Julius Röntgen - Cello Concertos (Gregor Horsch)

Information

Composer: Julius Röntgen

• Cello Concerto No. 3 in F-sharp minor
• Cello Concerto No. 2 in G minor
• Cello Concerto No. 1 in E minor

Gregor Horsch, cello

Netherlands Symphony Orchestra

David Porcelijn, conductor

Date: 2013

Label: CPO

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Review

Fourteen sonatas, three concertos and five works for solo cello show what a presence the instrument was in Julius Röntgen’s musical life. It’s not entirely surprising, given that cellist-composer Julius Klengel was his cousin, that he and Casals were friends and that two of Röntgen’s sons became professional cellists. His three cello concertos are unfailingly warm-hearted and well-crafted.

Like so many academic late-Romantics, Röntgen is strong on control but not so much on flights of fancy. Occasional phrases do promise wondrous things but he cannot stay in that zone for more than a few seconds at a time. You can tick off the influences and affinities as they pass – Schumann, Brahms, Grieg, Borodin and Tchaikovsky are all there, as is the benchmark of Dvorák’s Concerto. If you think you catch a few bars of the ‘Melancholic’ Temperament from Nielsen’s Second Symphony in the finale of the Third Concerto, that’s probably because the two composers were firm friends for many years, and Röntgen did much behind the scenes to ensure that Nielsen’s music had some kind of profile in Holland.

The Third Concerto (1928) opens the disc, which means that the most attractive music is the first to hit the ear. Its single 15-minute movement has a number of lovely ideas – not least the appearance of a celesta at strategic points – and is never in danger of outstaying its welcome. The opening movement of the First Concerto alone is the same length, however, and really can’t seem to take the hint. Röntgen was brought up and musically formed in Leipzig, and it shows in this safe, well-crafted but largely predictable work, even when the finale tries to blend Paganini’s La campanella with Schumannesque routines. The Second Concerto (1909) is a considerable advance. Partly based on an Irish folksong, it is never less than delightful fodder for cello-buffs but probably no more than that.

Huge credit to Gregor Horsch, David Porcelijn and the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra for doing their utmost to fan the modest flames of Röntgen’s inspiration, and to CPO for their continuing mission to plug the massive gaps in the documentation of the conservative late-Romantic repertoire.

— David Fanning

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Julius Röntgen (9 May 1855 – 13 September 1932) was a German-Dutch composer and teacher. Privately educated, he began composing at age eight and studied under prominent musicians like Ferdinand David, Carl Reinecke and Franz Lachner. A meeting with Brahms in 1874 had a decisive influence on his compositional style. Settling in Amsterdam in 1877, Röntgen co-founded the Amsterdam Conservatory and helped establish the Concertgebouw building. He composed over 650 works in almost every genre, evolving from Romanticism to modern experimentation. His first wife was Swedish composer Amanda Maier.

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Gregor Horsch (born 1962) is a German cellist. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Winners of the first Pierre Fournier Award in 1988 and the 1990 Gaspar Cassado Cello Competition, Horsch has performed across England and recorded for BBC Radio 3. He has played under prominent conductors like Yan Pascal Tortelier, Evgeny Svetlanov and Leonard Slatkin, and collaborated with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Vadim Repin and Menahem Pressler. Since 1997 he has been principal cellist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

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