Lowell Liebermann: Plays Piano Music of Theodor Kirchner
Blue Griffin

While Lowell Liebermann is renowned as a composer, he's also a pianist of considerable note whose three solo piano recordings are marked by inspired curatorial choices. On his 2021 release Personal Demons, he coupled three of his own works with ones by Schubert, Busoni, Liszt, and Miloslav Kabelác. A year later, Steinway & Sons issued a second set of solo piano performances, this one, The Devil's Lyre, exclusively featuring music by David Hackbridge Johnson. Blue Griffin does the honours this time around with an equally strong release, a 136-minute, double-CD set dedicated entirely to material by German composer Theodor Kirchner (1823-1903), the release timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Let's be frank: Liebermann could as easily release solo piano recordings featuring nothing but his own compositions—he'd have in excess of 140 to choose from, after all—and it's easy to visualize piano albums of selections from his operas, symphonies, ballet, and concertos joining the 150-plus recordings he's currently credited with. On the three piano releases, he's largely chosen, however, to focus on others, and specifically figures such as Johnson and Kirchner whose work deserves to be better known. Liebermann's gifts as a writer and musicologist are well-accounted for in the release booklet, specifically in an exhaustive account of Kirchner's oft-tumultuous life and track-by-track descriptions of the works performed. Both Mendelssohn and Schumann recognized Kirchner's talent, and he later became a trusted friend to Brahms (he deemed Kirchner's music “the sweetest of the sweet”) as well as lover to Clara Schumann (their relationship ended in 1864 when, she, fed up with his gambling, broke it off, though she continued to perform his music in her concerts).

While the influence of Mendelssohn, (Robert) Schumann, and Brahms is evident in Kirchner's work, it would be an injustice to dismiss him as some second-rate imitation. Arguing in defence of this “master of harmony,” Liebermann makes note of his music's “unusual voicings” and “contrapuntal interweaving.” Admittedly, it can be hard to square the gentleness of the material on the recording with the image of the man dismissed by Clara as an incorrigible gambler and womanizer. Sadly, Kirchner is today largely forgotten, despite having written over a thousand individual pieces, many of them concise piano pieces assembled into collections.

The album opens with Skizzen Op. 11 (1870-72), fifteen “sketches” grouped into three books of five apiece. The lyrical beauty of his melodically enticing music is conveyed vividly throughout the work, from the solemnity of its opening “Andante” to the carefree joy and playful charm of the “Vivace leggiero” and “Allegretto” that follow. Included are a rousing march (the sixth), lively waltz (the seventh), and spirited hunting song (the ninth), but, as is often the case in this and the other works, it's the wistful, heartfelt expressions—in Skizzen, the gentle eighth and yearning, aria-like eleventh—that argue most vehemently on the composer's behalf. Arriving four years after Skizzen, Legenden – Dichtungen für das Klavier Op. 18 (1876) comprises nine numbered parts, the material again cutting a broad stylistic swath. The E-flat minor first, “Un poco lento,” is, as Liebermann notes, noticeably Schumann-like, the E-flat major second, “Moderato,” affecting in its ruminative unfolding. Testifying to the work's variety, a touch of Brahms emerges in the “Lento” fourth, warmth envelopes the radiant “Con moto” sixth, and the “Largo” eighth is a majestic chorale.

The release's second disc comprises four works, Notturnos Op. 28 (1877), Ideale - Clavierstücke Op. 33 (1878), Vier Elegien für Pianoforte Op. 37 (1878), and what some consider Kirchner's masterpiece, the ten-part Nachtbilder – Zehn Charakterstücke Op. 25 (1877). The latter certainly begins audaciously with a first movement that's considerably more chromatic and staccato-driven than any in the opening disc's two works. The beguiling second movement, on the other hand, is very much in keeping with the hushed lyricism of their quieter ones, especially when it comes with the marking “Leise und ruhig” (Quiet and calm). That tone intensifies even more for the “Mesto” and “Moderato,” which exude the sombre air of funeral processions. Like Skizzen and Legenden, Nachtbilder is strikingly multi-dimensional in coupling ponderous adagio-styled movements with bright, irreverent scherzos. The four-part Notturnos is particularly lovely, framing as it does touchingly romantic and hushed processional movements with a mellifluous opening part and closing funeral march.

In Ideale, Kirchner openly declares reverence for his mentors by including their birth dates with all but one movement. The first is a loving homage to Robert Schumann, the elegiac second to Schubert, the pretty third (in two parts) a Mendelssohn tribute, and the endearing fourth, which substitutes three asterisks for a date, is presumed by Liebermann to have been intended for Clara Schumann. This encompassing Kirchner presentation concludes with Vier Elegien, four exquisite elegies of lamenting character and dignified mien. The pianist could have selected something more boisterous for the album's end, but these poignant expressions of sorrow are more in keeping with the overall tone.

January 2024