Josef Schelb - Orchestral Music, Vol. 1 (Paul Mann; Pavel Baleff)

Information

Composer: Josef Schelb

1. Movimento I
2. Music for Orchestra No. 3: I. Ruhig, doch fliessend
3. Music for Orchestra No. 3: II. Sehr lebhaft
4. Music for Orchestra No. 3: III. Thema mit Variationen
5. Music for Orchestra No. 4: I. Bewegt
6. Music for Orchestra No. 4: II. Sehr breit
7. Music for Orchestra No. 4: III. Bewegt

Liepāja Symphony Orchestra / Paul Mann, conductor (1-4)

Philharmonie Baden-Baden / Pavel Baleff, conductor (5-7)

Date: 2018

Label: Toccata

https://toccataclassics.com/product/josef-schelb-orchestral-music-v1/

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Review

This is the second release on Toccata Classics of music by the German composer Josef Schelb. The first was a CD of chamber music with clarinet (review). This one announces itself as Volume 1 of orchestral music. Schelb was born in 1894 in the spa town of Bad Krozingen near Freiburg. He studied piano and counterpoint with Hans Huber in Basel, and later with Bernhard Stavenhagen and Otto Barblan in Geneva. This launched a two-pronged career as pianist and teacher, and for thirty years, from 1924, he held a professorship in piano and composition in Karlsruhe. His last days were spent in Baden Baden where he devoted himself exclusively to composition. He died in Freiburg in 1977. His compositions include orchestral works, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, two ballets and an opera. His work was championed by such renowned conductors as Hermann Scherchen, Josef Krips and Bernard Haitink.

Schelb embraced a variety of styles, but in his later work, from the 1950s onwards, his music became more harmonically advanced. He started combining tonal and dodecaphonic principles. Hindemith, Hartmann and Bartók were strong influences. The range of expression in his music bears testimony to the significant events in his life: the early death of his mother, two World Wars, the rise of Nazism and the loss of his early manuscripts in a bombing raid in Karlsruhe in 1942. Conflicting emotions underpin his music; there is drama, fate, relentlessness, elegiac lyricism, playfulness, melancholy, hope and consolation.

Movimento 1 is the earliest work here, dating from 1969. For the most part, it is a work of exceptional vitality and dynamism, and those qualities I mentioned of drama, playfulness and optimism, yet with a slight hint of melancholy, all provide a wide-ranging musical narrative. Schelb's colourful scoring and masterly orchestration add both potency and a beguiling sonic blend.

The composer wrote five Musics for Orchestra, each similarly cast in a tripartite structure. Nos. 3 and 4 were penned in 1972. In both I detected atonal leanings and strong dissonances. In No. 3, a lively and boisterous movement sits centrally, framed by a flowing opener of bucolic persuasion and a theme and variation third movement. The theme is quite solemn and serious. The variations show a wealth of imaginative skill and compositional dexterity. I found No. 4 a much harder nut to crack. The first movement starts elegiacally, but soon the mood seems to take on a certain stubborn defiance. Slow, weighty and solemn, yet dignified—this sums up the middle movement. The finale is animated and fluid, and on a couple of occasions works up a decent head of steam. Although composed in the early seventies, it took over forty years for this work to be performed. This concert performance, given in Baden-Baden on 12 December 2014, is its premiere. It was recorded by Southwest German Radio in the presence of an enthusiastic audience.

All the performances here are well-recorded, stylish and alert. I enjoyed the music very much, and look forward, with eager anticipation, to the next volume. This constitutes an auspicious start to what promises to be compelling orchestral cycle.

-- Stephen Greenbank, MusicWeb International

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Josef Schelb (March 14, 1894 in Krozingen - February 8 , 1977 in Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German composer, pianist and music professor (piano, composition and instrumentation) of the 20th century, who wrote about 150 works in almost every genres. He studied with Bernhard Stavenhagen and Otto Barblan at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève, before being called up for military service in the First World War. Schelb teached at the Badische Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe for 34 years, from 1929 to his retirement in 1958. His works includes eleven symphonies, as well as many orchestral works and concertos.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Schelb

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Paul Mann first came to international attention as first-prize winner in the 1998 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition. He is a regular guest-conductor with many major orchestras throughout Europe, the USA, Australia and the Far East. His work as chief conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra achieved considerable critical success, with numerous recordings of a wide range of repertoire for such labels as Bridge, DaCapo and EMI. More recently, he has made many recordings for the Toccata Classics label, mostly world premiere recordings of rare repertoire and of contemporary composers.

https://divineartrecords.com/artist/paul-mann/

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