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FUCHS
PIANO TRIO · VIOLIN SONATA VIOLA PHANTASIESTÜCKE
Giulio Plotino violin Claudio Cavalletti viola Enrico Maria Polimanti piano
Robert Fuchs · Late Works for Violin, Viola & Piano Robert Fuchs was born on 15 February 1847 at Frauental an der Lassnitz in Styria, not far from the present-day border between Austria and Slovenia. The youngest of thirteen children, he had an evident gift for music, as indeed did his older brother, the future opera conductor Johann Nepomuk. As well as acquiring a good grounding in harmony and counterpoint, Robert soon also proved to be a skilled performer on various instruments, including the piano, the violin and the flute. At the age of eighteen he moved to Vienna, where he earned a living as a piano accompanist, giving private lessons and playing the organ in church. At the same time he also attended courses in composition held by Otto Dessoff, one of the teachers at the Conservatoire who was later to grant Antonín Dvorˇák the Stipendium with which the Austrian government funded artists. Following a number of youthful compositions, in 1872 Fuchs wrote a symphony in G minor that did not meet with much public acclaim. By contrast, the first serenade that he wrote two years later was highly successful. Commentators appreciated the pleasantly regular nature of the piece, and the conservative critic Eduard Hanslick went as far as to praise the work because it did not reveal efforts on the part of the composer to express the deep philosophical perceptions or the different psychological states of mind that were fashionable at the time. In 1875 Fuchs joined the faculty at the Vienna Conservatoire, and shortly afterwards came into contact with Johannes Brahms, who was not generally renowned for being particularly expansive. Indeed, he tended to hide his feelings behind a wall of sarcasm, dismissing the many young musicians wishing to seek advice from the famous composer with expressions such as: “My heartfelt thanks. I trust you’ll carry on messing around like this”. When Max Bruch showed Brahms one of his works he was met with the question: “Now do tell me, where do find such lovely score paper?” It is thus surprising to discover that Brahms was actually quite impressed by Robert Fuchs, whose music he judged to be 2
“beautiful, perfectly written, fascinating in its inventiveness and always pleasant”. The two of them soon became close friends, with Brahms often being the first to read and hear his colleague’s compositions. At the time Fuchs’s music was distinctly melodious in focus, and clearly influenced by Schubert. A case in point is the third serenade for strings published in Leipzig in 1878 and dedicated to Elisabeth of Austria, the hapless “Sissi”, who was assassinated in 1898 by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni. The Empress was a patron of the arts, and her particular predilection for Hungarian culture is mirrored in the last movement “alla zingarese” (gypsy style) of the serenade. This type of finale also features in the Sonata Op.103 and in the Trio Op.115, where elements of the cultivated and vernacular traditions are interwoven. Under the influence of Brahms, Fuchs’s music gained in complexity, especially as regards rhythm and harmony. Brahms recommended his friend to the publisher Simrock, warmly promoting the publication of the Symphony in C major, a composition that won Fuchs the Philharmonic Society’s Beethoven Prize in 1886. Alas Brahms did not live long enough to witness the important developments that were to follow in Fuchs’s chamber output and in his Third Symphony. Fuchs was a prolific composer, devoting particular attention to chamber music, where his output numbered forty or so works, including sonatas, trios, quartets and quintets. He also published three symphonies, plus a further two that were unpublished, as well as the five serenades. Furthermore he turned his hand to Lieder, writing a number of songs that probably exercised a certain influence on Hugo Wolf. In addition, he wrote two operas, Die Königsbraut of 1889, which drew bitter criticism from Hanslick, and Die Teufelsglocke of 1892, a work that has remained unpublished to this day. Around 1900, the lyricism of Fuchs’s early works began to change in expression, growing somewhat gloomy and bleak, with a certain harshness emerging in the thematic material. The heritage of Schubert and Brahms was accompanied by impeccably handled counterpoint and form that allowed the composer to achieve 3
increasingly complex harmonies and frequent use of modulation. In his later works, for instance, this complexity came to the fore in the shape of unusual chords in distant keys. The combination of post-romantic elements and typically 19th century effusion is also evident in the works recorded for this CD. The use of melody and technique clearly identify Fuchs as belonging to the Austrian musical tradition between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Indeed, a comparison of his later output with that of his most famous pupils, including Mahler, reveals to what extent he was not only a voice of his time, but also a forerunner of developments to come. Composed in 1915, the Sonata for violin and piano in G minor Op.103 was the sixth and last of Fuchs’s compositions for this ensemble. It wad dedicated to the German violinist Adolf Busch, who in 1913 had founded the Konzertverein Quartet in Vienna, and six years later was to establish the Busch Quartet. Busch cultivated close relationships with many musicians active in the Austrian capital, among them Robert Fuchs. Of the three movements that make up the sonata, the first two are particularly rich in musical elements that prefigure the language of certain later composers, such as Sibelius and Strauss. The opening movement in sonata form is an Allegro moderato, which proceeds in a manner reminiscent of Bruckner, and features a number of secondary subjects. The development is imposing in idiom, with frequent incursions into remote keys. The movement ends with a coda in which the violin takes over the figuration of the initial piano accompaniment, leading to a bold and definitive affirmation of the head of the opening subject. The second movement, an Andante sostenuto, is structured like an unusual sonata form in which the development as such is replaced by a sort of brief intermezzo. Distinctly lyrical and nostalgic, the movement also uses counterpoint to enrich the melody and distribute it in various layers. The lively final Allegro vivace is reminiscent of certain of Dvorˇák’s works, especially those pages that resound with the folklore and musical spirit of 4
Eastern Europe. Frequent alternation of major and minor keys is another feature of the finale, which ends with a coda in which earlier rhythmic and thematic elements are further developed to increase their expressive potential. The unusual ensemble required for the Trio in F sharp minor Op.115 is not without significant precedents. The first edition of Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio K498, published by Artaria in Vienna in 1788, envisaged a violin rather than a clarinet, and Schumann had conceived a version for piano, violin and viola of the Marchenerzählungen Op.132. Moreover, towards the end of the 1800s Max Reger had composed his Op.2 for the same group of instruments. Fuchs finished his trio in 1921, dedicating it to the conductor Wilhelm Gericke. It consists of four movements invested with beautiful subjects and outstanding perfection of form. The evocative melody of the initial Allegro molto moderato is a fascinating case in point. It contains a distinctive dotted triplet rhythm that returns throughout the movement, and ultimately defines the conclusion. The exposition is followed by a development clearly divided into two parts that embody some interesting parallels. In the first part Fuchs develops the material intrinsic to the first thematic group, while in the second he concentrates on the gentle lyricism and soft, syncopated rhythms of the second thematic group. In the recapitulation it is the viola that predominates, after which the movement proceeds towards the conclusion in a substantially traditional manner. Next comes an Andante grazioso in three parts, the beginning of which is distinctly reminiscent of Mahler. In actual fact Fuchs’s trio was written after his pupil’s death in 1911, and it is not easy to establish exactly who influenced whom. It is quite possible that certain familiar aspects of Mahler’s music, which we judge to be typical of his output, could indeed derive from Fuchs. Something similar occurs in the central part of the sixth Phantasiestück Op.117, which does suggest that a detailed study of Fuchs’s oeuvre would not only contribute to a better understanding of his music, but also help establish the origins of various elements found in the works of later musicians. The 5
third movement is an Allegretto scherzando in ternary rhythm based on the metric mobility of the musical phrases. It comprises a Vivace like a jaunty dance full of syncopated rhythm. Following the repetition of the Allegretto, the movement leads into a brief coda that ends with a spirited figuration on the violin. There are various sides to the Allegro giusto of the finale: the composer interweaves folk atmospheres, intense expressiveness that on occasions becomes almost sentimental, and the technique of canon. The logic of the sonata form is preserved, ending with the usual coda, where the anapaestic meter of the outset returns to create a magniloquent conclusion. The 6 Phantasiestücke Op.117 for viola and piano were Fuchs’s last works, composed during the final year of his life. Although the title naturally brings Schumann to mind, in terms of content these pieces have more in common with the four collections of piano works written by Brahms in 1892. They appear to express a sort of detachment from the world and the fraught events of the period, as though the composer were withdrawing into himself to look back with something akin to nostalgia. These are Ländler, lullabies, waltzes, ballads and silhouettes that come across as echoes of 18th century dances. Even the thematic material seems to look backwards, with a subject in the third piece that clearly derives from the third movement of the Trio Op.115. When the composer died at the age of eighty in 1927, it was the revolutionary idiom of the New Vienna School that held sway on the musical scene. Fuchs’s approach to music seemed to be a relic of a bygone bourgeois world, as defunct as the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself. Once dead and gone, the composer was written off and forgotten. The few articles and encyclopaedia entries concerning him said more or less the same thing: that his music was Brahmsian in style, that he was known as “Serenaden Fuchs” on account of the success of his serenades, that he did little to promote his works. It would thus be easy to assume that he was a second-rate composer whose work had left no mark. Were that the case, however, surely Brahms would not have held him in such high consideration; and nor would the best students 6
of composition in Vienna have been so keen to study with him. Fuchs taught through to 1911, and the list of his students is truly impressive: Erich Korngold, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schmidt, Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Jean Sibelius, George Enescu and Hugo Wolf are just some of them. In these notes, the many reference to well-known composers does not imply that Fuchs was lacking in originality, but rather that he occupied a clear-cut place within the overall picture of European music. Moreover, they also help the reader and listener to place his music within its rightful context. Hopefully in coming years concert audiences and those who listen to recorded music will be better able to appreciate the true value and appeal of Fuchs’s oeuvre. © Enrico Maria Polimanti
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Enrico Maria Polimanti was born in Rome in 1969. He has earned several degrees from Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, Accademia Chigiana di Siena and Royal College of Music of London. A versatile pianist, Enrico enjoys playing a wide range of solo repertoire spanning from Jean-Philippe Rameau to Caroline Shaw. He has performed throughout Europe and United States and he has worked with Adrian McDonnel, James Lockhart, Neil Thomson, Massimo Pradella, Flavio Emilio Scogna,Trio Ludwig, the members of Quartetto Bernini, Luciano Giuliani, Monesis Ensemble, Andrea Noferini, Marcello Nardis, Lydia Easley, Mark Kroll, Sandro Cappelletto, Costantino Mastroprimiano. He is a recording artist for the labels Brilliant Classics, Naxos and Tactus and his performances have been recorded and broadcast in Italy (Radio 3, Radio Vaticana, Radio Classica, V Canale della Filodiffusione, Rai 3), France, USA, Switzerland, Romania and Austria. Enrico has translated into Italian Charles Rosen’s Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, JeanJacques Eigeldinger’s Chopin vu par ses élèves and John Daverio’s Robert Schumann, books published in his country by Astrolabio-Ubaldini. He lives in Rome with his wife and their children.
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Pupil of Philipp Hirschhorn, Salvatore Accardo and Boris Belkin, Giulio Plotino won First Prize at the Vittorio Veneto Violin Competition and Fourth Prize at the Paganini Competition in Genova. In 2011 he debuted with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and Andrea Marcon at the Lehman Center in New York and at the Styriarte Festspiele in Graz broadcast by the Austrian National Radio. He’s performance of the Benjamin Britten Violin Concerto has been recorded by ABC Classic in front of an enthusiastic pubblic with great reviews. He performed with the Orquesta Metropolitana de Lisboa, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Ucranian State Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto under the baton of Simone Young, Micheal Boder, Ottavio Dantone, Paul Daniel, Lev Markiz, Otto Tausk in concert halls such as Citè de la Musique and Museè d’Orsay in Paris, Centro Cultural de Belèm in Lisboa, Melbourne Recital Centre, Yon Siew Toh Hall in Singapore, Teatro Major de Bogotà etc…..Former Concertmaster of the Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia he has been Guest Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, playing under the baton of conductors such as Kurt Masur, Lorin Mazel, Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Harding, Myung Wun Chung, John Eliot Gardiner, Neville Marriner, George Pretre, Daniele Gatti, Riccardo Chailly, Vladimir Jurowsky, Dimitri Kitajenko etc...Currently Violin Professor at the Conservatory in Cuneo he has been Guest Professor at the University of Western Australia and the Yon Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore. 9
Claudio Cavalletti works regularly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and in Italy with the Orchestra del Teatro Regio of Turin often as a co-principal and the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova . He has worked with many British orchestras (BBC SSO, Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Opera, Paragon Ensemble, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, RTE Dublin, BBC Philharmonic) and the Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. He has studied with violinist Dora Bratchkova and was awarded diplomas in viola at the Santa Cecilia Music Conservatoire and Music Accademy of Rome and at the Royal College of Music of London with Brian Hawkins. Claudio plays on a 1961 Vittorio Bellarosa viola and lives with his wife Kristina and their children Greta, Grace and Grant.
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A special thanks to Ancelle Della Carità, Rome
Recording: 6-8 November 2014, Studio I Musicanti, Rome, Italy Producer & sound engineer: Giovanni Caruso Musical supervision: Dario Paolini and Giovanni Caruso Editing: Andrea Caruso Artist photos: Kristina Havas (Cavalletti), Francesca Leonardi (Polimanti) Enrico Maria Polimanti plays on a Yamaha CFX Concert Grand Piano, prepared by Valerio Sabatini, supplied by Studio 12 Pianoforti, Rome Cover image: Gustav Klimt, Oberösterreichisches Bauernhaus, 1911 Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna - & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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