Vilma von Webenau (1875-1953)
Piano Quartet in E minor
Cello Sonata
Miniatures for violin and piano
Oliver Triendl (piano)
Nina Karmon (violin)
Stefan Fehlandt (viola)
Alexander Hülshoff (cello)
rec. 2023, Klaus-von-Bismarck Saal, WDR Funkhaus Köln, Germany
Hänssler Classic HC24008 [73]

There are a considerable number of similarities between Vilma von Webenau and the subject of the review I wrote immediately before this one, which covered the chamber music of Mathilde Kralik. They are both on the Hänssler Classics label and led by champion of the unsung composer Oliver Triendl. Von Webenau and Kralik were both born into wealthy Austrian families, allowing them to concentrate on music without outside distractions, neither married and each had famous composers as teachers (Bruckner for Kralik and Arnold Schoenberg for von Webenau).

Once we get to the music, the two composers go their separate ways. Whereas Kralik looked back for influences as far as Beethoven, von Webenau’s music is very much of her time. She studied with Schoenberg around the turn of the century, but before he developed his twelve-tone method, and her music remains basically tonal. That said, her gift for melody is rather minimal, and I found almost nothing that I responded to positively. The sprawling Piano Quartet, at thirty-five minutes, is interminable. Much of the writing for violin is at its high end, and dreadfully tiring (and I don’t believe violinist Nina Karmon is at fault here). The opening of the slow movement starts promisingly in almost folksong mode, but then wanders off down dead ends. The Cello Sonata is better, partly because it is shorter, and I’m not being sarcastic, simply that there is less opportunity for aimless note-spinning. The seven Miniatures were not written as a group but found among her papers, and indeed didn’t even specify the instrument to accompany the piano. Their brevity is a good thing, but there isn’t much of interest.

It is hard enough to assess the playing of music never heard before, and especially so in this case when it is so mundane. However, I know that Oliver Triendl with his colleagues would have done all that they could to make a case for it, so it is not their fault. The booklet notes do what they can with limited information about her life, and the sound quality is good.

Requesting a release of an unsung composer is always a hit-or-miss affair, and I’m afraid this definitely falls into the latter category.

David Barker

Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free