Julius Bittner (1874-1939)
String Quartet No. 1 in A major (1913)
String Quartet No. 2 in E flat major (1917)
Thomas Christian Ensemble
rec. 2023, Rittersaal of Schloss Weinberg, Austria
cpo 555645-2 [63]
Julius Bittner came from a musical Austrian family and, alongside a career in law, became a leading composer of his day with support from the likes of Bruno Walter and Gustav Mahler. Heavily influenced by Wagner as a young composer, Bittner was steered towards a more personal style of expression by his mentors, and both of these string quartets can be seen as creations “from his own heart”. Mainly a composer of operas, Bittner’s romantic style was out of fashion after World War II and his has become yet another name to be rediscovered in the 21st century.
Bittner’s First String Quartet was dubbed his “pastoral quartet” at its premiere, with a clear folk music influence in its scherzo leading critics to express dismay at its “crude peasant element”. Arguments can be made for the quartet as ‘absolute music’ and as a reflection of the composer’s love of nature, but in that regard the listener can make up their own mind. There is indeed a ‘fresh air’ quality to the first movement which leads us in the direction of landscapes and freedom, and while the second movement opens with some of the character of a Mahlerian adagio this soon relaxes into something more jaunty, the greater intensity of the getragen aspects of the music also having some salon elements so that we are never left in a funereal mood for too long. The third movement, Nicht zu rasch, is dance-like in character, again with hints of the fingerprints of Mahler in some of the gestures. These are peasants with plenty of sophisticated surprises. The finale has been observed as being “rich in ideas and temperament” and, blending previous material in a quixotic and widely contrasting manner this is a source of fascination, darting from weighty symphonic developmental sections to moments of wry wit.
The Second String Quartet was again observed to have a pastoral character by contemporary critics, an effect no doubt enhanced by its appearance alongside works by Korngold and Smyth on its first performance at a ‘Merker Abend’, one of a series of Viennese modern music concerts organised by music journal Der Merker. This quartet’s opening is less overtly evocative of woods and fields, if it indeed has that character at all. The lightness here is more dance-like but with a darker emphasis between turns in the ballroom. The booklet notes by Otto Biba conclude that Bittner “paints in a very personal stylistic variant of Impressionism”, expressing “musical pictures that are to be viewed while listening” in contrast to Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony which instead conveys the “emotions and experiences of an individual encountering nature.” Bittner’s quartets are in no way programmatic and the headings to each movement bear no descriptive message beyond the character of the music as it is to be played. The Second String Quartet is to my ears more abstract but not less approachable than the first, with its rhythms never far away from dance, and its harmonic twists no more difficult to consume than those of Richard Strauss. Neither quartet is likely to have you whistling their tunes as you go on with your day as neither is profoundly endowed with thematic distinctiveness or aria-like melodic shapes, but there is a good chance you will enjoy them greatly in their presence.
These are very well recorded performances and well played by the Thomas Christian Ensemble. There are some moments where the vibrato can become a little too hot and heavy, but these players inhabit Bittner’s idiom well and make a very good case for this pair of quartets. These works deserve a place in repertoire that counters the impression of Western concert music of the first half of the 20th century being mostly avant-garde and ‘hard work’.
Dominy Clements
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I listened to the first quartet the other day. The music is so rich and wonderfully melodic. It seems, like Strauss’ Rosenkavalier to dwell firmly in the world of pre-WW1 Austria; old-fashioned yes, but elegant, care-free and possessing an assured self-confidence. Bittner was an authentic upper-Austrian; I imagine him as a more well-mannered and less conniving Baron Ochs but I am sure that is not accurate and unfair. His chamber music is clearly worth spending time getting to know. That first quartet has so much material in it. Some composers could have milked it out over several works I fancy. The slow movement is a real gem. Thanks for bringing this super cpo record to our attention Dominy. The recent glut of fine releases from them needs to slow down actually as far as I am concerned. I’m almost broke!