KUMMER, Friedrich August (1797-1879) - Cello Duets

Obra d'Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873), pintor anglès (1)

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Parlem de Pintura...

Edwin Landseer (London, 7 de març de 1802 - London, 1 d'octubre de 1873) va ser un pintor i escultor anglès. Va néixer en el sí d'una família d'artistes i es va formar juntament amb el pintor històric Benjamin Haydon, de qui va aprendre la importància d'estudiar anatomia. Aquesta primera lliçó va proporcionar un dels camins per iniciar la seva carrera artística. Els seus quadres d'animals, per exemple, van ser notablement realistes i van mostrar la seva comprensió de l'anatomia i la psicologia animal. Als 14 anys ja exposava amb regularitat a la Royal Academy of Arts i va ser en aquesta edat quan va ingressar a la prestigiosa acadèmia d'art londinenca. Allà va ser elegit membre de ple dret als 24 anys. Va realitzar molts viatges a les terres altes escoceses i va pintar nombrosos quadres de la regió com El monarca de la carrerada (1851). El client més important de Landseer fou la Reina Victòria. El seu primer quadre per aquesta fou un retrat del gos Dash. Ben aviat la monarquia es va convertir en mecenes de la seva pintura. Landseer va tenir molt d'èxit al llarg de la seva vida, malgrat que va sofrir problemes mentals durant la vellesa. Fou nomenat cavaller el 1850, després d'haver refusat semblant honor vuit anys abans. Malgrat no gaudir de bona salut, va esculpir una de les seves millors obres just al final de la seva vida, els quatre lleons de bronze que envolten l'estàtua de l'almirall Nelson a Trafalgar Square i que es va instal·lar el 1867. En definitiva, va ser un dels principals pintors d'animals de l'Anglaterra victoriana, que sàviament va combinar el contingut emocional amb un enorme realisme. Una característica decisiva de l'obra de Landseer va ser la qualitat antropomorfa d'aquests quadres que sovint al·ludien a un relat dramàtic i emocional, com l'inquietant Una pota de gat (1824), Afecte (1829) i El vell gos pastor de Mourner (1837). Va morir, probablement a Londres, l'octubre de 1873.

Font: En català: Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) - En castellano: Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) - In english: Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) - Altres: Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) 

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Parlem de Música...

Friedrich August Kummer (Meiningen, 5 d'agost de 1797 - Dresden, 22 d'agost de 1879) va ser un violoncel·lista i compositor alemany. Membre d'una família de la noblesa de Saxònia i fill de Friedrich August Kummer (1770-1849), un oboista i compositor a Meiningen i a Dresden, es va formar amb el seu pare i posteriorment amb Friedrich Dotzauer. El 1814 va entrar com a oboista a l'orquestra de la cort electoral de Meiningen especialitzant-se en violoncel després de la mort de Karl W. Höckner, un dels violoncel·listes de l'orquestra. No va ser fins el 1852 que va assumir el càrrec de violoncel·lista principal, en substitució de Friedrich Dotzauer, a la mateixa orquestra en un lloc que va mantenir fins el 1864, l'any de la seva jubilació. En general va viure la major part de la seva vida a Alemanya si bé va realitzar algunes gires a Itàlia i en ciutats alemanyes. També va realitzar interpretacions de cambra en companyia de músics com François Schubert i Karol Lipiński. Va treballar com a professor al Conservatori de Dresden amb alumnes com Bernhard Cossmann i Julius Goltermann. El seu net Alexander Karl Kummer va ser violinista i compositor. Friedrich August Kummer va morir a Dresden l'agost de 1879.

Font: En català: Friedrich August Kummer (1797-1879) - En castellano: No disponible - In english: Friedrich August Kummer (1797-1879) - Altres: Friedrich August Kummer (1797-1879)

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Parlem en veu pròpia o en veu d'altri...

Kummer was an oboist in the Dresden Court Orchestra in his teens, later gravitating to the cello section. Multi-instrumental facility was clearly his but the cello was to be his principal focus and his position in Dresden as performer and pedagogue was an august one. The studies he wrote for his own instrument are still of value to this day, and the Duets he wrote, all undated here, grew from the mid-nineteenth century vogue for Hausmusik. They are elegantly crafted and lyrically delightful, without any pretensions to significance beyond their original function. Kummer drew deeply from the well of baroque inspiration, calling on the shade of Handel in particular, whilst also showing awareness of certain contemporary trends. The notes mention Wagner in this respect but Mendelssohn, whom they also mention and in whose quartet Kummer sometimes played, is a better example as is to a certain extent Schumann. He was not as influenced by Weber as was, say, Kalliwoda. Played on baroque cellos, using gut strings, and therefore at low pitch these are warm performances. The Carrai-Tomkins duo brings out the Schumann influence in Op.22/1 with its instructional undercurrents and they are careful to spin the melody over pizzicati in the Andantino. In Op.156/5 he uses Handel’s See the Conquering Hero as a theme for a series of amiable variations with a slight adagio to give textual and emotive variety. In the Arioso from its opus mate Op.156/3 Kummer ransacks the Water Music for some decorative variational writing shared between the two instruments. The range of influences is expanded by Schubert in Op.22/2 though the most arresting of all the slow movements here is that of Op.103/1. Kummer is not above a degree of humour, quoting from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in Op.103/4 where, in the finale, he stretches out enough to include a frolicsome dance finale – with an Iberian tinge. The playing, as suggested earlier, is adroit and appropriate to the material. Sometimes I felt things could go with greater incision but nothing is unnecessarily inflated. The inspiration for the project, Cellos for Chelsea, is a fine one, with all proceeds from the disc going to children’s cancer charities.


Jonathan Woolf (source/font: aquí)

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Kummer possessed a powerful, beautiful tone and remarkable knowledge of the fingerboard. The outstanding features of his style, reflecting Romberg's and Dotzauer's influences, were its nobility, lack of excessive affectation and the aspiration to penetrate the spirit of the work being performed. His playing might have seemed somewhat stiff and overly academic, but it always remained simple and natural, and never overstepped the boundaries stipulated by the nature of the instrument. K. Miltitz, a music critic who played the cello himself, provided Kummer as the example when speaking of the German way of playing, and specifically, about the trend that featured nobility, seriousness and solidity. Another reviewer wrote: "Kummer is distinguished for his peculiar composure while performing great feats of virtuosity. But the main thing about him is his elegiac playing; how wonderfully Kummer can reveal it, and how often he brings the listener to this mood ... E. van der Straeten considers Kummer one of the greatest German violoncellists of his time, who made an intrinsic contribution to the further development of the art of the cello. A classical style of performance, great and noble tone, and virtuosity were the highlights of his playing, but he was a stranger to the lighter and more brilliant bowing technique of the French and Belgian schools. A similar appraisal of him was made by Wilhelm Wasielewski: "Kummer's playing bore the stamp of great precision and correctness, united to powerful and solid intonation. His technique was in every point thoroughly cultivated, but to acquire the 'finesse' of a virtuoso he was of too simple a nature, which was better calculated to occupy itself with the sphere of music in its intellectual aspects than in brilliant display... His manner of rendering was always strictly objective and according to rule." 

Judging by the Method of the Violoncello published in 1839, the main aim of one learning the cello, according to Kummer, was to achieve a full and powerful, but not stiff tone. He emphasized the character of the instrument's expressive means: "Because of the beautiful sound of the cello, its most characteristic feature is the influence upon the mind and the heart, only when used with mind and heart. As for the intensification and modification of sounds, which is the basis of playing melodious parts, we must follow the example of a good singer. The performance should be simple and natural, one should avoid overloading it with embellishments. Several notes played on the violoncello often have a greater effect than numerous and difficult passages." Kummer's point of view, both as a cellist and an interpreter, on the aims of a virtuoso is very characteristic: "The highest mission of a virtuoso is that he must breathe life and soul into a body which a composer has created out of sound. The force serving this aim is within the artist himself; it is the product of his feelings and is manifest in its highest purity and nobility only when it radiates unadorned, natural simplicity." Kummer warned his pupils of excessive use of expressive means such as vibrato, portamento and rubato, although he did acknowledge they were important tools of expression. Kummer's Method was of more practical significance than the Method of Dotzauer. Its chapter on methods, though, is interesting for its systematic exposition and progressive nature of certain statements. The picture of the position at the instrument furnished in the Method is in many ways similar to that of Dotzauer's; but it is more natural, although the low elbow position is still characteristic (not as low as with Romberg, but lower than with Dotzauer). 

That this type of position was typical of the German violoncello school, at least by the middle of the last century, can be seen from the same picture being repeated in the Method of Sebastian Lee, published in 1845. Kummer was eager to develop a natural position and natural movements. He approached the contemporary idea of the function of certain fingers on the frog of the bow, and considered the freedom of its movement more important than the force of the pressure. When evaluating the role of the arm, Kummer sometimes overestimated wrist movements. Emphasizing the intrinsic influence of strokes on the character of the piece performed, he suggested at the same time that the pupil, where possible, keep to the rule that the downbow be used on the first beat of the bar, though he specified exceptions from this outdated mechanical regulation. Kummer gives fewer stroke variants than does Dotzauer, but they are more carefully selected and methodically arranged. He gives the distribution of the bow needed due attention. Kummer forms the left hand positions on the basis of the C major scale (while Davydov bases his on the diatonic major scale from each string, which is organically connected with the modus thinking). In the chromatic scale, Kummer's fingering, like that of Dotzauer, is more advanced than the Romberg fingering. Kummer gives the fingering of all scales, going through five octaves; the double stopping division is quite subdued. A table of all natural harmonics is presented in the Method and the artificial harmonics Are also described. The music material of Kummer's Method is more interesting musically than that contained in Dotzauer's Method and is presented with the accompaniment of a second cello. 

A great number of melodies-etudes (No. 67-69) appear in the section "Exercises in interpretation." Romantic in spirit (close to Mendelssohn and Spohr), they are good exercises in cantilena. As additional material, Kummer suggested etudes and caprices by Dotzauer, etudes by Merk, caprices by Franchomme as well as GrUtzmacher's exercises. Among Kummer's many other teaching compositions are the Daily Exercises (Op. 71 and 125), the Violoncello duets to be played at sight and a great number of etudes ("Ten melodic etudes" with accompaniment by a second violoncello Op. 57 still retain their pedagogical value). Kummer employed an interesting new form for histeaching material - Repertorium and Orchesterstudien - a collection of fragments from complicated orchestral parts. Now outdated, concert works for the cello reflect the romantic tendencies of his period. Among them were: a Concerto, Concertino, in the form of a vocal scene (analogous to Spohr's violin Concerto in the form of a vocal scene); the concertino Souvenir de Swiss; Konzertstfick for two violoncellos; the Fantasia on themes from Meyerbeer's opera Robert the Devil; variations on themes from the Gounod opera Romeo et Juliette. Kummer wrote a number of pieces on Russian, Czech, Hungarian and Scotch folk song themes, thus undoubtedly following Romberg's example. There was great interest by his contemporaries, especially amateur cellists, in his arrangements of Schubert's lieder-among the earliest cello trancriptions. The Dresden violoncello school in the second half of the 19th century was continued by Grutzmacher-an illustrious German violoncellist, performer and teacher who wrote numerous compositions for the cello and edited the classic works.

CELLIST (source/font: aquí)

Gaudiu i compartiu! 

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Informació addicional... 

INTERPRETS: Phoebe Carrai & Tanya Tomkins (cellos)
AMAZON: Kummer - Cello Duets

IMSLP: Friedrich August Kummer (1797-1879)

CPDL: No disponible

SPOTIFY: Kummer - Cello Duets



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