BRUN, Fritz (1878-1959) - Symphonie No.1 h-moll (1902)

Obra de Daniel Garber (1880-1958), pintor nord-americà (1)

- Recordatori de Fritz Brun -

En el dia de la commemoració del seu 56è aniversari de decés

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Parlem de Pintura...

Daniel Garber (North Manchester, 11 d'abril de 1880 - Cuttalossa, 5 de juliol de 1958) va ser un pintor nord-americà paisatgista, impressionista i membre de la colònia d'art a New Hope a Pennsilvània. Es va formar a la Art Academy of Cincinnati i a la Academy of the Fine Arts de Pennsylvania entre els anys 1899 i 1905. El 1905 va iniciar un tour per Europa on va conèixer de primera ma els impressionistes francesos. El 1907 va tornar als EUA i es va dedicar a la pintura a l'aire lliure. Va establir el seu taller a Cuttalossa i va ser membre de la National Academy Museum and School. Va ser reconegut per les seves grans escenes impressionistes de la zona de Nova Esperança en què va representar sovint el riu Delaware. També va pintar obres interiors figuratives i va destacar en el gravat. A més de la seva carrera com a pintor, Garber va ser professor a la Academy of the Fine Arts de Pennsylvania durant més de 40 anys. Va morir a Cuttalossa el juliol de 1958.

Font: En català: No disponible - En castellano: No disponible - In english: Daniel Garber (1880-1958) - Altres: Daniel Garber (1880-1958)

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Parlem de Música...

Fritz Brun (Luzern, 18 de agost de 1878 - Grosshöchstetten, 29 de novembre de 1959) va ser un pianista, director i compositor suís. Després de la seva formació amb Willem Mengelberg a Lucerne, es va traslladar a Köln on va estudiar amb Franz Wüllner (composició) i Max van de Sandt (piano). Una vegada finalitzada la seva formació acadèmica es va convertir en el professor personal del príncep Jordi de Prússia (1901) a Berlín. Allà va conèixer a Busoni i Nikisch abans de viatjar a Londres i Dortmund per un període breu. Després va tornar a Berna on va assolir el càrrec de professor de piano a l'Escola de Música de la ciutat (1903). En aquell temps va ser molt productiu com a intèrpret. A partir del 1909 va succeir a Karl Munzinger com a director principal de l'orquestra de Berna, de la Societat Ceciliana Coral i de la Berne Liedertafel. Tot i els seus deures com a director, va mantenir una notable activitat com a compositor destacant la desena de simfonies que va escriure. Va morir a Grosshöchstetten el novembre de 1959.

OBRA:

Vocal secular:

Verheissung (J.W. von Goethe), chorus, org, orch, 1915;
Il cavalli, children’s chorus, pf, 1956;
Natale, chorus, pf, 1956;
songs, 1v, pf, incl. Abendständchen (C.M. Brentano), Die Entschlafenen (F. Hölderlin), Es wehet kühl und leise (F. Schlegel), Lebensgenuss (Hölderlin);
Wunsch (F. Hagedorn);
a cappella choruses for male, female and mixed vv, incl. Altjahr-Nacht (G.F. Caderas), Tramunt (G. Bundi) and settings of L. Uhland, E. Mörike and others;
folksong arrs.;
orch of songs by O. Schoeck

Instrumental:

Orch:
Sym. no.1, b, 1901;
Aus dem Buche Hiob, sym. poem, 1906;
Sym. no.2, B , 1911;
Sym. no.3, d, 1919;
Sym. no.4, E, 1925;
Sym. no.5, E , 1929;
Sym. no.6, C, 1933;
Sym. no.7, D, 1937;
Sym. no.8, A, 1942;
Sym. Prologue, E , 1942;
Variations on an Original Theme, pf, str, 1944;
Pf Conc., 1946;
Vc Conc., 1947;
Sym. no.9, F, 1950;
Ov. ‘For a Jubilee’, 1950 [based on hymn In Gottes Namen he’ ich’s an];
Sym. no.10, B , 1953;
Divertimento, pf, str, 1954;
Rhapsody, 1958

Chbr:
Str Qt no.1, E , 1898;
Sonata no.1, d, vn, pf, 1920;
Str Qt no.2, G, 1921;
Str Qt no.3, F, 1943;
Str Qt no.4, D, 1949 [based on radio signals];
Sonata no.2, D, vn, pf, 1951;
Sonata, vc, pf, 1952

Font: En català: No disponible - En castellano: No disponible - In english: Fritz Brun (1878-1959) - Altres: Fritz Brun (1878-1959)

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

First symphonies are interesting things. Sometimes they clearly foreshadow - and are in an obvious linear relationship with - ones to come. Sometimes they are in a style that the composer clearly had trouble with and thereafter abandoned. Sometimes they have such a troubled gestation that the composer leaves it at that and never returns to the form again. That last description hardly fits Swiss composer Fritz Brun who, between 1902 and 1953 composed no fewer than ten full length symphonies. Championed over the years by Brun's compatriot, the conductor Adriano, several of them have been reviewed on this website. My colleagues’ verdicts were, as ever on such occasions, both lucid and enlightening. Listeners of a cautious musical bent or those simply fancying a quiet evening of relaxing music with a fireside glass or two of Cabernet might well, I suspect, have taken fright at Rob Barnett's references to "subtle early Schoenbergian dissonance", "the spice of dissonance" and the influence of the "acrid poignancy of Schmidt" (see here) or at Ian Lace's allusion to "brief stretches of atonality and dissonance that may seem daunting at first hearing" (see here) and his suggestion that another pair of the symphonies makes "challenging listening for the adventurous".

The good news for such listeners, however, is that there is absolutely nothing in this first symphony that could possibly frighten the horses. That user-friendliness is largely because Brun is working here in a conservative, very Brahmsian idiom: indeed, in the course of writing the score he apparently stated that he perceived himself to be continuing the older composer's symphonic tradition. I ought to point out that, in emphasising that strong link to Brahms, I run the risk of falling foul of Adriano himself who has written the CD's comprehensive and generally illuminating booklet notes. Dismissing both "malicious musicologists and critics" and those - presumably less ill-motivated - people who simply "know little or nothing of Fritz Brun's music", he observes that, taking the composer's symphonic oeuvre as a whole,it is clear that there is much more to it than what we might call Brahms-plus. It seems to me, however, that Adriano has himself fallen into the trap of seeing even Brun's earliest works from a perspective that is anachronistically cognizant of, for instance, that subsequent "early Schoenbergian dissonance". Given that he has already recorded several of the later symphonies, his point of view is quite understandable, but in adopting it he minimises the significance of those early musical elements that do not fit in with later developments. 

This represents a sort of musicological variant, as it were, of the largely discredited "Whig interpretation of history". While I hope not to be categorised as a malicious critic, I do hold by my suggestion that, in this first symphony at any rate, Brun's musical idiom will be appreciated by any listener who enjoys the symphonies of Brahms. From its very opening bars, it is obvious that Brun has something serious and weighty to impart. Its atmosphere often tends to the serious and heavy: an early reviewer, quoted in the booklet notes, emphasised its "tragic", "pessimistic" and "masculine" elements. Thus, the opening movement contrasts strongly presented passages of forthright drama with rather more relaxed episodes very reminiscent of you-know-who-I-mean-by-now (1:49-3:15 and 7:26 onwards). The succeeding adagio non troppo - of which the composer was, it seems, especially proud - is a dreamy, lyrical Romance, which even a comparatively agitated intervention by the brass (5:43-6:07) proves unable to disrupt and which features some beguiling writing for solo violin (6:40-8:24 and 9:02 onwards). A generally jolly third movement includes, not unexpectedly, moments of a more downbeat and contemplative nature too, before we arrive at the allegro con brio finale. The latter quickly offers up a very attractive "big tune" that eventually reappears in grandiose form but proves not to be destined to provide a final peroration after all. Instead, the symphony concludes quietly and rather unexpectedly in what Adriano himself describes as a "strange and bitter ending"

Rob Maynard (source/font: aquí)

Gaudiu i compartiu! 

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Informació addicional... 

INTERPRETS: Moscow Symphony Orchestra; Adriano (conductor)
GUILD: BRUN, F. - Symphony No.1

IMSLP: No disponible

CPDL: No disponible

SPOTIFY: BRUN, F. - Symphony No.1

Tant si us ha agradat, com si no, opineu, és lliure i fàcil!