Germany Winterberg & Winterberg – An encounter of music and literature: Jaroslav Rudiš (reader). Adamello Quartet (Clemens Linder, Byol Kang [violins], Susanne Linder [viola], Adele Bitter [cello]) with Holder Groschopp (piano). Schwartzsche Villa, Grünewaldstrasse, Berlin, 12.7.2024. (CC)
Hans Winterberg – Sudeten-Suite (‘Errinerung an die Sudeten’); Cello Sonata; String Quartet No.1 (Symphony for String Quartet)
The brainchild of Frank Harders-Wuthenow, this concert celebrated the music of Hans Winterberg (1901-1991), while coinciding with the release of the first volume of that composer’s chamber music on the RDS label: the Cello Sonata and the String Quartet No.1 appear on the disc, supplemented there by the Trumpet Sonata No.1, the Sonata for Violin and Piano and the Suite for Viola and Piano.
For more on the activities of Harders-Wuthenow, and more on Winterberg and Entartete Musik, I recommend a podcast featuring Harders-Wuthenow, Dr Michael Haas, hosted by Hana Gubenko and myself (the Spotify link is here). Also present at the concert was the composer’s grandson, Peter Kreitmeir, who has played a key part in the liberation of Winterberg’s manuscripts.
There is more, though. Why Winterberg & Winterberg? Who is the other?. The one who is ‘not Hans’ is Wenzel Winterberg, the protagonist of a superb novel by Jaroslav Rudiš, Winterberg’s Last Journey. Czech-born Rudiš wrote the book in German, but it is available in a brilliant translation by Kris Best (Best was also at the event). Readings were obviously in German. Although not the same Winterberg, there ae parallels, not least in the ‘musical’ nature of Rudiš’s book, including a leitmotif that runs through the book that refers, poignantly and unforgettably, to a ‘beautiful landscape of battlefields, cemeteries, and ruins’
The Schwartzsche Villa is a beautiful setting just outside the centre of Berlin (it also hosts exhibitions, currently Michelle Jezierski’s Verge). The core performers here were the Adamello String Quartet, comprised of members from the DSO (Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) with one tweak: second violinist Nikolaus Kneser was replaced by a concertmaster of the DSO, Byol Kang.
The whole was prefaced by a pre-concert talk delivered with intensity and passion by Harders-Wuthenow. The space is small, but it was packed: there is clearly an appetite for the new in Berlin, reflected perhaps also in the enthusiastic reception.
It was the intersection of words and music in the main body of the concert that was so special. First, Rudiš read from the very beginning, the chapter ‘From Königgrätz to Sadowa’ (pp.13-20 of the English edition). The reading brought out the idea of text almost as music: word repetitions (as well as that literary leitmotif) took on sonic significance.
Around this reading, we heard Hans Winterberg’s Sudeten-Suite (‘Memories of the Sudeten’), composed in 1963/4. The idea of memories, of a Rückblick, is enshrined in Winterberg’s traditional harmonic language here in this ten-minute piece for piano trio. The pianist was Holger Groshopp, known for his associations with the Berliner Philhamoniker and the DSO as well as his recording of the complete piano music by Simon Laks on the Cybele label and his recordings of Busoni transcriptions on Capriccio. Elements of Dvořák were certainly present here in a piece of great freedom. Maybe there was a hint of Janáček over the central ‘Rund um den Plöckstein’, a place of expansive violin lines set against sudden juxtapositions. One has to admire Groschopp’s playing in the finale, ‘Elbe-Quellen,’ a difficult piece that nevertheless exudes a happy, open-air demeanour and some remarkably fresh counterpoint.
Another reading – now the chapter ‘From Jičín to Budweis’ (pp. 167-169, Wenzel Winterberg’s memories of Prague) and then ‘From Budweis to Winterberg’ (pp. 179-186) before the Cello Sonata (1951). This has been recorded by the present performers, Adele Bitter and Groschopp, on the RDA disc. The Cello Sonata is a short work of only around 13 minutes, but its three movements contain the kernel of Winterberg’s style There is a neoclassical aspect here, but there is also a sense of urgency. This last is particularly audible in the first movement, almost breathless and yet bursting with ideas. The textural differentiation Winterberg clearly uses was highlighted by the performers, particularly via Groschopp’s variety of tone. The musical language is suddenly much more advanced; the difficulty of the individual parts increases exponentially; Bitter’s staccato and clear rhythmic mastery gave the cello part much life. The piano’s active descending theme had a touch more of the special about it, a sense of discovery, in the live performance than it does on the EDA disc, incidentally. The central ’Mit ausdrucksstarker Bewegung’ is a shadowy song without words. The piano begins with delicate high chords against which the cello, lower, sings. This is a Nocturne like no other. As recording engineer and ‘Entartete Musik’ expert Haas has suggested, shadows are deep here, and Bitter and Groschopp captured the music’s interior heart perfectly; the audience was enraptured, and rightly so. The finale begins with a cello repeated note that can only be described as ‘buzzing’ before the piano embarks on a twisted ragtime whirligig, a wild folk dance; If that sounds like a whole lot of twisted fun, it is. The sense of abandon exuded by Bitter and Groschopp was immense.
Another reading: a pair, in fact. ‘St. Anne’s’ (a hospital in Brno after a heart attack, from p.311) and from the penultimate ‘The Storm’ (pp. 427-431). Then …
It is quite a thing to experience the world premiere of a piece written in 1936, but that was the case here with Hans Winterberg’s First String Quartet.
The String Quartet No.1 is one of Winterberg’s most complex works of his pre-war period. It has been said the piece sits somewhere between Janáček and Pavel Haas on the one hand, and the works of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern) on the other. Rhythm and motifs take on equal significance in Winterberg’s remarkable tapestry. There are three movements (Allegretto; Molto tranquillo; Allegro vivace), but they emerge as one complete whole, or at least they did in this remarkable performance. The third section takes up material form the first, with the central Molto tranquillo nicely delineated in structural terms.
The subtitle ‘Symphony for String Quartet’ and is indeed linked to Winterberg’s First Symphony via its ‘disguised’ formal scheme: three movements heard as one. The Quartet begins quietly, on second violin, an oscillating figure that worries, its rhythmic distortions implying an undercurrent of ungroundedness. The soundworld is unique, but if I had to single out one point of reference it would be Zemlinsky; and yet there are mechanistic passages that take us into altogether different regions against which melodies strive to emerge and gain freedom. Repetition of small cells is another component of Winterberg’s vocabulary; the Adamello Quartet played superbly, allowing textures to speak naturally, projecting maximal clarity throughout and above all squeezing every drop of expressive juice from Winterberg’s complex, rewarding score.
The Molto tranquillo features a violin song (Clemens Linder truly touching) against an almost whispered, unsettlingly mobile background; perhaps that ‘tranquillo’ should come with a qualifier; or perhaps this was Winterberg’s definition of tranquility. The musical language here is truly individual, the performance unforgettable. The movement’s final place of repose is interrupted by melodic shards in repetition. The writing for quartet is truly wondrous here, as it is in the music’s later interiorisation. Winterberg writes with true independence of line for all four instruments, coming together into a wonderfully inventive whole. There are moments in this finale that require the utmost control by the musicians over their instruments, not least the poignant close, which hangs in the air; one could not have asked for more from the Adamello Quartet.
For those interested in exploring the music of Hans Winterberg further, he next logical stop might be a recording on Toccata Classics of String Quartets Nos. 2-4 by the Amernet Quartet (TOCC 0683) and a twofer of Pierian (0054/55) which contains Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, the Ballade um Pandora, the Symphonischer Epilog, the Symphonische Reiseballade, and Stationen. Lovers of wind music might enjoy another Toccata release (TOCC 491) which includes the Suite for Flute, Oboe, Basson and Harpsichord, the Suite for Clarinet and Piano, the Cello Sonata (there played by Theodore Buchholz and Alexander Tentser), the Wind Quintet and another Suite, this one for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and piano.
Colin Clarke