Karl Weigl (1881-1949)
Drei Gesänge für eine hohe Frauenstimme mit Orchester (1916)
Rhapsody for String Orchestra (1931)
Piano Concerto in F minor, Op 21 (1931)
Lina Johnson (soprano)
Oliver Triendl (piano)
Simon Gaudenz (conductor)
Jenaer Philharmonie
rec. 2022, Volkshaus Jena, Germany
cpo 555360-2 [69]

In his teens Karl Weigl studied with Alexander Zemlinsky and later took lessons with Robert Fuchs and Guido Adler, a trio of musicians who were all associated with Gustav Mahler and it was through Adler’s friendship with Mahler that Weigl became Mahler’s musical assistant in 1904. This association is clear when listening to the three songs of 1916. The surging, yearning chromaticism of the first, Heimkehr, a return home that became an impossible hope when he fled Hitler’s regime in 1938, the bright, stirring march of the second, Hymne, with its distinctive trumpet solo at the outset and Geständnis – confession – whose dramatic intensity builds from a restrained opening only to settle into calm release, all these have echoes of Mahler’s harmony and orchestration and Lina Johnson’s powerful but richly wrought sound spins effortlessly over the lush orchestral textures whilst conveying the changing dramatic landscapes that Weigl paints, soaring heartache to golden heroism.

One of the successes of Weigl’s early years with Mahler was his String Sextet in D minor and the Rhapsody for string orchestra of 1931 was adapted from this. The first movement, slow, tense and brooding, opens with long pedal note over which the strings build a web of short melodic fragments. These grow more impassioned as the movement continues but one never gets a sense that there is one overriding theme; the fragments of melody appear and disappear out of the texture creating a bleak and tortured landscape. The next movement starts off in a completely different tone, a bluff, contrapuntal dance that is soon interrupted by a searing slow section, very Mahlerian, that suddenly fades back into the dance growing ever more relentless. A declamatory section brings a segue into the third movement, turbulent and impassioned, it’s melodies still short but more defined, singing over a constantly roiling undercurrent of low strings. The final movement, sehr langsam – very slow – is full of consolation after the darkness of the earlier music, relief found straight away in the long opening cello line and though there is plenty of intensity in the writing as the movement progresses a feeling of optimism is always present; melodies now able to sing and develop where they had been muted and curtailed and the Rhapsody ends with a lovely curtain of trilled strings.

The Piano Concerto is a marvellous work and completely different in character to the other works on this disc; the ghost of Mahler is quiet here, possibly because Weigl was writing in a genre outside of Mahler’s compositional experience and if there is an influence it is Brahms but that only in the grandeur of the writing. The premiere was given in Prague by the great Ignaz Friedman, to whom the work is dedicated, alongside George Szell. According to the booklet and the Karl Weigl Foundation the orchestra was the Vienna Philharmonic though Friedman’s biography (Ignaz Friedman; Romantic Master Pianist by Allan Evans, Indiana University Press) claims that it was the Czech Philharmonic. Friedman had worked on the concerto with Weigl over the summer of 1931 and was very enthusiastic about this concerto though it appears he only played it twice, repeating it the following month with Oswald Kabasta at the helm.

The work is unashamedly romantic and after an extended declamatory opening full of brass and passionate strings the piano’s octaves begin to appear out of the orchestral texture rather than in some grand solo gesture. The piece is very much about interplay with the orchestra and while the solo part is bristling with difficulties the orchestra is quite symphonic in character, no mere accompanist. Much of this opening is about the angular brass theme heard at the outset which the soloist briefly plays but soon gets back to the virtuoso task in hand (or hands…). There is lighter music to follow and in the central section some quite delicate textures with ghostly strings and the pianist exploring both ends of the keyboard. After more development the soloist plays a stirring chordal passage accompanied by busier music in the orchestra before the movement closes in a fresh downpour of octaves. The strings alone open the slow movement with the wind joining in with the piano’s flowing triplet figuration. The review of the premiere describes the delicate, love-filled melody of this movement but I find that any melody is fragmented and the movement is more about creating a mood of calm and rest, beautiful in its tranquillity. The finale sets an altogether different mood immediately, the soloist’s theme having all the energy of a rollicking sea-shanty. Even when the textures grow sparser the energy remains and though Weigl twice suggests a winding down to more lyrical music it never appears, instead the excitement is wound back up again to keep all forces busy. When a change does come it is quite abrupt; silence then a comic little woodwind figure, briefly stalled – it starts again and then very quickly winds up to the final exciting bars.

This album gives a nicely rounded portrait of Weigl from his early creation re-worked in his maturity, orchestral songs that give free rein to his chromaticism, rich orchestration and skilful use of the voice to the glowing orchestral colour and virtuoso pianism that makes this relatively late romantic concerto such a winner. I am in awe of Oliver Triendl who adds this difficult concerto to an already immense repertoire without compromising in any way; his playing has strength, vigour and utterly assured technique whilst not neglecting lower dynamics or tranquil lyricism and bringing this work to vivid life. Simon Gaudenz and the Jenaer players are stunning and the clear, warm sound is perfect, allowing everything from the searing intensity of the Rhapsody to the symphonic extremes of the Piano Concerto to be heard in all their glory. For my part I hope to hear the earlier Piano Concerto for the left hand and the Rhapsody for piano and orchestra from these forces before too long.

Rob Challinor

Help us financially by purchasing from