Andreas Gerhardus and Tobias Koch, translated by Nicholas Selo

Berlin, November 5, 1883. The Joachim Quartet gives one of its widely-acclaimed concerts in the Singakademie. For over 36 years these legendary quartet concerts have been more than just a meeting place for the society elite of the Second German Empire. Here chamber music sounds the highest order. At the same time the classical taste of Joseph Joachim is revealed in the programming - Joachim the outstanding violinist, universal musician, founding rector of the Berlin Royal Academic Conservatoire for Musical Performance and altogether one of the most influential musical personalities of his time.

That evening in autumn 1883 August Klughardt's first String Quartet in F, op. 42 receives its premiere flanked by Mozart's Quartet in E-flat K 428 and Beethoven's Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131. According to contemporary reports the first performance of the work on this recording is a tremendous success. The Deutsche Tageblatt notes: “This Court Capellmeister from Dessau seems to have remarkable good fortune in Berlin. The Royal Opera performs his opera Gudrun, the Chapel Royal Orchestra plays a new symphony and a suite of his and now along comes the world-famous quartet ensemble and gives a christening to his string quartet. We do not recall this happening to another mortal of the art of composition to such a degree. No-one would maintain that the services Court Capellmeister Radecke or Prof. Joachim would have been easily secured for a new piece; rather the opposite must have been the case.

Foregoing careful rehearsals must then have demonstrated that the works of a composer unknown in Berlin prior to the Gudrun performances are worthy of respect, and well and truly has this hope been substantiated by both the symphony and suite in the concert-hall of the Opera and the quartet in the Singakademie. Quite wonderfully performed by the four quartet colleagues the new piece achieved a spectacular success of a kind only rarely witnessed at first encounters, even at concerts of the Joachim Quartet.” The Anhaltische Tageblatt reports thereafter on the premiere in euphoric terms: “The name of the young Court Capellmeister will soon be missing from no distinguished concert programme. The success of the F major quartet given here is so sustained that our musical world engages even now in a lively preoccupation with it.”

Elsewhere too Klughardt's op. 42 leaves a keen impression, as his biographer Leopold Gerlach reports: “A no less sensational success was accorded this delightful piece at the Tonkünstlerversammlung (Composer's Gathering) in Weimar. As the Grenzbote (Border Messenger) put it: ‘The best of the Festival was the Brahms Sextet and the Quartet by the lesser known Klughardt’. And writing from Cologne, Holländer tells the Composer: ‘It is with particular personal pleasure that I'm able to say that your beautiful String Quartet scored a complete success in Cologne, Bonn and Düsseldorf. At this soiree it was Rubinstein in particular who accorded the work his sympathy.’”
Gerlach proceeds with an extensive description of the piece which we quote in the following extract to capture the eloquent enthusiasm with which light is cast on the half-hour-long composition: “A virtue of the quartet must be deemed its freshness of invention and great naturalness which are coupled with excellent contrapuntal and thematic working, and specially apparently so in the interesting first movement. (A reporter from Kassel goes so far as to declare: ‘During last winter's performance of the D major Symphony we already had occasion to juxtapose Brahms with Klughardt, whose compositions contain more natural beauty, where the scholarly context is less obscure and more resulting out of itself’).

The lyrical Largo earns similar praise, the light-hearted Scherzo and playfully froliksome Finale. Very fittingly the Leipziger Generalanzeiger compares the quartet with a garden in bloom, radiating bright colours. It need hardly be mentioned with Klughardt that the nature and singularity of the four instruments is properly taken into account and put to use in often surprising combinations of sonorities. To sum up: ‘This shows (thus the Deutsches Montagsblatt) the qualities of a good work of chamber music to such a high degree that the proximity to the classics, even to Beethoven's Quartet in C sharp minor is easily dealt with.’”
Right from the start of the quartet – beginning with a delicate unison, unfurling a melody of over 40 bars' length with which a second theme and thematic fragments are interwoven – Klughardt's compositional credentials are clear to see.

A high dramatic density pervades the movement as a whole, achieved by the contrasting of metrical and harmonic structures. The key of B major- at the furthest remove from the home key - is arrived at precisely midway in the movement; at the same time as the arrival at one of the dynamic lows of the piece. The second movement combines lied-like melodiousness with a variation form which ranges in expression from Mendelssohnian lightness of touch to heavy-duty chordal writing, whilst the Scherzo explores further tonal contrasts. The Finale rounds off the dramaturgy of the work as a whole in a spirit of verve and exhilaration. Klughardt himself seems to have been so delighted by the Joachim Quartet's performance of his first quartet that he dedicates his following work, the Piano Quintet in G Minor, op. 43 to Joseph Joachim. Thus this recording of two chamber works from the late 19th century represents at the same time a hommage to Joseph Joachim.

The Piano quintet receives its first performance in Köthen on November 25, 1884 approximately a year after the string quartet. Following this further performances in Leipzig and Dresden take place. The reception is uniformly positive, as this discussion in the Dresden Anzeiger shows: “A great virtue of this piece is that there is no trace of that undesirable so-called earnestness of style which, as often as not, remains all-too-shallow; of would-be reflectiveness, refinements and so-called originality – what e'r you will – not a whit. The composer gives of his best, freely and without constraint, and his best has truly something fine about it which is a source of great delight.
A sound melodic element is at the forefront of this quintet. The beautiful formal proportion, the artful yet ever-clear harmonies reveal the practised hand of the thorough-bred musician with all artistic means at his disposal.” In similar terms a review after a performance in Nice, France: “The Klughardt Quintet, a magnificent new addition to modern chamber music formed the centre-piece of the concert. Having heard it, we understand the immense success which this masterful work has had in the concert-hall and in the salon.”

And so it is that Klughardt proves himself master-in-charge of the medium Piano Quintet. Unmistakeably and effortlessly he combines on a broad scale quasi-symphonic tendencies in the piece with a concentrated, filigree motivic working. Commencing mysteriously with unison string utterances, appearing to come from nowhere, the first movement develops along a multitude of divergent paths. As much dependent on the effective layering of the discourse between the solo encroachments of the piano part and block-like string reiterations, as upon complex and concise developmental passages.

Three themes are presented. Despite the con fuoco pose what strikes one is the self-restraint with which Klughardt shapes this expansive movement. The same applies to the other movements.
Again and again ideas bubble up. As if in a kaleidoscope influences become apparent of both the so-called New German School of Wagner and Liszt and of the more traditional orientation of Schumann, Brahms and their circle. It would seem that the composer were seeking to reconcile these antipodes.

In the face of such admiration and the clearly-expressed respect of his contemporaries towards the chamber-works recorded here, the question arises: Why does this composer play no more prominent part in modern concert life? It seems imperative that we cast a glance at his biography: who was August Klughardt?
Born on November 30, 1847 in Köthen his musical talent is soon discovered and encouraged. At the age of 16 he plays Mendelssohn's G Minor Piano Concerto with the Dessau Hofkapelle Orchestra and conducts performances at his school, presenting own compositions already. In 1866 he goes to Dresden to further his education. A comment on his setting of Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty) for soloists, choir and orchestra, dating from the Dresden years reads as follows: “A relinquishment of all musical preciousness, all means of garnering cheap effect, and moreover by combining a characteristic style of instrumentation with a richness of melody – these are for sure highly acceptable traits in a youthful composition.”
In 1867 Klughardt becomes Capellmeister at the Town Theatre in Posen. The theatre director introduces him to the staff with the words: “My Capellmeister has as yet no beard to be sure but he knows a thing or two and can prove it.” Klughardt proves his talent in Posen as pianist and composer and especially as a conductor. During the six-month winter season he conducts 75 opera performances.

In the Posen press we read about his reception as follows: “It makes a gratifying impression to encounter a musician of discernment who, whilst in full technical command, knows how to subordinate technique to the spirit.” His biographer Gerlach adds: “There again the poetic scent is admired, all-encircling, with no trace of artificiality. Whoever has got to know Klughardt's playing, combining rugged clarity with chasteness, temperament with delicacy will confirm this judgement.”

Following a season as musical director at the Neustrelitz Theatre 1868/69 and Opera Capellmeister in Lübeck, Klughardt is called to the Court Theatre at Weimar. In his four years there he is on close terms with Franz Liszt via whom Klughardt is won over to Wagner.
A newspaper article reports on the first performance in Weimar in 1871 of his opera Mirjam: “Whoever visited Weimar during the last week will know that the names of Klughardt and Mirjam were being uttered everywhere”. An outstanding skill in instrumentation, a nobility of sentiment and sharpness of characterisation singled out for praise.

Further important works from the Weimar period include the Lenore-Symphony, dedicated to Wagner, the Concert-Overture Im Frühling (In Springtime), a concert-piece for oboe and orchestra and the Schilflieder (Songs of the Rushes) for Oboe, Viola and Piano. In autumn 1873 Klughardt is elected Hofkapellmeister in Neustrelitz. Within a short time the orchestral pedagogue Klughardt has polished up the Grand-Ducal Chapel Orchestra so much so that it satisfies all demands now made of it and is superior to many a larger-forced orchestra in precision, clean intonation and elan.
This led to Wagner's engaging eight musicians from the Neustrelitz Chapel Orchestra for his first Bayreuth Festival in 1876. Klughardt also visits Bayreuth that summer.
Under the strong impression of Wagners music Klughardt's 2nd Symphony in F Minor op. 34 is created. At a later Frankfurt performance of this piece which Klughardt himself conducted he reports to a friend: “I had two rehearsals with the wonderful orchestra at which I at last had an opportunity to swoon at the sound of a large-scale string section, 20 first violins, 18 seconds, 16 violas, 16 cellos and 12 double-basses. You can well imagine how my counterpoints sounded. I was in the best of spirits which was very good for this serious piece and seem to have hit it off with the orchestra.

For when I went to the rostrum at the evening concert the musicians received me with sustained applause. The audience clapped after each movement, terrifically after the first, as loud as at a music festival after the second and after the third movement as after the first.” In Neustrelitz the operas Iwein and Gudrun were written and, as well as this symphony, his 3rd, op. 37.
In 1882 Klughardt takes on the position of Court Capellmeister in Dessau to which he remains faithful until his death in 1902, despite receiving the honouring invitation to apply for the Directorship at the Berliner Singakademie. He turns this down. Among his most important works from this last phase in his life are his Cello Concerto, op. 59, the Violin Concerto, op. 68, two further symphonies and two large-scale oratorios, The Destruction of Jerusalem and Judith. During these years he composes the bulk of his chamber music, two string quartets, a piano trio, and three quintets, one each for piano and strings, strings alone and winds.

Klughardt's main work coincides with a fascinating and fertile period of musical history. A large number of composers – one of them quite clearly being the undogmatic and modest August Klughardt – write music for a steadily growing number of concert halls and opera houses. One assumes musically either a progressive or traditional position. Well beyond German boundaries it comes to inevitable entrenchments. Yet Klughardt seems not to want to commit himself to one or the other despite.

The love of experiment is apparent not just from the works featured on this recording, a conjoining of richness of sonority and concentrated motivic working. Klughardt detaches himself from the open battle between the parties, offering instead a synthesis of both styles. This is certainly one of the reasons for his soon being pushed onto the periphery vis-à-vis the one-trackedness of musicological assessments posthumously and despite enormous contemporary appreciation while he was alive.

At the same time an unwavering gaze to the past can teach us the following: At a time before either radio or recordings musical performances have enormous significance, and not just in society life. It is not solely great masters like Brahms, Wagner, Dvorák, Liszt or Strauss who ignite the rapt attention of the public. There is instead a huge demand for contemporary music, quite naturally including the field of chamber music.

In privileged circles it is part of the refined way of life to make music oneself or hold a salon in which performances of music take place to the highest standards and get discussed. The musically talented are discovered early and specially encouraged, this is clear from Klughardt's own vita. The sheer size of the market for sheet music at the time becomes clear when we look at how many publishing houses exist. For all that, it is significant to reflect now looking back how much of what is composed is of a high quality. This fact is obscured by the small number of these pieces performed today.

Just in the last few years, with the state of satiation brought on by endless, if varied replications of the official chamber music canon, have the stimulating environs of the great names been more taken into account. Isn't it a great enrichment to experience these great names in the new light of rediscovered neglected musical by-ways? We invite you to do just this.

Literature:
Leopold Gerlach, AUGUST KLUGHARDT, Leipzig 1902
Günther Eisenhardt, Marco Zabel, AUGUST KLUGHARDT, Potsdam 2002
Beatrix Borchard, STIMME UND GEIGE: Amalie und Joseph Joachim, Wien 2005
M. R., SOME POINTS OF VIOLIN PLAYING AND MUSICAL PERFORMANCE as learnt in the Hochschule für Musik (Joachim School) in Berlin during the time I was Student there, 1902-1909, Edinburgh 1939