CD of works by Adolf Jensen

[eschiss1]

This doesn't happen so often, I thought it worth pointing out. There's a few MIDIs of his music up on IMSLP but I'm aware of no recordings really. Anyhow, noting: a CD of works by and/or arranged for orchestra composed by Adolf Jensen (1837-79) (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Jensen for some biographical information btw) - including his Der Gang nach Emmaus for orchestra (1862, Op.27), his Hochzeitsmusik Op.45 for piano duet (arranged for orchestra), and 25 minutes of music that one assumes authentically belong to his incomplete (but rewritten completely by his daughter to the same libretto) opera Die Erbin von Montfort (see http://www.mdt.co.uk/jensen-adolf-orchestral-works-philharmonie-baden-baden-pavel-baleff-genuin.html about this release.)

[Alan Howe]

That's uncommonly interesting, Eric. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Mark Thomas]

That's a real find, Eric. Many thanks for posting a heads up.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Did not the old Genesis Label (which now appears to be defunct - I can't find their website anymore) issue a recording of Jensen's piano sonata (on vinyl - don't think it ever made it to CD) played by Adrian Ruiz?

[Wheesht]

You had me worried there for a moment – and feeling somewhat guilty for not having ordered from them in a long time –, but I have been relieved to find that Crystal Records still distribute Genesis and the website is still there: http://www.genesisrecords.com/

No sign of Jensen, though in the available CDs...

[eschiss1]

Worldcat lists a very few recordings - fewer, interestingly, than Hyperion lists as having recorded or made available by Jensen (though 2 of those works were on the same CD).

[Gareth Vaughan]

Thanks, Wheesht. Glad to know Genesis are still being distributed. A pity more of their Vinyl releases are not being transferred to CD, though.

[jerfilm]

Gareth gets the good memory prize of the day.   It was released on Genesis, years ago, coupled with Rheinberger's Piano Sonata in F#, opus 184 and subtitled, Romantic......

I also have a very old R2R Tape of his Balletmusik from some broadcast.....

Jerry

[eschiss1]

Rheinberger's piano music at least has had better fortune (with at least one, maybe two, completes of his 4 piano sonatas, for example...)

[Martin Eastick]

For those who may be unaware, a CD of piano works by Jensen, issued by Ars Produktion a few years ago, is still available. The pianist is Megumi Sano and the CD includes the complete "Idyllen" Op43 & "Erotikon" Op44, as well as a few odd pieces from other sets as fillers. Op44 is a particularly fine example of Jensen's piano writing. However, we do need a more detailed recorded survey of his work, and a new CD recording of the Sonata Op25 would make a good start. But there is much more here to discover; and if we perhaps put to one side, for the time being at any rate, the slighter works (such as the 20 Songs and Dances Op33, and the 25 Etudes Op32), which have in the past attracted the typical negative criticisms so often applied to such repertoire, his other more serious attempts should prove to be well worth performance/recording -  e.g. 6 Fantasiestücke Op7, 4 Impromptus Op20.

[eschiss1]

Thanks!

[Alan Howe]

The new Genuin CD of orchestral works by Jensen turns out to contain nothing earth-shattering, but is nevertheless thoroughly entertaining throughout. Probably the most imposing piece is the mildly Lisztian "Sacred Composition" (i.e. symphonic poem), The Road to Emmaus. written in 1862, which has a nice line in mystery and some fine orchestration (a particularly lovely brief section begins at about 4:23 with some almost Parsifal-like writing for brass and strings). A special joy is the really fine sound quality and the sensitive playing of yet another fine German regional orchestra, this time the Philhamonie Baden-Baden under Pavel Baleff. Recommended!

[Aramiarz]

Dear Alan, thank you for your recomendation. I will order from USA in Recordsinternational.com

[Alan Howe]

Nick Barnard's review at MusicWeb:

Recently I reviewed a disc of early Dvořák - written the same year as much of the music presented here - and expressed an opinion that clumsy youthful work by that composer tends to be infinitely superior and interesting than the best endeavours of many a minor composer. If proof were needed along comes this thoroughly pleasant, wholly well-crafted ultimately forgettable music by Adolf Jensen.

Jensen was born in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) in 1837 - the eldest son of a music teacher. His talents were precocious enough that he was already concertising on the piano by eleven years old. By nineteen he had the post as music teacher to the children of the Russian Governor of the province of Brest-Litovsk. His hope to study with Robert Schumann came to nothing due to the senior composer's illness and death. By twenty-three he was a sought-after piano teacher in his home town and within six years was of sufficient repute to be 'head-hunted' by Carl Tausig as one of his piano teachers for his newly-founded school for Advanced Piano Playing in Berlin. After two years he moved to Dresden to concentrate on composition but his final decade was dogged by ill-health and a nomadic lifestyle trying to find a climate which would ameliorate his painfully damaged lungs. To no lasting avail and he died in Baden-Baden in early 1879 aged just forty-two.

His musical legacy is not large aside from 180 songs. That apart there is one opera, one symphonic poem, several choral works and 24 compositions for piano and six for piano/four hands. That being the case, this disc which gives us the orchestral interludes from the opera, the afore-mentioned tone poem and an orchestration - by Reinhold Becker - of a piano/four hands work, would seem to give us the bulk, or at least a good overview of Jensen's work for orchestra.

For a composer aspiring to learn from Schumann and latterly impressed by Wagner, Liszt and the New German School the music sounds pretty much as one would expect. The disc opens with an easily attractive suite entitled Wedding Music. Cast in four movements and effectively scored by Becker this has the feel of a collection of 'mood' pieces. The four movements are titled Procession, The Bride's Song, Roundelay and Nocturne. For sure there is more than a hint of Mendelssohn here too and not just in the familiarity of the movement's titles. The style of the music lies somewhere between the admired Schumann and Raff. It is elegant and instantly appealing - but also instantly forgettable. Credit to Becker because this does not sound like an orchestrated piano work. The opening Procession is bold and strides confidently forward in a very foursquare and harmonically unchallenging way. The second movement Bride's Song reminded me of a similarly lyrical movement in Goldmark's Rustic Wedding Symphony - again very tastefully orchestrated with an appealing gentle lilt to the assuming main theme shared between strings and solo wind. The closing Nocturne is the longest section of the suite and also the most understatedly effective.

The next work on this disc is also the most substantial. By title alone it is rather unusual - subtitled "Sacred Piece based on the Gospel according to Luke 24: 13-24" - it is in effect a religious tone poem. The passage from Luke's Gospel referred to is the journey by two of Jesus' disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus after finding the empty tomb. They are joined - initially unrecognised - by the risen Christ - who consoles them in their sorrow and ultimately is recognised. Jensen dedicated the work to Berlioz - who wrote congratulating Jensen on the score - but it is modelled on Liszt's new concept of Symphonic Poem. The liner makes a good case for the work but I must admit I found it rather over-extended. That being said the more I listened to this disc the more I appreciated the simple skill of Jensen's work. Berlioz's praise is generous - from such a master of the orchestra - because Jensen uses instruments in effective but usually predictable ways. There is a conservative stuffiness about this tone-poem that makes it feel rather pious albeit in a wholly sincere fashion. The opening comes as something of a shock though because the tutti unison phrase sounds for all the world like a near-direct lift from the opening of Schumann's Spring Symphony although given a rather religious flavour. Throughout the work Jensen seems keen to underline the 'Christian message' by resorting to hymn-like themes, plagal [amen] cadences and an atmosphere of sombre piety. In the closing pages of the work - following the revelation of the risen Lord - the music lifts upwards - as the liner puts it - towards "redemption and transfiguration" which it does but without the sense of exaltation or release that would seem appropriate.

The disc is completed by three extended excerpts from Jensen's only opera The Heiress of Montfort. The liner writer Joachim Draheim says that this suffered from a clumsy text (supplied by the composer himself) and unconvincing dramaturgy. Very curiously, as the work was neither staged or published in Jensen's lifetime, his daughter - with help from composer Wilhelm Kienzl - took the existing music pretty much untouched, reordered it, added a wholly new text and called it Turandot! Given that the spirit of Jensen's music does seem appropriate to the concept of the original - a typical German/Romantic opera set in mid-18th Century France - this transposition to fairytale China seems quite a leap. The three excerpts are an extended Overture, a pastoral Prelude to Act II, and some nominal ballet music also from the second act. Draheim in the liner rightly points to a lineage which includes Weber and Nicolai although on the evidence presented here without the drama of the former or the melodic memorability of the latter. Again the pervading sense is of all-round competence with little if any genius.

All of the music here is given world premiere recordings from conductor Pavel Baleff and his Philharmonie Baden-Baden. The Weinbrenner-Saal proves to be a warm and generous recording location and the orchestra make exactly the kind of rich and dynamic sound that typifies many German orchestras. Certainly they are more than capable of coping with the technical demands the music makes of them. The Genuin production is good - a booklet in just German and English which includes a good essay on the composer and his works, the usual artist/orchestra biographies and a couple of interesting photographs including the composer's tombstone. Indeed, this disc makes as good a case for these minor works as I can imagine. I see that Toccata Records are being their usual intrepid selves and releasing Volume 1 of a series of piano works by Jensen. I suspect that these might prove more interesting - my instinct is that Jensen was not naturally suited to larger-scale forms such as symphonic poems and operas.

Worthy but minor.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2015/Apr/Jensen_orchestral_GEN15347.htm

[Alan Howe]

Worthy, but minor indeed.