Hans Gál - Hidden Treasure (Christian Immler; Helmut Deutsch)

Information

Composer: Hans Gál

1. Lady Rosa
2. Nacht
3. Nachts in der Kajüte No. 1
4. Nachts in der Kajüte No. 2
5. Nachts in der Kajüte No. 3
6. Sternenzwiesprach
7. Denk' es o Seele
8. Maimond
9. Minnelied
10. Morgengebet
11. Dämmerstunde
12. Glaube nur!
13. Liebesmüde
14. Eine gantz neu Schelmweys
15. Waldseligkeit
16. Der Wolkenbaum
17. Novembertag
18. Welch ein Schweigen
19. Nachtstürme
20. Blumenlied
21. Schäferlied
22. Abendlied
23. Der böse tag
24. Frag nicht!
25. Rücknahme
26. Abendgespräch
27. 5 Songs, Op. 33: No. 1, Vergängliches
28. 5 Songs, Op. 33: No. 2, Der Wiesenbach
29. 5 Songs, Op. 33: No. 3, Vöglein Schwermut
30. 5 Songs, Op. 33: No. 4, Drei Prinzessinnen
31. 5 Songs, Op. 33: No. 5, Abend auf dem Fluss

Christian Immler, bass-baritone

Helmut Deutsch, piano

Date: 2021

Label: BIS

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Review

The selection here represents a little under half of Gál’s lieder output, nearly all of it unpublished to this day. As a fine scholar of Schubert as well as a fastidiously self-critical composer he knew his limitations, and he ceased writing songs for solo voice altogether after 1921, some time later selecting just five of them to be published as his Op 33. His observation that ‘Vocal expression was, as it were, Schubert’s mother tongue’ could not be applied to him. All the same, listeners who do not arrive anticipating a successor to Wolf or a sequel to Mahler’s Rückert Lieder will not be disappointed.

Gál chose his texts carefully, avoiding overlap or unfavourable comparison with established masterpieces. I sense not only the shadow of the Erl-King falling over Gál’s Hesse setting ‘Der böse Tag’ but also the imperative to resist cheap imitation. The piano-writing here and elsewhere feels more idiomatic than the vocal line, and in evocative scene-settings such as the ‘Abendlied’ the instrumental part would serve as an evocative tone poem in its own right, to which the sometimes awkward, expressionist angles of the song add relatively little meaning or atmosphere.

As a melodist Gál wrote over or against the bar line more naturally than within it – closer to Haydn than Mozart in spirit – which may also explain why ardent or contented voices are outnumbered by and ill at ease in the company of characters bruised by life and, in the words of Heine, ‘Liebesmüde’ (‘Tired of love’). In this regard, his time is now; late in 2020, Christian Morgenstern’s ‘November Day’ strikes an unwonted chord: ‘No one goes out without cause; everyone falls to meditation.’

Immler and Deutsch included Gál’s Op 33 on a 2011 AVI ‘Modern Times’ recital of Schreker, Goldschmidt, Zemlinsky et al (4/12), and their equably balanced partnership offers us the full measure of these lieder, their disquiet and lopsided poetry. Immler’s baritone sounds more parched than his Christus for Masaaki Suzuki’s Gramophone Award-winning St Matthew Passion (4/20), showing signs of strain at the top, but moulding Gál at his most Brahmsian – such as the rueful retrospective of the album’s closing ‘Abend auf dem Fluss’, setting one of Bethge’s Chinese Flute lyrics – with warmth and intense sympathy.

-- Peter Quantrill, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/choral-song/gal-hidden-treasure-unpublished-lieder/

https://limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/hidden-treasure-hans-gals-unpublished-lieder/

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Hans Gál (5 August 1890 – 3 October 1987) was an Austrian-British composer, teacher and author. Gál was born to a Jewish family near Vienna, and studied music history at the University of Vienna with Guido Adler. After serving in World War I, he was appointed to the directorship of the Mainz Conservatory. Immediately after the Anschluss in 1938, Gál fled to London and and eventually resided in Edinburgh, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Gál’s music style is rooted in the Austro-German musical tradition; his output was considerable with over 150 published works in virtually all genres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_G%C3%A1l

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Christian Immler (born 1971) is a German bass-baritone and former boy alto soloist in the Tölzer Knabenchor. He studied with Rudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and holds a Masters degree in Musicology from Royal Holloway College, University of London. As an adult baritone singer, Immler has worked as a soloist with major orchestras and conductors all over the world, singing Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mahler, and especially, Bach. His more than 60 recordings have been awarded prizes such as a 2023 Opus Klassik Award, a 2016 Grammy Nomination, the Echo Klassik, and several Diapason d’Or.

http://www.christianimmler.com/

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Helmut Deutsch (born 24 December 1945 in Vienna) is an Austrian classical pianist, specialising in chamber music and lieder accompaniment. He studied piano, composition and musicology at the Vienna Music Academy from 1967 until 1979, and was professor for lied interpretation and performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München from 1986 until 2011. He also gives master classes throughout Europe and in Japan. During his career, Deutsch has collaborated with such prominent singers as Irmgard Seefried, Hermann Prey, Matthias Goerne, Hans Hotter, and his former student Jonas Kaufmann.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Deutsch

https://helmutdeutsch.at/

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