Hans Gál (1890-1987)
Serenade for String Orchestra, Op.46 (1937)
Divertimento for Small Orchestra, Op.22b (1924)
Concertino for Violin and String Orchestra, Op.52 (1939)
Music for String Orchestra, Op.73 (1957)
Reijo Tunkkari (violin)
Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra/Jan Söderblom
rec. 2020/21, Snellman Hall, Kokkola, Finland
First recordings (opp. 22b & 73)
cpo 555 623-2 [75]
If you, like me, are already a fan of the deliciously tuneful Hans Gál, then you will find this disc a tantalising prospect, given that two world première recordings are included. If, however you have not yet made his acquaintance, a short introduction might be in order. Gál was one of those people whose country of origin, ethnicity and time of birth placed him in a dangerous position, for he was born in Austria and was Jewish. He was a naturally gifted musician, so the early encouragement by his aunt – who had sung with Richard Strauss – soon paid off, following piano lessons with Richard Robert (whose pupils included the likes of Rudolf Serkin, Clara Haskil and Georg Szell). Moving on to study with a friend of Brahms, Eusebius Mandyczewski, Gál gained his doctorate from the University of Vienna, aged 23. He was drafted into the army in 1915, but he composed throughout the war. His second opera became an instant hit, playing in all the major opera houses in the German-speaking world. That resulted in his being appointed Director of the Conservatory in Mainz in 1929, but on the Nazis seizing power in 1933, he was immediately dismissed from the post. He returned to Vienna but when Austria was annexed in 1938, he was forced to flee the country.
When Gál arrived in London, he met Sir Donald Tovey, Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh, who wanted to appoint him to the faculty. There were no openings, but Tovey did manage to secure him work reorganising and cataloguing the Reid Music Library. When France fell, the British government followed Churchill’s edict to “collar the lot”. That resulted in Gál, along with 70,000 Austrian and German refugees, being classed as “enemy aliens” and sent to internment camps. Luckily, he was released after a few months but personal trauma followed in quick succession when first his mother died, then his sister Edith and his favourite Aunt both took their own lives rather than be deported to concentration camps, and finally his young son Peter, just 18, also committed suicide. When the war ended, however, Sir Donald Tovey’s successor, Sidney Newmann, was able to arrange a permanent teaching post for Gál, which he held for ten years (1945-1955) until his retirement, after which he stayed on part-time for another ten years. He was awarded a well-deserved honorary doctorate in 1948. He received many other awards throughout his long life, including several from his country of birth; he composed well over 100 works.
Gál came from the German tradition, so one might expect his music to be recognisably German. But that is not at all the case; his music is lush, even pastoral, with the distinct whiff of “cow-pat”, as Elizabeth Lutyens infamously categorised the music of such composers as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, Gustav Holst et al. I would say that he was in excellent company. The very first notes opening his Serenade for String Orchestra serve to emphasise that description. The work has a wonderfully expansive feeling that immediately brings to mind rolling countryside characterised by the patchwork quilt of fields that aerial photography is so magically able to capture. The music’s trippingly happy sounds continue throughout its engaging thirteen minute. It originally saw the light of day as a piece Gál wrote for his son Peter, and he rescored it to become the serenade. The third movement, the cavatina, is a particular example of his ability to write the most tuneful music, but the whole work, while written in 1934, has that “English” feeling; he was obviously destined to end up in Britain.
As with the serenade, the Divertimento for Small Orchestra started out as a work in another form, for wind octet. Gál described it as “a ‘divertimento’ in the original sense of this term: open air music in the character of a serenade, five movements of contrasting moods, lyrical and burlesque, concisely shaped and with the closely-knit texture of chamber music”. Once again, I found it remarkable in its jauntily English feeling without the least sense of Sturm und Drang about it. I cannot think of a piece of music from either Austria or Germany written around the same time that sounds anything like it. Richard Strauss comes closest but it is much airier, less weighty than Strauss. I agree with the review of it which appeared in the Arbeiter-Zeitung, in 1929, following its première which called it “very witty”; its final movement is certainly just that. I also find it hard to imagine it in its original form, and I think the publisher was right to encourage Gál to orchestrate it, not just because that made it more marketable, but because it sounds so perfect in this form. It is a world première recording. It remains to be seen how many orchestras take it up as part of their repertoire but it certainly deserves to be heard more widely.
One of Gál’s works that has been recorded before is the two-movement Concertino for Violin and String Orchestra. I had not come across it before, but then again his music is not heard nearly as often as it should be, given its tuneful accessibility. Gál wrote the work when had moved back to London where his wife Hanna had found work as a speech therapist, a job she lost immediately Britain entered the war. Managing to tune out the surrounding chaos the war brought with the nightly blackouts and the stress of anticipated bombing, Gál created a work the booklet note writer describes as “a work full of strength and hope”. It opens with a lovely melody on the cellos before the violin enters to take the theme further, then the second theme comes in and is developed before the opening theme returns via the cellos. The atmosphere is oneiric; a dreamy state permeates the piece as the soloist moves the melody higher into the upper registers and takes the listener’s thoughts away from the ground-based traumas of a country at war. At least, that is what would have happened had its first performance not been delayed until 1947 and its published edition not seen the light of day before 1953. The second movement had its origin in the most unlikely of sources: a manuscript in a display case in the British Museum of an anonymous rigaudon dated 1716. Its mood is joyous, and the British public was thirsting for a cultural break from everyday concerns. For example, the concerts Dame Myra Hess put on at the National Gallery attracted 824,152 people to over 1,698 performances from October 1939 to April 1946, so one can readily imagine how well this work would have gone down had it been heard at the time of composition.
The final work on the disc, and another world première recording, is Gál’s Music for String Orchestra. Once again, in this three-movement work on display is his now recognisably outward-looking celebration of life which was so much part of his musical make-up. Even though Gál tended to reserve the toccata that opens it for more weighty statements, it is still wonderfully lyrical. The second movement is in the form of a theme and four variations. The closing rondo was described by Sidney Newman, who conducted the work in 1962, as “elate with a light rapid anapest rhythm that speeds the melodic themes of ‘cello and violin on their way” – a rhythm often used to create a sense of speed and regularity and whose use serves to show how many tools this original composer had at his disposal to create such genuinely innovative works.
Everything concerned with the production of this disc serves to ensure it is a joy. From the committed and sensitive playing of the Ostrobothnian band, its conductor’s conception of how the works should be played, and soloist Reijo Tunkkari’s brilliantly lyrical playing in the Concertino, to wonderfully illuminating sound, it all results in a document of rare quality. If its release helps increase Gál’s popularity, it will be a bonus. I truly wish it well in that endeavour.
Steve Arloff
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