Mendelssohn and Mendelssohnians 1
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
6 Lieder ohne Worte Set 1 Op.19B (1829-1830)
6 Lieder ohne Worte Set 2 Op.30 (1833-1834)
Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)
Fantasie in Form Einer Sonate Op.15 (publ.1848)
Ländler Op.152 (1879)
Christopher Howell (piano)
rec. 2022/23, Studios of Griffa E Figli, Milan, Italy
Da Vinci Classics C00983 [69]
Christopher Howell plays the first of four discs in his series Mendelssohn and Mendelssohnians, a very nicely conceived idea that places all eight books of Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words alongside works by four composers associated with him. Mendelssohn’s wonderful little miniatures are sometimes looked on with scorn as dated Victoriana, the joyful Spring Song thought of as twee and the clever Spinning song merelyan excuse for the fleet fingered to demonstrate those fingers. They were once ubiquitous and from personal experience I very much doubt there is a music section of a second-hand bookshop that doesn’t have a copy. It is good to get this survey of them underway, to look at them afresh and even better that we have the chance to hear some real rarities at the same time.
These are decent performances of the songs without words, unfussy and unmannered. Howell has a good sense of line and if he isn’t the swiftest, in Hunting Song for example, certainly compared to older pianists like Josef Hofmann, his tempo nonetheless captures the spirit of the hunt and its brazen calls. My only niggle with book one is the rather earth bound opening to the Venetian Gondola Song in which the threads of the melody don’t float across the accompaniment though it does improve as the piece continues. I realise that I hardly knew book 2; the second Venetian Gondola Song is perhaps the most familiar and for me one of the highlights of Mendelssohn’s piano output. There are other delights not least the opening song with its lovely melody and two characteristically bubbling and energetic scherzos. Mendelssohn tasks the pianist in the fifth number; although the right hand has a steady, and maybe a little stiff, melody in octaves and chords the interest is in the left hand, an étude like moto perpetuo that is marked always soft and light. Howell does manage this though he is even more effective in the devilish repeated notes and chords of the fourth. In the final, elegiac barcarolle he brings plenty of richness and depth to the playing.
Carl Reinecke became Mendelssohn’s pupil in 1843 and they remained friends for the few years Mendelssohn had left to live. He went on to compose a great deal of music in all genres, conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra for 35 years and taught in Köln and Leipzig. He was a notorious conservative and one of his many pupils, Water Niemann is quoted as saying Wagner, Liszt, Berlioz and all that followed them were contrary to his disposition, his inclinations. But he was too fine and discerning a gentleman to denounce them openly: he simply ignored their presence in his world. He is better represented on disc than he once was but it is nevertheless unsurprising that his 200th birthday last year seems to have passed with little fanfare in the recording world.
The opening movement of the Fantasy in the form of a sonata features a triplet idea that inverts Beethoven’s doom laden motto from the fifth symphony. He manages to invert the mood as well; there is drama here but for the most part the dark clouds here are fleeting and it is the lyrical mood of the contrasting theme from three bars in that dominates and the gentle ending with its G major triplet is optimistic. For all its mid 19th century conception I hear elements of Schubert’s writing in this opening movement and the shadow of Beethoven over the second movement melody as well as hints of his friend Robert Schumann. The triplet motto appears here, if briefly, to tie the movements together and there is a lovely few bars at the end where Reinecke allows the left hand the melody while providing a contrasting chordal descant to be played by the right. The third movement is a mazurka that owes nothing to Chopin – well perhaps the final eight bars – but it is an interesting dance movement in its own right, elegant and urbane with touches of chromatic writing. The finale again owes a little to Schumann in its opening theme but Reinecke as always goes his own way, never beholden to any one composer. The main interest here is a rising chromatic theme and its downwards echo that he turns into more dramatic writing toward the end though the actual ending is slower and more tranquil. One composer that you are not really aware of is Mendelssohn so Reinecke escaped that imitation of his teacher’s style. The eight Ländler date from thirty years later and with their eight contrasting triple time dances are an affectionate homage to the collections of short dances that Schubert wrote half a century earlier. More romantic in tone they do offer echoes of other composers, Schumann in the German waltz rhythms of number four and Chopin in the serpentine seventh but neither are clear imitations. The sixth is a quirky and detached canon in contrary motion and the second is a beautifully unfolding slow waltz. It is a lovely if modest set and I am grateful to Howell for waking it from its long slumber. This is all very engaging music, recorded with a warm, rounded piano sound and I am looking forward to hearing what other discoveries Howell has unearthed for future volumes.
Rob Challinor
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
