Wolfgang Rihm, Ernst Toch: Concerto in one movement – ​​Concerto for Violoncello and Chamber Orchestra

Cello concertos by Wolfgang Rihm and Ernst Toch

When I received the offer to play the solo part in the German premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's new cello concerto, I was thrilled. What an honor to be able to almost 'launch' a fresh work, what a challenge to rehearse the extremely difficult part - and how nice to be able to do it with my beloved Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and one with Peter Ruzicka To have a conductor who, as a wonderful composer, is constantly moving in the world of new music.

Being one of the first to perform a fresh piece is always very exciting. One reads the score, tries to imagine the sounds, to grasp the structure. And then the mountain of the solo part towers up in front of you: all the notes that have to be learned and internalized, without there being any role models from which one could copy something - but how wonderful when, after laborious excavation work (like with the archaeologists) suddenly recognizes the essence of the piece and understands what the piece expresses and describes at the latest during the first rehearsal with the orchestra.

In the case of Wolfgang Rihm's Cello Concerto, I first noticed how difficult it is to play – and how fundamentally it is highly romantic, quite 'cellistic' in the sense of the sweeping lines and the range of expression. Whereby Rihm lets the cellist play in the highest possible range so often (and that should still sound nice!) that everything comes across as exaggerated and sometimes almost hysterical.

In terms of form, too, there is a lot that is conventional, ›solo concert-like‹: wild cadenzas, a funny scherzo section, a thoughtful, slow section, a highly virtuosic final section, which is followed by a really wonderful, forgiving, transfigured ending – at the first rehearsal, what touched me the most, many other things I only discovered later! It's like saying goodbye when you play those last bars, so that it always seems to me, in retrospect, that the whole exaggerated, exaggerated work is like a final gasp of the conventional solo concerto, which then sinks into nothingness.

The performance in the ›Glocke‹ in Bremen (in the presence of the composer, who was also present at the last rehearsals, inspiring and stimulating and very friendly) was of course an exciting thing - a full hall, everyone excited, no experience like that piece feels as a whole, how it resonates and works - and luckily people were fascinated by the music. Rihm himself was so satisfied that he said the recording should be released on CD. Something like that is of course wonderful when after the many, many hours of work, the tension before and at the beginning of the concert and the enjoyment because things are “going well” there is also such a sense of achievement. Surprisingly, the project could be implemented, everyone gave their approval, and a label was found. Now the question arose as to what else could be on the CD and I began to ponder.

Several factors brought me to Ernst Toch's rather unknown and rarely played cello concerto. With Rihm I had already noticed how enormously important it was to have a flexible, chamber music-oriented orchestra behind you: the many changes in tempo and mood, demanding solo parts in the orchestra instruments and a score in which many things often happen at the same time and are therefore transparent have to be played made Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen the ideal partner.

This orchestra was also predestined for the Toch concerto: it is a chamber concerto with eleven individually scored orchestral voices, which are highly virtuosic and soloistic. You have to listen to yourself carefully, know exactly what the others are doing and in part (especially in the last movement) the solo cello is just one of many equal voices - in my opinion one of the reasons why few cellists play the piece, you can do it not simply ›harvest a flowerpot‹…

With its four conventionally structured movements, the Toch concerto is also similar in structure (whereby Rihm lets the parts flow into each other, writing a 'concert in one movement') and also pushes the limits of the expressive. The cello plays long parts alone, as if lost, one has to think of the time the work was composed (1925), of the world wars, farewell to the ideal world, Toch's later emigration.
In the Toch concerto, too, it took me a while (especially in the outer movements) to recognize what it was about emotionally, to see through the structure, to get the notes to speak.

Luckily, in the conducting violinist Florian Donderer, I had someone at my side who kept working to bring the phrases to life clearly and distinctly, to get different colors out of the orchestra - and last but not least to boost the whole group energetically. Because this was not a live recording of a concert but a studio production, where the greatest danger is always that the great line, the expression and the wildness of the music are lost through rehearsals and corrections. Especially with regard to the coupling with a live recording, we tried to record whole takes as often as possible, to create a concert atmosphere, to play extremely intensively - and despite the long, strenuous sessions, we had a lot of fun and fulfillment in the music.

Now the CD is ready and will be sent on its journey. Who will be interested in such an unknown repertoire? Who still listens to classical music and music like that anyway? Who not only listens to them casually, while doing the dishes, driving the car or talking, but actually sits down with a glass of wine and listens, following the intentions of the composers and the emotions of the players? Who listens to the CD a second or third time to get to know the pieces better, to understand them, maybe to correct their first impression? Thank you so much, it would be the icing on the cake of the joy that was already in the work on the CD!

Tanya Tetzlaff