Notes and Editorial Reviews
German pianist and musicologist Herbert Henck has won much critical acclaim for his ECM recordings of works by important 20th- century composers such as Cage, Antheil, Mosolov, Mompou or Hans Otte and will receive a special prize for his lifetime achievement at this year’s Ernst von Siemens Preis. His new album offers world premier recordings of the surviving piano works by two masters about whose lives and careers almost nothing was known for more than half a century. Both of them adopted the twelve-tone system but while Johann Ludwig Trepulka (1903- 1945) followed the teachings of Josef Matthias Hauer, Norbert von Hannenheim (1898- 1945) took his inspiration from Arnold Schoenberg. The CD booklet includes an insightful essay on both
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composers and their respective works.
Johann Ludwig Trepulka was a Viennese composer and pianist who studied with Josef Matthias Hauer, one of the founders of an alternate type of 12 tone music, different from that of Arnold Schoenberg. By 1940 Trepulka was working in Krakow, Poland as a musician employed at the State Theatre. It is believed he composed several theater scores which are lost. In late 1944 Trepulka was drafted into the German army and sometime during February of 1945 was missing in action somewhere within the district of Gdansk, then known as Danzig. Among his surviving works are series of Opus 2 piano pieces with haunting titles drawn from the in the words of Nicolaus Lenau and a Symphony for Organ, Chorus and Orchestra titled "Light and Darkness."
Norbert von Hannenheim was born in Nagyszeben, Romania, now known as Sibiu in 1898. In 1922 and 1923 he studied music in Graz, Austria and subsequently studied with Paul Graener in Leipzig. Drawn to the 12 tone technique of composition, Hannenheim enrolled in Arnold Schoenberg's Master Class in Composition at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin from 1929 to 1932. Schoenberg referred to Hannenheim as "one of the most interesting personalities I have ever met". Hannenheim composed numerous works in his own personal style of expression. He eventually created a Symphony which was premiered at concert of music by Schoenberg's pupils on May 20th, 1930 sharing a program with pieces by Winfried Zillig and Nikos Skalkottas. As Nazism grew along with antisemitism and the banning of modern music, Schoenberg, Hindemith and numerous other artists left Germany. Remaining in Berlin during the war, Hannenheim suffered from psychological problems. Due to the chaotic situation in 1945, the final year of the war, his fate is uncertain and it is believed he either perished in an Allied air raid on Berlin or died in a Berlin psychiatric hospital. In recent years, songs, piano sonatas and chamber works by Norbert von Hannenheim have been discovered.
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Works on This Recording
1.
Klavierstücke mit Überschriften nach Worten von Nicolaus Lenau, Op. 2 by Johann Ludwig Trepulka
Performer:
Herbert Henck (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1923/24; Austria
Notes: Movements:
I. Und mit den Wellen ziehen verhüllte Melodieen.
(And the waves pull veiled melodies.)
II. O rüttle nicht den Stolz vom Schlummer!
(O not rouse the pride of slumber!)
III. Weil’ auf mir, du dunkles Auge!
(Because to me, your eyes are dark!)
IV. Frühling kommt mit Duft und Gesang und Liebe.
(Spring comes with fragrance and song and love.)
V. O Menschenherz, was ist dein Glück?
(O human heart, what is your happiness?)
VI. Schlaf, melodischer Freund, woher die Flöte?
(Sleep, melodious friend, but where the flute?)
VII. Im Osten hebt sich der klare Mond, und Gott bedecket den Himmel mit Sternen.
(To the east rises the clear moon, and God covereth the heaven with stars.)
2.
Klaviersonate no 2 by Norbert von Hannenheim
Performer:
Herbert Henck (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1929; Germany
3.
Klaviersonate no 4 by Norbert von Hannenheim
Performer:
Herbert Henck (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1929; Germany
4.
Klaviersonate no 6 by Norbert von Hannenheim
Performer:
Herbert Henck (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1929; Germany
5.
Klaviersonate no 12 by Norbert von Hannenheim
Performer:
Herbert Henck (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1929; Germany
6.
Concerto no 2 for Piano and Chamber Orchestra by Norbert von Hannenheim
Performer:
Herbert Henck (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1932; Germany
Notes: Piano solo (Fragment)
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