
rec. Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, September 2010
GUILD GMCD 7371 [74:40] 
Alternative
review
Hans Huber was little more than a name to me, but I wish I’d discovered him
sooner. The Swiss composer studied in Leipzig before returning to the country
of his birth where he taught, in Basel. He was the Music School’s Dean from
1896 until his death in 1921. He wrote eight symphonies, five operas, four
piano concertos, a violin concerto and a considerable amount of chamber music.
This is what Guild presents, in the shape of three works for violin and piano
written between around 1870 and 1900. Huber impresses me for his excellent
melodic gifts, his sure deployment of lyric material traced between violin
and piano, his highly expressive and atmospheric writing and his propensity
for chorale-like motifs that gather considerable depth as they are developed.
I am also highly impressed by these interpreters, who serve him with devotion
and considerable skill, both digitally and emotively.
The Phantasie is an early work, written around 1870. Its four movements gather
momentum and direction as they develop, revealing something of a debt to Schumann
but full of dashing writing in the Prestissimo section and a real gift
for profuse lyric fluency throughout. He characterises well too – both the
chorale and the rich chordal trio of the – in effect – Scherzo possess real
staying power. The finale is rich but also feisty, and drives toward a satisfying
and powerful conclusion.
This was a work of a teenager, and a mighty impressive work too. It doesn’t
seem at all schematic, or academic or slavish. In fact it’s overflowing with
feeling. By the time we reach the Fifth Violin Sonata of 1897 over a quarter
of a century had passed, and Huber’s Late Romanticism is now distinctly tinged
with Brahmsian impressions. But the melodic inspiration remains elastic, expressive
and full of plangent phrasing. Huber occasionally seems to have based his
structural plans on Beethoven. I have a hunch that he based this sonata on
Beethoven’s Op.109 Piano Sonata. An Allegretto is followed by a brisk
Presto agitato and to end we have an Allegretto ma non troppo e cantabile.
The central movement’s piano writing seems more than to hint at Op.109 and
the whole sonata seems predicated on its influence. But Huber’s lovely cantabile
writing, his warmth and wisdom is always in evidence. Does he hint at the
Siegfried Idyll in the finale for a reason? Is there a musico-biographical
element at work?
The Sixth Sonata is another splendid work, dedicated to Hubay. It’s something
of a concertante sonata, but one with a seamless control of span, not least
in the long and tricky first movement. There is some lovely writing for the
piano, as well as residual Brahmsian qualities too. The slow movement is passionately
declaimed, complete with a Regerian three part fugue, and though this sounds
on paper formidably academic, in practice it works extremely well. There’s
even a Spanish tinge in the jaunty finale and an exultant close.
Beautifully recorded and neatly annotated, this disc has taken me very much
by surprise. It’s an absolute winner.
Jonathan Woolf
It’s an absolute winner.