Friedrich Gernsheim

thumb|Friedrich Gernsheim

Friedrich Gernsheim (17 July 1839 – 11 September 1916) was a German composer, conductor and pianist.

Early life

Gernsheim was born in Worms. He was given his first musical training at home under his mother's care, then starting from the age of seven under Worms' musical director, Louis Liebe, a former pupil of Louis Spohr. His father, a prominent Jewish physician, moved the family to Frankfurt am Main in the aftermath of the year of revolutions, 1848, where he studied with Edward Rosenhain, brother of Jakob Rosenhain. He made his first public appearance as a concert pianist in 1850 and toured for two seasons, then settled with his family in Leipzig, where he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles from 1852. He spent the years 1855–1860 in Paris, meeting Gioachino Rossini, Théodore Gouvy, Édouard Lalo and Camille Saint-Saëns.

Career

His travels afterwards took him to Saarbrücken, where in 1861 he took the conductor post vacated by Hermann Levi; to Cologne, where in 1865 Ferdinand Hiller appointed him to the staff of the Conservatory (his pupils there included Engelbert Humperdinck and Carl Lachmund); he then served as musical director of the Philharmonic Society of Rotterdam from 1874 until 1890. In the latter year he became a teacher at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin, and in 1897 moved there to teach at the Prussian Academy of Arts, where he was elected to the senate in 1897. In 1877 he married Helene Hernsheim from Karlsruhe.

Gernsheim was a prolific composer, especially of orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, and songs. Some of his works tend to Jewish subject-matter, but Gernsheim rarely made explicit references in his music to Jewish heritage. His third symphony, for example, was based on the legend of the Song of Miriam, but directly inspired by a performance of Handel’s Israel in Egypt. His earlier works show the influence of Schumann, and from 1868, when he first became friendly with Brahms, a Brahmsian influence is very palpable. Gernsheim's four symphonies (the first of which was written before the publication of Brahms' First Symphony) are an interesting example of the reception of Brahmsian style by a sympathetic and talented contemporary. Gernsheim's last works, most notably his Zu einem Drama (1902), show him moving away from that into something more personal. He died in Berlin.

Due to his Jewish background, his work was banned in Nazi Germany, and his papers and a biography written about him by Karl Holl were removed from music libraries.

Style

According to the few who have studied Friedrich Gernsheim’s music, he is usually categorized as a Romantic composer heavily influenced by Johannes Brahms. While he certainly did learn from the great composer, Gernsheim began his composition career prior to hearing Brahms and his influence was only discovered later. Christopher Fifield suggests that Gernsheim owes his “instrumentation, thematic shapes, accompaniments, and orchestral textures” to both Brahms and Max Bruch. In fact, some believe Gernsheim’s symphonic work to resemble Bruch more than Brahms, but homages to both masters are present in his music. Unlike Bruch, however, Gernsheim is described as having his own “personal melodic language” and was more daring in his harmony, whereas Bruch was largely inspired by folk songs.

After the premier of Gernsheim’s first symphony, which predated Brahms’s first symphony, Gernsheim’s themes were praised for possessing an “abundance of beautiful details,” many of which pass by the listener unnoticed in the first hearing. He composed under the belief that every measure should be “essential and inevitable,” which is undoubtedly present in his later works. The discursive ideas with small-scale developments that brought him criticism are often used to add variety within traditional structures. His music that follows sonata-allegro form, for example, usually include at least three expositional themes that establish structural patterns and allow him to undermine them. Common threads and relationships can be traced through his many themes, however, and Gernsheim uses them to achieve a certain balance in his music. Alexander Ringer calls this virtue “Gediegenheit,” or “decency and solidarity,” a principle that served as a constant guide in Gernsheim’s musical and personal life.

Selected works (excerpted from worklist)

Of Gernsheim's music, the symphonies, the cello concerto, the first cello sonata, the piano trios, two of the piano quartets, the two piano quintets, the violin sonatas, and the second string quartet have been recorded.

Orchestral works

Symphonies

Kinder-Sinfonie for strings, piano and children's instruments (1851)
Symphony No. 3 in C minor ('Miriam' or 'Mirjam'), Op. 54, 1887
Symphony No. 4 in B major, Op. 62, 1895

Other orchestral pieces

2 Overtures for Orchestra (1849, 1854)
Zu einem Drama, Op. 82

Concertante works

Piano Concerto in C minor, Op. 16
Fantasy Piece for violin with orchestra, Op. 33
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 42
Divertimento in E for flute and string orchestra (or chamber ensemble), Op. 53
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 78 (fairly popular in the early 20th century with many mentions in the Neue Zeitschrift as evidence, and played on SWR2 radio on January 31, 2005 by cellist Alexander Hülshoff, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, directed by . Recorded and released by the British label Hyperion in its 'Romantic Cello Concerto' series, played by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, conducted by Hannu Lintu, with Alban Gerhardt as soloist).)
Violin Concerto No. 2 in F, Op. 86
In Memoriam: ein Klagegesang für Streichorchester und Orgel, Op. 91 (1915)

Chamber music

Introduction and Allegro appassionato, Op. 38
Piano Quartet No. 1 in E, Op. 6
Piano Quartet No. 2 in C minor, Op. 20 (performed in 2003. Pub. ca. 1870.)
Piano Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 47, 1883
Piano Quintet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 35
Piano Quintet No. 2 in B minor, Op. 63, pub. ca. 1897 (definitely by 1898 – see review )
String Quintet No. 1 in D major, Op. 9
String Quintet No. 2 in E major, Op. 89 (premiered in February 1916 and mentioned in the Neue Zeitschrift that year. Two-cello quintet. Given its modern premiere in 2003 along with his string trio op. 74.
Piano Trio No. 1 in F, Op. 28
Piano Trio No. 2 in B, Op. 37
Two other piano trios, in manuscript (search at the Altenberg Trio site . the Trio in B major, Op. 37 is in their repertoire.)
Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 12
Cello Sonata No. 2 in E minor, Op. 79
Cello Sonata No. 3 in E minor, Op. 87 (1914)

Choral works

Wächterlied, for chorus and orchestra, Op. 7
Salamis, for men's chorus and orchestra, Op. 10

Organ pieces

Fantasy and Fugue for Organ, Op. 76

References

External links

Friedrich Gernsheim’s String Quartet No. 2 , Piano Trio No.2 & Piano Quintet No.1 sound-bites with discussion of works
Detailed biography and worklist on the page of an association for Jewish culture in his hometown (in German, cf. #2 there)
Detailed biography, worklist and discography by François-Emmanuel de Wasseige on the French website musicologie.org (in French)
Jewish Encyclopedia biography