Theodor Kirchner (1823–1903)
Piano Music
Skizzen – Kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (1870-72)
Legenden (1876)
Nachtbilder – Zehn Charakterstücke, Op. 25 (1877)
Notturnos, Op. 28 (1877)
Ideale – Clavierstücke, Op. 33 (1878)
Vier Elegien, Op.37 (1878)
Lowell Liebermann (piano)
rec. 2022, Lansing, Michigan, USA
Blue Griffin BGR655 [2 CDs: 135]
When I first laid negligent eyes on the name ‘Kirchner’ in the list of discs available for review I skimmed over it. The music of American composer Leon Kirchner (1919-2009) was not a priority for me. This however is the German composer, Theodor. He who hails from the previous century, not the avant-garde-ish composer who was an alumnus of Mills College and Harvard.
Theodor’s birthplace was near Chemnitz in Germany. A student of Julius Knorr in Leipzig, he later held various posts including that of organist at Winterthur and was a friend of the Schumanns and of Brahms. He later moved to Zürich and then to Meiningen, Würzburg, Leipzig, Dresden and ultimately Hamburg. He wrote extensively for piano and somewhat for organ; the latter music has been recorded. There are also Lieder and chamber music, at least one work of which has been recorded. Orchestral music seems not to have crossed his creative horizon.
This Kirchner was very much a 19th century composer. That is assuredly evident from this two-hour-plus conspectus of his piano music. Encyclopaedia entries are not far short of the mark in claiming it to be influenced by Schumann, and this whether the music is restful or restive. Kirchner’s seas are never mountainous – mirror-still or choppy at its most stirred and stirring. When calm and reflective, he is smooth and solicitous. There is charm aplenty on tap in the fifth of the Skizzen (grouped into three books) and there are graceful smiles in the eighth. Shadows and tentative steps predominate in the thoughtful eleventh. This range of moods and style carries over smoothly into the Legenden with the chuckling, and soon dreamy ‘Poco animato’ (tr 20). The fifth of the ten Nachtbilder (‘Mesto’) is steady but rises inexorably to starry skies while the Sixth is a lively ‘Sehr erregt’. Night seems to have worked its charms on Kirchner for there is also a group of four atmospheric Notturnos. The Ideale piano pieces op. 33 are in much the same mood. Even his ‘Animato’ from op. 33 stirs the soul gently. It is fitting that we end with the placidly-stated Vier Elegien of which the third, a ‘Poco lento’, is deeply affecting. All the works to be heard here date from the 1870s.
These otherwise unknown pieces are most sensitively played and recorded. The recording by Serge Kvitko excellently renders a marvellously constrained and sustained palette of dynamics.
The set, presented in a single-width case, is complemented by a vade mecum of a booklet. This is superbly executed and illustrated … and all in great style. Lowell Liebermann’s sedulously researched and satisfying essay is in English only and extends to 24 pages. The life and music is punctiliously treated with additional details for each group of pieces. You need look no further. It’s equal to the sort of thing you get as a matter of course from Toccata discs.
The playing by Mannes composer, pianist and conductor Lowell Liebermann does good service by freshly presenting these civilised works to the worlds of the 21st century. All credit to Liebermann and Blue Griffin for valiantly choosing to invest in Theodor Kirchner’s music.
Rob Barnett
Availability: Blue Griffin
