Müller-Hartmann
String Quartet No. 2 etc
ARC Ensemble
Chandos CHAN20294 69:16 mins
The ARC Ensemble’s exploration of chamber music by 20th-century composers that were marginalised as a result of Nazi persecution has certainly uncovered some fascinating repertoire. This latest release is no exception with world-premiere recordings of works by Robert Müller-Hartmann (1884–1950), a German-born composer based in Hamburg who left his native country in 1937 to settle permanently in England.
If Müller-Hartmann is remembered at all these days, it’s largely as a result of his close association with Vaughan Williams, rather than on the basis of his reputation as a composer, which in this country is frankly non-existent. Yet in Germany, his orchestral music was championed by influential interpreters including Richard Strauss and Carl Schuricht, and he was widely admired as a pedagogue, securing a prestigious teaching position at the University of Hamburg until his resignation in 1933 following Hitler’s rise to power.
Judging by the works featured here, all of which were composed prior to his emigration, Müller-Hartmann pursued a largely conservative style with little reference to the more fashionable modernisms of the 1920s and 1930s. The early Violin Sonata, dedicated to Artur Schnabel, is an attractive example of German Late-Romanticism which in its constantly fluctuating tempo changes and emotive musical language, seems in certain passages to be surprisingly close to the soundworld of César Franck. In contrast, the highly effective Three Intermezzi and Scherzo for solo piano takes the late works of Brahms as its starting point.
But the strongest and most absorbing music comes in the melodically appealing Sonata for Two Violins and particularly in the emotionally probing Second String Quartet. As always, the ARC ensemble’s committed performances make the best possible case for a re-evaluating this neglected composer. Erik Levi
