Richard Stöhr (1874-1967)
Orchestral Music Volume Four
Chamber Symphony in F major, Op.32 (1912)
Sinfonia Varsovia/Ian Hobson
rec. 2024, Warsaw, Poland
Toccata Classics TOCC0766 [51]

This is my second encounter with the music of Richard Stöhr. The work here dates from 25 years before the Concerto in the Old Style for Piano Strings and Percussion that gave me much pleasure when I reviewed it recently. In 1905, Stöhr said: “I am not a modern composer. I do not understand the modern direction, and after it has triumphed, the world will not understand me.” Prophetic indeed! Mind you, the neo-classical Concerto was very well received at the Dresden premiere. It is clear, however, that he had little time for the ideas around chromaticism, pitch structures and atonality. He was a respected teacher of music, and had written successful books on music theory. By the mid-1930s, when Schoenberg’s twelve-tone methods became prominent, Stöhr would have been in all likelihood completely opposed to them.

So, the Chamber Symphony sounds like a traditional piece. In the sixteen-minute first movement, the opening cushion of strings – which support a rising and falling theme on solo horn – made me think of the more reflective moments of Richard Strauss’s use of the instrument. The theme, in successively higher modulations, is passed to other instruments, until we hear it on strings with horn accompaniment. It is a really lovely inspiration.

Eventually, after a staccato section for wind quartet playing over the harp, a short horn fanfare announces the secondary theme. The remainder of the movement engages with both primary and secondary themes. In one particularly lovely part, a tranquillo interval ensues with the first tune played by clarinet over strings, followed by oboe and horn and finally bassoon. Occasionally the proceedings become mildly frolicsome and heroic, and the horns tend to lead the way. Yet Stöhr cannot resist returning to languorous mode with his first theme and its variants,. It is with the horn and strings that this absolutely lovely movement ends.

The next movement, a nine-minute Andante quasi marcia, is indeed a slow movement and a funeral march. The composer uses characteristically tinny-sounding stopped horns and harp to announce the attractive opening theme. As with the preceding movement, a complex mixture of passages ensues. Virtuosic horn and woodwind dance together until languor takes over. The whole movement has too much fast music to be considered slow in the traditional sense, but the presence of march music allows this.

The third movement is an Allegro. Appropriately, it starts with bassoon and strings in bouncy mode. By the time the triosection is reached, the solo horn sings out in a lovely bittersweet melody answered by strings Mit grösster Wärme (with the greatest warmth), luscious, as one can imagine. Then we bounce back into jaunty quick marching with the strings dominant until the ending ppp on woodwind.

The last movement, the same length as the preceding Allegro, is marked Un poco grave – Allegro. Stöhr proceeds to give a mixture, rather as before but with new themes,. As the reader may have gathered, I am most taken by the slower sections where the composer relaxes into dreamy thoughts and expression. The movement has those, and despite the small orchestra Stöhr brings it to a passionate string-led climax. This rounds off a successful work, which definitely demands a place in the repertoire of small groups.

As usual for Toccata, the presentation is as immaculate as the playing. There is a 24-page booklet in English. Composer and musicologist William Melton presents an essay with biographical and musical detail. It is very thorough on both counts.

This release deserves to succeed, not just because of the music, but also because of the standard of the playing, conducting and recording. It will appeal to anyone interested in the music which emanated from Central Europe in the immediate pre- and post-WW1 years. I would like to hear a recording of one of Stöhr’s works that he composed for a full-size orchestra.

Jim Westhead

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