This three CD collection contains the complete symphonic works of a relatively unknown german composer, Karl Amadeus Hartmann performed gloriously by the Bamberg Symphony under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher. Metzmacher has made a name for himself as a champion of newer music, particularly that of his fellow Europeans. Here he provides us with sparkling performances of a composer that few of us would otherwise ever know. Hartmann was born in 1905 and died in 1963, living in Munich all his life. He withdrew from musical life in Germany during the Third Reich, but became rather well known abroad as a critic of the Nazi regime. His music ranges widely, from Mahlerian romanticism to German expressionism to Stravinsky-esque neo-classicism, and it is well worth getting to know. Listen to this dramatic extract from the first movement of Hartmann's 6th Symphony composed between 1951-53:

Stirring music indeed! Why Hartmann has failed to become more well known is a mystery--perhaps it is that his works are so stylistically varied that it is impossible to put him into a single category, perhaps that he never taught or attempted to establish a circle in the manner of Schoenberg, perhaps that his works written before and during World War II were extensively revised following the war. Hartmann removed all political contexts such as titles and dedications from them, undoubtedly wanting to move from a reputation as an Anti-Nazi composer to a reputation as a good or even great composer. He certainly deserved it, but perhaps Hartmann's problem, although he was an excellent composer, was simply that he was not an innovator in an age that increasingly valued concept above craft.

Even though his work is stylistically diverse and in fact writers on his music make much of the influence of the baroque on his pieces, it seems to me that the listener will be more readily aware of the influence of the Romantic Period. Hartmann's music is very expressive and stems from a well developed sense of pitch, coupled with romantic ideas of dynamics, texture and phrasing, and a stunning knowledge of the orchestra, particularly the percussion section. True, the melodies are not often romantic in nature, but the flavor of the music owes everything to the music of Wagner and Mahler--the relationships of consonance to dissonance, the long phrasing, the sense of harmonic rhythm, the orchestral colors.

Hartmann actually took lessons from Webern in 1941-42, but Webern's influence must have been more structural than surface. While occasional arithmetical rows are used to establish rhythms in his Sixth Symphony, the listener is never aware of the process, and certainly Webern's devastatingly thin textures and fragmented melodic elements have no counterpart in Hartmann's music. Instead, what Hartmann must have been attracted to was Webern's extensive contrapuntal knowledge, and indeed Hartmann uses imitative forms such as fugue, canon, crab-canon or mirror-canon extensively. Here's an excerpt from the first movement of the 5th symphony, which shows Hartmann at his least Webernesque--even though this was written only 8 years after his studies with Webern, and is only his second piece after those studies.

It is scarcely conceivable that this music came from a student of the Second Viennese School--it bears an uncanny resemblance to Stravinsky. This symphony is Hartmann's unidentified hommage to Stravinsky--listen to the opening of the second movement and notice its extremely close resemblance to the opening melodic figure of the Rite of Spring.

This is a fascinating disc, and I'm grateful to Maestro Metzmacher and EMI for making all of Hartmann's symphonies available to us. In the short time I have it is impossible to fully discuss all eight works--certainly the first Symphony, with its setting of texts by Walt Whitman, is worth an entire review by itself. This piece, originally composed in 1935-36 and later revised, is quite haunting--an absolute contrast to the music I've just played. If Gorecki's Symphony #3 is the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, then Hartmann's Symphony #1 is its worthy predecessor--a symphony of Horror-ful songs, filled with the immediate shock of loss before the resignation of acceptance. And the second symphony is worth of note, too, with its unusual plantive baritone saxophone solo. Let's close now with an extract from that work.