GUTCHE Themes and Variations CRC3150 [Byz]: Classical Music Reviews

US pianist Matthew McCright's booklet notes describe Gene Gutchë as a German composer, presumably on the grounds that he was born in Berlin. His mother was Polish, however, and his father French, hence the unusual-looking name: born Romeo Eugène Gutschë, he later - probably wisely - dropped the 'Romeo', then shortened the Eugène and finally, when he had relocated permanently to the USA as a composer, dropped the -s- from his surname in the reasonable belief that it would be easier for Americans to pronounce.

Gutchë wrote a reasonable quantity of music - his career trajectory was unusual in that he eschewed teaching, conducting and performing - but after a fruitful couple of decades in which his music was widely performed, he went out of fashion in the Seventies, and this seems to be only the second CD of his music, and the first for a decade - following a volume of orchestral music in the 'American Masters' series on the Composers Recordings Inc label (review). CRI went bust a few years ago, incidentally, and their entire catalogue, containing numerous fascinating and unique recordings, has now been digitised and published by New World Records. The full catalogue list is here.

Very handily, the scores of all of the works on this CD - and many more besides - can be downloaded for free in PDF format from a website about Gutchë's life and music maintained by The Schubert Club, who also underwrote the disc. The scores can be accessed from the list of Gutchë's works here.

McCright's recital opens with the Theme and Variations, Gutchë's longest work for solo piano by some distance, and what the Schubert Club site not immodestly describes as a "concert piece waiting to be discovered." In fact there are eight variations and a fugue, the lyrical whole somewhat reminiscent of Beethoven - at least in spirit - before turning over to Chopin for the last two variations, finally concluding with a powerful fugue - bringing the listener back to the darker world of Beethoven and his great predecessor - in which McCright maintains the momentum and builds the drama very well.

After the momentous fugal finale of the Theme and Variations come two more modest Fugues, the neo-Bachian C minor and the more loosely fugal, deliciously titled Utilitarian, which is far more redolent of Gutchë's teacher Ferruccio Busoni.

There are three Piano Sonatas by Gutchë in total, all from 1963: two published as op.32, and one, for some reason, as op.6. As this CD is rather desperately short, it is not self-evident why the latter was not also recorded by Centaur and McCright. In any case, the two Sonatas op.32 appear to have been Gutchë's final thoughts for the piano - from here onwards he concentrated on orchestral music. They are similar works, as might be expected from their opus number and timings, both laconic, tonally ambiguous three-movements-in-one affairs with plenty of variety, imagination and melody set off by attractive dissonance within their more orthodox fast-slow-fast frameworks.

Though McCright glosses over some of Gutchë's often quite detailed playing instructions, especially dynamics - frequently ignoring pp/ppp, for example - he nevertheless gives a decent account of Gutchë's appealing rather than compelling music. The accompanying booklet is not brilliant - there is not very much of it - but it just about covers the important bases, though perhaps it shades into superfluous detail about McCright. Sound quality, on the other hand, is very good.

All in all, a CD with nearly half an hour of blank space is difficult to recommend wholeheartedly, but that caveat aside, McCright's neutral playing style and Gutchë's well-formed music are sure to unite most tastes.

Byzantion
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