Maria Bach, who studied with Joseph Marx at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, was able to establish herself as a serious, successful composer during the 1930s. She received outstanding newspaper reviews, and renowned publishers were interested in her music. For example, Doblinger published her Volga Quintet. Her relationship with the Russian composer and conductor Ivan Boutnikoff came during this period of her first great successes; he instructed her in instrumentation, and she traveled with him throughout Europe. The three works recorded here for the first time – the Volga Quintet of 1928, the Sonata for Cello and Piano composed in 1924, and the String Quintet of 1936 – provide a representative overview of her chamber oeuvre.

Maria Bach writes with incredible virtuosity and on the highest level for the piano while never concerning herself with mere effects but instead developing tonal wealth and compelling compositional force. In the Piano Quintet she ventures to the limits of the doable and does so as can be done only by somebody who very precisely knows what the instrument has to offer. The same applies to her employment of the stringed instruments: the highly nuanced tone colors of her string parts attest to a profound understanding of the technical and tonal possibilities of these instruments. In 1943 the critic and composer Fritz Skorzeny aptly summed up the fascination produced by her music when he wrote in the Wiener Tagblatt: “In Maria Bach’s oeuvre, manifold elements, exoticism, gripping writing, poetically inspired, are combined.”

REVIEW:

Her dates tell you that this is not a very unexpected release of music by Johann Sebastian’s first wife, Maria Barbara. In fact, Maria Bach (or to give her her full name and title, Emilie Marie Baroness von Bach) would appear to have no connection to the famous Thuringian family.

She was born into a wealthy and very artistic family, which encouraged her musical talents. She was taught composition by Joseph Marx and studied violin with the concertmaster of the Vienna Court Orchestra and piano with the virtuoso Paul de Conne. After the First World War, she established a reputation as a composer in and beyond Vienna. However, her star faded quickly, partly I’m sure because of her gender, but also because she stuck to tonal music, when the world was changing.

I was totally unprepared for how beautiful the opening of the Piano Quintet would be. It brings to mind the opening of Fauré’s first Piano Quintet. Despite her background, there is a delicacy in her music that is more French than German/Austrian. The second movement is a set of fourteen variations on “The Song of the Volga Boatman”, and very ambitious at almost nineteen minutes, pushing the Quintet to well over thirty minutes. There is a marvellous diversity in the moods of the different variations: one of the early ones, with the cello given a solo role and the violins playing pizzicato is just glorious. The finale is a splendidly joyous dance. Through this very substantial work, I can’t recall a moment when I felt the inspiration faltering. I don’t feel that it is an overstatement to describe this work as not far short of a masterpiece, and one that should be in the standard repertoire for piano quintets.

The String Quintet is a much harder nut to crack, and certainly the most “modern” of the three works by some margin...the jagged folk rhythms of the Sacred Dance finale would have had Bartók nodding with approval.

The Cello Sonata is another cracking work. Its opening movement has the same tempo marking as that of the equivalent movement in the String Quintet: Energisch bewegt (energetic and emotional). While the Quintet seems to concentrate almost exclusively on the energetic part, the Sonata is much more deeply felt. The middle movement this time doesn’t involve variations, but rather a rhapsodic Romanze. The restless and heavy-footed rhythms that recur in the rondo Finale create a mental picture (for me) of two cartoon figures engaged in a pursuit, though there are moments of repose.

Performances of totally unknown music are always difficult to judge, but these seem entirely satisfactory to me. Certainly, the impression made on me by the Piano Quintet would have not been the same had the performance been below par. There were times when I would have liked a slightly warmer violin tone, but that is something I tend to say frequently. Cellist Mathias Johansen, who is an ever-present across the three works, is very impressive in the sonata.

--MusicWeb International (David Barker)