Johannes Obermeier (piano)
Brilliants
rec. 2023, Tonstudio Ölberg-Kirche, Berlin, Germany
Genuin GEN24860 [75]
Brilliant – a multi-faceted diamond of exceptional brilliance; Johannes Obermeier’s analogy with the works in this recital is an apt one. Polish and skill required in abundance for the fashioning of both and when all the right elements come together a beauty is born. The analogy can be further extended here in that facets of one reveal, reflect and inspire facets of another. Thus Obermeier’s variations take as their theme the A-S-C-H motive, the notes A, E flat, C and B that run through most of Schumann’s Carneval, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales recall Schubert’s valse collections, reflecting them back with the dizzy intoxication of an empire that was reaching its end and Godowsky’s elaborations of Chopin’s études grew out of his great respect for Chopin’s art and a love for the piano that clear in every note of this recital.
Obermeier’s Carneval is a winner with its keen sense of being immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the festival, drawn hither and yon as new wonders emerge around each corner, sometimes pausing to catch one’s breath, sometimes being swept along as the crowd surges to the next novelty. Obermeier the composer is present too; in the main text it is only one little trill in Florestan that could almost go unnoticed but he wakes the enigmatic Sphinxes, the first with sepulchral descending octaves, the second rising in canon around its three note motif and the third a fleeting haunted character whose hesitant fluttering become a playful arabesque that metamorphoses into papillons.
This morsel of Obermeier’s inspiration leads us to his own Theme and Variations on A-S-C-H, written to a commission and dedicated to the commissioner’s daughter, Anna Magdalena Schock whose initials handily fit with Schumann’s ASCH motif. The theme is outlined with chords low in the bass but it is augmented by a melody that makes things more optimistic. The first variations grow from impish staccato figures into something approaching the world of Prokofiev’s toccata whilst if I had to liken the evolving figuration to anything I would suggest echoes of Ligeti or Hamelin’s writing. Dark cousins of Schumann’s Sphinxes swirl like phantasms around the contrapuntal writing of the fifth variation but then Rachmaninov makes an appearance in the gloriously ultra-romantic sixth variation before a scurrying, prestissimo scherzo interrupts with what sounds like a mocking helter-skelter parody of Merrily we row along before dancing crazily over the entire range of the keyboard. A brief, reflective interlude precedes the finale, a fuga quadruplex as Obermeier describes it. As the title suggests it has four fugue themes, all present in the opening chordal theme, that make an appearance as the fugue progresses, growing ever more complex. Obermeier writes that it features the most important stylistic devices of counterpoint…namely mirroring, inversion, retrograde, diminution and augmentation and I have to say it is a miracle of contrapuntal writing. I am hugely impressed with the set as a whole and would venture to say that it would make a very successful recital piece even if its final notes, for all their energy, have a vague was that the end? feel.
Obermeier’s success in the many waltzes of Schumann’s Carneval is mirrored in a beautifully textured valses nobles et sentimentales. He has a wonderful control of dynamics contrasts with feather-light pianissimos, especially in the épilogue where his très lointain in the au mouvement is magical and where he also displays his skilful use of the pedal. His rubato is never intrusive and he keeps the dances buoyant, lilting and vigorous by turn.
He completes the recital with three of Chopin’s études and four of their counterparts from Leopold Godowsky’s monumental collection of 53 written between 1894 and 1914. Chopin’s music is no stranger to arrangements but he is perhaps unusual in that so many of his works have been rearranged, transcribed, paraphrased for the instrument for which they were originally written; Max Reger, Moritz Moszkowski, Johannes Brahms, Frederic Wührer and Federico Mompou are just a few of the many pianists and composers who have rewritten Chopin’s works but none have matched Godowsky’s homage, a tribute that includes not just the 53 études, 22 arranged incredibly enough for the left hand, but also several of the waltzes and the E flat rondo. Obermeier plays the black key étude op.10 no.5 which seemed to fascinate Godowsky who produced seven different versions, eight if one includes the badinage in which he combines the black key étude with the butterfly étude op.25 no.9. We hear version one in which the roles of right and left hand are reversed and version six in which the right hand is inverted. After the butterfly étude he plays the badinage and ends with one the less well known études that Chopin wrote for Moscheles’ and Fétis’ Méthode des Méthodes alongside its highly contrapuntal and intricate counterpart. Technically nothing here holds any fears for Obermeier but he also matches their sophistication with playing that is elegant and full of light and shade.
This is a very impressive début from Johannes Obermeier not only as a thoughtful and gifted pianist but also as an accomplished composer whose variations are a valuable and imaginative addition to the piano repertoire. I will be looking out for more from this versatile performer.
Rob Challinor
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Contents
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Carneval, Op 9 (1833-35)
Johannes Obermeier (b.1998)
Theme and Variations on A-S-C-H (2020)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911)
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Étude, Op 10 No 5 Black Key
Étude, Op 25 No 9 Butterfly
Trois nouvelles étude B.130 No 2 in A-flat major
Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938)
from 53 Studies on Chopin études (1894-1914):
No 7 in G-flat major after Op 10 No 5 1st version
No 12 in G-flat major after Op 10 No 5 6th version Inversion for right hand
No 47 in G-flat major after Op 10 No 5 and Op 25 No 9 combined Badinage
No 45 in E major after Trois nouvelles étude No 2
