Wilhelm Berger String Trio

[Alan Howe]

Wilhelm Berger's String Trio is an absolutely wonderful piece of post-Brahmsian chamber music. Glorious, in fact (tracks 5-8); the coupling's not bad either...
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Ernst-Naumann-Streictrio-op-12/hnum/4978252.
There's also a promotional video (in German) on YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqcNWvJk9N8
For my money, Berger is one of the most distinguished unsungs.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Many thanks, Alan, both for this tip and for the one re. Richard Stohr in your subsequent posting. I'm especially grateful since there's a high chance I would never get to know of CDs such as these apart from recommendations given on the UC site. Your prejudices largely coincide with mine, and being a chamber music fanatic, these CDs go straight to the top of that almighty long wants list.

Just by sheer chance earlier tonight I listened to the Dresden String Trio in their recordings of Beethoven Op. 9, and again on Querstand. Stunning, vibrant and very exciting playing - though as a recording perhaps slightly less successful than that truly wonderful disc of the Leopold String Trio on Hyperion.

Itching to hear the Berger Trio. The only work of his I know is the Piano Quintet (a MDG disc), but on the strength of that I'd walk miles through rain and snow to hear more Berger. Even wearing just carpet-slippers.

With Berger (and probably Stohr - but not Ernst Naumann who is a name wholly unknown to me) I keep thinking whether any of their compositions would have been possible had it not been for Brahms. If I'm right we have Brahms to thank for creating the possibility of such music - and Brahms to also curse for if it was not for his towering and dominant presence we might well hear much more of them. But then things turn full circle for if it had not been for Brahms there wouldn't be much to hear of them anyway! No need to answer that speculation: I'm merely indulging in a late-night ramble.

Can't help rambling some more. Trying to discover more about Richard Stohr I did a quick google, and noted on Wikipedia that Stohr was born in the same year as Schoenberg. That's fodder for thought. The article went on to say that after fleeing from Vienna in 1938 he landed a teaching post at the Curtis Institute where among his pupils were Bernstein, Leinsdorf, von Karajan, Erich Zeisl and Barber. Even more fodder for thought. But I wonder if the entry can possibly be right about Karajan? Haven't looked it up, but my memory tells me that in 1938 Karajan was very busy managing his first major success with Tristan at the Berlin State Opera. So, at least according to my wayward memory, he can't have been taught by Stohr at the Curtis at the same time. And likewise no need to respond to that either!!

[eschiss1]

I think that Ernst Naumann may have written the first sonata explicitly for viola (1850s) not published posthumously if I make any sense (the Stamitz's sonatas were for viola d'amore, if I recall, and Onslow's were alternate versions of works for violin or cello. The Mendelssohn viola sonata was indeed written before Naumann's but published much later. I hedge more than Baker's but the author of the Baker's article on Naumann, which claimed simply that he wrote the first sonata explicitly for viola, probably wrote that before the Mendelssohn was published...)
I think both trios on the Berger/Naumann CD are in score or parts on IMSLP for what it is worth
Eric