Roberto Gerhard: Leo - Gemini - Libra - Concerto for 8

SEA OF FORGOTTEN

Occasionally one may wonder why some music of high rank is hardly noticed in musical life and finds its way into the repertoire only with difficulty or not at all: for example the works of Roberto Gerhard. His music is characterized by a happy balance of constructive stringency and sensuality of the sound, of the highest compositional standards and playful ease, which one finds only very rarely. Perhaps the answer to this question is less to be found in the composer's work than in his life. He belongs to the generation born at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Composers of this generation had a difficult time – especially in Europe – in many respects. Her youth was overshadowed by the devastation of the First World War. When they had to seek and find their own independent positions in the 1920s, the emphatic achievements of early modernism had already been accomplished. In their years of maturity, the shadows of dictatorships of various stripes lay over large parts of Europe, which was once again drifting towards a global war, and after the vehement upheavals of the first two decades of the century, restorative tendencies took hold of musical life. Many artists of the turn-of-the-century generation fell victim to repression and persecution and, if they refused to conform, were often forced to emigrate or flee – as did Roberto Gerhard. Some, such as Viktor Ullmann, Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff and Benjamin Fleischman, lost their lives.

If the artists in question had survived the horrors of dictatorship and war, by mid-century they found themselves confronted with a young generation of composers who soon came to dominate the aesthetic debates. "Time seemed to have passed" over the older ones. Only very few - for example Ernst Krenek - were able to secure a relatively wide perception throughout their lives. Others - such as Erich Schmid and Berthold Goldschmidt - fell silent. A lot of music slipped into a sea of ​​oblivion that opened up between the classical music scene, which always reproduced the same repertoire, and the contemporary music forums, which were focused on current music. The music of Roberto Gerhard was and is threatened by this fate.

The works recorded here all date from the 1960s. They reveal a musical signature that has its roots in classical modernism and that succeeds in synthesizing a methodology trained on Schönberg with concertante elements and a rhythmic and tonal conciseness as pronounced by Stravinsky: »Dodecaphonic, but human and even a bit divine« – as Frank Harders-Wuthenow entitled an essay dedicated to Gerhard.

Concerto for 8

The  Concerto for 8 is the oldest of the compositions collected here. Regarding his work, which premiered in a BBC concert in 1962, the composer remarked: »That Concerto for 8 is dedicated to friends from Barcelona: Señor and Señora Gomis and their six children. My intention was to write chamber music in the style of a divertimento, almost in the spirit of commedia dell'arte. The eight instruments could be something like dramatic personae represent, but what they play are purely musical events that are not intended to evoke or illustrate any extra-musical ideas. From the characteristics of comedy two have been adapted: the desire for spontaneous ideas, for improvisation and for dressing up and masking - by which I mean that the instruments are played in an unusual way. The piece consists of eight parts that follow one another without a break«.

Gemini, Leo, Libra

The three zodiac pieces are the fruit of the composer's last years. While Leo and  Pound connected by substance affinity Gemini a rather solitary status in terms of cast and structure. This was composed Duo Concertante in 1966. His tonal gesture is predominantly rough, wild and furrowed by tension. Episodes of the most varied consistency are ranked in quick succession and rich in contrast. This constant alternation of textures keeps the composition »on fire« almost throughout. Only towards the end does the music freeze in a quivering, vibrating sound field before the energies break out again.

Leo and  Pound united by a melodic structure that in both works seems like a foreign body, like a quote - a melody that is spun from just three tones and their octaves, as simple as if made by a child and yet sophisticated. In Leo it only appears towards the end of the work, in Pound it sounds for the first time soon after the beginning, but here – as in the sister work – it is only really established shortly before the end.

Leo, first performed in Hanover/New Hampshire/USA in 1969, combines several movements into a through-composed large-scale form. A first section has a prelude character. The gestures and figures presented in it are carried out in the moving part that follows and are the subject of a highly virtuoso game. Two quiet parts with characteristic calls of the solo or choral wind instruments surround you con vivacita overwritten central section, which is propelled out of structures marked by repetitions. The final movement lines up passages of varying consistency like a mosaic, occasionally flirts with dance-like, jazz-like idioms and towards the end establishes the above-mentioned melody in the clarinet over an ostinato pulsating piano sound.

Pound works, measured by Leo, thought more like chamber music and formed in smaller parts. The guitar adds a very peculiar color to the ensemble. Eight parts, contrasting in character and texture, form the work. Concerting passages alternate with interludes - in one, the guitar is given space to develop as a soloist, in another, the crystalline, delicate sonority captivates.

Let's finally let the composer have his say, who Leo and  Pound commented on the work: »A title can be useful as a point of reference. Of course, the term ›opus so-and-so‹ would also do. But I refuse to assign numbers to works. What matters is the music alone. How relevant musically - or otherwise - a listener finds a track is entirely up to them. I believe that some of the distinctive characteristics of 'Leo' as shown in traditional Zodiac representations are to be found in the mind and spirit of the person born under that sign. I think of the lion's languid peacefulness - as long as he is left alone - or his awe-inspiring outbursts when provoked. I have always wanted to pay homage to the unshakeable, natural, completely unpretentious independence of the lion and its extraordinary fighting power... Leo shows how I tried this«.

“Libra, Libra, happens to be my zodiac sign… I don’t know if in Pound down some of my own qualities. If so, I would assume that – as with handwriting – this arose out of a sheer unconsciousness with which the 'writing' is carried out.«

Jens Schubbe