Marx: Piano Concertos

The two piano concertos on this disc come from a composer whose works will rapidly become part of your musical mind, if you let them. Marx has been dead for forty years now and, as any composer will gloomily tell you, that is about the time it takes for the musical public to come round to recognizing a master writer for what he is.

This composer took late romantic writing to a point of sensual fervour beyond which further development would be hard to imagine. His music is awash with lovely tunes bathed in sensual,sometimes erotic, harmony: a combination guaranteed to cast its spell on the listener. The two concertos recorded by David Lively on this disc do just that.

The Romantisches Klavierkonzert has, as far as I know, been recorded twice before: Jorge Bolet, one of the 20th century's great pianists, made a recording that has never been issued commercially; presumably it is only a matter of time before that is put right. The Hyperion concerto series features an astonishing performance by Marc-André Hamelin which carries all before it, whirling the listener away in dazzling technique and a grand conception of the piece which is irresistable. It flares with dazzling and infectious excitement and emotion.

David Lively takes a more measured view, perhaps allowing some more time for many to revel in the detail of the piece. He is very well accompanied and excellently recorded and he plays very well too. The great bonus of this new disc is the addition of his recording of Castelli Romani, the second piano concerto.

Those of you who set some store by the colour imparted to music by the use of different keys will note that the Concerto is in E major and Castelli Romani in E flat major: this choice is a telling one. Keys only a semitone apart always give a contrasting character to music; and they tend to colour the way the composer writes, for many different reasons. E major is know for clarity and directness, and E flat for warmth and roundness. Some composers saw E flat as an heroic key: Beethoven, Liszt and Richard Strauss certainly did. Look out for this in these two pieces, therefore, and see if you can feel the contrast.

Castelli Romani inhabits something of the world of Respighi's three suites: the "Pines", "Fountains" and "Festivals" of Rome. Marx walks the same road, but in his own way. Listeners lucky enough to have access to a recording of Respighi's "Concerto in Modo Misolidio" will see why I hasten to add that the two men's approach to the piano concerto is very different, however; Respighi writes more stringily, creates a tougher skein on his loom.

Marx creates a piece awash with sunny southern sound and monumental piano writing and I can only recommend this disc wholeheartedly to the listener. Like the Romantisches Klavierkonzert, the later piece stretches the player greatly: you will find only a few pieces in the repertoire to revel quite as these do in the way the whole of the compass of the piano is used for colour: Marx revels in all the sonority the instrument can offer.

- Romantic Piano Concerto (1919/20) ==> 41 minutes
- Castelli Romani (1929-30) ==> 32 minutes

Joseph Marx was not only a widely acknowledged Mid-European composer of his era but also one of the most admired and most active teachers within the international music community, and as such he was no less famous than his French contemporary Nadia Boulanger. Also, Marx who often accompanied his songs on the piano until old age, was an excellent pianist. Those of his students who are still living today recall that he, in the middle of his lectures, would spontaneously play even highly demanding piano pieces anytime flawlessly and from memory. At the time he wrote the "Romantic Piano Concerto" (1919/20), Marx's development as a composer of orchestral music was already fulfilled, and as a symphonist often conducting his own works, he wrote further large scale works such as "Nordland-Rhapsodie" (Nordic Rhapsody) and "Natur-Trilogie" (Nature Trilogy", already released on ASV).

The energetic piano part of the Romantic Piano Concerto (1919/20) which demands a high degree of virtuosity and stamina from the soloist is modern in sound texture, so that stylistically the "Romantic" is close to those Scandinavian piano concertos of Palmgren and Hannikainen, as well as to British piano concertos (e.g. Harty and Delius), while the manifold harmonies are often reminiscent of Scriabin and Debussy, and especially of Marx's Bulgarian counterpart and friend Pancho Vladigerov. The concerto could be described as a symphonic duet between piano and orchestra. The piano rarely appears as a separate sound body but is entwined with the symphonic arrangement and often used for its colouristic effects. However, this must seem a thankless task to the majority of pianists, as only the skilled listener will realize the enormous show of strength which is required from the soloist. This could be one of the reasons why only a few seem to have attempted to play this magnificently boisterous, wildly romantic virtuoso piece.

On one of his car trips south, Marx whose grandmother was Italian, visited the Castelli Romani, the legendary ruins on the forested hills near Rome. In his hereafter named second piano concerto "Castelli Romani - Three Pieces for Piano and Orchestra" (1929-1930), Marx has set an outstanding memorial for this spot which is so highly significant from an art-historical point of view, as he would also do soon afterwards with Auf der Campagna (the fifth movement of "Verklärtes Jahr" for middle voice and orchestra, 1930-32). The world première of "Castelli Romani" took place on the 5th of February, 1931, in Darmstadt under Karl Böhm. The celebrated soloist Walter Gieseking in letters to Joseph Marx frequently expressed his adoration for this remarkable virtuoso work and his gratitude for the opportunity to perform it. "Castelli Romani" in E-flat major that was never commercially recorded to date, is a magical firework display of Mediterranean emotions and masterfully instrumented atmospheric images. Here Marx symbolises the spiritual life of classical Greek and Roman culture as well as of the Renaissance. His impressionisms, enriched with folkloristic elements, remind one of Ravel but also mirror the glowing passion of Charles Martin Loeffler's Pagan Poem for piano and orchestra, yet the third movement of Castelli Romani in particular pays homage to the famous Roman Trilogy by Ottorino Respighi who, not surprisingly, was friends with Marx.

Marx, who never wrote film music, left a multitude of dazzling themes that make Hollywood's wildest dreams appear grey. His works enrich the whole genre of the late-romantic piano concerto and will, thanks to this recording, hopefully be performed more frequently and live on as treasures of music history in the hearts of the listeners.

Berkant Haydin

The Romantic Piano Concerto (1919-20) is a big, ultraromantic three-movement work lasting about forty minutes. The orchestral accompaniment, here and in the Castelli Romani, is handled beautifully by the Bochum Symphony Orchestra under conductor Stephen Sloane. They are the same group who so successfully recorded three of the earlier issues in the ASV series. Clearly they have Marx's orchestral style in the blood. For me the absolute highlight of the series so far is the gorgeous 'Naturtrilogie,' which I have also reviewed here. As for this concerto, it is in the tradition of those high romantic concertos we all know and love - Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff etc. Marx has his own voice -- there are always elements of impressionism mixed into his admittedly conservative style -- but the overall effect is rather the same as those mentioned: gorgeous melodies, rich harmonies, lush orchestration, virtuosic piano passage work. If the melodic invention is not quite on the highest level, there is still very much here to enjoy.

The Second Concerto is rather a different animal. Written in 1931 and premièred by Walter Gieseking with an orchestra under Karl Böhm, it is Marx's attempt to limn in music his impressions of three sites of a well-loved trip to Italy the composer had made. The first movement, 'Villa Hadriana,' evokes by use of medieval open fifths and fourths and modal scales the ancient world of Hadrian's villa. The second movement, 'Tusculum,' is a pastorale recalling an ancient village of that name. 'Frascati,' for me the most compelling of the three movements, uses Respighian orchestration (including one passage that sounds almost cribbed from 'Pines of Rome,' not inappropriate one must admit) and Italian folksong. The orchestration in this concerto is leaner than in the cholesterol-rich first concerto and this gives a musical impression of ancient times and places.

David Lively is an American pianist who, of course, learned these concerti for this recording. One never has the sense that he is just playing the notes; he seems both committed to and in love with these pieces. Neither of the concertos has entered the repertory of touring virtuosi. One hopes that this recording, plus that of Hamelin, will revive some interest in this creditable concertos.

Next, we are told, will be a recording of what some have called Marx's masterpiece, the 'Herbstsymphonie' ('Autumn Symphony'), a gargantuan work whose praises have been sung by a number of musicians familiar with the score. I, for one, can hardly wait.

TT=73:00

Scott Morrison