Julius Röntgen - Viola Sonatas (Herbert Kefer; Markus Schirmer)

Information

Composer: Julius Röntgen

• Viola Sonata in A-Flat Major
• Viola Sonata in A Minor
• Viola Sonata in C Minor

Herbert Kefer, viola

Markus Schirmer, piano

Date: 2025

Label: Nimbus

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Review

From everything we read about his long life, to a delightful photo in which he sits happily with Mr and Mrs Grieg and Percy Grainger at Troldhaugen in 1907, I get the impression that Julius Röntgen would have been a most congenial and engaging companion. Even if he remains a somewhat peripheral figure today, Nimbus is nevertheless to be commended for its interest in his copious music – most notably a continuing series devoted to the piano music played by Mark Anderson. The company now extends its focus to the three viola sonatas composed during 1924 and 1925 in sensitively sympathetic accounts by Austrian musicians Herbert Kefer and Markus Schirmer. Kefer founded the distinguished Artis Quartet in 1980, an ensemble sadly scheduled to bid farewell to the platform in December this year.

It would be all too easy to dismiss Röntgen’s idiom as old-fashioned and backward-looking. But in truth, why should he have tried to ape the developments that startled certain European centres during these years? After all, both Bruch and Saint-Saëns alike touched the late 1910s and early 1920s without altering their voices much, writing music valued today; Röntgen belongs to the generation of such diverse figures as Fauré, Janáček, Elgar and Puccini and in such a context needn’t feel out of place. So here are three essentially Romantic, beautifully written works, which make a well-balanced programme for repeated listening. The writing throughout is natural and fluent, working idiomatically with the grain of the instruments and never indulging in wayward effects. Brahms, whom Röntgen knew well, would surely have empathised with this approach and the performers respond with corresponding warmth and sympathy.

Although the three sonatas share a mood of gentle reflection and even of nostalgia within a classically orientated structural framework, closer listening reveals many subtle differences of mood and also of organic development. Kefer and Schirmer have an intuitive insight into this music, which they unfold with ease and empathy, and they breathe together with a genuine sense of chamber-like equality. These beautiful performances were warmly recorded at Nimbus’s Wyastone Leys concert hall in February last year and are the epitome of civilised music-making in the best European tradition.

— Geraint Lewis

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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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Herbert Kefer (born 1960 in Eisenerz, Austria) began studying violin at age five and later trained under Karl Frischenschlager and Karl Stierhof, graduating with distinction in 1986. In 1980, he co-founded the Artis-Quartett, which gained international acclaim after studying with the LaSalle Quartet in the U.S. Their performances at major festivals and over thirty acclaimed recordings earned honors like the Grand Prix du Disque. Since 1991, Kefer has led the viola department at the University of Music in Graz and was director of the Weinklang Festival (2005–2010). He performs on a 1784 viola made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini.

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Markus Schirmer (born 1963 in Graz) is a Austrian pianist. After studying with Rudolf Kehrer, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Paul Badura-Skoda, he gained international acclaim, performing at major venues and festivals across Europe, Asia and the Americas. He has collaborated with leading orchestras and conductors such as the Vienna Philharmonic and Valery Gergiev, and is a passionate chamber musician, working with artists like Vadim Repin and Renaud Capuçon. Renowned for his adventurous programming and recordings, Schirmer has received numerous awards, including the German Record Critics' Award.

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