Robert Fürstenthal - Chamber Music Vol. 1 (The Rossetti Ensemble)

Information

Composer: Robert Fürstenthal

• (01) Sonata for Two Oboes and Piano in D minor, Op. 56
• (06) Cello Sonata in F minor, Op. 58
• (10) Viola Sonata in D minor, Op. 57
• (14) Violin Sonata in B minor, Op. 43
• (18) Piano Trio, Op. 65

The Rossetti Ensemble
Malcolm Messiter, oboe (1-5)
Christopher O’Neal, oboe (1-5)
Sarah Trickey, violin (14-20)
Sarah-Jane Bradley, viola (10-13)
Timothy Lowe, cello (6-9, 18-20)
John Lenehan, piano

Date: 2019
Label: Toccata Classics
https://toccataclassics.com/product/robert-furstenthal-chamber-music-volume-one/

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Review

The inaugural volume in this series (review) was devoted to the songs of Robert Fürstenthal and they looked back to the Viennese world he had been forced to leave. So too does this body of chamber music which constitutes, as Martin Anderson has noted, ‘an exercise in time travel’. It is a prelapsarian ethos, a Vienna that might admit Mahler’s influence but one that strongly preserves the sound-world of Schumann and, notably, Brahms. It is perhaps less a reflection of the composer’s lack of formal training, and more of his desire to preserve musical and aesthetic rootedness. He is, after all, on record as having said that ‘When I compose, I am back in Vienna.’

It’s been impossible to date the works with any certainty. They can provisionally be dated to the period when he began composing again, from the mid-1970s onward. The works have small harmonic or formal kinks, sometimes quirky changes of key too. The five-movement Sonata for two oboes and piano shows a charm and unforced lyric generosity of expression, long-spun melodies and lively fast movements wholly and unapologetically cast in late-Romantic language. The three string sonatas conform to the four-movement schema and to a greater – the Cello Sonata – or lesser extent show a personal, almost idiosyncratic approach to structure. They also, by and large, share a real compression of material. The Cello Sonata, for example, ends with a funereal slow movement that concludes somewhat in mid-air, as if more could yet be spoken.

The Viola Sonata opens with a recitative, continues with a very introverted, Brahmsian slow movement, probably the most overtly expressive of all the slow movements here, and a finale that is indelibly stamped with Brahms’ procedures. The Violin Sonata rather reprises the template of the Cello Sonata though its opening movement is more fluid and forceful, generating an attractive vibrancy. It ends with an Andante and small sequence of variations suffused in Viennese warmth. The bittersweet elements of the Piano Trio are accompanied by some manoeuvres in key changing and once again the slow movement is a high point of lyric directness.

The members of the Rossetti Ensemble are all well-known and expert performers and never seek to inflate the music beyond its natural constraints. Fürstenthal’s biography and music, well related in the extensive booklet note – there are essays by his wife, Michael Haas, and William Melton – amplify the value of this well-produced disc.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

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Robert Fürstenthal (27 June 1920 – 16 November 2016) is a composer of Austrian origin. Born into a Jewish family in Vienna, he demonstrated his taste for music early and practiced the piano, but had no academic training due to the Nazi's control of music institutions. Fürstenthal left Vienna for London in 1939, then settled in San Francisco in 1940. He enlisted in the US Army and from 1942 to 1945 served in an intelligence division in Europe. Fürstenthal composed 160 lieder on German and English poems, and about forty chamber works. His style was influenced by Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf and Gustav Mahler.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F%C3%BCrstenthal

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The Rossetti Ensemble was created in 2018 based on long-standing collaborations between pianist John Lenehan, violinist Sara Trickey, violist Sarah-Jane Bradley and cellist Tim Lowe. In addition to the standard piano quartet repertoire, the group is flexible, working with other high profile instrumentalists and singers to produce imaginative and varied programmes. Its performance of transcription of Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin for oboe and piano quartet has been particularly well received, and future projects include an exciting mix of Bach and Piazzolla. The group's first CDs was issued by Toccata Classics.
https://www.rossettiensemble.online/

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