82 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk
CarlDavidStegmann
(1751-1826)wasa
composer,conductor
andtenorbased
mainlyinnorthernandeasternGermany.
Alongsidehisownmusic,healsomade
transcriptionsofmusicbyHaydn,
Mozart,Beethovenandothersforthe
BonnpublisherSimrock.Thesethree
symphoniesarefromacollectionof 25
(intwosets)hepreparedintheyears
followingHaydn’sdeath;IvanIlic ́reports
inthebookletthesequenceofevents
thatledtohisdiscoveryandperformance
(perhapsthepublicworldpremieres)of
ahandfulofthem.
Transcriptionssuchasthesecanonly
reallybeconsideredsuccessfulifthey
conveytoareasonabledegreethe
brillianceoftheoriginalsonwhichthey
arebased.Stegmannfindssomeingenious
solutionstotheproblemsoftransferring
musicforstrings,wind,brassanddrums
tothepiano:forexample,theincreasing
speedoftheaccompanyingfiguresinthe
openingPrestoofSymphonyNo75.The
soundcanbeneedlesslythin,though,
withbasslinesoftenremainingatwritten
pitch,ratherthandroppingtheoctave
tomimicthebassstringinstruments.
Neithercanthepianosustainlikemuted
stringsinthesamesymphony’sslow-
movementvariationsortheecstatic
AdagioofNo44.
MuchofthisisStegmann’sfault;so
too,presumably,areoccasionaldepartures
fromwhatHaydnactuallywrote–but
then,wedon’tknowhowcorrupthis
sourcematerialmighthavebeen.Allthe
same,Ilic ́mighthavemademoreof
Haydn’sdynamics,forexamplethefz
markingsthatlitterNo 44 ortherustic
hornsintheTrioofNo92.Alsoabsent
isthenervousenergythatdrivesHaydn’s
fastermusic.No92’sfreewheelingfinale
shouldalmosttripoveritself,itsboisterous
themeandharmonictrajectoryspinning
totheverylimitsofcoherence.Rather
thanscamperingimpishly,hereitsounds
moreliketraversingarockyoutcropin
stilettoheels.TurntotheFreiburg
BaroqueOrchestraandRenéJacobs
(HarmoniaMundi,5/05)tohearhow
itshouldreallygo;toTafelmusikunder
BrunoWeil(SonyClassical,7/95)to
heartheTrauer’sfinalebristlewithbarely
concealedire;andtoThomasFeyin
Heidelberg(HänsslerClassic,6/08)to
hearNo75’sPrestoplayedwithabrilliance
andvigourbeyondthelimitsofany
pianist.DavidThreasher
Henriques
Aphorisms,Op6 – No4,Jegelsker.Erotik,Op15.
ThePictureBook.Silhouettes,Op 38
ChristinaBjørkøepf
DacapoF8 226150(82’• DDD)Henriques
Ballerina,Op51.Berceuse.Canzonetta,Op2 7.
Erotikon,Op56.Grief.KleinebunteReihe,
Op20.Mazurka,Op35.NordicDance.
Novellettes,Op26.PetiteValse.Religioso,Op34.
Romances– Op43;‘LateSummer’,Op 50 No1.
Wiegenlied.Witches’Dance
JohannesSøeHansenvnChristinaBjørkøepf
DacapoF8 226151(77’• DDD)Henriques
Children’sPoetry,Op30.MelodicAlbum,Op50.
MiniatureWater-Colours,Op 21
ThomasTrondhjempf
DanacordFDACOCD840(80’• DDD)The Danish composer
Fini Henriques (born
Valdemar Fini
Henriques, 1867-
1940) is not nearly as well known today
as he deserves. A close contemporary of
Nielsen, no mean miniaturist himself
(as his many songs attest), Henriques
had an innate mastery of small-scale forms
and a gift for melody that is hardly less
impressive than that of Grieg, Nielsen and
Sibelius in their lighter pieces. Stylistically,
Henriques could adopt various manners,
some more or less close to composers from
Bach (the ‘Quarrelsome’ number in the
Melodic Album, 1919) to Nielsen (as in the
Andante sostenuto of the Novellettes of 1905)
or generic salon music, as in the Petite valse,
a lovely, undated inspiration thought to be
from around 1920.
In the booklet note to Christina
Bjørkøe’s delightful disc of piano pieces,
Claus Røllum-Larsen comments that
Henriques was ‘almost unrivalled in his
ability to compose small pieces with a sharp
characterisation – works with charm and
warm-heartedness’, noting also that ‘charm
and warm-heartedness’ applied equally
to the composer, ‘so there was complete
agreement between the man himself and
his music’. Every one of the 121 pieces
gathered across these three discs (with
not a single duplication) confirms theannotator’s asseveration, whether the
charming ‘The Little Jockey’, the 16th
piece of the children’s collection Billedbogen
(‘The Picture Book’, 1899), the brilliant,
brief ‘Will-o’-the-wisp’, the penultimate
number of Miniatur-Aquarelles (‘Miniature
Water-Colours’, 1900) or the light-hearted
‘Yes-men’, the third movement of Kleine
bunte Reihe (1899) for violin and piano.
This last set of six pieces also features a
‘Mosquito Dance’ that casts a sly glance
at Rimsky’s bumblebee!
Henriques had a decided knack for
juxtaposing series of smaller pieces into
larger collections, as we have on the two
piano discs, each featuring satisfying larger
sets the individual components of which
can be played independently. Thomas
Trondhjem’s disc features three such
collections, all receiving their first
recordings. Børnelyrik (‘Children’s Poetry’,
1908) is a collection of 20 miniatures
which, like Billedbogen, should be as well-
known as Nielsen’s Music for Young and
Old. The Melodic Album comprises 22 tiny
gems, the longest, ‘At the Grave’, running
to 2'44" while seven are under a minute,
the shortest, ‘Hunt the Thimble’, a mere
32 seconds. It forms part of a collection of
works published as Op 50, which includes
the beautiful Romance ‘Sensommer’ (‘Late
Summer’) for violin and piano. Miniatur-
Aquarelles is yet another set aimed at
children, 10 charming character sketches
covering pets, the one times table and song
forms, among others.
Of the two piano solo discs, Bjørkøe’s
has the edge in repertoire, featuring two of
Henriques’s finest collections, Billedbogen
and Melodiske profiler (‘Silhouettes’, 1911).
The latter collection, which was published
originally in two separate volumes of
10 items apiece, is more adult-focused, the
subjects ranging from the natural world –
‘Ivy’, ‘The Turkey Cock’ – to states of
mind: ‘In a Sombre Mood’, ‘Longing’
or the concluding ‘Resignation’. Where
Henriques’s expressive range shows its
limitations is in his various attempts to
portray or illustrate eroticism; each disc
has an example of this and the results are
genteel, even twee, with nothing, say, of
Scriabin’s more ecstatic visions.
In terms of sound, Bjørkøe is slightly
better served by Dacapo’s sound quality
and acoustic – Danacord’s for Trondhjem
seems a little airless and two-dimensional
by comparison, although fine enough on
its own terms. With no repertoire clashes,
both discs are recommendable, as is the
violin disc – Henriques was a viola player
and violinist, playing in the Royal Danish
Orchestra and his own string quartet – on
which Johannes Søe Hansen is right insideINSTRUMENTAL REVIEWS