Josef Schelb (1894–1977)
Chamber Music - Volume Two
Kammermusik for Flute, Viola and Harp (1948)
Sonata for Flute and Piano No. 3 (1971)
Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano (1961)
Quartet for Oboe, Violin, Viola and Cello (1953)
Stéphane Réty (flute); Nicolas Cock-Vassiliou (oboe); Isabelle Moretti (harp)
Alexander Knaak (violin); Jean-Eric Soucy (viola); Denis Zhdanov (cello)
Roglit Ishay (piano)
rec. 2019, Baden-Baden, Germany
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0548 [60]
German tonalist Josef Schelb hove into sight (sound, really) on the back of three Toccata CDs: Orchestral Vol. 1, Orchestral Vol. 2, and Chamber with Clarinet. There’s also an Antes CD of his solo piano music.
Active in Karlsruhe, he wrote prodigiously but lost most of his pre-1940s scores in the Allied bombing. He started making up for lost time and ashes. The first in time of the works to be heard here is Kammermusik for Flute, Viola and Harp (1948). This could easily be by one of the great French practitioners such as Ravel or Roussel. A yearning and gorgeous harmonic world, complete with harp, enlivens and illumines this elegant and dignified three-movement work. It seems to speak of an ancient pervasive sweetness. The Flute Sonata No. 3 continues to occupy much the same stylistic ground though written 23 years later in a very different world. The Andante Tranquillo movement has the faintest hints of dissonance to add ‘edge’ to the impressionism.
From ten years earlier than the Flute Sonata comes the Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano but it is in much the same domain. A movingly melancholic Lento is at the heart of the Trio. Schelb’s Oboe Quartet was written in 1953. The Allegretto moderato first movement has its more combative moments but the general apparel of the score is of a piece with the other works. The Tranquillo does not feel very tranquil. Its Bachian cocoon is translucent and speaks of disillusion - perhaps a legacy of the war and post-war years. A more chipper and sanguine Vivace acts as valedictorian for the work.
These are all recording premieres but that won’t come as any surprise.
Who knows, perhaps there is a whole school of Schelb impressionists in Germany but for now, for most of us, his voice is distinctive and, more to the point, attractive. That he makes common cause with the French impressionist school is remarkable.
Rob Barnett
