Victor HERBERT (1859-1924)
Serenade, for string orchestra, op.12 (1884) [24:15]
[Seven] Pieces, for cello and string orchestra (arr. Three Pieces for cello
and piano and Five Pieces for cello and orchestra by Sam Dennison and Hans
Kunstovny) (1900-06) [20:54]
Three Pieces, for string orchestra (1912-22) [8:33]
Maximilian Hornung (cello)
Southwest German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim/Sebastian Tewinkel
rec. Matthäus Kirche, Pforzheim-Arlinger, Germany, 20-21 November 2008,
9-10 February 2009. DDD
CPO 777 576-2 [54:07] 
Irish-born American composer Victor Herbert is probably doomed to be remembered
in the annals of music history for his proto-musicals like Babes in Toyland
(review).
As with George Gershwin, there was another, more serious side to his music
that recordings like this do their best to remind the public of. A decade
ago Swiss label Guild released a recording of Herbert's fine Second Cello
Concerto alongside his friend Dvorák's own Concerto (review),
highlighting Herbert's credentials as a serious composer and certain similarities
in background, if not necessarily style or imagination.
It may as well be stated at the outset, however, that these three works for
strings do not reveal Herbert to be anything approaching the equal of Dvorák,
nor, for that matter, Tchaikovsky, Grieg or Elgar. It is very easy to hear
the composer of operettas and other light music in them - Herbert has less
of a claim to undeserved neglect as a serious composer than his older contemporary
Arthur Sullivan, whose situation paralleled Herbert's in some ways. On the
other hand, Herbert wrote music to make money more than for artistic self-gratification,
and as he died rich he might not have been too troubled by posterity's opinion.
Either way, there is an undeniable charm to his music, and warmth and melody
in abundance. The five-movement Serenade is probably the least memorable of
the three works here, though by the time of the attractive finale, signs of
greater invention are starting to break through. In spite of its somewhat
generic, anationalist nature, the Serenade appeared a couple of years ago
on a Dutton disc entitled 'American Serenades' (review),
billed as the premiere recording. The Three Pieces are lighter still, knocked
into a cocked hat by many of the masters of this genre, yet still undeniably
pleasing to the ear, particularly in the dreamy final 'Sunset'.
For a none too obvious reason, CPO have given this CD the subtitle 'Works
for Cello & Strings', misleading in that there is only twenty minutes'
worth of cello, in the so-called Seven Pieces. This item is actually an arrangement
by other hands of two different works by Herbert. If the orchestral writing
tends once again towards the predictable, there is no doubting the cantilena
effectiveness of the cello part - Herbert himself had had a career as a cellist
- confidently brought off by German soloist Maximilian Hornung. Even so, this
is not music that ever wanders outside the generic listener's comfort zone,
nor a work that was especially crying out for this arrangement which rather
flattens some of the textures. On the other hand, it is probably the only
work of the three that deserves to be heard with any degree of frequency.
Pforzheim's Southwest German Chamber Orchestra under Sebastian Tewinkel give
a reasonable rather than spectacular account, though perhaps the modest nature
of Herbert's music is partly to blame. Certainly neither they nor Herbert
are done any favours by the apparent smallness of the ensemble - though the
photo in the booklet shows fifteen members, many a string quintet can be heard
with a richer sound. Audio quality is another minor issue: CPO's recordings
are sometimes undermined by a certain flatness, and here too there is a noticeable,
though by no means critical, 'mp3 effect'.
The shortness of the disc does not aid its cause, but some lost ground is
made up in the accompanying trilingual booklet, which is as detailed as ever
from CPO, with two or three photos of all the involved musicians looking quite
friendly. Unfortunately CPO have once again failed to have the translation
looked over by a native speaker, with the result that the English is rendered
in a convoluted style that ranges at times from the recondite to the faintly
ludicrous: "Herbert was apparently something on the order of a melodic
volcano, to whom something always occurred and who was always ready to flow
with something or other. Whether it was also by him, that he himself did not
know." In fairness to the translator, however, the purple prose and quirky
factoids of Eckhardt von den Hoogen's original German - which, for example,
absurdly gives Herbert's and his wife's "BMI" (Body Mass Index)
- must shoulder at least part of the blame.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
There is an undeniable charm to his music, and warmth and melody in abundance.