British pianist Jonathan Powell once again confirms his dual status as a musical treasure hunter and brilliant pianist with this cd featuring works by the obscure Russian composer Grigory Krein (1879-1955). Of the nine compositions on this cd, eight have never been released before.
Grigory Krein was part of a group of Russian-Jewish composers that also included his brother Abraham, Joseph Achron and Alexander Veprik. These were composers who, in the first three decades of the twentieth century, increasingly incorporated Jewish elements into their music alongside various foreign influences. They were united by the combination of worldly and sacred Jewish motifs with influences from Impressionism and Romanticism.
That we nevertheless know quite a lot about this great unknown figure in Russian music is thanks to the biography that his son Yulian dedicated to his father.
That Grigory would become a musician was written in the stars. His father was a klezmer violinist, poet and collector of folklore and all seven of his sons became musicians. Young Grigory began his musical career as a violinist, but soon switched to composition when he realized he lacked the perseverance necessary to become a virtuoso. In 1905 he settled as a violin teacher and married one of his students. The couple left on a study trip to Berlin and Leipzig, so that Grigory could study composition there. In Berlin he witnessed performances by Strauss, D'Indy, Saint-Saëns and Grieg. He also became acquainted with the work of Debussy, who would have a lasting influence on him.
He received an invitation from Max Reger to join his composition class. However, it would amount to only a few lessons. Reger's initial enthusiasm soon cooled because the headstrong Grigory had no desire to comply with his request to write simpler work. He continued his studies with Reinhold Glière, but he too soon lost patience with his obstinate student.
Back in Moscow in 1909, the most successful period of his career began. A performance of his First Sonata in the presence of Scriabin and Medtner unleashed a veritable storm. Even greater successes followed in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution, but thereafter hard times ensued. Grigory found himself forced to teach violin again.
In the nineteen-twenties the musical climate in the Soviet Union improved. In 1926 Grigory had the honor of giving a concert of his own chamber music. It must have been a high point in his musical life. With increasing recognition of his work, the number of publications of his compositions increased considerably. He was now a famous man.
In 1926 Grigory broke off his successful career and moved with his family to Vienna and a year later to Paris. Presumably the studies of his son Yulian were the reason, who would develop under the guidance of Paul Dukas into a leading pianist.
The fact is that the damage Grigory inflicted on his position proved irreparable. For when he returned to the Soviet Union in 1934, he found a musical landscape that had completely changed. In the few years he had been away, he had been virtually forgotten. He performed only sporadically.
In 1954 his son succeeded only with the greatest difficulty in organizing a concert to mark his father's 75th birthday. Grigory died a year later in what his son called 'honorable obscurity'.
Krein's musical legacy is richly varied. It comprises symphonic music, solo concertos, chamber music, songs and piano music. Critics praised not only the layeredness and color richness of his music, but especially his harmonic approach, which made the music seem not only impressionistic but sometimes even decadent.
But his colleagues also appreciated him and noted that it was actually unforgivable that Krein received so little recognition during his lifetime and after his death.
This cd contains a number of compositions for piano, mostly shorter works such as poèmes, preludes, mazurkas and a large sonata.
With the Deux poèmes Op. 5b with which the cd opens, the tone is immediately set. The first is emotional and full of drama. The dense layeredness clearly reveals the influence of his teacher Max Reger. The second is more Russian in atmosphere, full of passion and melancholy.
It immediately becomes clear that Krein is able to say a great deal in a very short time and turn a simple prelude form into a complex structure.
The Cinq Preludes are a good example of this. These short pieces are so full of ideas that they almost burst out of their modest form. They are permeated with melancholy, sometimes even sultry in character. Impressive is the second prelude with its dark, descending melodic line in the left hand. Here and there you hear a fragment of Scriabin. Grieg is also prominently present, especially in the fifth prelude, but it is especially Krein himself who speaks in a wholly individual language and does not shy away from confronting extremes with each other in a short space of time and allowing dreaminess to degenerate into the wildest outbursts.
In Prelude Op. 5 the influence of the Grieg so admired by Krein is almost tangible: a simple melody modulating in inventive ways creates an introspective atmosphere, entirely in the spirit of the Norwegian master.
Deux Poèmes Op. 10 (1915) show how much the innovator Krein had developed his own harmonic language and how far ahead he was of his contemporary Scriabin in that respect. The first is explosively full of chromaticism, the second stands out with its prolonged melody against a quiet harmonic background.
Poème Op. 16 based on a contemporary poem by an unknown poet, evokes with its bell tolling, its long-drawn opening melody and its tempestuous middle section a desolate, barren landscape where the shadows of the dead wander in solitude.
In Deux Mazurkas (publ. 1926) Krein distances himself far from his other model Chopin. He adds various oriental elements and gives simple melodies a rich chromatic accompaniment. In doing so, he undermines the melodic and rhythmic properties typical of a mazurka by exaggerating, distorting or repeating them.
In Cortège Mystique Op. 22 (1916) Krein evokes with trills, rapid arpeggios and, for him, unusual repetitions a mysterious almost ritualistic atmosphere. It is tempting to see in the title a reference to the funeral of Scriabin, who died a year earlier, but this is not certain.
The Trois poémes Op. 24 written over a period of 5 years (1918-1923) give an impression of the development Krein underwent in the intervening time.
The first Poème Dramatique still connects in its way of thinking to the earlier Poèmes Op. 10, but the second (Poème Lyrique) and third (Poème Antique) open a new world full of harmonic and expressive richness and in the third a skilful combination of Ravelian and Jewish melodies is also audible.
The culmination and highlight of the cd is the Sonata No.2 Op 27 (1924), the only one of Krein's three sonatas to be published. It is a large-scale 23-minute single-movement work that can be regarded as one of the most difficult works in pre-war piano literature. It is a work full of contrasts, at times contemplative, then restless and expressive, full of elegant rhythmic movements that invariably turn into violent obsessive passages to ultimately, after a long extended coda, reach an ecstatic climax.
This is a magnificent cd with music by a composer who equals, if not surpasses, his much more famous contemporaries such as Grieg, Scriabin, Ravel.
Like his acclaimed Sorabji cd from last year, Jonathan Powell again shows here that he is an exceptionally complete musician. Not only does his interpretation of this sometimes very complex and virtuosic music stand out for its musicality and good taste, but he also manages effortlessly to take the listener along to a world that has long since disappeared.
With this phenomenal tribute to a forgotten genius, Powell does the music lover a service of immeasurable value.
WHAT: Grigory Krein Piano Music
WHO: Jonathan Powell, piano
RELEASED BY: Toccata Classics TOCC 0581