Mathilde Kralik von Meyrswalden (1857-1944)
Piano Trio in F major (1880)
Violin Sonata in D minor (1878)
Nonet in C minor (1901)
Oliver Triendl (piano)
Korbinian Altenberger, Alexander Kisch (violins), Benedikt Schneider (violin), Samuel Lutzker (cello)
Christopher Corbett (clarinet), Ursula Kepser, Gerda Sperlich (horns), Relja Kalapis (bassoon)
rec. 2023, Klaus-von-Bismarck Saal, WDR Funkhaus Köln, Germany
Hänssler Classic HC23078 [77]

Recently I reviewed a Gramola release of music by students of Anton Bruckner, one of whom was Mathilde Kralik von Meyrswalden (the von Meyrswalden is only stated in the title of the recording, so I will just refer to her by her family name from henceforth). She was born into a wealthy Austrian family, and this allowed her to pursue a life in music without the need to support herself or find a husband. Over the course of sixty years, she composed more than 260 works, but as far as I can tell, the Gramola release was only the second commercial recording of her music, the first being a 2012 Delos release of her songs (as Mathilde von Kralik).

Those involved with this Hänssler Classic recording must have cursed when they saw that Gramola had pipped them for a first release of the Piano Trio by a few months. In my Gramola review, I was fairly dismissive of the trio, but this version has made much more of an impression. It is certainly Beethoven-influenced, but not without an individual voice, and this performance brings out some Romantic elements more clearly. The tender slow movement is probably the pick of the four, the finale the weakest, with the joins and a lack of inspiration fairly evident.

The Violin Sonata, a student work like the Trio, has many of the same qualities and weaknesses. If I like it less than the Trio, it is more a matter of my preference for one ensemble type over the other. By contrast to the Trio, the helter-skelter finale is especially enjoyable.

At this point, you may be wondering why I requested this disc to review when I didn’t like my first hearing of the Trio and I’m not all that keen on violin sonatas. The answer is the short samples of the Nonet I listened to on Presto. They convinced me that this disc was worth having regardless of the other two works. There is still a Beethoven influence – the genial Intermezzo has hints of the Pastoral Symphony – but Kralik has more thoroughly absorbed Romantic elements courtesy of Schumann and Brahms into her vocabulary. I’m not going to call this a masterpiece, because that word is bandied around too much, but it is an exceptionally fine work, one of the best new (to me) pieces I have heard in some time and worth the purchase price in its own right.

I feel that if one was to look up the definition of the word “indefatigable”, there would be a photo of Oliver Triendl as illustration. His dedication to the unsung composer is quite extraordinary. How he finds time to do anything other than learn new music (he is championing another unfamiliar composer – Vilma von Webenau – on the next disc I have in my to-be reviewed stack) is beyond me; and yet he still makes it seem fresh. His colleagues on this disc prove to be fine collaborators, though I did not entirely warm to the violin tone in the trio and sonata. The booklet notes are very informative, and the sound quality is good.

So this is evidence, if it was needed, that a committed performance can elevate a moderate level work, and also that an almost forgotten composer can write music bordering on greatness.

David Barker

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